MacGREGOR WANTSMORE
County have their Cup triumph and top-six place but the chairman has his eyes on greater glory
ROY MacGREGOR, the Ross County chairman, is not the sort of man to let the grass grow under his feet. His club’s fans have hardly had time to digest the enormity of this month’s League Cup triumph but already the multi-millionaire business tycoon has plans in place for next season.
In addition to winning their first piece of national silverware, County also have a top-six place within their grasp. They could even finish the Premiership season as high as fourth.
But MacGregor is targeting even greater success for a club which played in the Highland League as recently as 1994 but has prospered and grown at an astonishing rate under his stewardship.
‘We have surpassed the goals we had for this season, which was the top six and the semi-final of a cup, but the ones I have set for next year are even bigger,’ he revealed.
‘I know where a lot of our weaknesses are and we have to continue to progress; we have further to go.
‘To be a Premiership club, you continually need to put building blocks in place and add quality to what you’ve got to keep developing. It’s a progression and we have a plan in place.
‘We’ve already done a lot of the hard work to prepare for next season, including setting up a scouting system in England.’
Key to County’s continuing development is Jim McIntyre. MacGregor says his manager has given him the confidence that the club truly belongs in the top flight.
When McIntyre took over from Derek Adams in September 2014, County appeared to be in unstoppable freefall, but he somehow turned the situation around, eventually guiding the team to ninth place in the Premiership.
‘I have a great deal of respect for Jim and our relationship works,’ said MacGregor. ‘ He is a very special human being and he optimises a lot of what Ross County’s core values are and our relationship with people.
‘We’re in an entertainment business where our relationship with the fans, the Press and the community is really important.
‘We were trying to get a manager that suited the club and it wasn’t about CVs. It was about who was the best person at that point in time and, in Jim’s case, it was pretty easy.
‘He came in fully aware of our situation, knowing it would be difficult. But I managed to get one or two Scottish players in, Jackson Irvine and Midge (Michael Gardyne), because I thought the balance of the squad was wrong.
‘Then, during the transfer window, Jim managed to introduce enough character to put us on a roll and get us out of the predicament we were in.
‘Jim didn’t apply for the job, but we were trying to get a manager that suited the club and I got some good references from friends in the game.
‘He’d had some successes and some failures, particularly at Dunfermline where he was not only a very successful player but also, eventually, he would say today that he was too loyal to people and got the sack.
‘But you have to experience some downs as well as ups to come on the right journey and he has a relationship with the players that needs to be right.
‘After Dunfermline, he went to Queen of the South looking for the next step and he was ambitious and a lot of that fulfilled where Ross County were at that time.
‘He has been good for Ross County, but Ross County has also been good for him because we have given him a platform to maybe go on to the next stage of his career, wherever that may be.
‘This is a great place to actually do it because the facilities are first class and you get time to do the job.
‘This season he has taken the clay that he had and worked with it. His philosophy is that he doesn’t want draws, so we are either going for it or getting beat — but we are entertaining.’
MacGregor, who has sunk a sizeable chunk of his personal fortune — estimated to be in excess of £300million — into the club he has followed since the age of 11 in 1966, including, one suspects, the £8.5million spent on the stadium and creating the soccer academy, has a reputation for decency and honesty.
But he would never shy away from tough decisions, as was demonstrated when he dispensed with the services of Derek and George Adams, as coach and director of football, respectively.
‘I expect my staff would say I am fair and sometimes tough,’ he said. ‘But I owe it to them to make tough decisions because business and football are totally the same.
‘But you must always act with honesty, humanity and integrity. Alex Smith had been here for two years and he is one of the finest gentlemen you could wish to meet.
‘But Alex had come to the end of his contract and the club felt that, at the age of 66, the generational gap between the manager and the players was too big.
‘Just the week before we let him go, Alex had been made an MBE and he felt it might be his last chance in football.
‘But you need to be realistic and it was right for the club to make that decision. It wasn’t a sacking. We just didn’t renew his contract.
‘With Derek it was the same. It was the end of one part of his journey and I’m proud to say that I managed to help set him on the next leg with Plymouth.’