Let’s have a proper salute to Saints’ greatest ever side

Perth tie MUST play host to a civic reception fit for Davidson’s heroes

IT came across as something of an afterthought as chairman Steve Brown expressed his desire to hold onto these players taking the greatest period in St Johnstone’s 137-year history and simply refusing to stop running with it. A brief flirtation with the great unmentionable. Which has, in fairness, remained largely unmentioned so far.

‘We are certainly not minded to sell anyone,’ said Brown, ‘and the manager has two years left on his deal.’

Yes, indeed. The manager. So far this summer, it has all been about why Celtic, a club whose transfer strategy appears to have all the structure and form of a puddle of cat sick, haven’t firmed up their interest in Ali McCann or why Rotherham won’t pony up proper money for Shaun Rooney.

Likewise, there’s been talk of Jason Kerr and Jamie McCart attracting interest from England.

Nothing much has been said about the future of Callum Davidson, though. And it has been something of a mystery.

What happened against Galatasaray in midweek, however, has surely got to change all that. It has surely got to change everything.

Folk at St Johnstone, of course, will tell you that their achievements being overlooked is nothing new. All those players ignored by Scotland down the years. Tommy Wright never really getting a lookin for a big job. The achievement of bringing success on a budget while other clubs broke the bank never getting the credit it deserved.

Yes, they are unfashionable. There isn’t a lot of talk about philosophies and projects in Perth. There doesn’t have to be when you have two trophies in the cabinet and can travel to the biggest team in Turkey, pipped to the Super Lig on goal difference and rated one of Europe’s 30 richest clubs by KPMG last summer, and come away with a deserved 1-1 draw.

Whether Galatasaray are fully up to speed or not, it is a phenomenal achievement. Rather, another phenomenal achievement.

This St Johnstone side is a streetwise, bonded unit that knows how to dig out results. They also have the mentality to match their discipline.

Look at how they bullied Hibs in the Scottish Cup final. Consider how they took the game to Rangers in the quarters of that tournament and sent an otherwise dominant Ibrox side into their shell.

Going to Galatasaray, though, and recovering from a torrid opening 15 minutes to work your way into the game and actually start taking it to the opposition is something else again.

If clubs and scouts elsewhere still aren’t sold on the value of a provincial team punching above its weight in Scotland, Thursday night’s events on a big European stage must have made their minds up on the worth of the components within.

McCann was a stand-out. Winning possession time and time again, and then marrying that work ethic with the ability to get forward and make chances.

As for Kerr, his willingness to step up and take that penalty to make it 1-0 showed, beyond doubt, that he has the minerals along with the talent to go to a higher level.

Zander Clark seems to grow in stature with every game, too. And if Kerr and McCart are attracting interest from England, shouldn’t Liam Gordon, a real organiser in that back three, be getting actively scouted as well?

Above all else, though, stands Davidson. Saints were not in a great place when he took over from

Wright, who had previously slated those above him for sidelining him. They also lost seven of Davidson’s ten league games in charge. What he has achieved since is the footballing equivalent of turning water into wine.

Look, professional football is a flawed business full of hubris, bad decisions and false reputations. For proof, just reflect on how Barcelona have managed to turn themselves from the best team in the world with the best academy in the world to a debt-ridden shambles that can no longer afford to keep Lionel Messi after squandering hundreds of millions on guys who can’t lace his boots.

Maybe other clubs don’t have Davidson on their radar because he works for St Johnstone. Maybe they aren’t convinced by him winning a couple of trinkets in Jockoland or aren’t impressed by the fact he gets on with his business quietly and doesn’t litter his sentences with buzzwords.

But it is hard to imagine that’s the case, particularly when he is now taking this team he has moulded into battle against the likes of Galatasaray and getting a return.

Davidson has got to be poached sooner rather than later. His success is no flash in the pan. You aren’t gambling on a guy who has simply had one good season. What is often forgotten is that he had nine years of coaching — going all the way back to taking the kids at St Johnstone as a player under Derek McInnes — under his belt before he came back to McDiarmid Park to be boss.

He served his apprenticeship. And impossible as it seems for Saints to keep all their star men beyond the end of this month, the reality is that they won’t be able to hold on to their manager for much longer either.

It is why this return match against Galatasaray on Thursday should become much more than just an attempt at pulling off one of Scottish football’s greatest shocks. More than just a night with the potential to rival the incredible 3-0 win over Hamburg at Muirton Park in 1971.

Both their League and Scottish Cup triumphs last season were executed in empty grounds.

Davidson has spoken about the first of those being marked by little more than him driving home to have a glass of champagne with his wife. There were no open-topped bus tours around Perth. No ceremony to mark them being granted the freedom of the city. No proper interaction with the fans who cheered them on from afar.

That is what the game with Galatasaray should become. A real civic celebration of the greatest team in St Johnstone’s history by a country mile. A special occasion to mark a special, and surely unrepeatable, time before it comes to its natural, inevitable end.

Perth and Kinross Council must grant Saints the full house they have asked for. They must see this as an opportunity to create something bigger than just the game itself.

Davidson and his players deserve a night for the ages with their public. To celebrate how far they have come. To share all those emotions of the past year.

And given the events of the first leg and the likelihood of a rookie being in goal for the visitors, who would bet against them topping it off with the most unlikely triumph of all? One evening in which they can take their disciples with them to the top of the mountain and, at last, touch heaven together.