EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Saints alive for Alex as he loves being in charge
ALEX Rae is enjoying life as a manager after serving an eightyear apprenticeship for the St Mirren job.
The former Ra n g e r s, Wo l v e s, Sunderland, Millwall and Falkirk midfielder has worked at different levels since his days as player- manager of Dundee in 2006 and benefitted as Alex McLeish, Paul Ince and Karl Robinson passed on their knowledge of the game.
He is now taking the Buddies in the right direction after taking over at the SPFL Championship club 10 weeks ago.
The likeable Rae, 46, told The Sunday Post: “Management is the same as it was when I was in charge of Dundee for twoand-a-half years eight or nine years ago.
“I’m better prepared now than I was back then. Indeed, when I was doing my pro-licence a few years ago part of the process was a mock interview for a manager’s job and it was conducted by a St Mirren director, Bryan McAusland.
“It was all hypothetical but I’mm led to believe Bryan liked what I had to say and that may have helped in myy interview for this job.
“When you become a manager you are taking on everything – the squad, sports science, the fans, training, team selection, media, board of directors, player recruitment and so on. It’s not a case of turn up for training, put
uto your gear on and go home two hours later.
“A good friend of mine fromm Glasgow’s East End, Jim Caldwell,ll, is a successful businessman and he told me football management iss a five-year apprenticeship.
“After Dundee, I was at MK Donsons as a scout and coach under Karl Robinson. I was assistant manager to Paul Ince at Notts County and Blackpool and I was also assistant to Alex McLeish last season in Belgium at Genk. We had 16 international players in that squad.
“I count myself as being fortunate to have worked closely with them. They are all talented football men.
“I’m now my own man and have David Farrell with me. David is first class and I trust him.”
Since taking over from Ian Murray, Rae, in his short tenure so far, has won his first game in charge, led the team to its first home victory of the campaign and back to back victories. At the moment they are both threatening the play-off places and have relegation hanging over them.
Rae has his take on it and stressed: “In terms of results, we’ve ticked boxes and put unwanted records to bed.
“On the Sunday and Monday we collect footage from the Saturday game and we then debrief the players, focusing on the positives and ways of eliminating the negatives.
“We work hard at implementing ideas. The players are taking things on board.
“For example, we lost recently at Queen of the South but I was delighted with several aspects of our play. Listen, we’re not at the free-flowing football stage yet but I can see things coming together.
“The job has its challenges. You’ve been with me for an hour and I’ve met with the chief executive and discussed player availability with my coaching and medical staff. It’s all important but the most vital part is team selection and winning on a Saturday.
“By the way, there are easier ways to make a living. But I love the buzz of the job, the highs of winning and the challenges of dealing with defeat.
“Are we top four? The objective from day one was to catch the team above us and that remains the same. We want to keep mmoving in the right direction and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Rae has a close network of people to lean on and ask for advice. McLeish – recently appointed as manager of Zamalek – is one of them and the phone calls between Paisley and Egypt have been regular.
Rae is delighted Big Eck is back in the game and believes he will succeed over there and that will lead to him getting another crack with a top club in the UK.
McLeish has won trophies during his time in charge of Rangers and Birmingham and Rae said: “I was Alex’s assistant for a season and he knows the game inside out. He is very astute. I’m delighted he’s back in football.
“He has had great success in the past and there is much more to come. He has an excellent track record and can hold his head up from his time at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, as well as Rangers.
“He deserves another chance with a top club in England and I’m confident it’s a only a matter of time before he gets it.”