You’ve got to love the unique charms of the Scottish Premiership, whose member clubs contrive to remain strangely fascinating, perhaps even moreso, when they are at their lowest ebb.
On the face of it, this weekend’s top-flight card doesn’t have a whole lot going for it, not least because its two matches comprise sides who are in the bottom half of the table and also out of the Premier Sports Cup.
If truth be told, Hearts’ trip to St Mirren and St Johnstone’s journey to Ross County were brought forward for the very good reason that they have nothing better to do this weekend and because it was more appealing to fans than a midweek night in December.
Neither Hearts nor St Mirren have won any of their last seven matches. St Johnstone have lost their last four. By that measure, County should be cock-a-hoop at having claimed their first league win of the season last weekend.
And yet, there is another, all-too-familiar dimension that adds a dark layer of intrigue to these encounters. For two of the clubs involved, uncertainty in the manager’s office has been more seductive to the neutral than anything produced on the pitch.
St Johnstone are managerless thanks to the sacking of Craig Levein on Tuesday. He would be entitled to argue that he deserved a little longer, but there was no relationship with supporters and new owner Adam Webb doubtless saw that as a handicap to their ambitions.
Hearts manager Steven Naismith is under enormous pressure after seven consecutive defeats.
Craig Levein lost his job at St Johnstone three days after a defeat by Hibs at Easter Road.
Andy Kirk, who was Levein’s assistant, will take charge of St Johnstone against Ross County.
Hearts, too, will be managerless if Steven Naismith doesn’t turn things around sharpish. Quite apart from losing every week, his team have had no discernible strategy.
Naismith guided them to third last season, but critics argue that there was no challenge from Aberdeen and no European football to distract Hearts from the job at hand. A more popular view is that Naismith was only given the job because he was in the building when a vacancy arose in April 2023. With the club urgently needing a ‘bounce’, he took over as caretaker manager and did well enough to earn a permanent deal that summer.
It raises a wider question about interim managers and the wisdom of allowing them to remain in the post long-term. Barry Robson is another who made an immediate impact when he inherited the Aberdeen job in February 2022, but the Pittodrie club went into freefall once he had shed the caretaker tag. The same is true of Steven MacLean at St Johnstone, Liam Fox at Dundee United and numerous others.
Of course, an outsider might just as easily have failed in the same way. And plenty of clubs will have appointed caretakers who went on to succeed.
The trouble is that internal candidates are too often handed the reins for the wrong reason. Some clubs see it as the cheap and easy option. Others are more conscientious, using the interim as a device with which to buy time, only to find that he has made an impact by virtue merely of being someone new.
No manager should be judged on a handful of matches, but if the incumbent negotiates them successfully, it becomes difficult not to offer him a contract. Having painted themselves into a corner, clubs are suddenly reluctant to fix what no longer appears to be broken, and candidates with better cvs are overlooked.
All of which will be worth bearing in mind when Andy Kirk, who was Levein’s assistant, takes charge of St Johnstone in Dingwall. The Perth club have received a number of strong applications, but Kirk has been led to believe that his work on a temporary basis will not be ignored, even though his only previous experience of front-line management was with Highland League Brechin City.
Kirk has an opportunity that nobody else of his standing would be afforded.
Whether he has the potential to do more for St Johnstone in the next two years than the likes of Rhys McCabe or Ian Murray is another matter. Scott Brown, the Ayr United manager, has also been linked with the job, although the former Celtic captain might wonder if his next step should be to a bigger club with a better infrastructure.
One thing’s for sure: there will be more opportunities like these. For Scottish football loves nothing better than to feed off crisis, controversy and the drama of its never-ending sack race. What’s not to like?
