Gilmour: "we'll see who comes out of the woodwork"

WITH that ringing endorsement, St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour has called on suitably qualified managers to make themselves known to the club. Gilmour claims there has already been a great deal of interest in the job and doesn't fear a shortage of candidates.

In some ways, The Buddies are not an unattractive option for any manager keen to make his mark in the SPL: a nice stadium, at least one international on the books (albeit a Welsh international who has yet to play a game), and a Scottish League Cup final appearance. However, the club has been up for sale for some time, and without any buyers knocking on the door, the future seems uncertain.

Gus McPherson's sacking was probably not a surprise to most football pundits. Despite getting the Buddies promoted to the SPL in 2006, their stay in the top division has not been one tinged with success. In his four years as an SPL manager McPherson - the SPL's longest serving manager following Jefferies' resignation from Kilmarnock - never finished the season higher than 10th. The club flirted with relegation in season 2008/09 when Falkirk's win at Inverness kept the Buddies in the League.

Possibly facing the prospect of a reduced transfer budget and continued uncertainty over the future of the club (St Mirren are up for sale), he probably decided the time was right to leave. Or, St Mirren decided change was needed to make that yearly end-of-season run-in a little less stressful.

Andy Millen, McPherson's assistant, is still at the club but he might be weighing up the future at St Mirren Park. With Andy Dorman, Jack Ross, Chris Innes, Allan Johnston, Garry Brady, Stephen O’Donnell and Steven Robb all out of contract over the summer, Millen might not feel there's enough to work with.

Perhaps this might be a nice way for Mixu Paateleinen, a former player, to get back into the mix (see what I did there?). Or John Robertson, or even Jimmy Calderwood if Killie can't make up their mind about who will have the glorious job of keeping the team in the SPL next season.

Jocky Scott is another possibility - he's available and he started out well with Dundee, leading the team to the top of the table,  but their promotion challenge collapsed towards the end of the season, and after giving up a thirteen-point lead to eventual winners Inverness Caley and losing 3-0 to Airdrie United, Scott was fired. 

Czaba Laszlo is another SPL manager looking for a job: the former Hearts boss is keen to remain in Scotland and might fancy a go at taking on St Mirren, but the Hungarian is probably tired of dealing with restricted budgets.