Three relegation battles in a row.
It is with good reason that “circling the drain” has become a popular phrase among St Johnstone supporters in recent years.
There is a broad narrative element to all this that remains inescapable.
Failing to modernise the recruitment operation when Tommy Wright first raised it as a priority nearly a decade ago, allowing him to grow weary, and losing a grip on financial prudence were leadership errors of planning and judgment.
But the three campaigns of Premiership toil also have stand-alone stories.
First it was the ‘hangover’ – a come-down from the season of all seasons and the most impactive (not in a good way) deadline day the club has ever known.
Then it was the ‘reaction’ – spending big wages on players close to or over 30 in an attempt to steady the ship.
And this season it’s been ‘austerity’ – clawing back around £1 million after the full scale of the purse-loosening became apparent.
It didn’t take long for the bucket of cold reality to be poured over Steven MacLean.
When the likes of Matty Kennedy and Robbie Deas became available, MacLean was in no position to compete with Kilmarnock.
A second Adam Montgomery loan was now out of reach.
There were plenty of ‘near miss’ signings – Australian centre-back Jordan Courtney-Perkins was one Saints thought they had.
David Martindale would maybe argue otherwise but the rookie manager’s budget was probably the smallest in the league.
Worst possible start
A slow start in the transfer market and an extensive injury list meant that the teams MacLean was forced to select in pre-season and the League Cup group games leant heavily on youth.
There was no other option.
Only two players who started the season-ender against Motherwell were in the 11 for the embarrassing 4-0 home defeat to Stirling Albion.
Seldom, if ever, has a St Johnstone team looked less ready for the beginning of a top-flight league campaign.
MacLean eventually made 11 signings.
His goalkeeper ended up being the most important recruit of the season.
And his centre-forward ended up being an unmitigated disaster.
More than any other player, MacLean needed Luke Jephcott to hit the ground running. Instead, he didn’t score a single goal all season, for Saints and then Newport County.
MacLean deserves to be remembered as the playing legend whose qualities as a nine-and-a-half still haven’t been replaced, a caretaker manager who kept Saints in the league and a permanent manager whose day job was harder than any of his predecessors in living memory.
We’ll never know if he could have been a success had the backdrop not been recruitment catch-up and budget-slashing.
That he lost his job after his players wilted in a 4-0 defeat to St Mirren and he questioned whether there had been a ‘chucked it’ aspect of the second half collapse wasn’t a shock.
Saints were five points adrift of second bottom, winless and the opening of the next transfer window was over two months away.
Caretaker Cleland
Without the one Alex Cleland game – a 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock – Saints would be in the play-offs, maybe even worse.
The ‘unlucky manager’ theory as far as MacLean was concerned was taken to a new level with Nicky Clark finally being fit enough to play like the striker his old boss needed, scoring two goals before 10 minutes were on the clock.
Apart from the third last match of the season at Livingston, this was the most impressive, attack-minded start to a match Saints would make all year.
It convinced Craig Levein, in the Main Stand, that this was a team with survival potential.
He built on Cleland’s direction-changer and the ‘new manager bounce’ was real.
Saints won three and drew two of their first seven under Levein.
And the last of those victories – against Hibs – was the most complete performance season ticket holders would see at McDiarmid.
There was midfield control and ambition, defensive solidity, a superb Graham Carey goal and a first home start for Fran Franczak that was full of youthful zest.
There was a pre-winter break drop-off on the road – Saints were OK at Ibrox, dreadful for a half at Rugby Park and looked weary at Livingston.
It was to be hoped, though, that a couple of new signings and a reset would see them rediscover some rhythm.
Back on the pitch and out of the cup
As infuriating as yet another early cup exit was, the Scottish Cup defeat at Airdrie could be explained away by the match sharp v not match sharp factor.
And it was encouraging to see Saints play well when Aberdeen visited McDiarmid in the first post-break league game.
It wasn’t encouraging to see a perfectly good goal chalked off by VAR and a dubious penalty awarded to their opponents, mind you.
Suffering on that front would become an early 2024 theme, with games against Hearts, Livingston and Dundee all adversely impacted by officiating injustices.
David Munro being sent to his pitch-side monitor to look at a Liam Gordon penalty box infringement nobody in Dens Park spotted was a real sliding doors moment.
Leap-frogging Dundee was the incentive that day.
Top six talk would never be heard again.
It was a setback in terms of the perception of Levein in the Perth fanbase.
From enjoying Dens dominance and playing well in front of a big travelling support, substitutions and tactical tweaks contributed to a second half slump.
That theme would recur.
So too would the unpredictability of the team.
More Paisley misery
From producing a display in Paisley that was every bit as bad as MacLean’s last game in charge at the same venue, Saints came up with their best performance of the season in Aberdeen.
If you wanted a template for a Craig Levein’s St Johnstone away display, this was it. The perfect balance of caution and enterprise.
It was such a shame that the man of the match, DJ Jaiyesimi, effectively had his season finished a few days after shining so brightly in a wide left role.
And then a game later, Sven Sprangler, whose midfield combativeness allowed others around him to flourish at Pittodrie, was the next to be injured and ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
From that point on, reliability of performance and result evaporated.
Key players like Dan Phillips and Matt Smith drifted out of form.
And there was a growing feeling that Saints were playing like a team trying to cling on to 10th place while Ross County were really going for it.
Big swing
Saints losing at home to Kilmarnock on one afternoon without really landing a punch and County beating Rangers the following day encapsulated that growing sense of a momentum shift.
It was ironic that defeat to the worst team in the league (and already relegated) in the most painful way possible, turned out to be a cathartic occasion.
Saints threw off the shackles at Livingston and created more chances in 90 minutes than they had in nine weeks.
The supporters could get behind this approach.
Two players who thrived in an attack-minded set-up effectively kept Saints up with an injury-time equaliser against County four days later.
Graham Carey’s cross was headed home by Adama Sidibeh.
The pair made telling contributions on a survival Sunday of fluctuating emotions as well.
With Saints staying up on goal difference, a few jigsaw pieces had fallen into place in the nick of time.
Drey Wright was back.
At last there was natural width on the right and a player with the capacity to travel with the ball at pace.
A favoured centre-back pairing emerged – Gordon and Ryan McGowan – and it provided a dependable base.
Cammy MacPherson gave the midfield more control.
Patience with Nicky Clark (fitness and form) was rewarded.
Signing a striker from the seventh tier of English football was vindicated.
Summer of change (again)
Levein was brought in to get the job done. He did that. Just. Nothing else mattered.
That won’t be the case next season.
Saints fans will demand better football at home.
They will want to see a team with an identity and purpose.
With a big turnover of players about to kick-in and new ownership on the horizon there is an opportunity to reinvigorate both team and club.
For the former, the transfer budget is unlikely to enable Saints to live with Killie, Dundee, St Mirren or Dundee United if it becomes a battle of wages.
But Levein will do things differently.
And if Sidibeh and Benji Kimpioka are the sign of things to come, differently may translate to anticipation, entertainment and achievement.
It will be a tougher Premiership to stay in next season but the drain circling feeling needs to come to an end.
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