After sacking Craig Levein, the new St Johnstone ownership group are embarking upon their first recruitment process for a first team manager.
Majority shareholder and chairman, Adam Webb, will soon take a temporary step back from his hands-on role at McDiarmid Park following his cancer diagnosis.
But he has pledged to appoint Levein’s successor before then.
In Webb’s open letter to supporters, he kept his options open about the job title, describing it as “head coach/manager”.
That speaks to the fact that he, and St Johnstone, are at a crossroads.
Which direction they take will instantly rule out a swathe of potential candidates.
Courier Sport assesses the merits of the four routes.
Experienced and pragmatic
If you look at how Saints have been playing and, more pertinently, how they’ve been conceding goals and losing, this would be the logical approach, certainly in the short-term.
There are 15 games to be played before the January transfer window opens.
A lot of damage came be done in that time – perhaps even irreparable as far as top-flight survival is concerned.
If Saints don’t beat Ross County on Saturday, it’s probable that they will be last in the Premiership by the time they face the same opponent in the middle of next month.
Hearts and Kilmarnock, the only clubs currently beneath them, will sort themselves out soon.
So, even if the new manager is able to pick up a couple of free agents over the next few weeks, as Levein was trying to do, the aim will be to make sure Saints are either second bottom or not cut adrift in 12th by the time signings can be made from other clubs.
Basically, even though they’re not bottom and the change has happened earlier than a year ago, it’s a similar scenario to the post-Steven MacLean one, albeit the attacking part of the squad is much stronger.
The next boss needs to drill some defending fundamentals into this team.
That’s not something you would associate with ‘philosophy’ managers or relative rookies.
It’s the forte of the likes of Tommy Wright and Neil Lennon.
Hiring the manager they hoped Craig Levein would be gives Saints a strong chance to get back on track as a team and a club.
Breath of fresh air
Perth supporters know what pragmatism looks like and they probably embrace it more than most other fan bases.
But it is becoming a harder sell with each season and each managerial change.
The ‘let’s try something new’ faction is growing.
Appointing a training ground head coach with a clear picture of how he wants to see football played is a ground zero concept with appeal.
But this isn’t pre-season, with time to bed it in.
Repairs have to be made while the car is moving.
And, it also requires a behind-the-scenes structure that would properly support a young boss, like Rhys McCabe, for example.
Saints aren’t at that point yet.
They don’t have a director of football or a head of recruitment.
One or both may come once Webb has fully assessed how he wants the club to be run.
But it feels as if a young, tracksuit manager at McDiarmid Park in the here and now would be set-up to fail.
Somewhere between the two
There are young managers – or would-be managers – who don’t have a reputation for being wedded to a particular system or way of playing.
You’d put Scott Brown and Peter Leven into that category.
Brown hasn’t been pigeon-holed as a one formation manager and would appear to tick a few boxes now that he’s got two club jobs under his belt, while still perceived as being ‘on the up’.
Leven, though still to be a permanent number one, showcased his managerial maturity with the manner in which he dealt with a potentially tricky caretaker spell at Pittodrie.
It was very much a case of making the best of what he had – under big club, big jeopardy pressure.
In 10 league games, a Dons side that had been leaking goals before he took over from Neil Warnock conceded just five times and posted six clean-sheets.
Pragmatism doesn’t have to be interwoven with experience.
Broadening horizons
St Johnstone have never appointed a manager from outwith Britain and Ireland.
The three-month start of the Webb era has been more about evolution than revolution, with a CEO having been appointed from inside the building.
But if Webb really wanted to send out a break with the past statement, the opportunity has presented itself to try something bold and completely different.
Football trends take hold very quickly.
Jimmy Thelin has hit the ground running to spectacular effect at Aberdeen.
He is undoubtedly the managerial flavour of the month.
Webb shared a boardroom with Alan Burrows on his last trip to Scotland, when the Dons beat Saints in the Premiership curtain-raiser, so you would imagine he would have been asking questions about the Swede’s methods and impact.
Courier Sport understands that looking abroad certainly hasn’t been ruled out.
So, if a good CV lands at McDiarmid Park from far afield, it could well catch Webb’s eye.
The adaptation period to Scottish football is an obvious potential negative and for every Jimmy Thelin (who has had an appealing early-season fixture list, it should be stressed) there has been an Angelo Alessio, a Csaba Laszlo or a Daniel Stendl.
You don’t need to be British or Irish to sort out a defence leaking goals from set-pieces, however.
And there could be the added bonus of a foreign manager knowing where he could pick up an experienced free agent goalkeeper.
One thing is for sure – if is going to be a boss from abroad, it would have to be an experienced one.
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