It came as a shock to Steven MacLean when St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown asked him to take the reins of the Perth team this week.
But after receiving the blessing of his departing boss Callum Davidson, the former Saints, Rangers and Hearts striker has turned all of his focus to guiding the McDiarmid Park outfit to safety, with just six games remaining of the Scottish Premiership season.
Davidson was sacked following a poor run of form in the Fair City and with the Perth club now just five points off the bottom of the table, the St Johnstone board felt the need for change, particularly with a potential club takeover planned for the summer.
MacLean was Davidson’s assistant, and he will always be grateful to the double-winning Saints legend for offering him a route into management, but now as a manager in his own right, the 40-year-old is ready to stamp his own authority on the team.
“All I have thought about is the Hibs game,” he explained. “Have I had thoughts of being a manager? Yes I’ve had thoughts of being a manager all my days.
“But right now, I’m just focusing on Hibs. It is full on, you are just trying to do everything right and you want it to go well.
“Myself, Liam Craig and Alex Cleland are concentrating every minute of every day on Hibs and how we can get a result. We’re working tirelessly on that.
“I’ve been so consumed with Hibs. I even forgot my son was going to university on Monday! I phoned my wife and said ‘where’s Luke?’ She let me know he was in Aberdeen.
“He works in the office and goes on campus 10 times a year and then goes up for exams and stuff. He’s doing chartered accountancy so he has a lot more brains than me.”
Despite MacLean’s eagerness to get started at St Johnstone, the first few days of his tenure as an interim manager have been tinted with sadness following the departure of his colleague and friend Davidson.
The pair had been working together for the past three seasons before Sunday’s news broke and both had written their names into football history books when they delivered a Scottish and League Cup double in 2021.
MacLean continued: “Callum brought me to the club. People who know me, I’m as loyal as can be. As a player I was loyal to my team-mates and to the club.
“On Sunday I didn’t know what to think, if I’m being honest. I had Callum’s blessing and he said I need to do it. That is why I’ve done it. If he had said ‘I don’t think you should do it’ then I would’ve walked away. Simple as that.
“Callum said I am good enough to go and do it. He said put your own stamp on it and be your own man. I can’t thank him enough.
“I learned so much from him on a day-to-day basis. This was our third season and I took in so much from him. Watching games with him, doing the video stuff, everything. I know he will be wanting us to do well.”
MacLean reckons Davidson will be back in work sooner rather than later and he has backed the former Scotland international to land another gig at the top of the game.
He continued: “He will be sitting at home on Saturday desperate for us to win. That is a big thing for me.
“Callum’s not just a good manager and a good coach, but he is a good man and a proper gentleman and I think that’s why it’s been so hard.
“To go back to what the chairman said, he’s a legend and that will never change and that’s why he had such a difficult decision to do it.
“Callum’s going to be a manager again somewhere he’s going to get another job and he deserves a top job.”
Outsiders have put St Johnstone’s decision to sack Davidson down to ‘managerial bounces’ within other clubs in the division, which has ultimately cleared them of the threat of failure.
Barry Robson is currently on a streak of six wins on the bounce at Aberdeen, while Stuart Kettlewell has guided Motherwell to safety when they looked doomed for the drop under the leadership of Steven Hammell.
Asked if there was pressure on him to achieve a similar reaction, MacLean responded: “There is no real pressure on me. They got a bounce.
“We’ll be hoping we get a bounce. We want to win games, but there’s no pressure on me.
“I’m just going to prepare the players properly, do my job, and then like I say, if I get a reaction from them, I hope I do.
“We’ve done the work. They’ve now got to go and take responsibility themselves and I’m sure they will.”
