Gus MacPherson and St Mirren no risk takers

Is there no room for youth in Paisley?

By Matthew Harold

Another SPL manager wants to get rid of the SPL’s under 21 rule, and no it’s not Walter Smith or Tony Mowbray.

Its St Mirren boss Gus MacPherson, and the reasoning he has for scraping it is that now so many teams have under 21 players in their first team - the rule is no longer needed.

But in MacPherson’s case, he wants rid of the rule because he wants to put even more journeymen on his bench.

In the recent clash with Hearts, the ex-Kilmarnock and Rangers man put three under 21s on the bench for the Paisley side, even though they had no chance of ever getting on.

MacPherson claims it would have been better for players such as Dennis Wyness to be on the bench instead of the youngsters he feels he was forced to name.

But when you look at St Mirren, can you honestly tell me that if Dennis Wyness was on the bench that St Mirren would have won the match?

He has never been a manager who seems to take a risk, and never gets criticised for that fact. Yet, he is more than willing to place the blame on the SPL when the blame should lie with McPherson himself.

The St Mirren boss has always been someone who would be more than happy finishing 11th in the SPL each season rather than taking a risk and throwing on some of his youngsters and seeing where the team ends up. The Buddies man is probably under the least amount of pressure in the SPL; he has a good relationship with both his board and his fans, so the reason why he’s unwilling to take a risk is baffling.

St Mirren is a club that is currently up for sale and although it does not have any debt, it does not have any real saleable assets. Other than Paul Gallagher and Andy Dorman, who is out of contract at the end of the season, there is no-one in the current squad who will make the Buddies some extra cash in years to come.

That’s what potential investors are going to look at before they are willing to take the Paisley side from Chairman Stewart Gilmour’s hands. With average crowds of 3,000, there is no real way of the club making the type of money that will help keep the club in the black, without investing in youth and selling on for a profit.

Rather than looking to sign players past their prime, such as Mo Camara and Allan Johnston, maybe they should look to giving some of their younger players a chance.

If they do that then maybe St Mirren will be have the same kind of exciting young players like Aberdeen and Hibernian have with Fraser Fyvie and David Wotherspoon lighting up both Pittodrie and Easter Road respectively.

And they will also start with the advantage on these sides, with having no debt which would mean they could sell for their price and they could bring the Paisley side away for the constant tags of relegation battlers, and into European candidates.