Our 15-year tenure in the Scottish top flight is under threat. The club’s golden era could come to an end. St Johnstone’s long-serving owners look set to sell up. And some history- making players could be on their way out of the door.
A lot might happen between now and the end of May.
First things first, though: a nerve shredding battle for survival awaits.
Ross County have the opportunity to both relegate Livingston and potentially leapfrog Saints on Saturday when they visit West Lothian. On the one hand, if Livi are officially down, does that make our task easier when we travel to Almondvale in a few weeks? Or will they start to play with a bit of freedom? Who knows. There are far too many variables.
All we can do is concentrate on ourselves. Hibs visit McDiarmid on Saturday with little left to play for but pride. We’ve beaten them twice already this season, and were very comfortable in the previous match in Perth back in December. That performance level has to be repeated this time round.
The only way we are getting out of this situation is by putting points on the board ourselves. We have to go out with the intent to win games – something that I worry we just won’t do.
As far as the ownership situation goes, everything has gone very quiet on that front recently. We can only assume work remains ongoing in the background, potentially awaiting the end of the season on the park.
Any takeover presents myriad questions. What are the incomers intentions? What do they want to invest in? The squad? The stadium? Do they want to retain the manager? Where do they see us going? Does their investment depend on what league we are playing in next season?
Hopefully we will have answers on all of those questions sooner rather than later – but it seems that without resolution we will continue with a long period of stasis in the background that doesn’t help us on the park one little bit.
One thing is for sure though - if the ownership situation does change, something needs to be done to mark the contribution of Geoff Brown and his family to the club over the decades they have been in charge.
Scottish football has changed and evolved in so many ways since the mid-1980s, but when you reflect on it Brown has been proved right at every turn. In the way he handled the move to McDiarmid Park to the era of overspending that marked the late 1990s and early 2000s that he refused to indulge in, he has done everything to put Saints on the best possible footing throughout and I trust him to do the same now.
Saints’ success in the last 15 years or so is his success – it simply wouldn’t have happened without him and I hope that can be properly marked by both the club and Scottish football as a whole when he is no longer the owner.
And speaking of the end of May, one of the most upsetting aspect of this season is that we could see the final chapter in Stevie May’s time at the club. He’s contracted for another season – but it seems like he’s well out of the management team’s plans and you’d imagine he still has a lot to offer at a good level in Scotland.
Never in my time watching Saints has a player’s star burned so brightly as Stevie’s did in that 2013-14 season. From his goal to secure our passage in Europe against Rosenborg, to his deadly double to send us to our first Scottish Cup final, his 27-goal haul that year was incredible. The fact it didn’t result in a Scotland call up there and then is, in retrospect, absolutely wild. Had he not suffered a career-altering knee injury at Preston North End I’m sure he wouldn’t have ended up back at Saints, and would probably still be banging them in in the English Championship.
If this is the end, we can only wish a man who is simultaneously a legend and a cult hero the very, very best.
It seems likely Chris Kane also will leave the club. Those are two players who came through the Saints youth system and went on to win national silverware in Perth, both making a massive contribution to those cup wins. We can only hope for a story that good again in our future.
Just a little message to finish off: this will unfortunately be the last McDiarmid Memo. I’d just like to thank the team at The Herald for giving me the opportunity to come directly to your inbox over the last few months, and to Aidan Smith for getting this newsletter off the ground when he was at The Herald. I’d highly recommend subscribing to their other football and sport content, particularly with an exciting summer of football ahead of us this year!
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