Stephen Robinson has admitted it would be a hammer blow for St Mirren to lose vice-chairman Jim Gillespie to Rangers.
The Paisley director - who is chief executive of Renfrewshire charity Kibble - is a hugely influential figure in the boardroom and works very closely with Robinson and chief operating officer Keith Lasley.
Reports last week touted Gillespie for a move along the M8 to Ibrox to take up the chief executive position as a replacement for James Bisgrove after his exit for the Middle East.
Robinson is hopeful reports do not materialise into a formal approach and exit for Gillespie as he opened up on the vice-chairman's role as a "driving force" for St Mirren.
"I speak to Jim on a regular basis, every day, about players and the football club," said Robinson of the vice-chairman.
"He's certainly been brilliant for me. He's been a huge driving force in the club in terms of its mentality. We've been thinking like a Championship club, now we're thinking like a European club.
"We push everything to the limit and Jim is a massive driver of that. I hope the stories aren't true but if they are, he'd be a huge loss."
Gillespie - who first joined the St Mirren board as a Kibble representative in 2020 - oversees recruitment from a boardroom position at the SMiSA Stadium.
The experienced operator was key in bringing Robinson to St Mirren from Morecambe and was critical in Alex Gogic signing a contract renewal last season. Even newest arrival Killian Phillips was signed off on by Gillespie.
Read more:
-
'This is what happiness does' - Taylor on life-changing St Mirren move
-
'Oh man' - Phillips on St Mirren experience & learning from Vieira
"Jim, like all of the board, would move heaven and earth to get what we need if it is feasible," Robinson added.
"My relationship with Jim is on a recruitment basis as well because he is the board member in charge of recruitment and overseeing saying yes and no to it really.
"You've got to live within your means. You want to drive it forward at 100mph but unfortunately at a club of our size you have to keep chipping away and making the infrastructure better.
"Jim has been very good for me. He brought me up here, head-hunted me from Morecambe. When I started and didn't win games, he was a big support as was Tony [Fitzpatrick] as were all the board.
"No one ever wavered from what they thought was the right decision.
"When you don't think you can stretch any further, Jim and the board have found a way to support me. I've nothing but praise for the full board and my relationship with Jim."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here