Steven MacLean will get first chance at landing the St Johnstone manager’s job.
Applications have been flooding into McDiarmid Park to replace Callum Davidson, who parted company with the Perth club on Sunday.
MacLean was tasked with taking training on Monday and Courier Sport understands Davidson’s assistant will be in charge for the visit of Hibs at the weekend.
That puts him in pole position to get a reaction out of a team that has only won two games in 16 and prove to chairman, Steve Brown that he doesn’t need to sift through the list of external candidates.
The new manager bounce both Aberdeen and Motherwell got following in-house successions is one MacLean will seek to emulate.
Saints probably need two wins out of their last six matches – maybe even not as much as that – to secure their Premiership status for another season.
They’re currently five points above the relegation place and four clear of the play-off spot.
Takeover talks
The possibility of takeover talks with an American consortium – or other potential buyers – progressing in the next few weeks lends itself to a short-term appointment through to the summer.
With or without a new owner, Saints will then need to put down long-term plans.
And if MacLean, who was a fans’ favourite as a player, can get the team back on track, the 40-year-old has got a great opportunity of succeeding Davidson.
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