Manager Race

[GiGi]

What are McCabe's credentials for the job? 

[RossMcC1874]

Always thought Docherty was a good manager considering how well he did at Dundee but to make such a mess of at Ross County with the squad and budget they have is quite funny. 

I can see us more going for a young manager like we did with the Imrie gamble which paid off. 

[Mr.Blue]

9 minutes ago, GiGi said:

What are McCabe's credentials for the job? 

Genuine question. What were Dougies when he got the job?

[port-ton]

I definitely wouldn’t want Docherty. From memory his Dundee team conceded a lot of goals and he’s carried that in to the County job too. 

Having a manager whose team concedes a lot absolutely terrifies me when you look at our attacking options. 

[GiGi]

9 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

Genuine question. What were Dougies when he got the job?

Imrie was something of an inspirational appointment in that he was a hero among the support, and we were already bottom of the league and in need of a lift. 

I'm sure when interviewed Imrie would have come over very earnestly in the importance of getting fans back on side and pulling together with the team again. 

McCabe doesn't have that prebuilt goodwill and not really a track record either. Maybe he'd be alright but it would be a big risk. 

[BishopBrennan]

13 minutes ago, GiGi said:

Imrie was something of an inspirational appointment in that he was a hero among the support, and we were already bottom of the league and in need of a lift. 

I'm sure when interviewed Imrie would have come over very earnestly in the importance of getting fans back on side and pulling together with the team again. 

McCabe doesn't have that prebuilt goodwill and not really a track record either. Maybe he'd be alright but it would be a big risk. 

Imrie had a very successful stint as a youth coach at Hamilton, managing them in the U17 (?) Europa League before moving on to Livingston where he was managing the U19s team and serving as Head of Youth, IIRC. 

[dunning1874]

This is the problem, we know all the obvious out of work candidates who've managed in the Championship recently are significant downgrades on Imrie so would likely take us backwards, and we don't need to go all that far downhill to end up getting relegated.

The only chance of getting someone as good who can similarly overachieve is to take a gamble, which by definition means a riskier appointment and more chance of ending up with a Johansson level dud who definitely rather than probably relegates us, but the alternative is managed decline and a slide towards the bottom two anyway.

[Jack Bauer]

Is the race over 100 metres?

Edited December 14, 2025 by Jack Bauer

[CM48]

Do we think we'll hear anything regarding an appointment soon? Either from the club or MCT?

Looking back, Dougie was appointed 17 days after Gus left.

Dougie left 19 days ago. And had looked like leaving a couple of times before that so there must have been discussions regarding what the club would do if he did leave? Let Billy take the team I suppose?

As someone else has pointed out on here though, only a remarkable/freak injury time winner has Davies avoiding zero wins from 4 games in charge of a team that he's already had an input with, all against teams below us, so really don't fancy him continuing to be in the dugout/stand calling the shots much longer.

I'm sure Laird would fancy the job (I love his philosophy of wanting to turn draws into wins, such vision) and would take the role, if only  it wasn't for the fact that you can actually lose your position for being shite as a manager.

 

[Jamie_M]

4 minutes ago, CM48 said:

MCT

4 games 

Why would MCT say anything, it's for the club board.

5 games. Harsh, but i'm counting the Partick game.

[Jamie_M]

6 hours ago, Mr.Blue said:

Genuine question. What were Dougies when he got the job?

It's far easier to assess favourably a highly rated coach taking their first step into actual management than when you can list the alternatives' various history of failures.

[CM48]

1 minute ago, Jamie_M said:

Why would MCT say anything, it's for the club board.

5 games. Harsh, but i'm counting the Partick game.

You're right, I don't know. I'm just a bit desperate and close to losing the plot with it all after that soaking standing on Sinclair Street and subsequent defeat yesterday.

[GiGi]

We need a new manager with his own assistant at the minimum and I worry that whoever gets the job will have to accept being lumped with Davies, and that is probably not an appealing prospect. 

[vikingTON]

38 minutes ago, GiGi said:

We need a new manager with his own assistant at the minimum and I worry that whoever gets the job will have to accept being lumped with Davies, and that is probably not an appealing prospect. 

From an external perspective, Imrie wasn't given his own assistant - Millen was a hold over from the previous regime who was still under contract. And while it might have been more complicated, there was quite a lot of chat about Imrie trying to bring in his own assistant from his Hamilton spells. Darrian (stupid name - don't get care if misspelled) McKinnon for example was linked a couple of times to take over as assistant. 

If Davies was brought in as a technical/director of football figure then the plan - as much as any plan exists at Cappielow right now - would always be for the next first team manager to work beneath him. We'll see if that works out in the long term, but it's premature to cast judgment on that structure before it has even been fully implemented yet.

Those using the past few results to judge Davies are either misguided about what his stated role is, or just indulging their previously stated objection to Davies being involved at the club. 

[Roger McQueen]

9 hours ago, GiGi said:

What are McCabe's credentials for the job? 

Did he not win the League 1 play off with Airdrie, guide them to the Premiership play off's and win the challenge cup?

[Ferguson]

Regardless of who it is, I hope we’re in a position to get them started early this week. In everyone’s best interests to get someone in for a full weeks training before a free hit up in Perth on Saturday and a full 2 weeks to assess things before the January window. 

[TonFan89]

True story - I spoke to an out of work scottish football manager over the weekend and asked him if he’d put in for the Morton job.

His response? Absolutely not and nor would he with Laird as Chairman. As expected in the small Scottish football community, he’s friends with lots of other managers and said he knows of a few others who would have been interested and would have applied, but aren’t - again purely because they “don’t want to work for Laird”. In his words, the guy is a “self obsessed, arrogant a**e, who thinks he knows everything about football and acts like God” and is seriously disliked in Scottish football circuits. 

[AyrshireTon]

We have not interviewed anyone, in spite of the press claiming we’d interviewed Sheils.

[Greacen2000]

I was already feeling pretty pessimistic about both the quality of candidate we are like to appoint & the expected timescale, but if the last 2 posts are true then it really is a grave cause for concern.

It has now been 3 weeks since Imrie left.  At the very least the club need to be making a statement advising on how the process to find his replacement has been going.

I am starting to feel like the most likely outcome is that Davies is announced as DoF/Performance director/sporting director, and that we appoint someone from within the club as head coach or player/head coach.  This would presumably be a cheap option as well as allowing our club chair to maintain purely advisory influence over team affairs by having his own man calling the shots.

[RossMcC1874]

2 hours ago, TonFan89 said:

True story - I spoke to an out of work scottish football manager over the weekend and asked him if he’d put in for the Morton job.

His response? Absolutely not and nor would he with Laird as Chairman. As expected in the small Scottish football community, he’s friends with lots of other managers and said he knows of a few others who would have been interested and would have applied, but aren’t - again purely because they “don’t want to work for Laird”. In his words, the guy is a “self obsessed, arrogant a**e, who thinks he knows everything about football and acts like God” and is seriously disliked in Scottish football circuits. 

Has John Laird been around football for a while or am I missing something? I know he was appointed in 2023 and before that apparently was a successful business man. But I wasn't aware he had been around football for a while. 

Some record if he has rubbed everyone up the wrong way in the space of 2 years or so. 

Felt a bit optimistic about who might take over Imrie but the longer it goes on not going to lie its giving me the fear.