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THE maths makes it all quite fitting, in a way.
It is 10 years since the close season when a ‘will he, won’t he’ saga came to an end for Ian Murray. Under freedom of contract, he left his boyhood heroes Hibernian for a switch to Rangers, who had lifted the league title at Easter Road only weeks earlier on ‘Helicopter Sunday’. For Dumbarton, this summer also marks 20 years since Murdo MacLeod left Boghead Park for a tilt at full-time management with Partick Thistle. He was the last Sons boss to depart the club for the challenge of working with players at a higher level.
Until yesterday. One other piece of maths – Friday, May 22, 2015 was exactly two and a half years since Murray, suited and booted on his return from America, sat in front of the press having accepted the challenge of becoming Dumbarton’s boss. He did so again yesterday, still smartly turned out, but instead of crossing the Atlantic, this time he’d moved over the Erskine Bridge. Thirty months on from his unveiling as Sons gaffer, he is now the man in charge at St Mirren. He was under contract to manage Dumbarton for another season. Now he’ll only be at the Rock twice in the 2015/16 campaign – in the away dugout.
Dumbarton, for the first time in nine years, will start the season with a new manager. Not since the 2006 interim period, when Gerry McCabe replaced Paul Martin, have they had to spend the close season going through the challenging task of recruitment for the post. There will be interest – why wouldn’t there be for the top post at Scotland’s best part-time side for three seasons in a row? But it’s less than a month until pre-season training is due to start, and quite apart from having only three players signed, Sons currently have nobody to manage them. Here’s the analysis of a move which everybody at Dumbarton knew would eventually happen, but has still hit hard.
The right move?
Here we are at the end of Ian Murray’s tenure as Dumbarton manager – a spell which was expected to take in some time in the Second Division (later League One). It never did. Having inherited a Sons side in disarray at the bottom of the First Division, Murray’s work over the second half of season 2012/13 is legendary. The following year proved that to be no fluke as Dumbarton turned in one of the best campaigns for the club in living memory. A top-half finish, only missing out on the promotion play-offs for sure on the last day, was accompanied by a Scottish Cup quarter final place. And last season, survival in a league containing Hearts, Rangers and Hibernian was clinched with six games to spare.
That all means that Murray leaves the Rock owing Dumbarton nothing. He’s earned his move to a full-time outfit, an ambition which surely was on his agenda to happen one day. The relief which greeted the news that he had signed a new two-year contract this time last year spoke volumes about how well he had done.
He may only have been halfway through that deal, but that’s the way football is these days. Once Arsene Wenger leaves Arsenal (how long is a piece of string?), managers staying at a club for 10 years at any level will become a real rarity. In fact, even half that timescale might be pushing it. Either managers aren’t good enough and they get sacked, they are good enough and get headhunted by a club at a higher level, or they are good enough and want a new challenge.
Murray definitely fits into category two, and possibly category three as well. What more did he have to achieve at Dumbarton? On the face of it, the only realistic goal that has eluded him at the Rock is a run in the Petrofac Training Cup – a competition where two teams who finished below Sons last season reached the final. Dumbarton’s record in that tournament since its inception in 1990 is little short of embarrassing and some feel that it’s about time they gave it a good go. Murray’s only two ties in the competition ended in defeat at Stranraer.
Apart from that, how much further could he take Dumbarton as a part-time side? Come to think of it, how much further could Jose Mourinho take Dumbarton as a part-time side? For all anybody’s managerial expertise, they were still working with players who were in full-time jobs outside the game all week.
Murray has done his time at Dumbarton, and with knowledge of the difficulty faced in the coming season’s Championship, probably knew the time was right. He’s done himself, and Sons, proud, and now the next chapter begins.
The best Sons manager since Billy Lamont?
Statistics may be vital, but they don’t tell the full story in all cases.
Murray’s win percentage at Dumbarton (38 per cent) is close enough to that of Alan Adamson (38.6 per cent), and is inferior to those of Gerry McCabe (43.9 per cent), Brian Fairley (45.5 per cent) and Tom Carson (47.7 per cent). However, all of those managers spent their entire tenures with Sons in a lower division with the exception of Adamson, who won none of his nine games in the second tier in any case. In the cases of McCabe and Carson, all of their league fixtures in charge were played out in what is now League Two.
Taking into account the standard of competition Sons have faced under Murray, he has to come into consideration as the best gaffer since Billy Lamont made way for Murdo MacLeod in 1993. He never won promotion, and nor was he ever likely to in a division where part-time sides are in the minority. However, his achievements listed above came despite the presences of Partick Thistle, Dunfermline Athletic and Morton in year one, and Dundee, Hamilton Accies and Falkirk in year two – amongst others. And last season there was Hearts, Rangers and Hibernian. While fellow part-timers Alloa and Cowdenbeath finished in the bottom two, Sons were home and hosed with six games to spare.
Where do Sons go from here?
They go there very quickly – that has to be the case. There is never a good time for a manager to leave a club, but at least this has happened with two months to go before the first competitive ball is kicked in season 2015/16. It hasn’t come about with games against Hibernian, St Mirren and Motherwell/Rangers, or indeed one of the already-vital fixtures against Alloa, just round the corner.
However, it’s less than a month until pre-season training starts and currently three players are committed to the club for the coming campaign. Important players – the captain, a key midfielder and a goalkeeper – but it can safely be said that they can’t win games on their own. Somebody has to be brought in to add to those numbers, whether they are members of last season’s squad, or new ones. And soon.
The usual runners and riders are being linked with the job, with Queen’s Park boss Gus MacPherson the bookies’ current favourite. He is followed in the ratings by Stranraer gaffer Stephen Aitken – an appointment which would surely be welcomed by many at the Rock. With a shoestring budget and limited ways of increasing it, he took the Blues to the brink of promotion from League One, losing only in the play-offs to Forfar. Indeed, there was more than one occasion when Stranraer looked like being champions. Having been at Stair Park longer than Murray was at the Rock, Aitken may yet fancy the challenge of the division he narrowly missed out on. His team also played three Championship sides during their run to the Petrofac Training Cup semi-finals last season and didn’t lose to any of them over 90 minutes. The signs are there that he’s capable.
The Monklands managerial duo of Airdrie’s Gary Bollan and Albion Rovers’ Derek Young are also being linked with the job, along with the currently out-of-work Allan Moore, who managed Morton to second place in the 2012/13 First Division. There’s also an option abroad – Billy Reid is assistant manager at Ostersunds in Sweden and, with his knowledge of this level of Scottish football, may be borne in mind by the Sons board.
After Murray’s success as a first-time manager with Dumbarton, the vacancy may appeal to other seasoned professionals looking for a break in management. Internet message boards have been rife with speculation and Mark Wilson’s name has been mentioned.
The problem is…
For Aitken, Reid, or anybody currently employed by a club, to become Sons manager, one of two things would have to happen. One is that the new man would have to resign from his current post in order to make the move. The other is that financial compensation would need to be paid to his current employers.
Taking managers from other clubs is not something Dumbarton have made a habit of doing in more recent times. Indeed, if you’re looking for a gaffer who left a senior club to join Sons, you have to go back to Murdo MacLeod’s appointment in 1993. Even then, Murdo wasn’t manager at Hibernian and the offer of that challenge in addition to his playing role may have been what lured him back to Boghead for a second spell. Brian Fairley was recruited from Bo’ness United Juniors in 2003, while other managers since MacLeod have involved straightforward processes.
Jim Fallon, Jimmy Brown, Tom Carson and Alan Adamson (the last two of them promotion-winning bosses at Sons) were all promoted from the position of assistant manager after a spell in caretaker charge. The rest of the club’s gaffers in that spell – Ian Wallace, David Winnie, Paul Martin, Gerry McCabe, Jim Chapman and Ian Murray – were all kicking their heels football-wise before they came to Dumbarton.
An outsider?
There’s an experienced manager in Helensburgh who may or may not be interested…
Nobody is claiming it’s likely that Walter Smith will manage the club he played for in the mid-1970s. But what do Dumbarton have to lose by at least asking him if he’s interested? What’s the worst that could happen? At a guess, something like: “Thanks for the offer Mr Jardine, it’s very flattering and I wish you every success, but it’s not for me.”
There must be times when Smith wishes he was back in management – he’s still a few years younger than Sir Alex Ferguson was when he called it a day at Manchester United. And with a part-time club, he’d still have time to do all the things he wanted to do when he hung up his managerial jacket at Rangers in 2011.
It would be little short of miraculous if the former Ibrox gaffer was in charge at the Rock next season. But would an enquiry be any more off-the-wall than Johan Cruyff was to Sons more than 30 years ago?
What sort of challenge awaits Murray?
Similar, but not identical, to the one at Partick Thistle which Murdo MacLeod left Boghead for in 1995. The Jags were in the Premier Division at the time and whoever took over at Firhill had huge footsteps to follow in, taking over from John Lambie, who had become an institution with Thistle. MacLeod was unable to prevent the relegation that his new team was widely tipped for, after losing a winning goal to Dundee United’s Owen Coyle seconds from the end of the play-off second leg. He stayed in charge at Firhill, but left in 1997 and has not been a manager in his own right since – his next job was as assistant to Wim Jansen when Celtic won the 1997/98 league title.
By contrast, St Mirren are newly-relegated and already know they will face competition from Hibernian for promotion next season. Either Rangers or Motherwell will also be there, and the likes of Queen of the South and Falkirk will be ready for more of a challenge. The Buddies will have to re-build and may lose key players who need to be playing at a higher level. But the promotion play-offs will be the minimum target – one that Murray will feel he’s capable of meeting.
Like MacLeod, he’s swapped Dumbarton for a full-time side with greater resources and a bigger fanbase. It’s an arena he got used to over a 12-year playing career, most of which was spent in Scotland. There’s only one way to find out if he can make the transition as a manager. When he took over at Dumbarton things were at such a low ebb that he had nothing to lose. Now he’s got to hit the ground running.
What’s happened to managers after they leave Dumbarton?
Since MacLeod, only Brian Fairley, Paul Martin and Jim Chapman have managed again at senior level since their departures from the Rock. Fairley resigned to take over at Forfar Athletic in 2004 – a venture which lasted less than a year. He has never returned to the senior ranks since.
Martin’s stay as Sons boss may have ended in disarray, with the club relegated, but his spell as Albion Rovers gaffer was far more successful. Not only did the Coatbridge side win promotion under him in 2011, they stayed up the following year, beating Stranraer on penalties in what proved to be Martin’s last game before leaving. He too has been out of football since.
Chapman stayed at Dumbarton as head of youth development until January 2013, more than two years after he relinquished the manager’s role. He joined Annan Athletic, where he is still in charge now.
Remarkably, despite winning promotion with Sons, Tom Carson and Alan Adamson have never managed at senior level again since leaving. The same can be said of Ian Wallace, Jimmy Brown, David Winnie and Gerry McCabe (although he is now assistant at Dundee).
Apart from the manager, what else changes at Dumbarton?
Very little. Murray’s remit next season would have been eighth place, by however wide a margin necessary, and whoever inherits his post will have exactly the same request made of him.
In The Dumbarton Terrace’s final interview with Murray as Sons boss, the impression was that while he hoped more players would sign, not all were expected to stay. What impact the change of manager will have remains to be seen. The new gaffer will, of course, bring his own ideas to the club, and look to create new fans’ favourites, possibly at the expense of current ones. As above, that’s the way football is these days.
Ian Murray’s empire at Dumbarton is over – but the sun will still rise tomorrow and come the start of season 2015/16, Sons will be ready to go again. The fanbase will still be the same, the board will remain in place and the core of the playing staff may have been retained. That last one, though, depends on the appointment of the new manager, a task Dumbarton must complete a long time before the big kick-off. Over to them.
And for Ian Murray and for Dumbarton, bring on the next chapter.
The Dumbarton Terrace 