Two heavies get stuck in

IN PITCHING John Robertson against Ian McCall, I've heard Livingston's First Division opener at home to Queen of the South on Saturday described as a battle of two heavyweight managers.

The boxing term fits for more than the fact that John and Ian have real pedigree, and were considered two of Scotland's most sought after coaches when taking up posts with Hearts and Dundee United, respectively. They might also be considered heavyweights because I think they spent a fair chunk of their pay-offs from these clubs on luncheon vouchers.

It is easy to pile on the pounds when you aren't working on the training field every day. I can vouch for that from bitter experience, even though I was somewhat more svelte in my playing days than Ian and John. And the pair could not be begrudged any comfort eating after what befell them at Tynecastle and Tannadice.

In football, fortunes can change very quickly and very dramatically. The brightest new manager tag is thrown at many, only for the game then to throw these same people a bad hand. I know, because I remember being tagged an exciting young manager once...before an unproductive spell at Hibernian altered perceptions.

Expectations can rise unrealistically when a coach does well in his early years and the label starts to be clamped to them. It is assumed that they will then grab the game by the throat in whatever post their efforts earn them. Never mind that managers can fall foul of their employers or their clubs can fail as the result of circumstances entirely out of their control.

John's reputation was damaged by eight months in charge at Hearts. Likewise, in the case of Ian's two years at the helm of United. Yet, I think both have reasonable justification for saying the game was not too kind to them in their stints with these clubs. I don't think they got an awful lot wrong in their breakthrough jobs.

John, in fact, did a more than decent job at Hearts, in testing circumstances. He simply fell foul of the new owner syndrome. Vladimir Romanov, as he was entitled to do, decided that he wanted a more experienced head coach. The club offered John the opportunity to work under a new appointment and after reaching an agreement John left.

It was an unusual parting of the ways but people who buy over clubs have a habit of wanting their own men in charge. Even if John had enjoyed an outstanding season in charge of his old club, there is no guarantee he would have been retained as head coach. He simply didn't have enough time to put the sort of stamp on Hearts as a manager that he had in becoming the club's top goalscorer.

Ian's situation on Tayside wasn't dissimilar. I know it is said that the chairman Eddie Thompson invested heavily in the team but Ian's top half of the table finish in his only full season now looks a pretty reasonable effort when placed in the context of the club's struggle before and since Ian's time in charge. He maybe endured a long blip towards the end of his time there, but the difficulties experienced more recently at Tannadice by Craig Brewster - another of those bright young Scottish managers - proves the United job is desperately tricky.

Both John and Ian appeared to rub some people up the wrong way in their Premierleague posts but I have a great deal of time for them both. Other managers seemed to be upset by their tendency to talk up their teams' performances and be unshakeable in their self-belief that what they were doing was right, but I can understand that. There are enough folk in the world of Scottish football who will look to put you down without giving them ammunition. I was at Dundee when Ian was with United and I never had a problem with them.

The parallels between both men's career paths run deep. John came in at Livingston last season when they looked dead and buried in the Premierleague. Without changing the personnel, he did a remarkable job in almost engineering what would have been one of the great escapes.

Ian's efforts at Palmerston Park, meanwhile, were nothing short of phenomenal. When he took over at Queens in January they were nine points adrift of Stranraer in second last place in the First Division. To then mobilise his part-time squad so effectively that after an indifferent start they finished comfortably outside of the bottom two places shows that Ian, as he did with Clydebank and Airdrie, can be impressive in managing extremely limited resources. In a set-up wherein Queens will be the only part-time team this season, he might be required to work minor miracles simply to steer his side clear of relegation.

John, on the other hand, will have to aim for the top as his owner Pearse Flynn will be looking for nothing less than to come straight back up. That doesn't tend to happen, and will be even more of a challenge with Gretna in the mix. They are rightly favourites for the title because their financial muscle gives them a huge advantage over any rivals. John and Ian are only in their early 40s and have the ability and drive to once more manoeuvre themselves into positions where they are again considered for attractive vacancies that come up in the top flight. But an enforced break from the game being endured by other, one-time, bright young managers such as Craig Levein and Bobby Williamson, never mind my own outsider status, indicates what a fickle mistress football can be.

Just as I have been fortunate to do, John and Ian have been able to keep up their profiles through media work. They are comfortable and articulate on air. Indeed, as if shadowing one another these days, both were members of BBC Television's team for Hearts' Champions League qualifier the other night. For the viewers at home, I was pleased that Ian was a co-commentator and John in the studio. Not every household has a widescreen TV, but if you placed the pair together on a couch, it would have been impossible to fit them in the same shot without one.

Taken from the Scotsman