On Wednesday, I discovered in The Herald that McLeish had indeed gone. "We're in big trouble as Jim Jeffries is one of the favourites," my dad informed me. This is indeed bad. He'd be a terrible Scotland boss. Then I realised what he meant, which "we" he was talking about. He meant St. Mirren. If and when Jeffries leaves Kilmarnock in the next few years, Gus MacPherson will be one of the favourites for the job due to spending more than ten years at Rugby Park.
Saints fans have been concerned over the last few years every time the Dundee United job came up (which has been a lot), worried that they'll move for Jeffries and MacPherson will fill his role. Now those fears could be realised.
No one is quite sure how long a contract MacPherson is on. It lasts until at least the end of this season, but how much longer? There was talk in the summer months he had agreed an 18 month rolling contract and just had to sign it, but nothing was ever officially confirmed.
Kilmarnock are cash strapped, but were Jeffries to leave for the Scotland job they'd have some compensation. MacPherson would surely be top of their list. Despite what some of us have thought in recent months, he did exceptionally well in the first division and kept us in the SPL last season on a shoestring budget. There's no other more suitable, realistic, candidate in Scotland unless they were to go for someone with no experience. Billy Davies may be out of a job, but there's not much chance of him going to Killie.
A few months ago we probably wouldn't have been too worried if someone wanted Gus, but things have improved recently. Were he to leave in the near future, we'd suddenly find ourselves looking for a new boss - and at the worst possible time. Chances are the replacement would have very little time - if any - to bring in players in January. And who would we get? Andy Millen would probably move with Gus to Killie - although he harbours dreams of being a manager himself one day - so we probably couldn't even go down the recent trend of giving it to the assistant manager. That would mean getting someone out of work (no one springs to mind), someone from the lower leagues (ditto) or someone untested, which isn't ideal at SPL level.
Of course, this is all hypothetical. The chances of Jeffries getting the job are probably pretty slim, so there's little to worry about. But then, Craig Levein could get it - meaning Dundee United would need a new manager. And you know what that means...