In my opinion, sacking, as putting him on leave of his duties effectively is a sacking, Tom Hendrie after Inverness Caley had just hammered 4 past us was the incorrect decision. However, whilst most people who feel he shouldn’t have been sacked then because the season was still young, I’m different. I reckon he should have gone roundabout Christmas 2001, especially after Falkirk had just hammered 5 past us in a 5-1 defeat. Falkirk went on to get “relegated”, whilst Saints finished 7 or 8 points off of 3rd place. Not enough for a sacking, you might think. However, that gap to third place meant we finished ninth, and still weren’t safe from relegation with three games remaining! Surely enough for anyone to be sacked, or resign, especially as Saints were favourites for the league title before the season began. Using this same criteria, Stranraer only finished 10 points off of third place in division 2 last season, yet their manager resigned. Why? Because Stranraer were relegated! The gap to third place means absolutely nothing, it’s the gaps to the promotion and relegation places in the SFL which count and, unfortunately for Saints, we were far closer to the relegation positions.
Not sacking Hendrie meant he had a chance to turn things around over the summer. He decided to change the system to a back four, which is a fair enough thing to do after two horrendous seasons with a back three. However, he played players totally out of position, or ones who just weren’t good enough such as Chris Kerr, Paul Rudden and Sergei Baltacha. He signed SPL duds, such as Andy Dow, and injury prone players, such as Greig Denham. He refused to give younger players a chance, instead going for more “experienced” trialists. Gerhard Fellner worked, the rest didn’t, especially the idiot that was Klaus Dietrich. Indeed, it was the decision to go with Dietrich rather than a younger player, such as Ricky Robb or even David Lowing, which cost Hendrie his job. Dietrich played the first half against Caley, Saints were three down after 25 minutes and Dietrich was removed at half time, never to be seen again. Whether playing a younger player would have made a difference I don’t know, however the fans would have been more accepting of a 4-0 defeat if it was a youngster playing rather than another dud foreigner. I know I would have!
So, was sacking Hendrie after Caley Thistle had destroyed us 4-0 the correct thing to do? Well, in my view it was time for him to go, and I’m just annoyed it took the board so long to do it. The fact that Hendrie has yet to find himself another footballing job, despite being available for a year and having a half decent track record, is proof the board were right, though the fact he’s still available may be to do with bon footballing reasons. What do I think if the decision to replace Hendrie with his assistant? That’s something better left to a future Stu’s View :-)