St Mirren owners will have to spend

Nov 27 2009 by Andrew Newport, Paisley Daily Express

BUDDIES boss Gus MacPherson last night warned that anyone who is serious about taking ownership of the Paisley club had better be ready to open their cheque book if they want St Mirren to reach new heights.

Current chairman Stewart Gilmour leads a consortium of major shareholders who hope to sell the club after leading Saints out of debt and into the SPL.

The Buddies have made a positive start to the 2009/10 campaign under MacPherson and sit just two points off a top six place in the SPL table.

But, having experienced a couple of flirtations with relegation in recent seasons, MacPherson insists that anyone who is thinking about making a bid for the club would have to loosen the purse strings if lofty ambitions such as European football are to be realised.

He told Express Sports: “They will need to make a serious investment if we are ever to challenge for things like Europe.

“This club is a very attractive proposition with everything that we’ve got in place now – such as the stadium and the training facilities – but, as for how the person who buys the club moves us forward, that would be their call.

“How often do clubs come up with all these things already in place? Normally it is the clubs who have got everything going wrong that come up for sale.

“That’s not the case here but it will take serious investment. How much? It’s impossible to put a figure on it but more money would need to come into the club to make a significant improvement.”

Scottish football doesn’t have its troubles to seek at the moment as our club sides have won just SIX of their last 37 outings in Europe, while the national team failed to qualify for the World Cup and was humiliated by Wales earlier this month in a friendly in Cardiff.

But Saints are riding high as they prepare for tomorrow’s clash with Celtic at Parkhead, with a Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final to look forward to as well.

St Mirren are also free from the type of financial worries that are dragging down once-mighty institutions like Old Firm giants Rangers.

And MacPherson reckons that, if other clubs had followed St Mirren’s path, then Scottish football would not be in such a depressing state. He said: “The club won’t push the boat out again now that the debt has been cleared. That is what got the club into the state it was in.

“At every one of the five club AGMs that I have been involved in, people have asked ‘Can we not just push it a wee bit more?’ but the answer is always ‘No.’

“It is really, really frustrating but we just have to work within our means. If more clubs did that then we wouldn’t be talking about how much debt there is.

“The problem this country has had is that too many people were chasing things that, long-term, were never really there.”