JACK ROSS left for his summer holiday happy and content to be manager of St Mirren and arrived home a fortnight later with the exact same feeling.

And yet in between the much-needed family break at the end of what must have been an exhausting season, Dundee asked him to come to the Premiership and be their manager.

So keen were they to land one of Scotland’s most talented young managers that John Nelms, the managing director at Dens Park, flew out to Spain to get the deal done.

Ross’s head was turned. After all, he would be going up a league to a bigger club with more money. However, it didn’t take long for him to realise St Mirren was the perfect club for him at this stage of his career.

“That [Dundee’s interest] was something I hadn’t envisaged happening because I was quite settled where I was,” he admitted, speaking for the first time about his decision.

“Maybe I should take it as a compliment but I haven’t thought too much about it. Probably the best way to sum it up was that I left the country 100 per cent content to be with St Mirren and I returned home feeling the same way.”

“Was there a dilemma? That’s human nature. Because of the emotions involved in football, particularly where fans are concerned, it’s too easy to think that everything is black and white but we’re human beings and there are all these external things to be taken into consideration.

“But deep down the biggest thing for me is that I really enjoy working for St Mirren. I know the club is capable of that because I played for them.

“Dundee was a big thing to consider and I knew that, potentially, I was taking a gamble because things can change really quickly in football – we could have a really bad start to next season and my stock would fall again.

“But you also need to have faith in yourself and what you do and that that opportunity will come again and I hope that doesn’t come across as me being arrogant, but that’s how I reached my decision in the end.”

From a team which looked  doomed for much of last season, St Mirren have become one of the favourites to make the promotion play-offs this season.

So well did St Mirren play over the last three months of the campaign that after a cup tie at Celtic Park, Brendan Rodgers described the men from Paisley as the best Scottish team his side 
had faced.

“I would never have imagined it would have caused as much fuss as it did,” admitted Ross.

“Brendan is someone that’s been really good to me personally since he’s been in Scotland, somebody I admire a lot not just for his achievements last season, but in terms of how he plays the game and the standards he sets in training.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to watch them train and spend a bit of time with him.  

“Just watching them train, the intensity they do things and the respect they have for him.

“It was a boost for our players at that time last year.”