STUART McCALL must be wondering just what to do for an encore.
Within six months of taking charge at Motherwell, in December 2010, he had taken the club to their first Scottish Cup final in 20 years. The next season they finished third behind Celtic and Rangers, good enough to earn a place in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. This season, despite further loss of playing personnel, Motherwell have surpassed that achievement by finishing second. Barring winning the Europa League next year, it is hard to see how McCall betters all that. "That's why we purposefully went out the cups in the early rounds this season," he said jokingly. "It gives us something to aim for."
Motherwell have got a taste for the good life. When they made the top six before the split this year, it barely caused a ripple. It is now expected of them. The problem McCall, who was last night crowned the Clydesdale Bank's manager of the year, now faces is how to marry those expectations with dwindling resources. He is already resigned to losing goalkeeper Darren Randolph and influential midfielder Nicky Law when their contracts expire, while others like top scorer Michael Higdon, Chris Humphrey, Tom Hateley, James McFadden and Simon Ramsden could all move on, too. He has moved to replace them by opening talks with Craig Samson at St Mirren and Ross County's Paul Lawson but he will need plenty more if others follow Randolph and Law's lead.
McCall would be frustrated if such a scenario came to pass but not unduly perturbed. For if his success at Motherwell could be reduced to one key element, it would be a knack for spotting talented players languishing at lesser stations and polishing them into Premier League stars. If Higdon et al elect to leave en masse –and the club has not given up on at least a few of them staying on – then McCall will simply go out and start the search for their replacements.
"A manager's biggest job is recruitment," he said. "That's the key. Once you get them in, then tactics and man-management will come into it a little bit. But it's down to what they do on the park. Four of the lads were voted on to the Team of the Year by their fellow pros and that tells you a lot. The others have been consistent. I'm sure there will be a lot of players that move on from here, good players that the fans would like to keep. It's now a case of starting to rebuild."
McCall has made management look both easy and enjoyable. His teams are usually easy on the eye, with the focus on attacking, while he seems to enjoy just being at the club on a daily basis as he strolls around inside the stadium, cup of coffee in hand, cracking jokes with the staff. Little wonder he is no rush to leave. "When I came here, I said I wasn't a big philosopher. You find as many ways as you can to win a game but I would rather win 5-4 than 1-0.
"We have always carried a threat and that's what has got us over the line. Gordon Strachan talks about having 'eliminators' and we have had that in abundance, starting with Jamie Murphy, Chris Humphrey with his pace, Henrik Ojamaa, Nicky Law and now James McFadden. They can all go past players and create things. I have enjoyed this season from the first minute of the European game against Panathinaikos to beating Ross County on Sunday. Overall, it couldn't have gone any better.
"Six or seven jobs came up over the season – Burnley, Blackburn and others – and I was asked if I wanted to go for an interview but I said I was happy where I was. Now I'm not saying that will last for 10 years but job satisfaction is important. I say the same to the players. If you're happy coming in to your work then that it has to be something that really appeals to you to make you want to leave."
That was not always the case for McCall. Such was the severity of the budget cuts during his third season in charge of Bradford City that all enjoyment for the job left him. It reached a point when he would heave a sigh of relief whenever a game was called off. "I knew they were slashing the budget and we didn't have a chance but I couldn't walk out on them. I was getting letters and emails and old women were stopping me in the street saying, 'never mind, Stuart, next year'. And I was thinking, 'no chance' because I knew what we were up against.
"That's when we were signing players from the Co-op for £250 a week. Those were hard times. I knew it had come to a point at Bradford when I wasn't looking forward to Saturday. I remember a game being called off and thinking, 'phew, I can enjoy tonight.' I can eat my Chinese without feeling sick. The chairman actually came to me and said I was putting myself through too much. The strain was getting to me. I never fell out of love with football, but those were tough times. Who knows? If we had reached the play-offs and kept the budget, I might still have been there."
Motherwell will be glad that that alternative future never unfolded. McCall's next challenge, however, is to keep up with rising expectations. "I laughed at an incident a few weeks ago when we were winning 3-0 at Dundee United and a boy shouts down, 'f****** hell, McCall – make some changes!' So the lads have created that [sense of expectation] in a way as they've been great. We've got a tight-knit group and they should enjoy these moments."
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