The mere suggestion of relegation is waved away immediately by Douglas Rae.
It took the Morton chairman until three months into the league campaign to make a similar gesture towards Allan Moore, the manager being dismissed last Saturday with the club at the bottom of the SPFL Championship. Given Morton had just lost 5-1 at home to Livingston that decision was based on existing results, but also future fixtures since the league's clubs will be asked to make room for larger opposition next season.
At least one of the existing Championship lot will be made to make way for Rangers, while another might have to step down if such as Dunfermline Athletic gain promotion from League 1 through the play-offs. The value of matches against those clubs is basic arithmetic but enough to give any chairman a sore head given the cost of relegation from Scottish football's second tier is more severe this term than it ever has been. Add in the possibility of missing out on the prospect of a couple of lucrative home matches with Hearts and the men in charge will start to feel dizzy.
The colour was beginning to drain from Morton's season and Rae sought to steady himself by removing his manager. The chairman is fond of Moore but his sacking was considered a necessary sacrifice, while Colin Cameron has also since offered himself up after troubled form proved hard to appease at Cowdenbeath. His record this season lacked encouragement - the Fife side had won just three league matches, the most recent a month ago - but any calls for his resignation were almost inaudible. It was the whispers that continued decline might cost his club dearly which echoed in Cameron's decision to step aside and "allow the club to look for a manager to secure a position in the Championship."
The prospect of relegation does not normally seem relevant until the season has ticked over into the new year but it has crept up on clubs quickly this time. The landscape of the division has become unforgiving then, and it is possible that other managers might yet lose their footing. The departures of Cameron and Moore mean that Paul Hartley - who is being measured up for the vacancy at Inverness Caledonian Thistle - Grant Murray and Ian Murray are now the three longest-serving managers in the league. Hartley has only been in charge at Alloa Athletic for 30 months and all three are still in their 30s.
This is at first a casual aside but the constitution of a club's manager is now becoming a prominent order of business for chairmen. It had become common for young, ambitious managers to be appointed but it is no longer certain that a coach will be given time to learn to walk if his side starts to stumble. "After Allan had spent his budget I brought in another three players," said Rae, who financed contracts for Nacho Novo, former Tottenham Hotspur academy player Jake Nicholson and defender Craig Reid as his club toiled. "I did everything for Allan, other than play."
Now 82, that would perhaps have been asking a bit much but Rae is still fit enough that he can run breathlessly through the matches which could punctuate the Championship fixture card next season, as though reading off a checklist. "Two home games against Rangers, two home games against Hearts, two home games possibly against St Mirren or Kilmarnock . . . there is no doubt about what those will mean financially for Morton," said Rae. "I certainly don't want to miss out on that. I don't. I do not want to miss out on that at all.
"Since I came in 12 years ago, it's been nothing but [financial] losses, losses, losses, losses. My other company [Buchanans of Scotland] has borne the brunt of that. It would be nice to be able to break even or make a slight profit just. That would be a great step forward."
He will first dip his toe into the pool of managers who have expressed an interest in taking charge, while reserve team coach David Hopkin has been asked to take over on an interim basis. "David is a very good fella, he's done it all and the players know that," Rae added.
"At the moment I'm keeping a very open mind about it and I have a lot of applications. I've read them over the last three days now to see what sticks in my mind. I try not to pick any of them as the favourite; I want to look coldly and effectively at each candidate. Anyone can write a good cv, it's about how you feel when you question them."
And how quickly they can wave away the suggestion of relegation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article