THERE can be few positions as precarious as caretaker manager.
Expected to fulfil all the duties of a permanent appointment but with none of the job security, anyone thrown into such a role can only plough on day to day until someone further up the chain taps them on the shoulder to say their time is up, or that they are being kept on.
Gary Teale, though, is trying to put the fragility of his position to one side. Asked to step into Tommy Craig's shoes following the St Mirren manager's departure last week, the former Scotland winger is trying to adopt a long-term view, even if he knows time could be called on his tenure at a minute's notice.
For now Teale is preparing his players for a vitally important league match against fellow strugglers Motherwell tomorrow, and unless told otherwise, will then look towards the next two festive fixtures against Dundee and Kilmarnock. That latter match takes place on January 1, the day the transfer window creaks open once more, and Teale has already started to put plans in place to reshuffle the squad, even if he may no longer be the manager by that point.
"I've been making enquiries about [dealings in the transfer window]," he said. "At the moment I'm doing the job as if I am the manager so you have to have these things in place. You can't just turn up on January 1 and start scratching around and wondering, "where do we go from here, which players do we want to keep, who do you want to move on and who would you like to bring in". The state we're in financially we've not got a big budget to play with so it's going to come down to utilising the contacts I've got down south at a few clubs, maybe bring one or two in.
"I've made the phonecalls. At this moment in time I don't know how much we can follow it up but there's certainly something in place if I can. I look upon it as me being the manager, whether that's for a month, two months or six months."
Picking up points would be the best way for Teale to ensure he is still in charge come the New Year. St Mirren have yet to win a league game at home all season, and have slumped to the foot of the SPFL Premiership table. Teale, though, believes taking maximum points from the next three matches shouldn't be beyond his charges.
"It's a difficult job to take on but it's one I felt we could get improvement from," he added. "There are probably a few people who would like to be in my place and results will dictate how we move forward. If we can maybe get a few positive results between Saturday and January 1 - say six, seven or even nine points out of nine - it stakes a good claim for yourself to be going forward long term. I'll just take it game by game at the moment given the position we're in.
"We can't look forward too far ahead anyway. Results need to pick up and that will determine whether I am here next week or a month down the line. Results will dictate where the club goes and it is up to me to make sure they are positive, and that the side is improving on a daily and weekly basis."
Already this early in the season, tomorrow's match is loaded with significance. Motherwell are one of the two sides closest to St Mirren in the table - Ross County are the other - and Teale knows it would be foolish to look beyond that trio at this point, given the eight-point jump to Partick Thistle in ninth place.
"I'm sitting here being realistic and looking at a league of three. Our season has to be about Ross County and Motherwell. If we manage to get above them then we can start looking forward. But for the foreseeable future, we need to concentrate on trying to be top of that league of three."
Injuries have curtailed Teale's involvement in a playing sense this season and he does not plan to pull on the boots again while he is in charge of the team.
"Not at this moment in time. There is far too much on the other side in terms of organisation and preparation. It's also a case of 'do as I say not do as I do'. If I'm out there making mistakes, then it can be difficult. The boys could say "Wait a minute, you're out there making mistakes and you're trying to have a go at us over what to do." I'm just going to take a step back and try and dictate from the side."
ends
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