Stephen Robinson lifts lid on St Mirren behind the scenes drive for success

Stephen Robinson has vowed St Mirren will never rest on their laurels in the pursuit of progress. The Buddies boss has opened up on the behind-the-scenes discussions aimed at bringing more success to the club.

Saints head into this Saturday’s Premiership clash with in-form Aberdeen, following the international break, sitting in sixth place having picked up seven points from the last nine available.

The Paisley outfit have racked up successive top-half finishes and had a taste of European football for the first time since 1987. It’s all been trending in a positive direction for Saints – but Robbo, who is committed to the club to 2027, wants more.

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And he insists those in positions of influence – such as vice-chairman Jim Gillespie and chief operating officer Keith Lasley – are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to driving the club forward.

“I am very ambitious,” he explained. “I’ve been lucky enough to have a club in Motherwell who backed me 100 per cent and had good people.

“I’ve got exactly the same here which is fantastic. I had reassurances the club is trying to push forward – within our limits. We’re a club with limited resources, I make no bones about that so can we make everything 10 per cent better?

“You need people above you to drive that. In Jim and Keith, I have people who are pushing in exactly the same direction. That makes it a lot easier to commit your future to the football club.

“Make no mistake, they push me, and we bicker and argue all the time – myself, Jim, Keith, Martin [Foyle, head of recruitment]. [It’s] because we want the best for the football club and we want to move it forward.

“They come down, they watch training, they look at things so they know how much work we put into it. We know how hard the staff work on the resources we have to try and compete and bridge the gap with clubs with much bigger resources.

“It’s not an argument – it’s opinions. It’s big voices, big opinions. There’s no dictatorship here at the SMiSA. There’s no one person’s opinion goes all the way.

“It’s good views. Jim always challenges me in terms of our approach; ‘Can we sign somebody else? Can we move somebody else out? Can we make it slightly better?’

“It’s a positive trait I’ve learned from a very good businessman I know — never be content and always try and get another percentage
out of people.”

Robbo’s new deal followed on from top-flight managerial colleagues Steven Naismith getting the sack at Hearts with Craig Levein shown the door by St Johnstone.

Meanwhile, David Gray is under huge pressure to turn things round at rock-bottom Hibs following his permanent appointment in the summer.

He added: “It’s a very reactionary industry. You have three or four weeks of bad results and all of a sudden you become a bad team with a bad manager.

“Luckily, people I work very closely with are Jim who is the driver of everything going forward and Keith who I’ve a very good working relationship with.

“It shows their knowledge and their faith in longevity and stability which, over time in football, it’s proved you can get relative success. We’ve qualified for Europe for the first time in a long time and [finished in the] top six.

“It shows the club have faith in our work and going forward. The biggest thing is you have to trust the people you’re working with. You have to believe they are going in the same direction you want to take it.”

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