Last night, St Johnstone’s Steven McLean actually trolled the manager at Ibrox.
Man oh man, that can’t be good, right? When the guy who’s reaction to being toasted by Kieran Tierney was to throw a punch at him (which wasn’t a red card!) is calling you out for playing silly “mind games” you are clearly in trouble.
Caixinha invites this kind of scorn. I mocked his comments about St Johnstone myself the other day, but to actually read McLean’s words on it was more fun than I expected.
Pedro had said that St Johnstone and Morton were similar clubs with a similar style.
He said their performance was positive.
It was a 3-3 draw for God’s sakes, and McLean didn’t miss when he offered his own withering assessment.
“There are similarities with Morton,” he admitted. “We both play in blue and white. I don’t know where he is coming from. Maybe he is trying to wind us up … He’s doing a good job of it. We are all petrified! I think he should worry about stopping leaks coming out his dressing room. We will take care of his own business and he can keep doing what he wants.”
He finished off with an admission that he and his fellow players get vicious at times, but, as he pointed out, they also get results. “We enjoy folk having a dig at us because we know we have more sides to our game. We can fight when it gets dirty and we can play football as well. We have not finished in the top four for the past three seasons by just lumping it long.”
And that much I give them credit for. St Johnstone gave us one of our toughest games of this season; they were excellent against us at Celtic Park. They have played brilliantly at times over the last few years and have wholeheartedly deserved the praise that has occasionally been heaped on them.
Their manager, in fact, is one of those guys who is constantly mentioned as a future Sevco boss although his team is better than theirs, and it would be a step down.
Sevco play them on Friday, and although Pedro has been bumping his gums about how well prepared his side are, and people like Chris Jack have been wetting their pants with excitement since Hamilton (another “one win on the bounce” which has somehow led to headlines which proclaim a turning point and a glorious step forward), you can tell, just from reading McLean’s comments, that the Sevco boss isn’t scaring anybody.
The Perth club almost sound like they’re looking forward to it.