The cat may have got his tongue on Saturday afternoon when Scott Brown declined to go into any kind of detail about his decision to snub St Johnstone. But, deep down, this is a man who knows it’s good to talk.
That’s why he asked for permission to sit down with the Perth club’s American owners in the first place in order to have a natter about their aims and ambitions now that Craig Levein has been emptied out of McDiarmid Park. And it’s why he picked up the phone to Brendan Rodgers for advice after holding those discussions with owner Adam Webb on Thursday and being left with his head in a spin.
Now, before we go any further, there’s something you need to know about Brown. He’s a great deal smarter than he likes you to believe. And maybe that’s where Webb went wrong when he held his one-to-one with the Ayr United manager as part of the hunt to find Craig Levein’s successor.
Something certainly backfired quite spectacularly behind closed doors as there was a point in the day when Brown appeared ready to head to Perth to take on the role of keeping Webb’s club in the top flight. It could be that the 39-year-old was surprised to learn he wasn’t the only rider in what he may have believed to be a one-horse race.
On the contrary, Webb wanted to hold similar discussions with at least two alternative candidates but if Brown was misled into assuming the job was his for the taking then it’s no wonder he wanted a word with his trusted mentor. Brown, of course, is giving nothing away but there’s another potential stumbling block in here too where these talks are concerned and it could have played into Tieran Lynch’s decision to head for the hills late yesterday afternoon, when it seemed the deal to take him from Larne had been done and dusted.
It could be that Webb expressed very firm, non-negotiable ideas on what he expects his team to look like no matter who might be standing in the dugout. In other words, the man from the States might be another one of these headstrong owners from across the pond who believes that he knows best and who, furthermore, demands that it’s his way or the highway.
If indeed that’s how the conversation played out then Rodgers would have had steam coming out of ears on the other end of the phone. It is his firmly held belief that any manager is at his most powerful in the immediate hours and minutes before putting pen to paper with his potential next employer. That’s the moment when demands can be made and promises set in stone.
So if Rodgers suspected Brown was being undermined or dictated to before he had even agreed to take on the role, then the vastly experienced Celtic manager would have, without a shadow of a doubt, advised his former skipper to run a mile without stopping to think twice.
His decision to stay put at Somerset Park, and sign an extended contract, has come as a major boost to the Championship pacesetters who believed they were about to lose their boss when that phone first rang on Thursday morning.
Webb, meanwhile, may have to take a slightly different, more diplomatic approach and that’s all part of the learning curve where the American’s attempts at making St Johnstone slightly better again are concerned. But he does at least deserve some credit for identifying his top targets so quickly in the first place and then doing something about it.
Because while Webb was busy making his moves, Hearts appear to have been sitting around waiting for Tony Bloom’s algorithm to spit out the names of the men best qualified to take over from Steven Naismith. And that does beg quite a question. What would happen if Brown was to be one of them?
What kind of mental gymnastics would be required in the Tynecastle boardroom if Bloom’s Starlizard analytics determine that the former Hibs man is, in fact, the ideal candidate?
Granted, that might be a stretch of the imagination but given that the Edinburgh outfit seem so hell bent on ignoring the blindingly obvious and logical answer, who can say with any certainty what they might come up with next? For the avoidance of doubt, Derek McInnes remains the clear and obvious choice given the outstanding body of work he has put together over almost two decades in management.
There was an absurd argument made over the weekend that McInnes might not be in contention because he’s still waiting for his first win of the current campaign. Yes, a campaign in which he has taken Kilmarnock into Europe.
If that’s the type of lame-brained logic Ann Budge is applying to overseeing the search for a new manager then Hearts might be in bigger bother than their position at the bottom of the top flight table suggests. But, regardless, now that more than a week has passed without any contact between Gorgie Road and Kilmarnock it has to be assumed that the McInnes’ data has been crunched already and that the computer has said no.
Remember, in these circumstances, it really is good to talk but the distinct lack of any conversation regarding a raid on Rugby Park suggests the hierarchy at Hearts are willing to be dictated to by analysts at the expense of good old fashioned common sense. And that’s the problem with technology. It’s all well and fine when it works but sometimes it succeeds in making life a great deal more complicated than it actually needs to be.
So it’s worth asking again, what exactly do Hearts do next in the event that Brighton’s machinery comes to the same conclusion as Webb and identifies Brown as one of the most promising young managerial prospects in the country?
Do they go along with the program and invite him around for a chat? Or do they come up with a reason for ignoring the boffins when the science they come up with doesn’t quite suit them?