STEPHEN ROBINSON has praised St Mirren vice-chairman Jim Gillespie after his Rangers U-turn.
The Paisley charity boss’ proposed Ibrox switch to replace James Bisgrove as CEO collapsed after weeks of talks — and the Buddies gaffer couldn’t be happier.
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Robinson said: “It’s massive news for us and I’m absolutely delighted.
“At every club there’s somebody who drives things, who has vision, ideas, who challenges everything within the four walls.
“Here, Jim’s that person. So with the link elsewhere there was obviously a fear in my mind of how that would be replaced.
“Previously here, people might have been quite happy to bounce up and down divisions and finish third from bottom to stay alive.
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“That whole mindset has changed because of Jim.
“He’s the driving force, no two ways about that.
“He’s driven the board, he’s driven the ambitions of the football club and every day he’s challenging everybody.
“So from my point of view, I’m delighted.
“Jim’s a very successful businessman. He’s got a lot of experience in running big companies and turning them around.
“I’ve no doubt he’ll be on the radar of others as well as Rangers, though.”
Robinson, however, insists the Gers link never came up in his daily discussions with Gillespie.
He said: “I don’t speak to Jim about anything other than St Mirren, he and I have never wavered on that.
“We spoke about signings, the next window, the next piece of the jigsaw we can put together at the training ground or the academy.
“Anything else wasn’t my business. Other clubs aren’t my business and Jim’s outside business isn’t either.
“All our conversations were about St Mirren and how we better it. We speak on a daily basis about the club and what we’re trying to do — I give him a debrief most days or every other day.”
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While Gillespie stays in Paisley, though, Robinson has received a blow with the news defender Alex Iacovitti is OUT until Christmas with a hamstring tendon injury.
That could see him forced to bring in a short-term stopper, with freed defender Charles Dunne an option.
Robinson added: “It’s a big blow for us. Alex’s injury is one that can be quite hard to rehab and it’s a blow for the boy because he’s a big part of what we want to do.
“Even in games like Kilmarnock this weekend he’d have been a big part of the way we want to play.
“Richard Taylor has been playing through a hernia on the left side of defence so that area is an issue for us going forward.
“Richard can play for a certain amount of time, but it’s a ticking timebomb. It’s a concern, so we may have to look at a short-term signing to cover us.
“Charles did pre-season with us because he was waiting to go abroad but that move I don’t think is happening at this moment.
“He’s turned down numerous SPFL and English clubs because of his desire to go abroad, so that may be an option, we’ll see.
“But we’ve also had good news — Greg Kiltie and James Scott are back in full training and the international boys have come back.
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“Killian Phillips had a bit of a bug and didn’t do anything with his international squad so we’ll have a look at his training stats before deciding if he’ll be involved this weekend.”
Meanwhile, Caolan Boyd-Munce reckons Saints and Killie will finally start their seasons properly now their Euro adventures are over.
Both have struggled with the domestic schedule following Thursday night Euro action but the 24-year-old expects them to start showing the form that got them there in the first place.
As they prepared to host Derek McInnes’ men today, he said: “You need to leave what happened in Europe behind now.
“If we want to achieve the same thing this year, you need to remember why you’re doing it.
“In our case, you need to remember the warm-up in Bergen when the fans are singing and the atmosphere’s really class.
“We’re working on the premise we want to match it or better it this season.
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“A couple of years ago you’d look at four points after four games and think, ‘That’s not a bad start’.
“But now you’re thinking, ‘No, actually, our standards are higher than that’.
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