McLeish given St Mirren chance - how have young Premiership coaches fared?

St Mirren narrowly beat Celtic to make the first managerial appointment of the Scottish Premiership's close season - and it was not an entirely unexpected one.

Craig McLeish will continue in the Paisley dugout after seeing out the final 12 games of the 2025-26 campaign in temporary charge.

The 36-year-old was described by the Buddies as "the outstanding candidate", with McLeish's background working with the club's academy leaving him well placed for the job and chief operating officer Keith Lasley attaining: "We want to be the best development football club in Scotland."

McLeish is the youngest manager or head coach in the Premiership, at least until Motherwell fill their vacancy.

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl is one year older than McLeish and David Gray at Hibernian is 38.

The other incumbents are in their 40s, 50s and, in John McGlynn's case at Falkirk, 60s, while Celtic are poised to continue with 74-year-old O'Neill.

But how have younger coaches fared in the Premiership?

Estoril head coach Ian Cathro is set to oversee his third season in charge of the Portuguese club, having won around a third of his 71 matches in charge so far.

He did not have as many games in charge of Heart of Midlothian, just 30. He won eight, drew seven and lost 15. He was just 30.

More than four years on from Cathro's spell in Edinburgh, Hibs appointed a young head coach in the shape of former Scotland midfielder Shaun Maloney.

Like Cathro, the then 38-year-old Maloney had worked under successful managers, most notably Roberto Martinez during the Spaniard's time in charge of Belgium.

Maloney won six, drew six and lost seven of his games in charge of Hibs and was sacked shortly after a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Edinburgh rivals Hearts.

He had a higher win percentage at Wigan Athletic, spending more than two years with the Latics and then returned to Celtic, where he had started his coaching career. This term, Maloney assisted O'Neill as Celtic won a league and cup double.

Former Easter Road captain Gray had eight games in caretaker charge of Hibs over three spells before formally becoming head coach a little more than two years ago. Five of those matches as interim boss came in the wake of Maloney's departure.

Overall, Gray's 40% win ratio has him placed higher than both Cathro and Maloney and over a larger sample size (105 fixtures over all four spells).

Gray's biggest achievement so far was last season's third-placed Premiership finish, which qualified Hibs for Europe. In Glasgow, Rohl has replicated what Gray did by finishing third with Rangers in the season just finished.

However, that was one place lower than the previous campaign, with the Ibrox side's post-split form of four defeats and one win ultimately leaving them some way behind Celtic and Hearts.

The German former Sheffield Wednesday manager has won 22, drawn eight and lost 10 of his games in charge of Rangers so far. What Rohl is ultimately trying to do is emulate one of his predecessors, Steven Gerrard.

The former England captain took over at Rangers aged 38 and ended the club's 10-year wait for a league title in 2021, leaving later that year with a near 65% win percentage. However, his first two seasons in charge ended without additions to the trophy cabinet.

Overall, it's a bit of a mixed bag for younger head coaches and managers. But, in the case of Gerrard and Gray, patience has been rewarded.

In announcing McLeish's appointment, St Mirren cited the role data had played in the process and highlighted the examples of English clubs with younger head coaches.

At 33, Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler has led the Seagulls to an eighth-placed Premier League finish, securing a spot in the Conference League play-offs.

Meanwhile, Brentford finished level on points with Brighton but with an inferior goal difference. Though a bit older at 45, Brentford boss Keith Andrews has just had his first season as a head coach in his own right.

Lasley pointed out that McLeish is "still very early" in his managerial career and added: "There are some really good examples in England - the likes of Brentford and Brighton, clubs that give people opportunity.

"We want to be that club. It's not doing it for the sake of it, it's identifying talent, identifying people with ambition. It's part of my job to identify talent and let it fly.

"I firmly believe Craig falls into that category - he's one of the best young coaches in the country."

Promoting someone with only academy coaching experience into the role permanently will, nevertheless, be viewed by many as a gamble, especially someone whose own playing background was in Scotland's lower leagues.

St Mirren can argue it was a gamble that paid off with their Scottish Premiership play-off final win over Partick Thistle.

Detractors may point out that the Buddies were one place above the play-off spot when predecessor Stephen Robinson left for Aberdeen.

McLeish's backers could hit back with his comparable win percentage (33.33) to Robinson's (33.5) in Paisley.

A bigger sample size will determine the final judgement on St Mirren's young manager.

Donald: The cheap choice! Underwhelming appointment. We barely escaped the play-off and he only won four of 12 games in charge. The football was poor. Relegation next season for sure!

Craig: Craig did a great job in keeping us up, but I feel going on from what Stephen Robinson did, we need to get back up there, so we need someone with more experience.

Martin: Easy option appointment if not underwhelming. Did we even have any other interest? Who knows, he might be the next Pep Guardiola! He'll need to make a very good start or I suspect the fans might lose faith quickly. Tough season ahead I fear.

JD: McLeish is definitely not the right choice. A far more experienced manager is required for the job. It was luck more than judgement that kept the Saints up. Can't see us being lucky twice under McLeish.

Paul: It's a sensible appointment. Continuity and stability over costly change. We could do a lot worse. The question of who the manager will be has been answered, so time for every fan to get behind the team and give him a chance.