St Mirren: Craig McLeish given chance, but how have young Scottish Premiership coaches fared?

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.