Ayr United boss Ian McCall insists he has plenty more years left in football as he weighs up future at Somerset Park
The former Partick Thistle boss would like to do something special for Ayr chairman before calling time on his career in management
IAN McCALL’S Wikipedia page adds five years on to his age — and cuts two inches off his height.
But the Ayr United boss, whose side are flying high at the top of League One and are top scorers in British football, has the measure of where his career will take him.
McCall’s out of contract at the end of this season and doesn’t know if he’s ready to commit to another one in the dugout with the Honest Men.
But he does know he wants to stay in football in some capacity until he’s 60, out of loyalty to his Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron.
And — contrary to the popular encylopaedic website — that’s seven years off, not two!
The former Dundee United and Partick Thistle manager — just named League One Manager of the Month for the second successive month — admitted: “I’m not sure yet what I want to do at end of this contract."
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“I want to stay involved in football until I’m 60, though whether that’s as a manager I don’t know.
“And despite what Wikipedia says, that’s a few years away.
“I’m 53, not 58. They have me at 5ft7 as well, so they couldn’t be more wrong!
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“I want to do something special for Lachlan, though. I wouldn’t mind doing something else within football.
“There are a few other things I’d like to do.
“I might want to continue as a manager but I’ve been doing it a long time. It’s been pretty much constant for 14 years, either in the Championship or the Premiership.
“As a manager, I’d think Ayr will be my last club. You never say never but I’m always conscious of what Lachlan did for me.
“He took a chance in terms of what had gone on for a wee while.
“The job was down to two people and he rang me from America.
“He spoke to me for an hour and a half and in that time we spoke about the job for eight minutes.
“And the next day he rang and said I had the job.
“I’d say I have all the drive without the ambition — I’ve been through all that.
“I don’t feel I have any lack of drive but I lost it when I was out of the game.
“I was out for three and a half years. But I had to sort my own life out and I did that.
“But now, while I’ve no ambition whatsoever to leave Ayr, I have a real desire to leave them as a strong community club.
“I think Ayr can be a thriving Championship club and that’s how I want to leave them. We have the support there to do that and they are, by and large, great.
“You get a feeling for clubs and there are a lot of really good people there. They all have a feel for the club and it’s a real good, old-fashioned, football club.
“The other club that’s close to my heart is Thistle.
“I had four years there, but I was living in the west end of Glasgow and I’m not sure that, long term, was good for my job.
“Going down to Ayr three or four days a week is ideal."
McCall has reached the stage where he’s become one of the elder statesmen of the Scottish game — and he’s conscious of the bizarre scenario which sees him yet to reach his third anniversary as Ayr boss but still with only SIX bosses in the leagues who have served their clubs for longer.
He said: “I think that typifies the way the game has gone since I started in management.
“I’ll be three years at Ayr on January 5 and there are only a few guys who’ve done more.
“There are guys I had as players who have become managers and who are in some cases out of work. I’m very surprised Jim McIntyre’s out of the game.
“Derek McInnes is doing well too at Aberdeen.
“But there are younger ones who are good. We’ve played Albion Rovers and I was impressed with how Brian Kerr, a guy in his mid-30s, had them playing.
“I can’t take any credit for trying to imprint a philosophy on how we play. I’m not really sure what that means.
“Any manager just wants to find a way to win games. But we’ve been breaking records and even when I had a really good Falkirk team, and a good Dundee United team for a spell, I never had a period like this.
“But I’m conscious that even with the winning run we’ve had, we’re still not miles ahead of Raith.”