BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
JAMES McPAKE will always cherish Livingston for giving him his big break as a player.
However, Almondvale will not be where he takes his first steps into management.
No-one was more surprised than McPake to see the Lions youth product included among the runner and riders to replace David Hopkin, who rejected a new deal with the Lions 11 days after guiding them to the Premiership.
Scottish bookmaker McBookie have priced the 33-year-old, currently Head of Professional Programme at Dundee’s academy, as 8/1 for the post. Only John Hartson, Jim Duffy, Robbie Neilson, Kenny Miller and current interim boss David Martindale are shorter odds.
McPake admits he is ‘flattered’ to be linked with a vacancy at a club so close to his heart, but has no desire to leave Dens Park, where he has been afforded the opportunity to cut his teeth in coaching after injury forced him to hang up his boots.
“I had about 15 phone calls on Thursday, so I was wondering what was going on!” smiled McPake. “So that was a bit strange. I’m flattered to see my name mentioned for a job like that, especially at a club that means a lot to me.
“I’m very happy at Dundee. I’m really enjoying the coaching I am doing here, learning every day with some great coaches and I’m working towards completing my Uefa Pro Licence in November.
“It’s not a simple case of stopping playing and then suddenly you are a manager – there is more to it than that and I feel like Dundee is the perfect place to pick up skills, develop and improve.”
Nevertheless, McPake retains a huge affection for the club where he started his career, making more than 100 appearances after emerging through the youth set-up and starring alongside future Scotland internationalists Robert Snodgrass, Leigh Griffiths and Graham Dorrans.
“I spent nine years at Livingston as a full-time player and another three years before that in the academy,” he continued. “It was a great time and I’ll always have a real fondness for the club.
“Looking back, it’s probably one of my biggest regrets that we weren’t able to get the club back into the Premier League.
“We felt we had a good enough team, we had some top players at the time. You had Robert Snodgrass, Graham Dorrans, Murray Davidson, Dave Mackay, Andy Halliday and, later, Leigh Griffiths coming through, so it was a brilliant crop and great to be a part of.
“But it was a really tough league and we didn’t quite have enough. So, I’m delighted this current group have managed to do that.”
While McPake will not be returning to West Lothian, he is relishing the prospect of crossing swords with some familiar faces when Livingston face Dundee next term.
Livi’s longest-serving player Keaghan Jacobs, a former teammate, was the man whose goal against Partick sent them into the top-flight, cementing his legendary status, while Raffa de Vita is back for a second spell after playing alongside McPake.
Even Neil Alexander, the number one when McPake was a fresh-faced 15-year-old at the club, has returned.
“Keaghan [Jacobs] is a great lad and it’s mad that he’s still there, although I know he had a wee spell in South Africa in between,” added McPake. “I can still remember when Mark Proctor gave him his debut and I thought ‘he is going to be good’. He never looked out of place.
“Given his brothers [Devon, Kyle and Sheldon] were all on the books of Livingston as well, I can only imagine what that meant to him and his family.
“The same goes for Raffa de Vita, who has come back, and Neil Alexander, who was the goalie when I first signed. It will be strange to see so many familiar faces next season, given how long it’s been since we played together there but I can’t wait.
“I never actually got the chance to play against Livingston after leaving, we just never drew them in any of the cups or anything like that so – although I’m on the coaching staff – it will still be great to welcome them to Dens and go up against them.”
