Livingston have rejected an approach from St Johnstone to speak to David Martindale about their managerial vacancy.
The Lions boss emerged as the early front-runner to replace Steven MacLean, who was sacked by the Perth club on Sunday with the team bottom of the cinch Premiership after no wins from their opening nine games.
Martindale refused to be drawn on speculation linking him with the McDiarmid Park job when he was asked about it at his media briefing on Monday to preview Wednesday’s match away to Hearts.
However, Saints made their move for the Livi manager later that day, only to be rebuffed by the West Lothian club.
Lions chief executive Dave Black moved to clarify the situation on Tuesday evening.
“Following recent speculation over the past 48 hours regarding men’s first-team manager David Martindale, I was keen to provide supporters with an update,” said Black in a statement released on the club’s website.
“Yesterday, the club received an official approach from St Johnstone for permission to speak to David about taking on the vacant position at McDiarmid Park. Following discussions with John Ward, John Mcllvogue and David himself, I informed St Johnstone this morning that we wouldn’t be giving permission for that conversation to take place.
“David has been pivotal in both the on-field success of the club over recent years and on the off-field growth and stability of the club too – something we wish to see continue under David’s leadership for a long time to come.
“Whilst I’ve no doubt that David has ambitions to move on and further his career in management eventually, we weren’t particularly keen to see that next move be to a league rival who we’re currently directly competing against.
“Such is the character of the man, David’s first response was solely on ensuring that full focus remained on tomorrow’s game at Tynecastle and that everyone at the club didn’t lose sight of that. His own mantra has always been that everything at Livingston must be about the we and not the me, and that very much remained the same following these discussions.
“I’ve no doubt this news will be very well received amongst you, our fans, and we hope to see you continue to get right behind David, his coaching staff and all the players as we head into a busy schedule of games between now and the winter break.”
Martindale spent four years in prison from 2006 for drug and money laundering offences but has impressively rehabilitated himself since his release in 2010.
After first getting involved with Livingston on a part-time volunteer basis in 2014, he worked his way up to become manager in 2020. Despite operating with one of the lowest budgets in Scotland’s top flight, the 49-year-old has overseen three consecutive mid-table finishes in his time in charge, helping him attract the attention of St Johnstone.
Alex Cleland is currently in interim charge of Saints while their search for a new manager continues.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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