By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

Never mind the fresh faced, boyish enthusiasm of a player who is so recently out the dressing room his hair is still wet, get yourself a grand old man like the former Celtic boss.

Davie Hay is one of the nicest blokes I have ever met in the game. A silent assassin as a player, maybe, but he could perform some in the midfield for Celts, Chelsea and Scotland.

Off the park he was the kind of guy who would help an old woman across the road. But if she was in the opposition team he would kick her over the halfway line.

He first learned at the feet of the master, Jock Stein. He came through the Celtic ranks in a reserve side so good they were tagged the Quality Street Kids - successors to the European Cup winning legends.

These days he is so laid back he makes Stevie Paterson look stressed although to be fair it was not always thus. I seem to recall an Old Firm Skol Cup final when he threw a flakey.

But the moral of the story is one I have preached for many a day - clubs appoint coaches and managers far too early and then ditch them far too quickly.

What makes chairmen think a player can hang up his boots on a hook in the dressing room, walk out of it and stroll into the manager's office? Apprenticeship - you have to do one.

Rangers may have ruined a good manager when they hauled John Greig out of the team and right upstairs. Aberdeen probably did the same with Willie Miller.

By stark contrast Craig Levein learned his trade with Cowdenbeath before he returned to Hearts.

Livingston have come a long way in a short time

I was wide mouthed in amazement when Dom Keane dumped Hay in favour of the Brazilian Marcio Maximo, a thoroughly nice bloke but cast in the wrong movie.

The game needs its Davie Hays. Just as it is an absolute disgrace that it can find no place for people like Alex MacDonald a manager so wise he took Hearts within touching distance of a league and cup double and then took Airdrie to two Scottish Cup and one League Cup finals.

Has no-one the vision to see that it might be a right good idea to keep your young gun of a boss on the straight and narrow by allowing him to taking the guiding hand of someone like MacDonald who has been over the course?

Clearly not if you look at the likes of Partick Thistle or St Mirren or a string of other clubs over the years.

And so Marcio came, he saw and he went away again. And Davie was given back his old job. Quite right too.

So right in fact that Davie has become just the 13th manager in the history of the Scottish game to win all three domestic trophies and in the process bring unmitigated joy to a little West Lothian club where fairytales lie thick on the ground.

God bless their black and gold cotton socks. Especially those of Bill Hunter, the man who withstood scandalous personal abuse to drag sad old Meadowbank Thistle into a brave new world of the New Town.

I wish Livingston all the joy in the world as they bask in their moment in the sun. They are a breath of fresh air.

And now they have to stick with the experience of their manager. Ditching Hay now would be the last straw...