If you are asked to picture Alex Gogic, the images that spring to mind would probably involve a grizzled warrior hurling himself in front of a ball, putting his body on the line, or his head in where it hurts, for the cause.
Perhaps, if you are a St Mirren supporter, you may see him punching the air in delight at Fir Park a few years back with a blood-speckled bandage draped around his famously bald bonce after doing all of the above to help his side grind out a win and a clean sheet, despite several stitches and staples being administered to his eyebrow during the course of the game.
With respect to the 32-year-old veteran, you probably wouldn’t immediately picture him strolling out from the back and spraying around passes to start Saints attacks, or taking the ball in tight areas and trusting his technique to allow him to play through the press. But by discounting his ability to do these things, you would be doing the Cypriot international a disservice.
Under new St Mirren manager Craig McLeish, these aspects of his game are just as fundamental and as important responsibilities as the bravery, last-ditch tackles and never-say-die attitude out of which he has built a long and successful career in Scotland.
As it turns out, it seems you can teach an old war dog new tricks.
“I am absolutely loving it,” Gogic beamed.
“This is no disrespect at all to any manager I played under previously, particularly Stephen Robinson, who was brilliant and so successful here, but it is good to show people that maybe I am not just a guy that can tackle. I can actually play football as well, you know?”
Given the stock from which Gogic comes, perhaps that shouldn’t be so surprising.
Those of a certain vintage may remember his father, Sinisa, who made a real name for himself at Olympiacos late in his own career, having spent the majority of his playing days in Cyprus after moving there from Yugoslavia.
He caught the eye of the Greek giants at the age of 33 after a prolific season with Anorthosis Famagusta, and his goals would then help Olympiacos win the domestic double and reach the quarter finals of the Champions League in the late 90s, a season still regarded as arguably the greatest in the club’s history.
Some years later, when Gogic Jnr was recruited to the Olympiacos youth set-up, he found that his old man – still affectionately known as ‘Pappous’, or ‘Grandad’ to the fans – cast a long shadow, and set an expectation for him that he was always going to struggle to fulfil.
For one, Gogic the younger wasn’t a striker, and was far from a prolific goalscorer.
“Yeah, it can be difficult for players whose fathers have been successful players, you see it all the time,” he said.
“For me, at Olympiacos, I didn’t really think too much about that early on. As a kid, it was unbelievable to hear the fans cheering our name and to experience all of that, the trophies and the Champions League nights and everything.
“But the longer I was there the more that comparisons would be made. It’s only natural I suppose. I started off as an attacking midfielder, believe it or not, then as the years went by, I got pushed further and further back! But I wasn’t the same type of player as my dad.
“Eventually I was released, and that was difficult, but then an opportunity came up at Swansea and I jumped at the chance to come for a trial to a club that was in the Premier League at that time.”
That successful trial period would lead to a contract offer to join the Swans’ academy. Their manager, as it turned out, knew his father too, having played against him at the highest level of the game. But while the Gogic name preceded him, particularly in Greece and in his homeland, a move to the UK represented a clean slate, and a chance to make a name for himself.
“I felt it could be a real fresh start,” he said.
“And also, this was a real golden era for Swansea. Michael Laudrup was the manager at the time, and he had actually played against my dad funnily enough. They had Michu banging in the goals and all those guys and were doing well in the English Premier League.
“I was only 18 and was playing in the under-23s, but I got to train with the first team a few times and it was great to be playing with guys like that. Michael Laudrup was really nice too. Even though my dad had played at a high level, I was still a bit starstruck to meet a guy like that, never mind having him as my manager. But it was a great experience.
“It was the first time I had been living on my own, and it was a bit of a culture shock, particularly the weather, which was very different to what I was used to. I mean, it wasn’t as cold as Scotland, but it rained constantly down there. Still, it was easier to play football in it than the heat in Greece!
“It was there that I really started to play in defence, and found that I really enjoyed it.”
Alas, the big breakthrough into the Premier League bigtime never arrived. A loan move to Bristol City fell through when he injured his foot the day before he was due to move there, and he found himself at something of a crossroads.
Pretty soon though, his career would take a turn to the north, and a love affair with Scotland would begin that endures to this day.
“There were a few Scottish guys in the changing room at Swansea, and I actually messaged Stephen Kingsley and asked him for his agent’s number,” he said.
“From there, the opportunity came up to come up to Hamilton. After leaving Swansea I was without a club for about six months, so I was delighted to get the chance to come up on trial. Two days later, I was in Scotland, and thankfully, it all worked out.”
Yet again, he would be walking into what was a golden era for his new club, but this time, he would be right at the heart of their success.
The more modest surroundings, both in terms of the stadium and away from football, where he was ensconced in a flat above local pub The Bay Horse and was eating his pre-match meals from the Indian restaurant, ‘Spice’, across the road, took a bit of getting used to. But on the field, he took to it like a duck to water, thriving as a vital cog in the middle of the annual scrap for survival.
“It was an unbelievable time for the club,” he said.
“We had a brilliant changing room at the time, probably the best I’ve been involved in during my time in football. The dressing room at St Mirren is great too, but that was right up there.
“Everybody always wrote us off and we fed off of that. We had guys like Dougie Imrie and Daz MacKinnon, and it is great to see them both doing so well as managers. It is particularly great to see Daz doing it at Hamilton, especially after everything the club has been through in the last few years.
“It was so sad for me to see them go through that. For the fans, and for the owners back then too. There were so many people that put so much in to keep that club in the top division against all of the odds.
“We had some incredible times and some amazing results when you think back. Wins in the derby against Motherwell were always special, as they are in any rivalry.
“Just brilliant days.”
After four years, the Accies cult hero was catching the eye of potential suitors, and after an outstanding season in 2019/20, Hibernian came calling.
“I actually had it in my head that I was going to go back to Cyprus or Greece at that point,” he said.
“But then Hibs came in and I just couldn’t turn that down. They are a massive club in Scotland and it was a great opportunity for me.
“Jack Ross was the manager, and he actually wanted to play me in midfield. He said to me that he wanted me to just be that anchor, to sit in front of the defence, win the ball and pass it on. I was more than happy to do that.
“We had a great team and that first season was brilliant. We finished third, and my only regret was that it was the Covid times, so we didn’t have the fans in with us to celebrate what was a great season. I didn’t really get that full experience unfortunately.
“Then, the second season didn’t go so well. Jack lost his job before Christmas and Shaun Maloney came in, and they moved to playing a different style. I found myself not playing, and Jim Goodwin offered me a chance to go to St Mirren.
“He had actually been in for me before I went to Hibs. It is obviously nice to feel wanted, and he is such a good guy, so I went there on loan initially and absolutely loved it.”
And he has been loving it ever since. Goodwin may have soon moved on to Aberdeen, but his successor, Robinson, was only too keen to keep Gogic in Paisley. And he was more than happy to take up the offer of a permanent contract that summer.
The rest, as they say, is history. Quite literally, with Gogic playing a vital role in an era that will forever be enshrined in Saints folklore.
“I always laugh when people talk about Stephen and criticise the football we played,” he said.
“They would call us hammer throwers and all of that, but to me, it just showed that we were annoying people, and if you are annoying people, then you must be doing something right.
“His record speaks for itself. Three top six finishes and a trophy. You don’t achieve that if you aren’t a good manager.
“Ok, the league campaign wasn’t brilliant last season, but we stayed up in the end, and the League Cup win was just unbelievable.”
Gogic felt from quite early on in that run that it may just be Saints’ year, and when they arrived at Hampden for both the semi-final and final, nothing was going to stop them fulfilling what they saw as their destiny under Robinson.
“We had achieved so much as a group under Stephen,” he said.
“The top six finishes, the European tour, but what we all felt was missing was some silverware.
“I remember thinking when we got to Hampden that we just weren’t going to be beaten. We played Motherwell in the semi-final, and fair play to them, they were brilliant last season.
“Everyone was writing us off even in that game, but within our dressing room, we had total belief in our gameplan and what we were doing. We were incredible on the day.”
That thumping 4-1 win set up a meeting with Wilfried Nancy’s Celtic in the final, and while Robinson had lost to the Glasgow giants twice in cup finals in the same season in his Motherwell days, there was absolutely no inferiority complex among the Saints players as they puffed out their chests and walked out at the national stadium.
“It was quite strange on the day,” he said.
“We might have been the underdogs, but we were the more relaxed team on the pitch. You could tell that the Celtic players were really nervous.
“As a footballer on the pitch, you can sense these things, and the fact that they were so nervy, that gave us a real confidence that it was going to be our day.
“I remember at half time, we had so much belief that we were going to go on and win the game. It was just about staying calm and making sure we took our opportunities when they came. And thankfully, we did.”
While he has vivid recollections of the match itself, the post-match celebrations in Paisley have taken on an altogether hazier hue in his memory bank.
“Ha, what a night!” he laughed.
“Going to the Town Hall and all of that, it was just amazing. Then after that, to experience that party with the fans and see what it meant to them was so special. Ok, St Mirren isn’t as small a club as Hamilton, but it isn’t as big a club as Hibs either, so for us it was an amazing achievement.
“For me, it was like a full circle moment too. I remember as a kid when I would get to experience these fanfares with my dad, the trophy celebrations with the fans celebrating on the streets and all of that.
“To have a moment like that for myself, with my own children there and with the amazing St Mirren fans, it was really something special.”
Alas, all good thing must come to an end, and like Goodwin before him, Robinson would be tempted by the Northern Lights to Pittodrie, and a crack at managing Aberdeen. But as one incredible chapter in St Mirren’s history has come to a close, the next has opened in hugely exciting fashion.
After navigating some choppy waters and surviving in the Premiership just barely through a narrow playoff victory over Partick Thistle, the Saints board raised eyebrows when they stuck with McLeish as their manager, leading many pundits to tip them for the drop this time around.
It is early days, of course, but the stylish, swaggering start to the campaign from the Saints under McLeish’s charge have made those gloomy pre-season predictions look foolish in the extreme. The Buddies currently sit in fourth, ahead of a home match against Dundee United this afternoon.
At the heart of this reinvention is Gogic. Sure, he is still the uncompromising, unflinching defender he has always been. But now, he is showing off his guile and passing range too.
And as he said himself, he is absolutely loving it.
“When a manager asks you to do something, you do it, so before when we were playing a certain way then you do what is best for the team to get the result,” he said.
“There are different ways of getting results and we have been successful in the past, but this season I have to admit that it is really enjoyable to play the way that the manager is asking us to.
“What is really important as well is that the fans have bought into it. We will need them to be patient and to stick with us, because there will be times during the season – and probably especially, in this early part of it – when things do go wrong and we make mistakes and we maybe look a bit silly in certain moments.
“We know and I think the fans also know that by playing the way we are though, more will come from it at the other end than it will cost us. You have already seen plenty of glimpses of it, and that helps to get that buy in.
“People will point to Declan John’s goal against Motherwell, but for us as players, that was no surprise and it was no fluke. In training and in games we are producing those patterns of play over and over again. That time, it ended up in the net, and that is what we are working towards doing more consistently.
“It is really exciting. I don’t want to dampen that for anyone, but we tick off our goals as they come. First, make sure we stay in the division. When we have achieved that, we look to make the top six. Then, can we push for Europe? And who knows after that?
“The focus is on the process. In every game, we look to do what the manager is asking from us, and over the course of the season, I am really confident that it will put us in a good place.”
Gogic, it seems, is very much in a good place. And under McLeish, with his progressive brand of football, it seems that there are more good times ahead for St Mirren.
