Ayr United chairman David Smith may have been partaking in something of a jet-set lifestyle since retiring from his day-job with Ashleigh Construction back in April, but when the opportunity to grab a cup of tea and the chance to talk about the new era kicking off at Somerset Park this summer presents itself, he is more than happy to find a gap in his still jam-packed schedule.
The 54-year-old has been here, there and everywhere over the past few months, while also finding sufficient time to hire Gary Naysmith and set about equipping him with the tools he will need to reach their goals in next season's Championship. He has even been in the headlines after joining his good friend Fraser MacIntyre - who also happens to be the vice-chairman of the club – in a once-in-a-lifetime jaunt to the States to watch Scotland at the World Cup.
What made the trip newsworthy was the method of transportation, which technically entailed being airborne, but was as far away from the luxury connotations the term ‘jet-setting’ suggests as it could possibly be.
The intrepid duo set off from Prestwick in a tiny plane with Fraser as pilot, with the goal of at least of making it across the Atlantic in one piece. To do so, they would stop off at Reykjavik, Kulusuk in Greenland, as well as Iqaluit, Goose Bay and then Montreal in Canada, before finally arriving in Providence in time for Scotland’s opening game against Haiti, some 22 hours of sometimes fraught flying time later.
The stress of one or two heart in mouth moments, though, particularly during a bumpy approach into Montreal or when flying through a communications blackspot over hundreds of miles with nothing but glaciers underneath, was, Smith says, a piece of cake when compared to the daily pressures of running the football club that he has loved all of his life. And as you may expect, conversation about the path the pair wish to plot for Ayr helped to pass the time, minus the opportunity to kick back and watch an in-flight movie.
It is little wonder though that when it came time for his American adventure to end and he returned home to throw himself into his labour of love at Ayr once more, that Smith chose to treat himself to a business class ticket on a plane. Which, among other comparative luxuries, at least had a toilet.
“The World Cup slotted in quite nicely into the post-retirement plan,” Smith said.
“Though, I can’t say I originally thought we would ever go there the way we did!
"The inside of the plane isn't any bigger than an average car. It's tiny inside. But it was really special. It's difficult to describe. It was emotional when we landed at Miami for the last game and it was all over.
“Fraser was amazing. Even though he's not a full-time pilot, he's just a part-time guy, he did brilliantly, albeit some of the bumps were a bit seat-of-the-pants.
“There was a day we changed our plan because there were weather issues. We were going to have an extra stop in the west of Greenland, but we decided to just go for it right over to Canada.
“We were flying for about four and a half, five hours, but for two-and a-bit hours we had no comms, no satellite phone, no radio, nothing. It was just white glacier below us and white sky above us. It was a surreal experience.
"Running a football club is more sustained pressure as opposed to 20-odd hours in a plane. But it was good for Fraser and I to spend so much time in the plane together. We chatted through loads of stuff about the football club, our hopes, and ambitions.
“Sometimes when you're caught up with life, you don't have a chance to sit with somebody for that long discussing something that's important. It was nice. I enjoyed that.
"We spoke about where we are on the journey. I've been chairman for five and a half years. We did a little report card on where we are, the infrastructure stuff, how we've progressed as a club, and what it was like when I took over compared to what it is now.
“It was a relatively good report card once we dissected it."
Before touching upon the transition on the touchline from the management team of Scott Brown and Steven Whittaker to Naysmith and Brown Ferguson, it is worth expanding on the chairman’s report card, and what aims Smith has going forward, including the goal of bringing outside investment into the club.
“All the infrastructure projects that I wanted to do, we've done,” he said.
“We've got more commercial stuff happening behind the Railway End which should generate serious funds for the football club. We have to do that.
“We have challenges; we don't have the fanbase that Raith Rovers, Dunfermline, and all these clubs have. We need to be a bit cleverer, which we're doing.
“One deal we've done involves putting in four padel courts with a company called Soul Padel. The rental will go to the club. There are another couple of businesses looking to go in there, and we're talking to an investor from overseas about putting in some chunky stuff as well.
“Once we get those income streams coming into the club, we'll be in a much better position to compete with some of the other teams in the league."
Money coming in from elsewhere though would not necessarily mean the ceding of control on his part, or any of the shares Smith currently holds.
"That's not in the plan,” he said.
“My plan is that I'll run it to the best of my ability until I don't, and then it will be exit stage right. I can't imagine me giving away chunks of it and losing that control. I'm not in that place yet; I've got plenty of life left in it."
A hallmark of Smith’s tenure so far when it comes to his managerial appointments has been the favouring of candidates with extensive top-level playing careers, with Naysmith’s experience plying his trade for Everton in the English Premier League as well as his 46 Scotland caps stacking up well against the achievements of his predecessor, Brown.
There are, though, a couple of key differences between the pair, not least that the lack of an Old Firm connection in Naysmith’s past means that the days of clickbaity headlines altering the club’s name to ‘Former Celtic captain Scott Brown’s Ayr United’ – something that grated with fans more than it ever did with Smith – are now over.
Where Naysmith may just have a more significant edge on Brown though is in the vast managerial experience the 47-year-old has already banked in the Scottish lower leagues, with his appointment at Somerset Park being seen as something of a coup for the club after the stellar job he did with Stenhousemuir.
"Just in terms of Scott and Steven, I want to say that they left the club in a better place than it was when they arrived,” he said.
“Some of the fans might disagree with that, but they don't see what they put in place behind the scenes. They made us more professional and changed quite a few things. They brought people to the club that probably wouldn't have come before because of their profiles. I still keep in touch with them and I’m thankful for what they brought to the club.
“Gary coming in has been great. It is a slightly different approach for us; we've got somebody with loads of games in his back catalogue. That Championship experience and Scottish success as a manager was important for us.
“The guys have only been in four weeks, but I caught up with him this week and he's happy with everything at the club and the welcome he received. The transfers have been good in my view and I’m excited about where we are heading.
"Gary has also got pull, but more as a manager, because he's done a few things as a manager. His man-management skills are good, and that's coming back from the players already. The players who we've signed have said that part of the reason they came was because of his man-management skills. I like that.
"I like him because he's down to earth. When you chat with him, you just click. He had interest from other clubs, and he decided it wasn't for him, but he's come to Ayr United and he's all in. He's not going to leave anything off the table to try and move the club forward.
“I'm delighted he's here. I think the reaction from the fans has been positive."
That it has, but Smith is also keen to manage any expectations that his arrival, particularly with two promotions in his last job under his belt, will mean an instant assault on the Premiership.
"Realistically, we've probably got the fifth-highest budget in the league,” he said.
“For success, we need to overachieve. There's a chance this year, there is always a chance, but I don't want to put that expectation on a manager because that's unfair. That's not what we shook hands on. The deal we came to was for long-term success. I'm happy to see little bits of that through the season.
“A manager needs two years to make a team his. This team has already been structured with players he might not fancy or might want to move out. He needs two years.
"I believe in a lot of checks and balances. When a manager comes in, we don't just throw him the keys and say, 'Get on with it.' Whether it was Scott and Steven or Gary and Brown, we continue with checks and balances to make sure it's done right.
“The expectation when Scott and Steven came in was high, but there's an even higher expectation with Gary coming in because of his track record of managerial success. What I would say to all the fans is to just give him time.
“He came with a long-term plan, which is unusual in football. When you're interviewing a manager, it's unusual for them to come along and have a plan and a target for year one, year two, and year three.
“We need to give him time because we didn't employ him to get us promoted this week; we employed him on a long-term strategy to have incrementally better improvements every year."
When speaking to Smith about Ayr, one thing that never seems far from the surface is emotion, whether that is his excitement about what the team can achieve and the infrastructure projects he has delivered to ensure they are ready should they one day realise the dream of playing in the top flight once more, or when discussing how he came to love the club in the first place.
Sadly, the man who introduced him to Somerset Park and started his lifelong love affair with the Honest Men, his dad, Alex, passed away late last year after a long battle with illness, and Smith has been deeply moved by the decision made by others within the club to rename the stadium’s North Stand after his late father.
"He passed away on Christmas Eve,” he said.
“That was a challenge, but it was a blessing as well because he had Lewy body dementia and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
“It wasn't my idea to name the stand. Since we built it, we've been looking for a main sponsor to give us a chunk of money, and they're just not there. We can't find that person or company. A few people said they'd give us X, Y, and Z, but I was looking at the offers and thinking it was just not worth it.
“It was [managing director] Graeme Mathie who came up with the idea of calling it the Alex Smith Stand. I took my mum to see it on Thursday for the first time. It was challenging because sadly now my mum has also got early dementia, so we're having to remind her regularly that my dad's passed away. She's having to go through that journey. So, that was emotional, but solace is taken in the fact that his name's up there. The whole family is so proud.
"I haven't put my name on anything. I'm not that guy. I won't call anything after my name at all. But to see the Smith name up there is nice. It was my dad who took me to the games. That's where we stood, so it means a lot. It's a nice closure for that journey.
"He loved a story; he was a storyteller, and he would have been so proud. He didn't see or understand all the stuff that I'd done at the football club before he passed away, which is obviously disappointing, but it is what it is.
“He'll be looking down and will be proud, I’m sure of that.”
If under his stewardship, Smith Jnr manages someday to help guide Ayr back to the top flight for the first time since 1978, he may have no say in where his own name is splashed around the famous old ground in the future.
