'Big decisions required after St Johnstone's relegation'
Defeat at Tynecastle on Wednesday night brought an end to 16 years of top-flight football for St Johnstone.
But given the club's fortunes in the Premiership in recent seasons, should we be too surprised?
It was the 2020-21 season when Saints created history by winning both major cup competitions and finished fifth in the Premiership.
All looked to be rosy at McDiarmid Park with a squad full of Scottish talent who knew exactly how to win games of football.
But the warning signs were there early on the following season. Despite gallant away performances against Galatasaray and LASK, the European adventures were over by the end of August.
A run of eight straight defeats in the league between the start of December and the end of January saw the club plummet towards the bottom end of the table.
Although they reached the semi-finals of the League Cup, losing 1-0 to Celtic, there was huge disappointment when they fell at the first hurdle in their defence of the Scottish Cup to lowly Kelty Hearts.
Premiership survival was only achieved after play-off success over two legs against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
The following campaign in the league was marginally better with a ninth-place finish. But early exits in both cup competitions left a huge sense of disappointment in Perth.
Davidson left the club towards the end of the season having been player, coach and then manager over a ten-year period.
After a short and unsuccessful spell for Steven MacLean, Craig Levein was tempted back into management.
St Johnstone had been purchased by Geoff Brown in 1986, and along with his son Steven, they turned St Johnstone into one of the best run clubs in Scotland, but they had now decided it was time for someone else to take over the reins.
And shortly after Saints secured their Premiership place on the final day of the 2023-24 campaign, the club was sold to a group of American entrepreneurs.
Levein was sacked in September, just a matter of weeks after the takeover was concluded, with Simo Valkari taking over.
And despite some brave performances, including a home win over champions Celtic, they were unable to avoid the drop.
Valakri said "there were no excuses" and the team were simply "not good enough".
He stressed "things need to change" if they are to bounce back to the top flight at the first time of asking.
The 52-year-old also says he wants to stay, but when asked if he expects to be at the club, he answered: "we will see".
The next few weeks and months in Perth will be telling, with some big decisions required by those in charge.
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