If I was Derek,I would be weighing up whether staying another season or 2 is worth the gamble for his next career move.He leaves now,with a very good,consistent CV,or he stays another season in the hope he finds the midfield duo that could,IMO, answer a lot of the problems we have at the moment.Devlin alongside McKenna,Shinnie to L/B,plus a confident,more aggresive midfield duo wouldnt be far off a very good team.
The downside to that is,even if he does make the right recruitments,the Hun are on the rise,as well as Hearts and Hibs,so no matter what he does,we may struggle to stay in the top 3 even,and we turn oh him,and his appeal to other clubs diminishes
Whatever he decides,he's earned the right not to be hounded out of the job in the near future,eg the next year,given theres a fair chance he'll leave soon of his own accord IMO anyway.