St Johnstone chairman is ready to ramp up the hunt for a new manager

ST JOHNSTONE chairman Steve Brown is ready to “step up” the recruitment of a new manager this week.

The Perth club made it clear when Tommy Wright left McDiarmid Park at the start of May there was no need to rush appointing his successor.

That mindset hasn’t changed, and the other off-pitch issues to deal with haven’t gone away over that period of time.

Brown is now at the stage, though, where he can whittle down the long list of applications from across the world to a handful of candidates.

“There have been a lot of very good applicants,” he said. “We have not actually advertised the post but we have had loads of interest.

“We have had reconstruction, testing and various other things so it has not been conducive to sit down, focus and spend time going through it all.

“We’ll step it up this week and go through all the applicants with a view of getting down to a shortlist. Then we’ll take it from there.”

It’s been a long time since Brown has had to pore over managerial CVs and the quality of some of them has been a reminder of how far the club has progressed in the last few years.

“It’s surprising some would apply for a job at St J o h n s t o n e ,” he admitted. “We need to take that as a compliment.

“There are applicants from far and wide – across the globe. There are some previous players, some very good international players.

“There are also some of the usual suspects, it has to be said.

“I’m very impressed with the applicants.

“There is not a rush to get a manager in tomorrow but I understand the value of getting a manager in to work with the players.

“I’ll take my time to get it right.”

Steve Brown is ‘very impressed with the applicants’.