Saints hit back at Scobbie exit claims

ST JOHNSTONE chairman Steve Brown has hit back at Tam Scobbie’s claim he was forced out of McDiarmid Park by the Perth chief.

Scobbie said he was left feeling “undervalued” when Saints offered him a 35 per cent wage cut to stay with the club this season.

The 29-year-old Scottish Cup winner – who has now signed for Dundee United –described the one-year offer as a “slap in the face”.

But Brown now insists the package put in place for Scobbie was fair given the lack of certainty over his place in Tommy Wright’s line-up.

Brown said: “As much as I accept that he was part of a successful squad, he only started 18 out of 46 competitive games last season and over the course of his five seasons with us he was in the starting line-up in less than half of the games.

“With this in mind we tried to structure a deal which, although it did reduce his basic wage, offered a higher reward for him starting matches so that if he played he wouldn’t be worse off.”