‘Fake news’ from Pedro, says Wright
ST JOHNSTONE manager Tommy Wright has accused ‘paranoid’ Pedro Caixinha of spreading fake news after dismissing claims from his Rangers counterpart about leaked team selections. Caixinha has suggested that his line-up for the match between the clubs in May had been passed to Saints — and that Wright delayed a training session to benefit from the inside information. That has
been firmly denied by the Perth boss, who delivered a withering retort ahead of hosting Caixinha’s side tonight in the Premiership. ‘Pedro has been saying a lot recently and he’s had to backtrack on a few things,’ said Wright. ‘I now know what fake news is because what he said isn’t true, it didn’t happen. ‘Most managers do a bit of asking around and have a think with their staff to second guess each other’s teams. But I was not given the Rangers team and we certainly didn’t hang around and change the time of our training because we were waiting for someone to send me it. ‘It is a figment of his imagination. It didn’t happen and when you say something like that without evidence, proof or naming names, it’s annoying. ‘It’s disappointing because I feel I get on well with Pedro, maybe one of the few that I do, and we had two 20-30 minute conversations over the summer. We had them face-to-face, manto-man and it wasn’t mentioned. ‘I find that surprising because if he felt it was true then I’m sure he would have brought it up. ‘He’s stated he’s got a spy in the camp and he’s obviously paranoid about that. ‘It now looks like he’s got a spy in my camp if he thinks he knows what we’ve been doing and is able to say we have changed our training times. Maybe there is a double agent at work! ‘Whatever he’s been told is duff information, it didn’t happen and it isn’t true. ‘He might be trying to play mind games, I don’t know. Perhaps that’s what they’ve been teaching on that university course he’s been on. If that’s his game then it won’t work. Maybe he’s worried about us, maybe he’s worried we might finish above them this season. ‘What he’s said doesn’t affect anything, our preparation is done and we’re looking forward to the game. We just have to wait on the pigeon arriving with the team now!’ Wright also questioned why no one had been axed if Caixinha believed confidential information was being leaked. ‘Was he pointing the finger at anyone in particular? I don’t know, you’d have to ask him,’ he added. ‘But if
it was me and I had a spy here and knew who it was, they’d be sacked. ‘Obviously he hasn’t found out who his spy is because if it was me, or Derek McInnes, Brendan Rodgers, Alan Archibald, Stevie Robinson or any of the other managers, they’d be gone. But that hasn’t happened, so he probably still has that problem. ‘When people throw accusations around they have to back them up. ‘But I will shake Pedro’s hand on Friday and I’ll have a cup of tea with him afterwards. There is no ill-feeling. But he’s fallen out with others, he’s fallen out with Derek (McInnes) in the past. ‘I’ve always treated people with respect, his comments are wrong. They’re dangerous. Pedro is at a massive, worldfamous club and maybe he should just concentrate on that. Closing the gap on Celtic is what his focus should be, not picking fights with St Johnstone. ‘Bill Struth said he welcomed the chase when Rangers were dominant. ‘Well Rangers are not dominant now, they are the ones doing the chasing. ‘So maybe he should embrace that and put his energy into trying to stop Celtic winning ten in a row, rather than get involved in tittletattle and stuff like this.’