Saints’ skipper pitches left Tommy in stitches
Auditions to replace Mackay an epic fail
Tommy Wright knows he has his recruitment right when players from other clubs start joining his team’s Christmas night out instead of their own.
In a week where Rangers’ dressing room was riven by one player’s ego, St Johnstone’s spirit has once again carried them into the Premiership’s top three. The McDiarmid Park manager insists that’s as much down to their character as their ability.
And despite losing talismanic Cupwinning captain Dave Mackay last week, Wright insists he has a queue – of the right type of leader to replace him – stretching out the locker-room door.
So much so he gave them the chance to fight it out for the armband with X- Factor- style auditions – before admitting he had already made up his mind anyway.
Wright laughed: “We got whoever wanted to be captain to get up and make a wee speech. They had two minutes to sell themselves but one spoke for 24 seconds, one for 21 and one for 17!
“It was a bit of fun and we were going to put it to the vote – ultimately I have already made the decision, mind – but they didn’t exactly communicate too well. Big Brian Easton got up and told the lads he could get them Mondays off every week – which isn’t going to happen. We can rule him out!
“But I don’t think it will be difficult to replace Dave in as much as we have plenty of leaders in the dressing room anyway. Dave was a guy who led by his performances but when he spoke to the dressing room people listened and there was a respect for him.
“And the new captain, everyone wil l have that same level of respect.”
Ultimately for Wr ight, working wit h t he ti g ht es t budget in the top six, he’s made h is club a permanent fixture there by recruiting the person as well as the player.
He said: “It’s so important, because we’re not awash with big wages. And even if we were, one of the key elements is what type of person are you signing.
“They have to fit in to a dressing room, into a squad mentality. Liam Craig has been left out of games this season, Murray Davidson hasn’t been brought back in, and it shows you the strength of the squad.
“They take it in the right way though, disappointed but never disruptive. They never undermine me, they are never confrontational because they understand over a season they will get opportunities.
“The biggest thing we look for when recruiting is the type of person they are. I’ll usually meet them a couple of times at least, and usually I think I’m a pretty good judge of character.
“They’re a close-knit bunch and it was probably the same in Derek McInnes’s time here as well. The longer they have been together, the more together they have become.
“They go away for their Christmas party and I turn my phone off for two days. But I’ve heard stories about other clubs’ players leaving their group to go out with ours, that’s how good they are together. There’s such a bond there and
anyone who walks into the dressing room thinking they’re better than what’s there is soon sorted out.
“Listen, we have ability and talent, there’s no question of that. You can’t get some of the big results we have over the years just through spirit and hard work. But they are a bunch you look forward to working with every day.”
Saints’ win over Hearts last weekend was a classic example of their dogged determination, resolutely denying the Jambos before taking the three points.
Wright said: “If you take the end of last season, that’s 11 games and only two defeats to Celtic and Inverness away. We’ve continued the way we finished last season and we don’t panic if we have a defeat or two.
“We believe over the course of a season we can get enough points to get us in the top six. We’ve been notoriously slow starters in the league but this has been one of the best in recent years.”
Not that Wright expects to have it easy against a Hamilton side with only one win in their last six. He said: “We did all right against them last season but it’s hard to look at that in the context of a new season.
“We’ve had a short turnaround from the League Cup but I enjoy the games against them because they play good football, you get chances to play and there are goals.
“Every year people make them favourites to go down and I don’t know whether they use that as motivation or not. It will be difficult but we feel we can go and get a result anywhere.”