Dons line up Wright as McInnes successor

The increasingly likely departure of Derek McInnes to Sunderland will open up the prospect of St Johnstone losing Tommy Wright to Aberdeen.

Talks took place yesterday between the recently-relegated Black Cats and former Perth boss McInnes.

The Dons are said to be holding out for £1 million of compensation should Sunderland decide that he is the man they want to replace fellow Scot David Moyes.

The domino effect will of course be a vacancy opening up at Pittodrie, with Wright understood to be a leading candidate along with out-of-work former Norwich and Hamilton boss Alex Neil.

Saints chairman Steve Brown certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Stewart Milne picked up the phone.

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It’s probably when and not if,” Brown said at the end of last season when discussing the possibility of Wright being lured away from McDiarmid Park.

“Hopefully not, but he certainly can’t fly under the radar. He keeps talking about flying under the radar, but he certainly can’t with six consecutive top-six finishes.

“Four times out of five in his tenure we’ve been in Europe. There’s not another manager in Scotland with a record like that, with the resources he’s got available to him. It’s probably extremely surprising somebody hasn’t taken a chance on him.”

Saints boss Tommy Wright.