The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Squad in ‘really good place’, insists Wright
Perth club ‘among best run in league’ with ‘three or four sellable assets’
Steve Brown should give himself more credit, according to St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright.
Brown’s downbeat analysis of his life as Saints chairman, coupled with the confirmation that the family’s reign would end when he leaves McDiarmid Park, has cast a large, dark cloud over the club this week.
Wright, who has plenty on his plate as he prepares his players to host Celtic in Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final tie, reluctantly addressed Brown’s bleak interview.
The manager’s key message to Brown was that he should not be so hard on himself.
Wright said: “I think the chairman doesn’t give himself enough credit in terms of how well he has done here and how well he has managed the club and managed the finances.
“He has taken over a club and increased the cash reserves. He has got a young, exciting squad now with three or four sellable assets.
“There was a bit of pain in the summer but we worked hard together in the last window to try and minimise losses that were projected.
“Overall he has got to look at how well he has done over his whole tenure.
“Budgets do tend to go up most seasons. I think what he is saying is that we have reached the ceiling on that but there are three or four players in that squad now who are all sellable assets.
“I think he is right to highlight we can’t keep making losses but we’re all working to try and rectify that.”
Wright admitted Saints have had to dig deeper into their pocket in order to hang on to some promising talents.
He added: “The average wage has gone up but we have a smaller squad.
“Particularly in our situation, when you have good young players the agents aren’t happy with a small increase.
“To hold on to some of the players we have had to spend more money. We do realise there is an end game with that.
“In three or four instances, we could quite easily sell some of our younger players. It is an investment.
“This club isn’t a badly run club,” added the Northern Irishman.
“It is probably the best run club in the league and a lot of clubs would love to be in our position but the chairman is right to highlight that a club can’t continue making losses.
“We know we’re going to have to make cuts but it won’t be to the detriment of the squad. The chairman certainly hasn’t indicated that, because he wants the strongest squad out there.
“We have always managed to bring players in and get players out. The squad is in a really good place.”
Moving on to matters on the pitch, Saints have no fresh injury concerns for the last-eight visit of the Hoops.
Celtic loan man Anthony Ralston can’t play against his parent club, while Jason Holt will be available after missing the game against Rangers for the same reason.
Wright is looking for improvement from the 3-0 loss to the Parkhead men in the league at the end of January, when the Hoops were three goals to the good within the first half-hour.
“We were tentative, stood off them and individually didn’t defend situations well,” he said.
“In saying that, they said after the game it was their best 30 minutes all season.
Meanwhile, Wright confirmed that Inverness player Shaun Rooney has agreed a pre-contract deal with Saints.