THE WRIGHT MAN FOR US Saints boss closing in on Irish striker McMillan
Wright went to Ireland recently St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright wants to secure the services of Irish striker David McMillan.
And the Perth boss hopes a deal for the Dundalk star, who is out of contract in January, can be completed sooner rather than later.
Wright was in Dublin earlier this month to watch McMillan (28) and Robbie Benson in FAI Cup Final action against Cork City.
“We went to the cup final the other week to look at a couple of players,” Wright explained to the Perthshire Advertiser.
“David is a striker I know a lot about and have liked for a long time now. I hope we can get that done.
“He’s been over here and spent a day looking around the club and speaking to me. I would like it to happen sooner rather than later, but he’s quite rightly away having a break now because the season is finished there.
“I wouldn’t want to be waiting to the last week of December to bring him in in January but I think he wants his future sorted out soon as well.
“I’m hopeful we can get something done on that.”
While Saints are keen to bring McMillan to McDiarmid, Wright confirmed a move for midfielder Benson will not be happening.
He said: “Benson is a definite no because we spoke to his agent and he’s looking for Championship wages in England so good luck to them with that.
“We have a list of players we are looking at, so it’s just a case of working our way through that.”
Dundalk striker David McMillan (right), in action in a Europa League clash against Zenit St Petersburg
Wright says there will be no major change in January as he searches for quality over quantity.
He told the PA: “It’s important as a manager to work with the club and the board both on the field and off the field.
“Part of that is down to managing the finances and looking after things properly.
“This club won’t ever overspend and put ourselves in a position, so it has been good that the club has been able to build up a nice reserve of finances.
“The team has contributed to that by bringing success on the pitch.
“So it’s good that there will be money available in January to strengthen the squad.
“It is a market you have to be careful with because I don’t like
bringing in five or six players in January. It’s about a balance and I would prefer to bring in one or two quality ones who might cost a little bit more.
“We know we’re on a bad run at the moment, everyone here accepts that, but we haven’t become a bad team overnight.
“We know we have to get out of this run and we have a lot of games in December to put things right.
“It has been a tough schedule, we have played a lot of the top teams and we haven’t picked up the points we’re capable of.
“It hasn’t been nice but we are all very much together, my belief in the players is the same – I still believe in them strongly.
“So I’ve told the chairman I want quality rather than quantity when the window opens again.
“Hopefully by doing that we will save some money to use in the summer.
“When a team is not scoring goals that is obviously an area you have to look at, but it’s creating as well from wide areas and midfield.
“So everyone has to look to help the strikers.”
As Saints return from the international break, Wright confirmed that defender Brian Easton faces another four weeks on the sidelines.
He said: “The good thing is we have a break because Motherwell are in the cup final so he’s not going to miss that much football.
“After Saturday we don’t have a game until December, which is going to be a very busy month, so hopefully we’ll have him back for that.
“Michael O’Halloran, Chris Millar and Murray Davidson will return to training this week but Stefan Scougall has a muscle injury.
“He will be about a week to ten days from when he did it so he won’t be available for Hibs this weekend.”