WRIGHT RECORD WILL PAVE WAY FOR AN EXIT, SAYS O’HALLORAN

MICHAEL O’HALLORAN fully expects St Johnstone to challenge for second place in the top flight deep into the season.

The bad news for his former club is that the Rangers attacker imagines such an effort will pave the way for Tommy Wright’s well-earned departure.

Wright has consistently produced top-six football on a bottom-six budget for the Perth outfit, with O’Halloran a fixture for two fourth-place finishes. The Ulsterman has never lost a post-split fixture to Celtic or Aberdeen and he led them to Scottish Cup glory in 2014.

All that adds up to Wright (pictured) By Fraser Mackie following McDiarmid Park managers Owen Coyle, Derek McInnes and Steve Lomas in being coaxed to a more lucrative job in England — a reward overdue, according to O’Halloran.

The Ibrox forward said: ‘I won’t be surprised if he’s not there much longer because he’s producing every single year and won the Scottish Cup — the first major bit of silverware for them — as well.

‘It’ll be good for the club if he stayed but I personally think he could be gone soon.

‘I’m sure there are clubs down south taking notice. I think the last three or four St Johnstone managers have gone down there off the back of doing well up here.

‘You’ve got to say that the chairman has done well in recruiting managers because they’ve a great record of appointing the right man for the club.

‘Man-management and tactical awareness are his strengths. He knows the game so well and you see that by how they set up in different games, how they would counter different teams. He knows his players so well.

‘He knew me and how to get the best out of me.’