IT’S fair to say the departure of Tommy Wright from St Johnstone last weekend was not exactly a JFK moment for Alan Mannus.
Switching his television on, it took a while for the penny to drop when he read the headlines scrolling along the bottom of the screen on the Sky Sports News ticker. Nevertheless, he wasn’t really shocked by what he read about his fellow Northern Irishman, under whom he spent five years in Perth.
“I had missed the bit where it said ‘St Johnstone manager steps down’,” says Mannus. “I didn’t know it was him and I was thinking ‘Who’s Wright?’ It wasn’t clear that it was a manager stepping down and it wasn’t clear that it was St Johnstone. It just said ‘Wright had spent seven years at the club’. Then after a couple of seconds, I read ‘St Johnstone’ and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s Tommy then. Oh right, okay’. I suppose it was a bit of a surprise but, then again, maybe not.”
The former McDiarmid Park goalkeeper had long suspected that his compatriot’s future at the club was inextricably linked to that of Michael O’Neill, who resigned as Northern Ireland manager last month. While there is not said to be any connection between O’Neill’s way-going and Wright’s decision to depart the Perth club, Mannus is not so sure.
“I thought for a few years that Tommy would be the one who would replace Michael if he was to leave for any reason. I thought that for a good few years, even when I was still at St Johnstone. When I saw who the frontrunners for the Northern Ireland job were, it was Tommy and two or three others. It was reported that Tommy was under contract and that the IFA would have to pay compensation; now that he is not under contract, if the IFA don’t have to pay anything for him, then it takes away that
potential problem.”
In truth, Mannus is surprised that Wright lasted as long as he did at McDiarmid. Operating on a financial shoestring, he won the Scottish Cup in 2014, secured four top-six finishes, brought regular European football to Perth and won manager of the season in 2015-16. Mannus would look on waiting for the day when a club from down south would make its move.
“There were times when a Championship job would come up in England or somewhere like that and you’d think I wonder if they will be looking at Tommy because there were maybe other managers linked to jobs in the Championship and maybe a couple of managers went for jobs,” he recalls.
“Alex Neill went from Hamilton to Norwich City. I’m not saying that Alex didn’t deserve it, I didn’t know him, but
Tommy probably deserved some kind of opportunity as well but maybe people don’t look at St Johnstone in the same way as some other teams in the league. It’s maybe not as fancy a team or whatever. It’s the same as some players. There were players that if they had performed the same at another club, then they would be getting opportunities at big clubs in England.”
The question over who replaces Wright at St Johnstone remains unanswered. Alec Cleland, who has been placed in temporary charge, and Callum Davidson, Wright’s long-time assistant who is now at Sky Bet Championship side Millwall, are among the favourites.
Mannus favours continuity over a fresh face and believes Davidson, who had two spells at St Johnstone as a player, would command the immediate respect of the squad.
“I don’t think he would have to work hard to earn people’s respect for what he has done at the club as a player. He expects a standard from his players and they always used to say how much they liked his training.”
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