ALAN MANNUS has backed new Kilmarnock manager Tommy Wright to guide the Ayrshire outfit to Scottish Premiership safety.
The Northern Irishman was appointed Killie boss yesterday after Alex Dyer left his position by ‘mutual consent’ and with his new side having just two wins in their last 13 matches, Wright faces an uphill battle to turn things around in a bid to avoid the inevitable drop.
The 57-year-old is held in legendary status in Perthshire following his impressive seven-year stint as McDiarmid Park gaffer, but there were times where he had to dig deep to guide Saints out of trouble.
Mannus was part of the famous Scottish Cup winning side of 2014, but he does recall moments when his former manager worked wonders to propel St Johnstone up the table.
“At St Johnstone there were times when we went on a bit of a bad run when three or four bad results can put you in and around the bottom,” he told Herald and Times Sport.
“There was negativity from outside the club thinking that we were going to struggle. But we always managed to turn it round and a lot of the time get into the top six.
“I can’t comment on Kilmarnock, but speaking from experience having Tommy as manager, we were able to turn things round whenever things got difficult.
“It seemed to just be people from outside the club who would be negative about things. They would say the club are going down.
“It happened a couple of times at least when I was there and I’m sure there were a couple of other times when I left as well.
“People would doubt the team on whether they would stay up, but they always did. It just shows you that you can’t doubt a team that Tommy Wright puts out.”
Mannus believes Kilmarnock will be the perfect fit for Wright to showcase his managerial talents once again, but he admits he was surprised that his former boss didn’t land the Northern Ireland vacancy last summer.
He continued: “I couldn’t see him staying out of management for too long, I know that is what he likes to do best.
“I thought it was only a matter of time before he had an opportunity somewhere. He knows Scottish football very well. He has proven himself in Scotland as a manager and he knows the league very well.
“He knows the people in the league, he knows the players, he knows what it takes to manage a team that isn’t one of the big three or four in terms of finance.
“Kilmarnock is the kind of club that suits him and it is the kind of club that he has shown he can do well at. I thought he was going to get the Northern Ireland job. I thought that for a few years he would be next after Michael O’Neill.
“Just because of his connections with the IFA, he used to play for Northern Ireland obviously, he used to be the goalkeeping coach. He knows the IFA well and everyone knows him and he obviously had a lot of experience as a manager.
“He was in a job at the time at St Johnstone and doing well so I thought he would have been the next manager with Northern Ireland. I was surprised that he didn’t get the job.”
St Johnstone always had their critics for the style of football they played under Wright, but for Mannus there was simply no substance to those claims.
The current Shamrock Rovers keeper believes Saints would not have achieved the successes they have enjoyed in recent years if they were playing “unattractive” football.
He explained: “St Johnstone was always seen as an unfashionable club or an unattractive club. At times I think we had players that were doing well and if they were at another club then they would have been getting talked about and being linked to bigger clubs.
“That probably didn’t happen because they were at St Johnstone and it is probably the same for Tommy as a manager. If he had done the same job at another club, he would have been getting opportunities in the Championship in England like other managers got.
“I think other managers got those opportunities without doing as much as Tommy did. It just shows you the way people perceive the club.
“That was just the way it was. At times, the team maybe were longer ball and hitting the channels but that is what a lot of the teams do in Scotland.
“I don’t think it was fair to put it all on Tommy’s team when the other teams were doing the same thing. There wasn’t very many Manchester City teams about in the league. We could play when we needed to play. I think the results speak for themselves.”
Wright takes charge of his first game on Wednesday as Motherwell visit Rugby Park and Mannus has revealed what fans can expect from their new look team.
He added: “Under Tommy we were well organised. We knew what we were good at. We were difficult to beat and we were good going forward as well and took our opportunities.
“The organisation obviously comes from the manager and who he puts on the pitch and who he brings into the club.
“There is no coincidence that we had those six or seven years being consistently good and probably overperforming in the league for what we were.
“We had a couple of top four finishes and won the cup obviously and got into Europe four or five times at least during the time I was there. I think that says it all really. When you look at the size of the club that we were.”
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