Stuart McCall happy to stay at Motherwell

McCall has been tipped as a potential successor to Danny Wilson at Bramall Lane but says he is unaware of any official approach.

The Motherwell manager refused to rule out the possibility of speaking to the Blades – with whom he spent three years as a player – but was keen to stress he was happy at Fir Park.

McCall said: “I don’t know anything about it other than there has been speculation. I’ve never once looked to go elsewhere, whether as a player, coach, manager. If, for example, Sheffield United wanted to speak to me, the club and the board have always been open with me as I have been with them. If somebody wants to speak to you, you would maybe say, ‘Okay we will speak’. But it’s not definite that I will be speaking to anyone.”

McCall received a boost yesterday when defender Simon Ramsden signed a new two-year contract. Ramsden arrived from Bradford on a one-year deal last summer and has made 30 appearances.

Goalkeeper Darren Randolph will quit at the end of the season for a move to Birmingham, while potential target Craig Samson looks set for a switch to Kilmarnock. McCall – speaking ahead of tomorrow’s visit to St Johnstone – said: “I will say we are not looking for a ’keeper to pay a load of money for because we think, in Lee Hollis, we’ve had a good deputy to Darren. But we need strong competition, and whoever comes in is coming in to vie with Lee. If, as we believe, Craig won’t be coming here, we will have to look elsewhere.”

Motherwell are already in Europe next season, but opponents St Johnstone are still trying to join them. Saints manager Steve Lomas is putting budget worries aside to urge his players to finish the season in a blaze of “glory” by securing a Europa League spot.

The Perth club realistically need to beat the second-placed Steelmen, while hoping that Inverness fail to win their Highland derby against Ross County in Dingwall to make Europe for the second successive season.

Lomas will see midfielders Murray Davidson and Hibernian-bound Liam Craig play their last games for the McDiarmid Park club, with perhaps others set to leave, knowing he will have less money to replace them for next season. However, he wants to concentrate on one last push against Stuart McCall’s side. “We don’t know our budget yet but it will be cut,” he said. “Hopefully, the third place, if we get it, would maybe make the chairman a little bit more comfortable to set the budget higher than he first thought. But we are not focusing on that, we are thinking about the glory on Sunday.

“Forget about the money. The way I put it across to the players is it is about Europe for two years on the spin. I didn’t have that in my career. That is a fantastic achievement in anyone’s CV, especially at a club like St Johnstone. So forget about money and budgets, it will be great for the glory.”

Lomas is still uncertain as to whether or not Ross County skipper Richard Brittain will be a St Johnstone player next season. Brittain had tried to get out of the pre-contract agreement he had signed with the Perth club before he was taken to hospital amid fears he had suffered cruciate ligament damage in the defeat at Motherwell last week.

However, the 29-year-old midfielder had sprained his medial ligament and will be out for between six to eight weeks, although Lomas will leave both clubs to sort out the situation.

He said: “Let me go on record and say I am delighted for Richard because, at first, it looked like a bad injury. At first you fear that it is cruciate ligament, which, even though the surgery is a lot better these days, is every player’s nightmare. It is down to the two clubs to resolve the scenario.”