Defiant St Johnstone manager retains hopes of reviving Stevie May deal

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright refused to rule out the possibility of a deal for Stevie May being resurrected.

Tommy Wright still wants to sign Stevie May

Speaking after Saints’ 7-0 loss at Celtic, the biggest defeat of his six-year tenure, Wright was cautious about bringing his former striker back to the club. But it is believed that May, who seemed set to return to the Perth club last month only for the deal to collapse, will sign on the dotted line this week following his release from Aberdeen. Wright said: “I’m hoping to have a striker next week but after the week I had with the Stevie May deal, I wouldn’t hold my breath. That proved that anything can happen in football. He’d done his medical and Stevie was away with his two polo shirts and tracksuits. I’ll need to ring him, actually, to get them back.

“He was in my team to play against Brechin so that’s how close it was. I can’t say for definite I’ll have someone in next week. Because I’ll never say that again after what happened there. But hopefully we’ll have at least one in. Can we resurrect the May deal? You’d have to ask Stevie, his advisors and my chairman [Steve Brown]. Do I want to resurrect it? The answer’s simple, yes. But we have to wait and see.”

Wright has been portrayed as a magician denuded of any further tricks following six years when St Johnstone have consistently outperformed realistic expectations of what a club with one of the top flight’s smallest wage bills should be able to conjure. The 55-year-old maintains he hasn’t been left with nothing up his sleeves, though.

“Nothing’s changed. I’m still a magician with no tools,” he said. “I’m at a great club with a good chairman. But we can only spend what we can spend. That’s it. The biggest thing is to get a reaction off the players next week and I think we’ll get it. On a positive note, we’re only one point behind Motherwell and Livingston.”

“There’s a total chasm of class in terms of our squad and Celtic’s. You’d expect that. But there shouldn’t have been that difference in the scoreline because we’ve got to be better. I’m still confident going into the season because I’ve been in this position before.

“I’ve got experience to deal with it and I will. It’s evident that we need a striker and – on today – we probably need more than that. Hopefully that will happen. Believe it or not, I’m in pretty good fettle. We had a 6-0 against Celtic last season and went on an incredible run after that. We have to bounce back and learn from it.”