St Johnstone have not reached the stage of telling Alan Mannus to “take it or leave it” with their latest contract offer.
Manager Tommy Wright has known his fellow Northern Irishman longer than any of the Saints players.
And he revealed that the decision by Mannus to take his time to mull over his options is par for the course.
There will come a time when Wright will be looking for a final answer, but that time hasn’t come yet.
“There is no impasse,” the Perth boss insisted. “Alan is taking his time.
“Alan knows exactly what the offer is from the club. He wants time to think about it and that is the way we have left it. I’m not overly concerned because Alan has left it late every time. That is just the way he deals with it.
“Others want to make a decision early.
“As it drags on it might cause us a bit of a problem but he hasn’t indicated he doesn’t want to stay here.
“Goalkeeper is an important position obviously. There will be plenty keepers available but it would be about finding a good one if that was necessary.
“Alan has been very good for us and you could argue he has been our most consistent players over the last few seasons.
“He is someone I don’t want to lose and that is reflected in the length of contract we want him to sign.
“Hopefully we can get something sorted out. Ideally I would like him to make his mind up now but there is no gun to his head.”
Bottom of the league St Mirren are the visitors to McDiarmid Park tomorrow, but Wright isn’t putting any significance on that.
He said: “This is an important game for both clubs and hopefully we can get back to winning ways.
“I don’t look at where St Mirren are in the league. At this stage of the season every game is important, for different reasons at different clubs.
“We want to get into the top six and they want to get away from the relegation and play-off places.
“Where it might help us is that the pressure of trying to make the top six is different from that on a team caught up in a relegation battle.
“But they have been down there all season and have had to deal with it.
“They have added a couple of players and Thomson is back. They have a good squad. They beat us at our place and we won in Paisley.
“Every win for us could be vital and we are looking for a reaction to the defeat from Partick.
“There are areas we will have to improve on and we know that.
“I have a team in mind for Saturday and other than Simon Lappin I have everyone fit.”
Meanwhile, Wright expressed his disappointment that a council planning vote has gone against them and their training ground is set to be dug up.
He pointed out: “Speaking to the chairman, the most disappointing thing is that negotiations were going on behind the scenes and the council vote was taken while this was happening. It will have an impact on the club if it stands.
“We are training two and three times a week in Perth and having the players around allows us to do work out in the community.
“If we are based in Stirling we can’t be having the players travelling up after training. So the schools here have benefited, with players out and about with the Scottish Cup. The club wants to identify as strongly as possible with Perth.
“On the youth development side it will have even more of an impact. We are trying to develop our own players and having a grass pitch near the astro is important and vital for licensing from the football authorities. The club has invested heavily so as things stand this is a negative decision for the football club.
“Hopefully a compromise can still be found because as a football manager obviously the training facilities are important.
“It is also important for the community. If there was no alternative I could understand it, maybe not like it. But other proposals are still being discussed.
“If it has an effect on the commercial side of the club inevitably that will impact further down the line on the income stream and there would be a knock-on effect in terms of the football budget. So it is a real concern.”