Matty Kennedy has left St Johnstone for Aberdeen.
The Pittodrie club came up with an offer Saints were willing to accept – understood to be around £75,000 plus add-ons – and the winger headed north after training at McDiarmid Park in the morning.
In his last interview as a Saints player, with his immediate future still up in the air, Kennedy made it clear that he would have been happy to see out the season in Perth and din’t force his way out.
“It’s been a strange situation because I’ve never signed a pre-contract before,” he said.
“You don’t really see them down south.
“I’ve been working hard in training but I got a knock on my ankle last week so that was me out of the Morton game.
“The two clubs have been speaking regards me going in this window but that’s not something I’m involved in.
“I’ve told the manager that as long as I’m here I’m available and I’ll give him 100%.
“I told him I wasn’t happy that I didn’t play against Livingston. I felt ready to play but he obviously thought all the uncertainty might affect me.
“The club and the manager have done a lot for me.
“I may have signed a pre-contract but I’ll give everything for St Johnstone. They gave me a two-year contract and pay my wages.
“People say: ‘what if you get injured?’ I don’t even think about that. All I think is: ‘just play me’.”
Kennedy added: “Not once have I chapped on the manager’s door and said; ‘I don’t want to be here’. I’m happy here and have been since the day I signed.
“I’m excited about my move to Aberdeen at the end of the season. I didn’t expect it. It was a move I couldn’t turn down. Aberdeen are a big club.
“But until I’m there, St Johnstone will get my full commitment.
“All the boys in the changing room are my mates and that hasn’t changed.”
Before the transfer was agreed, Tommy Wright said: “I would like it resolved one way or another.
“Because human nature being what it is, it’s bound to be playing on his mind.
“If Aberdeen come back in with another bid for Matty that is their prerogative.
“But the club have stuck by their guns and said he isn’t for sale. That is good.
“It’s a situation where one club wants a player, another wants to hold onto him.
“Matty has told us he doesn’t want to go now.
“I am realistic so if the right offer comes in Matty will go to Aberdeen. But the right offer hasn’t come in. So he is staying.”
Meanwhile, Jamie McCart’s pre-contract has now been officially confirmed. The Inverness Caledonian Thistle centre-back will arrive in the summer unless a deal is struck to bring him south this month.
