St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown insists appointing anyone other than Tommy Wright as the new McDiarmid manager would have been a “major gamble” and one the club were not willing to take.
As first predicted in The Courier, Wright has now made the step up from Saints’ assistant boss to become Steve Lomas’s successor.
Lomas left the club last week to take over at Millwall, following in the footsteps of his Perth predecessors Derek McInnes and Owen Coyle, who both departed to join English Championship sides.
Brown admitted that he was inundated with applications from prospective new managers but he decided that appointing Wright, who had previously managed at Lisburn Distillery, would ensure continuity, especially with Saints set to play their first Europa League qualifier on July 18.
And the chairman also confessed that the former Northern Ireland, Newcastle and Manchester City goalkeeper’s decision not to join Lomas at The Den was another major factor in awarding him the job.
Brown said: “Tommy was the obvious successor to Steve Lomas and has signed a two-year deal to 2015. Stability is important at any football club and in stepping up from the assistant’s role, he brings us continuity.
“We were delighted with the impressive quality of CVs which flooded in when it became clear we were losing another manager to the Championship but we didn’t look to interview any other candidate.”
“Along with Steve Lomas, Tommy has played an integral role in the success of the football club over the last two seasons after they took on the good work done here by Derek McInnes,” said Steve Brown.
“When he made it clear he would prefer to stay with us rather than follow Steve to Millwall, we took that as a very positive sign of his commitment to St Johnstone. That sort of loyalty impressed me.
“The opportunity to be his own man carried obvious appeal. He has man-management qualities and knows the game inside out. Any other appointment would have been a high-risk strategy and a major gamble as we would have been back to square one.”
Wright will be assisted by long-serving player Callum Davidson and Brown believes the combined knowledge and contacts the pair provide will pay dividends and ensure that the success enjoyed under Lomas continues.
He added: “As a board, we have worked closely with Tommy since Steve brought him to the club to be his assistant. He knows how the club operates from top to bottom, including the financial side, our
commitment to the community and bringing the club closer to the fans, our philosophy on youth development and, like Callum Davidson, he is respected in the dressing-room.
“With Europa League qualifiers next month we have a pressing need to get various players tied up and Tommy has been fully involved with that side of things.
“We are pushing hard to tie up players and hopefully we will have good news on that front later in the week. We are actively looking at targets in various leagues who fall within our budget so we have certainly not been inactive on that front.
“Tommy has management experience from his time in Northern Ireland and again like Callum he has amassed an abundance of contacts across the country from his playing days at club and international level.
“Callum is very much Tommy’s appointment and it has been warmly embraced by the directors. He is mature, intelligent, popular with the players, and he has a wide knowledge of the game. He has dipped a toe in the waters coaching wise and is ready to take on the role as assistant manager.”
The new managerial team will not be formally unveiled until next Tuesday because of prior holiday commitments.