Tommy Wright: St Johnstone boss on longevity, speaking his mind & success

Tommy Wright says he 'has a tendency to speak from the heart sometimes'

Tommy Wright has all the numbers in his head. The five that Celtic got against his team in February 2019; the six they put on them in October 2018; the seven - Dear God, don't mention the seven - they ran up on the first day of the current season.

"Aye, 27 goals to zip," he says, in summarising the last eight games between the sides. Room for improvement on Wednesday, then, when St Johnstone host Neil Lennon's team, a group of players who are as hard-working as they are talented, he says.

"We used to get some results against them. A couple of draws at Celtic Park, a win here, a win there in 2015, but we haven't got anything for a while now. They're all about pressure, pressure, pressure, then they force mistakes and it's 7-0. They're intense.

"Rangers lost to Hearts but Lenny won't think that's the title done. There'll be more big moments and the Celtic lads will know that. They've been over the course before.

"The difference between Lenny's team, and Brendan's team, compared to, say, Ronny Deila's team, is that when you were against Ronny's team at times they didn't work as hard without the ball as these boys do. Celtic press the life out of you. They're intense. They're fallible - all teams are - but you need to be brave. We'll have to be really good on the night."

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Wright's team beat Kilmarnock at the weekend, a nice end to what was a frustrating time. The big man gave vent to a few feelings in his media stuff before the game, but it's done now. Over.

"The chairman knows what I'm like," he says of Steve Brown. "Kirsten probably didn't," he says of Kirsten Robertson, the relatively new head of football operations. "It's Steve's club but I see it as my club as well because I've been here for so long and it means so much to me. I have a tendency to speak from the heart sometimes."

The game on Wednesday will see Celtic fans all but occupy McDiarmid Park in Perth, the decision to sell extra tickets to the travelling army from Glasgow having the full support of the St Johnstone manager. "It won't be weird, I'm quite looking forward to it. I was asked from a playing point of view if I had any concerns and I didn't because their advantage is on the pitch and not in the stands.

"It'll help the atmosphere and it might galvanise our supporters. My players will relish it, hopefully. There were only 2,600 people here on Saturday. The crowd really got behind us but it's better when there's more, even if they are Celtic."

'Another chairman might have pulled the plug'

At the turn of the year, amid a wave of stuff that looked back on a decade in Scottish football, there was a feature online about what an aggregate Scottish top-flight table would look like across the span of the last 10 years. In fourth place, on 520 points, were St Johnstone.

Wright encourages you to check that stat with the confidence of a man who knows it's true. Why wouldn't he? As manager for six-and-a-half seasons his work was responsible for the majority of those points.

He could do with a few more now. He's only got 23 after 21 games, his lowest total at this stage of the season since he became manager in 2013. Things seem to be getting better though. St Johnstone have lost only one of their last seven in the league. They've suffered the loss of the influential Matty Kennedy to Aberdeen, but they've signed the promising defender, Jamie McCart, from Inverness. They paid money, too. Almost unheard of, that.

When Wright talks about the rut they were in - the one he hopes they're now out of - he speaks with the authority of somebody who's been over this terrain many times before. Even in their three consecutive fourth place finishes, St Johnstone had pockets of poor form they had to navigate their way through. "I know how to deal with that stuff when it happens," he says. "Don't panic. Keep believing.

"At the start of the season, I was probably too hard on them. We didn't win a league game until October. Our ninth match was against St Mirren and we didn't get a reaction after going 1-0 down and at that point I thought, 'Right, I might have to pull back a little bit here. Stay firm, but maybe not as critical'. You get a sense of what they need and what they don't need. It's not in the manual, that stuff. It's just a feeling.

"At another club, another chairman might have pulled the plug on me, even in previous seasons, but the chairman trusts me. He never once said to me, 'Your job is under threat'. I'll always be calm and I'll tell you why. If I'm worried then the players will sense it, they'll sense it in training, they'll pick up the vibes. We've had these runs here in the past."

'If I think I've been wronged I'll stand up'

Before he sits down to talk, Wright offers coffee or tea to warm the cockles, the surprise being that there isn't a third proposition of hemlock to kill the senses.

Things have been a tad testy with the BBC of late, an unhappiness that the broadcasters' reporters are not seen as often as they used to be in Perth, or, he states, as often as they are in other places. "You're never out of Motherwell," he says. "You're going to say it's a resource thing, but it's as easy to get to Perth as it is to Motherwell.

"My wife Anne tells me to leave these things alone but if I think somebody has wronged me or my players or my club then I'll stand up. My mum, God rest her soul, would be looking down on me and saying, 'Good on you'. I'll always defend the club. I've had barneys with people but, you know, 99 times out of 100, it's sorted out and forgotten about.

"If there was a club of the decade we'd be up there. A Scottish Cup, third in the league, three fourths in a row, never lower than eighth. No club around our size have done anywhere near that. Anyway, that's my wee rant over."

Tommy Wright stepped up from assistant manager to replace Steve Lomas in 2013

In his time as a top-flight boss, only three clubs have remained in the division or avoided a relegation play-off - Celtic, Aberdeen and his own St Johnstone. The latter pair have stuck a foot in the revolving door that is football management and have had just one manager in the last seven years.

By contrast, Hamilton Academical have had three; Celtic (counting Neil Lennon in two different spells), Motherwell and Ross County have had four; Hearts five; Hibs and Livingston six; Kilmarnock and Rangers (if you want to count the interim months of Kenny McDowall, Stuart McCall and Graeme Murty) have had seven; and St Mirren have had eight.

When Wright took over in Perth, Ally McCoist was still in charge of Rangers, Gary Locke was in charge of Hearts, and Pat Fenlon was in charge at Hibs. All that stability and all that experience has come in handy this season. From bottom of the league not too long ago they're now in eighth, tighter at the back, but still lacking threat up front.

The signing of Stevie May was supposed to help, but it hasn't. Not yet at any rate. It's a heart-breaker for all Saints, but the one-time hero hasn't done his stuff, three goals in 18 games a disappointing return for a player who signed-off in his first incarnation as a St Johnstone man with 27 in 49.

"Stevie's a better all-round player than he was before," argues Wright. "He has better appreciation of the game. The thing he needs back is the selfishness. When he scored 27 goals you used to be pulling your hair out at times because he would always shoot when maybe he should have passed, but he converted quite a lot of those chances.

"He's lost that selfishness and it comes from a lack of confidence. I have to re-emphasise that trust I have in him. 'Go out and almost play off the cuff, don't overanalyse it'. He's still the same person he was. He's quiet and deep. He hasn't changed, beyond one or two more tattoos. I'm sure he'll get goals for us."

Wright will drive on. Celtic on Wednesday, Hearts the following Saturday, Aberdeen the following Wednesday. The cycle never stops. The life gets frustrating. At times it gets maddening. But he wouldn't swap it. No chance.