Saints boss Tommy Wright looking to get deals done early
St Johnstone might have a longer break than usual this summer, but manager Tommy Wright is still looking to get his transfer business done early.
Wright has held talks with transfer targets in England after previous discussions with the likes of Falkirk midfielder Blair Alston, St Mirren full-back Keith Watson and Dundee United midfielder Ryan Dow.
Wright, who already has York midfielder Michael Coulson secured on a pre-contract deal, said: "I was down in England again this week looking at players and talking to one or two.
"People like Blair Alston, we have spoken to his agent and we are waiting for them to get back to us. Fans think you want a player and it happens overnight, but players and agents keep their cards close to their chest and want to keep their options open.
"I have spoken to the chairman (Steve Brown) and we feel we need to invest more in recruitment this year and that's what he is planning to do.
"Hopefully we can get some fresh faces in and help the squad maintain the standards we have set over the last few years."
Honours are even between Saints and Aberdeen this season with their three meetings producing 15 goals.
"There have probably been too many goals for both managers, the defending left a lot to be desired, but they have been entertaining and exciting games," Wright said.
"They have still got a lot to play for and I feel we still have a lot to play for, so it's a big game for both teams."
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has little hope that Celtic's managerial announcement will let his team back in the title race.
McInnes all but conceded the Ladbrokes Premiership title after a 2-1 defeat by Hearts and Celtic stretched their lead to eight points with victory at Motherwell the following day.
The Hoops have since announced Deila will depart in the summer after the manager decided to step down following William Hill Scottish Cup defeat by Rangers.
Aberdeen can put some pressure on by beating St Johnstone on Friday but McInnes is not counting on a collapse from Celtic, who host Ross County on Sunday.
"I said after the Hearts game that I felt the possibility of winning the league was all but beyond us," McInnes said.
"While it's mathematically still possible, we are not going to give it up, we are going to try and win every game and try and win the next game, which is the most important thing.
"It's only Celtic's to lose, it would need a dramatic collapse over the last five games.
"The league form has suggested that won't be the case, they have never shown that at any time over the past few seasons and I wouldn't think that would change now.
"Only time will tell whether the changes there will have an impact on results but the players and squad there are still capable of getting results, regardless of who is in charge."
McInnes is still without top goalscorer Adam Rooney, who just misses out on a comeback from a thigh problem, but he wants his team to show they can keep up their side of the bargain by winning at McDiarmid Park.
"The last five games we are playing against teams that we've beaten this season already so we know when we are playing to our best we are capable of beating all those teams," he said.
"The difficulty at the minute, when we have a few players out and the squad is stretched a wee bit, we are looking for individual performances that can help us get those results.
"But we are certainly confident going into the game, we had a good result there in January and hopefully the performance shows we still feel we have plenty to play for."
Source: PAR
