Football Season Guide

Another consistently solid performance from Tommy Wright's St Johnstone had them finish just outside the bottom six, but with more points than sixth-placed Hearts. Once again there was nothing spectacular about Saints, but they had enough experience to remain competitive. Wright has done tremendously well to hang onto many of those experienced campaigners this summer too. The likes of Liam Craig, Murray Davidson and Ricky Foster will continue to provide that core of experience in the side. But there have been some worrying departures. Tony Watt left for CSKA Sofia, and Wright has yet to replace him. With Callum Hendry being released over the summer too, finding some firepower to boost their top-six chances has been a real problem. Despite having the pace of Matthew Kennedy and Drey Wright on board for another season, Saints need to focus on finding a clinical striker to make the most of their service. Wallace Duffy and Madis Vihmann have been added to the back-line to accommodate the departures of Brian Easton and Joe Shaughnessy repsectively. Both, however, are stabs in the dark as Wallace has yet to play one senior game of football whilst Vihmann is an unknown quantity. Recruitment, overall, has been disappointing this summer from Saints. But they continue to have kept their star-men from last season, and that would suggest another season of consistently competitive performances from Saints once more. A top-six place looks a little out of their each, however, unless more is added going forward.