BY IAIN COLLIN – Capital City Press
St Johnstone have been told by Tony Mowbray to forget about re-signing Coventry City attacker Danny Swanson – at least for now.
Swanson spent the second half of last season on loan at McDiarmid Park and Saints manager Tommy Wright has been in contact with his Coventry counterpart over a return move this summer.
However, Mowbray is keen to run the rule over the former Dundee United player during pre-season to assess how he fits in to the Sky Blues’ likely playing style in the coming campaign.
The former Celtic and Hibs boss has not ruled out the possibility that Swanson, who left Scottish football in 2012 to join Peterborough United, could be made available for a return north of the border at a later date.
But both Mowbray and the midfielder appear content to see how things develop in the coming weeks at the Ricoh Arena.
In the meantime, St Johnstone have freed Hibernian captain Liam Craig, former Rangers midfielder Rhys McCabe and out-of-contract Dundee player Jim McAlister training with them.
Mowbray said: “I’ve had a few conversations with the St Johnstone manager and they liked him a lot but the reason he’s back here is because I like good footballers, so let’s wait and see.
“It’s whether we are going to play a brand of football that suits his particular qualities, so it suits both parties to have a look and see how the pre-season goes and what we think, and see how we get on.
“St Johnstone are pretty keen on him and Danny wants to see how his relationship develops with his new manager, really, as well as the team to see how it goes here – and I’m happy to go along with that for the time being.”
Mowbray added to the Coventry Telegraph: “If, somewhere along the line, the two of us decide that it might be more beneficial for him to go back up north then we’ll have that discussion. But for the moment he’s got to get on with pre-season and we’ll see how we go.”
