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Aye for me the Totten period was the most memorable in terms of exciting football.There was a great passion for the club from both players and fans that seems lacking these days.Maybe I'm just being nostalgic but i definitely felt more connected to the club than now.The heart and soul of Saints is sorely missing at the present time imo. Think TW was one of our best managers and Davidsons success was off the back of that.I certainly echo BHs previous post that CD although ironically managing us through a double cup win then went on to blow our best chances in Europe and systematically ruin the team and waste millions of pounds on poor players.Just a shame TW was never given this money.Just imagine where we would be now.I still feel pissed off about it tbh

Agree with all of this, but for me the thing that really puts Wright top of the bunch isn't just the obvious stand-out achievements, but the fact that he sustained us at a high level for year after year. Our other successful periods have petered out relatively quickly (even Ormond's league positions and cup performances were fairly unspectacular outside that one 3rd place finish and European run), but Wright turned us into a club that was comfortable in the top flight and enjoying at least one good cup run pretty much every year. The other thing I loved about Wright was that every single time it looked like things were taking a dip, he'd haul us out of it. We had some bad patches, but I always had faith in him to turn them around, and he always did. And his ability to continually refresh the squad without ever needing to resort to a massive rebuild was almost Alex Ferguson-esque (except Fergie had millions and Wright had a shoestring). Even when we lost Stevie May and he wasn't allowed to use any of the money to sign a striker to replace him, he just got on with things and somehow managed to finish 4th in the league despite only scoring 34 goals all season. That's just incredible.

He definitely was crap though.

Yeah, I agree that Tommy is our best ever. He not only won our first major trophy, but also laid the foundations for future successes. However, I wouldn’t say that Ormond and Totten were too far away from him when it comes to achievements. Ormond is up there, and has the stand named after him, because he managed to create a team that was capable of taking on Rangers and Celtic, at a time when both of them, and maybe even Scottish football as a whole, were arguably at their peak. To finish third in 70/71, above a really strong Rangers side who went on to win the European cup winners cup the next year, is an incredible achievement. Celtic at the time were one of the best teams on the planet, taking on the likes of the then, all conquering Leeds United, along with the rest of Europe's top teams. To be able to hold our own, over the course of a full season, in that kind of company is again, incredible. Totten did an amazing job in turning what was essentially a pub team, into an exciting and successful top league side in just a few years. The football his team played at that time was great as well. None of this well organised nonsense you have these days. It was "get intae them" from start to finish. Moorey, Maskrey and big Roddy at a packed out McDiarmid. Good times.

I think history will remember Davidson kindly. 100 years from now, if there's still a St Johnstone, he'll still be known as the manager who won the Double for Saints, long after whatever happened after that has been forgotten about. But he also played a huge part in destroying so many of the elements that had made St Johnstone successful. We're still feeling the repercussions of the damage he did, and it's looking increasingly like we're going to continue feeling them for several more years to come. If we go down, much of the blame for that is going to be at his door. His signing policy was atrocious, he didn't bring through a single youngster, his treatment of some players seemed unfair, he implemented the most turgid and ineffective style of football I'd ever seen at Saints, and he was too arrogant to change his ways when it was obvious he needed to. He also made an absolute pig's ear of probably the best chance this club will ever have of reaching European group stage football. He just completely ruined everything that Tommy Wright had built, and I still find that very hard to deal with.

I’ve been pretty vocal about players currently at Saints who I simply cannot stomach but I just don’t totally get the hate for MacPherson. I understand some of it because he hasn’t lived up to the billing but it’s not his fault the way he was brought in under the Ali McCann saga. He IS talented. And I do believe he is of, albeit lower half, SPL quality on his day. If(BIG if) we kept him fit for a season and I half I think we would really see a solid centre midfielder at this level. We need to clear the decks of guys like Considine, McGowan, Carey, Gallagher and Crawford. A midfield of Sven Sprangler, Matt Smith and Cammy MacPherson wouldn’t be the worst midfield in the league next year if Levein can sign a couple of decent defenders then we have the makings of a team that can put the past couple of seasons behind them. Keltjens, Sidibeh, Robinson and Kimpioka will be up to another level next season with a preseason under their belt.

Ian Scott was his assistant and certainly not bringing his staff was a big mistake, as I'm not sure how much coaching he actually did. That issue was then compounded by appointing Jim Weir to the assistant role when he was a complete rookie and was being expected to lead training etc.. But the bigger issue was how Connolly (and his staff) had enjoyed success at Palmerston. They were all based in the north of England and had adopted a complete scattergun approach to transfers. They'd used something like 80 players in his first couple of seasons there before finding the diamonds in the rough like Steve Bowey that formed a decent squad. That sort of approach was never going to work in full-time football when you can't just bring in guys on short-term contracts to suss them out for a few games. He tried to sign a good number of his QoS players but they weren't interested in relocating before he finally got David Bagan, almost to prove a point, but he was miles off the standard required. An appointment that was doomed before it even got going.

Heard a very similar version of this story, with the addition that when Burns said no he recommended Stark and Geoff went with it. Stark's only previous management job was at Morton, where he achieved nothing of note and was eventually sacked, and yet he walked into a Premier League job with Saints after that. Still don't understand what on earth Geoff was thinking with that decision. I've always been pretty sceptical about whether Burns would have been any better. I remember feeling at the time that we were very similar to Burns' and Stark's Celtic team (albeit at a lower level) in that we sometimes played some nice-enough football but lacked any real fight and ultimately failed in our goals. We even ended up with a few of the same players. Was very, very glad when that particular Saints era came to an end.

My understanding was its was a sign on a house ( or shop ) directing people to the ground , would have possibly had an arrow on it showing ground was at end of street, rather than it being an actual part of the ground. Worth preserving, I d agree.

Tommy Wright is god. End of discussion.

Judging by Saturday they all lack fitness and that's why they lost the second goal. You can excuse lack of skill but not fitness and workrate which is the minimum a club should be looking at and the fact they don't have those qualities must be down to coaching staff. Too late this season now.

Aye reading this was making me think of Levein before even reading the final sentence. Davidson shouldn't be near the worst, for me, but I also wouldn't have him at the top. But that's just looking at on the pitch stuff. In terms of financial impact he's right down there due to the mammoth losses he oversaw. The Double makes it hard to judge but I think I'd have him floating around Coyle/Lomas, at best, due to the final two seasons. I hate saying it as people just think you're saying it wasn't his achievement when it clearly was, but he got handed arguably one of the best built squads we've had between managers and it had been built to play how he wanted too. It would've been hard for him to fail with that team and the fact it went so bad so quickly once he lost a few players drags him down the list for me. If you could pick a manager to take over this squad tomorrow would it be him? I'm too young for Ormond/Totten but Tommy Wright for me is streets ahead as our greatest ever manager and nobody feels close. From my personal experience the top 3 is Wright, Sturrock and McInnes, and then you can argue over others of who sits where below that until you reach the shite at the bottom.

I do think that was huge in terms of manager/squad dynamic but the rot had already set in and we'd taken some heavy defeats. The emergence of Parker papered over things a bit for a while but (under him) his expensive signings like Hartley and Lovenkrands just hadn't worked. I remember being 3-0 down at HT at home to Motherwell at the start of a run of 13 games without and win and giving him another summer was the wrong call. The budget probably wasn't great but you've got to have more imagination than the signings you mentioned above. Davidson and Stark weren't good for opposite reasons. The former is, in my mind, undoubtedly a good coach. What he did with the double-squad was remarkable and (despite the fact we couldn't always put chances away) we were entertaining and attacking, as well as really well drilled. Up there with the Saints teams I've most enjoyed watching. 5-2-3 was Gary Rowett's system though, Davidson was just good at coaching it. He was completely unable to adapt and identify and new way of playing when it was required. And his man-management skills seemed lacking. Stark though, was clearly very popular with his players, which created the problems for Connolly. I think Geoff Brown is quoted as saying he's his favourite manager in terms of personality. He just couldn't get us playing to any level of consistency or in a particularly exciting manner. We've become accustomed to dross these days but back then that was far more of an issue after the best of Clark, Sturrock and Totten.

Nothing to stop them earmarking players they would like to sign if we stay up. We probably won't know where we will be playing til after the play offs and like last season and season before we will be left with the dregs.

... The Perth boss also revealed himself as a fan of the 25-year-old, whose deal expires in May. “We like Cammy,” said Levein. “I didn’t think we’d see him before the end of this season. “He’s out running and kicking balls now, but it’s still in its infancy really, and the last thing we’d want to do is push him and something happens again “So we’ll need to be patient and let him decide when he’s ready. “But the way he’s going, I could see him playing two or three times before the end of the season. “The day Cammy tore his thigh, on a Friday, we’d planned to start him the next day. He tried a long pass and it just snapped. “He was very much part of the thought process for being able to help us. It’s been a little bit of a nightmare for him. He had the op, they stitched it, which means that there is much more strength in the muscle. “It will be good to see him back. He’s not had much luck here at all. He needs a proper pre-season, I think, and he needs things to go well through that pre-season, because there’s no doubt he’s a talented boy. “We saw that in training even the first couple of weeks we came in here that he can play"