Tommy: Not frightened to give young players a chance
Tommy Wright spoke to Spireites World and initially started by talking about his relationship with the Spireites new manger John Sheridan.
Tommy said "I was John's assistant at Oldham, John left and I stayed on under Joe Royle but I did tell them if John wanted me and if he got another job I would want to leave. To be fair to Oldham they understood that and John's luckily now got the Chesterfield job."
"I have known John since our Leeds days so that's for years and years and we also did our coaching badges together. We spoke about going into management together, and fortunately, we have. We have trust and I will assist John with the coaching. We have a similar philosophy on football and players. We can agree but we also can differ and it's my role as number two to have my own opinion and to voice it."
Moving on, Tommy then described his playing career at Leeds, Oldham, Leicester, Middlesborough and finally at St Johnstone and he continued
"I started at Leeds and John joined us from Manchester and we played together in the youth team, reserves and first team. I then went to Oldham and played with Dennis Irwin and Earl Barrett in a good team. I then went Leicester where I had a good time but we got beat in the play off final against Blackburn and then I joined Middlesbrough after that because I wanted to play in the Premier League. I have many happy memories of Leicester City. Towards the end of my career I played for St Johnstone which was a real eye opener even though I'm Scottish it was the first time I had played in Scotland. Rangers and Celtic were strong whilst the other clubs and grounds were not that strong"
Talking about his football career highlight Tommy added
"Your debut is always a highlight but I also played for Scotland at U21 and youth level and also playing for Leicester at Wembley even though we lost."
Tommy then reflected on his love of football and his hopes for the Spireites in the season ahead.
"I have always been interested in football and I love watching games both away and at home, which drives the wife mad .I just love the game really. I haven't watched much in League Two but like most leagues it's a case of consistency. In Chesterfield's case on their day they could beat anybody but it was a case of not getting enough of those days that stopped them getting promoted.
I have seen a few of the players and there is some quality already here so it's a case of getting them back into training and to get the players to perform more consistently. I know Rico and Scott very well so we have something to build on by adding consistency and one or two players to take the Club forward. The one thing I guarantee is that John, myself and Mark will be giving 100% and hopefully we can achieve something."
Dave Bentley has done well at youth level and he says we may have a few players who can push on. We have a track record at Oldham of bringing in young players and we are not frightened of giving young players a chance. If they are good enough they are old enough.
