Stevie May will be mindful of all the young Scottish stars-in-the-making whose careers have stalled in England when he contemplates the new deal being offered by St Johnstone, according to Perth boss Tommy Wright.
Just this week former Dundee United midfielder Scott Allan was freed by West Brom, two-and-a-half years after he headed to the Midlands for a £400,000 fee.
There have been a succession of loan moves in between, Birmingham City the last of them, none of which has been particularly successful.
Fraser Fyvie is another who has struggled to make an impact with Wigan since being lured away from Aberdeen a couple of years ago and has also been farmed out around English lower league clubs.
And Wright believes his star striker May is fully aware of the pitfalls of crossing the border too soon.
“He wants to develop in Scotland before he moves down south,” said the Saints boss.
“There are a few players who have gone to England, like Fraser Fyvie and Scott Allan, who were good players. And they’re still probably good players. But they’ve lost their way in a bigger environment.
“That’s why it would be good for Stevie to stay here for at least another season. It’s all positive.”
“We know that we’ll have to give Stevie better terms, but we know he wants to stay. That makes it easier,” said Wright.
“It’s harder if you have to persuade a player. Everyone talks about his playing this year, but I like how he’s matured as a person and dealt with the attention.
“He’s been excellent with the media and come over really well. I’ve met his mum and dad twice, and Callum and Alec know them. They are sensible enough to give him the right advice. And the senior players speak to him as well. Stevie’s just one of the lads. There’s no airs and graces. That’s important.”
Meanwhile, Wright is hopeful that the Scottish Cup final win and the prospect of more Europa League action will broaden the club’s fanbase.
He noted: “We’ll have grasped a lot of young supporters from this. We’re bound to have. We’ll have caught their imagination. The club does need help financially. We’ve cut the budget year in, year out over the least few years.
“Hopefully season ticket holders and others who come regularly will be rallying friends who have come to a game for the first time in a while to come back at the start of next season.
“European football will help keep the momentum going and will hopefully help season ticket sales as well.”
Saints, meanwhile, have fixed up their first pre-season friendly of the summer, with York City to visit McDiarmid Park on Saturday July 19 two days after the first leg of their Europa League second round qualifer.
Wright has a summer schedule mapped out, and the way that his players both hit the ground running and finished the season strongly last time round shows him that they are getting things right.
He said: “We had a Plan A and a Plan B. Thankfully Plan B is out the window. We’ve managed the season really well. We know when to rest players and give them days off. Over the last month we’ve been off every Monday.”