St Johnstone and the Euros: Perth links to the Championships

St Johnstone don’t have a player at this summer’s European Championships.

But there is Perth pride in the fact that 2021 cup double hero, Zander Clark, is currently at Garmisch-Partenkirchen with the Scotland squad preparing for the Euro 2024 opener against Germany on Friday night.

Courier Sport explores the McDiarmid Park club’s links with the prestigious international competition – some more tenuous than others!

Franky Vercauteren

There have been a few exotic rumoured transfer targets who had either played at a European Championship finals before their name was connected with St Johnstone or would go on to do so afterwards.

Sweden’s Alexander Ostlund (Euro 2004) was one.

The most famous nearly transfer of modern times was Belgium’s Franky Vercauteren.

Franky Vercauteren (fifth from the left) was a key part of this early 1980s Belgium team. Image: SNS.

He trained with Saints in 1990.

Alex Totten was thought to be under the impression that he was a free agent but that turned out not to be the case and a deal wasn’t offered.

A key component of the talented Belgium team of the 1980s, he played at Euro ’84, as well as the World Cups either side of it.

Sergei Baltacha

No St Johnstone player has reached greater heights in club or international football than the classy Ukrainian sweeper.

Signed ahead of Saints’ first season in the top-flight under Totten, Baltacha possessed a level of composure and passing ability that McDiarmid has never seen since.

Sergei Baltacha playing against Scotland in 1982. Image: SNS.

He enjoyed a stellar career with the Soviet Union, helping knock Scotland out of the 1982 World Cup and then playing against the Netherlands in the final of Euro ’88.

Ally McCoist

Baltacha has a legitimate claim to be the greatest player ever to wear St Johnstone colours and McCoist has one to be the most famous.

Saints were, of course, the now TV pundit’s first club.

McCoist played for Scotland’s under-19s while still at Muirton Park and after leaving, earned 61 full caps.

In 1992, he started all three group matches in the country’s first appearances at the Euros (when there were only eight nations in the finals) but didn’t score.

His solitary goal at a major championship was a magnificent one, though – the winner at Villa Park against Switzerland in Euro ‘96 that sadly wasn’t enough to take Scotland out of their group.

McCoist is the only ex-St Johnstone player on this list to have played at (or been selected for) two Euros.

Darren Jackson

The less said about Jackson’s Saints career, the better.

He only managed 10 appearances and one goal (a penalty) in the 2001/02 relegation team before leaving for Clydebank midway through the campaign.

Perth fans clearly didn’t see the best of Jackson – or anything close to it.

He was a starter for Craig Brown at the 1998 World Cup and was an unused squad member at Euro ’96.

Paul Hartley

Talking of Euro ’96 and Craig Brown, the Scotland boss liked to give up-and-coming players the chance to rub shoulders with established internationals by taking ‘hamper boys’ to tournaments.

Kieran McAnespie was one at France ’98 and Paul Hartley, who would later play for Saints, got a helper gig two years earlier.

He certainly went on to enjoy the best career of the four youngsters selected by Brown.

The others were Grant Brebner of Hibs, Celtic’s Marc Anthony and Aberdeen’s Jamie Buchan.

Alan Mannus

The Northern Irishman might not have got game-time in France for Euro 2016 but the fact he was selected for his country while actually being a St Johnstone player sets him apart from the rest.

And, he also earned the club a Uefa payment of 107,490 euros on the back of it!

Alan Mannus at Euro 2016. Image: Shutterstock.

Michael McGovern was Michael O’Neill’s choice as starting goalkeeper for the duration of the tournament and Mannus didn’t go on to add to his four caps after the finals.

He was already a Saints legend by that time, though, having kept a clean sheet in the 2014 Scottish Cup final triumph against Dundee United.

Matt Smith

Current Saints midfielder, Matt Smith, will certainly hope that his international career isn’t over.

He’s already got 19 caps for Wales to his name and is only 24.

St Johnstone midfielder Matt Smith playing for Wales against Albania. Image: Shutterstock.

Like Mannus, he has been part of a European Championship squad without playing – in his case the delayed Euro 2020 finals.

Smith also has the Qatar World Cup on his CV.

Graeme Jones

Long-time assistant to Roberto Martinez, the former Saints striker started working with the Belgium national team after Euro 2016 and had left that job by the time the 2021 finals came around.

By that point he was part of Newcastle United’s coaching staff.

Graeme Jones was part of the England backroom team at the 2021 Euros. Image: Shutterstock.

Jones ticks the ex-Saint Euro box by accepting an invitation from Gareth Southgate to join his backroom team three years ago, with England only being denied a tournament win at Wembley in a penalty shoot-out against Italy.

Zander Clark

Saints fans would, with some justification, argue that Clark should have been in the Scotland Euro 2021 squad.

He’d just won a cup double and was every bit as good a goalkeeper under Callum Davidson as he was last season at Hearts.

It’s a familiar story that you need to leave Perth to have a chance of playing for Scotland.

Zander Clark as the Scotland squad depart for Germany at Glasgow Airport. Image: SNS.

Nonetheless, Clark having come through the academy at McDiarmid Park and been a first team player for a number of years is something to take collective pride from.

And if Angus Gunn gets injured, you would like to think he’s ahead of Liam Kelly in the goalkeeper pecking order in Germany.