Scottish side St Johnstone are closing in on the signing of MK Dons’ Wales international Matt Smith, according to The Herald Scotland.
The 23-year-old has one year left on his contract and so could walk away for free next summer but it looks as though the recently relegated League Two outfit aren’t going to let that happen.
Smith moved to the Stadium MK back in January 2022 for an undisclosed fee, having failed to break into Manchester City’s first team.
Unfortunately, the midfielder fell out of favour during the team’s relegation to League Two and now looks set to permanently depart, with St Johnstone being the destination.
Struggling for game-time
Despite being signed by Liam Manning during the young head coach’s stint with the Dons, Smith struggled for game-time in his first half-season with the club, making merely four appearances in League One.
The majority of his minutes were from the bench. Smith started just 15 of his 33 games in all competitions during an eighteen-month spell in Milton Keynes.
There was more success for the Man City academy graduate on the international stage, having played 19 times for Wales and was even called up to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as well as the European Championships in 2021.
St Johnstone will be getting a World Cup and Euros representative.
Writer’s View
Smith has plenty of experience despite being so young and has had numerous loan spells at clubs in England such as Hull City, Charlton Athletic and Queens Park Rangers as well as Dutch club FC Twente.
Nevertheless, this will be his first time playing football in Scotland which can oftentimes be more physical and direct than English football so it will be interesting to see how he adapts to the environment as well as Steven MacLean’s system.
