The Partick Thistle thread

[Reid]

Tonight seemed a bit of a waste of time considering the club has a lot of vital things to get done, including actually getting some strikers in, to hit the ground running

Aye I heard we were due to sign Rudden and Boyd tonight but couldn’t because Gerry Britton was busy. What a weird thing to moan about.

[John MacLean]

At the last Meet the Manager event Caldwell spoke often about 'the process' of putting a winning team on the park. Tonight it was interesting to see exactly what that 'process' involved. It wasn't light on detail that's for sure but I found it interesting and informative. I've got a better understanding of Caldwell's methods and approach. I thought he came across well both in football terms and on a more personal level. It's going to take a good start to the season rather than words in a Firhill function suite to win people over but he, and the Club, had a good night tonight.

[Cerberus]

1 hour ago, PerthTA said:

Tonight seemed a bit of a waste of time considering the club has a lot of vital things to get done, including actually getting some strikers in, to hit the ground running

Aren't you that rednyella poster who had a head's gone resignation from here?

This seems like something he would moan about.

[oneteaminglasgow]

2 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

Aren't you that rednyella poster who had a head's gone resignation from here?

This seems like something he would moan about.

There would be about 8 more paragraphs if it was him.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Glad to hear Caldwell came across well. Doesn't come across as being anywhere near as passive as Archie was when in charge imo.

[Sting777]

5 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Glad to hear Caldwell came across well. Doesn't come across as being anywhere near as passive as Archie was when in charge imo.

He has very set ideas on the game all of which were laid bare in the presentation. You get the feeling that if the players dont follow his ideas on the game they will get shipped out fast, like in January. He has a toughness and enthusiasm about him that I like.  Think its time we all gave him a break and got behind him. He is under no illusion that if the team doesnt hit the ground running this season that his job is on the line.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Sting777

[Big Dan]

Couldn't attend last night but feed back seems to be fairly positive. Lets hope that the early signings of two players who seem to have been targeted indicate that there is a plan for the new season.

I know that the interviews given by players are never likely to be negative, but Ryan and Shea  both came across as enthusiastic  on Jagzone. The two year deals seem to indicate a bit of forward thinking by the Club.

 

[professor challenger]

Any detail on why the training ground has been delayed.

I was under the impression that the money was in place and the ground acquired.

[GrahamJags]

Ended up going last night, and was impressed by Caldwell, surprisingly enough.

One or two things I didn’t agree with, or were contradictory, such as how we can’t shout from the rooftops about how the aim is promotion, yet that’s what everyone at the club was doing from the moment he took over until fairly recently. Also saying that the team he took over wasn’t capable of high press, or playing the way he wanted, even though we were told that he had an individual plan for every member of the squad at that time.

Regardless though, he did make the squad better in January. Although I don’t think that his style of play was implemented as well as he thinks it was, as we’ve still been pretty brutal at various points since then. If the plan is to play the way we did at Ayr away and QOTS in the last couple of games of the season, then I’m happy enough with that.

Caldwell has bought himself some goodwill from the Thistle support at a moment when he really needed it, but ultimately I’ll be reserving judgement until I see some major improvements on the park come August.

[Reid]

Any detail on why the training ground has been delayed.
I was under the impression that the money was in place and the ground acquired.

Issues with planning holding things up. Didn’t sound too promising.

[Sting777]

1 hour ago, professor challenger said:

Any detail on why the training ground has been delayed.

I was under the impression that the money was in place and the ground acquired.

Delays with South Dumbartonshire Council which seems to be commonplace going by a shout from the audience. I am 50/50 as to whether it will transpire

[D.A.F.C]

Looked at phases of game. 3 and 4 are what he worked on first. Then Skippy helped with Phase 2. Phase 1 still a work in process...

[thistledo]

Fair play to him for coming out in front of fans to do all that, when I don't think he really had to at all, a nice touch. Sounds like he put a fair amount of time and effort into it as well. Kinda doubt it will do anything to silence the perpetual moaning b*****ds within our support though. 

A thanks to those in attendance for posting up details of what was discussed. 

I think one of the most impressive things from that, was the budget used in January. Ensured survival, but also hoping that's given us quite a sizeable amount to work with going into the start of next season. 

[Pie Of The Month]

22 minutes ago, thistledo said:

Fair play to him for coming out in front of fans to do all that, when I don't think he really had to at all, a nice touch. Sounds like he put a fair amount of time and effort into it as well. Kinda doubt it will do anything to silence the perpetual moaning b*****ds within our support though. 

A thanks to those in attendance for posting up details of what was discussed. 

I think one of the most impressive things from that, was the budget used in January. Ensured survival, but also hoping that's given us quite a sizeable amount to work with going into the start of next season. 

I'm not necessarily sure not spending the budget in January is a good thing. I don't think Caldwell was sitting at the beginning of February thinking he's got in the players he wanted without spending the money. I suspect it means we failed in bringing in some of our better targets and now we survived by the skin of our teeth it's a nice soundbite. 

 

[Ro Sham Bo]

Cardle was at our play off match last night and he mentioned that talks were ongoing with Thistle. I got the impression he is confident an agreement will be reached. 

[thistledo]

2 hours ago, Pie Of The Month said:

I'm not necessarily sure not spending the budget in January is a good thing. I don't think Caldwell was sitting at the beginning of February thinking he's got in the players he wanted without spending the money. I suspect it means we failed in bringing in some of our better targets and now we survived by the skin of our teeth it's a nice soundbite. 

Could very well be the case, hard to argue against it. On the plus side however, with Archie we missed out on targets and brought in some absolute shite, with GC we may have missed targets, but he still signed some decent players. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by thistledo

[dave.j]

1 hour ago, thistledo said:

Could very well be the case, hard to argue against it. On the plus side however, with Archie we missed out on targets and brought in some absolute shite, with GC way may have missed targets, but he still signed some decent players. 

and signed some absolute shite

[thistledo]

25 minutes ago, dave.j said:

and signed some absolute shite

Aye. Though arguably a lesser quantity of shite. A better ratio of good to shite if you will. 

[Nightmare]

Signings are probably Caldwell's best contribution to the club so far. I still think he's questionable tactically, his interviews are delusional and he generally comes across as pretty similar to Gordon Strachan in that stubborn kind of arrogance that's just annoying to listen to, but overall his signings have been very good. Ally Roy was the only properly shite signing Caldwell made, unless I'm missing someone.

Anderson, Saunders, McMillan, Cardle and McDonald all made positive contributions, albeit with some shaky moments mixed in. Mansell was actually pretty effective in his limited appearances. Harkins replacing Erskine was a poor decision, but Harkins is more in the 'what's the point?' department than actually shite.

Archie signed Bell, Lennox, O'Ware, McGinty, Scobbie, Jefferies, Melbourne, Gordon, Slater, Ntambwe, Storer, Mutombo, Quitongo. Archie never had a particularly good signing ratio, but that list is fucking grim. Slater gets pass marks, McGinty was 75% shite/25% good, a couple of long term injuries and a pile of utter muck.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Nightmare

[VictorOnopko]

7 hours ago, GrahamJags said:

Ended up going last night, and was impressed by Caldwell, surprisingly enough.

One or two things I didn’t agree with, or were contradictory, such as how we can’t shout from the rooftops about how the aim is promotion, yet that’s what everyone at the club was doing from the moment he took over until fairly recently. Also saying that the team he took over wasn’t capable of high press, or playing the way he wanted, even though we were told that he had an individual plan for every member of the squad at that time.

Regardless though, he did make the squad better in January. Although I don’t think that his style of play was implemented as well as he thinks it was, as we’ve still been pretty brutal at various points since then. If the plan is to play the way we did at Ayr away and QOTS in the last couple of games of the season, then I’m happy enough with that.

Caldwell has bought himself some goodwill from the Thistle support at a moment when he really needed it, but ultimately I’ll be reserving judgement until I see some major improvements on the park come August.

100% agree.  For all Caldwell's apparent ability to dazzle any audience with a powerpoint presentation, he's done the bare minimum so far.  The January window was excellent, as much in terms of ridding ourselves of utter dross as quality coming in, but in the end McDonald was the difference between safety (by the skin of our teeth) and a play-off or worse.  He certainly hasn't got us playing consistently well since January, that's for sure; the main step forward from the Archibald era is that at least we're no longer shipping last minute goals every other week.

I wasn't there, but what you say about contradictions isn't a surprise.  He's clearly happy to talk a fair amount of bullshit as he goes along, and that includes the individual plans nonsense, when he then got about 1 point in his first 8 games, and the mixed messages about promotion.  The delusional promotion chat was infuriating last season - I'm sure quite late on in winter either Caldwell or the board (or both) were still talking about it when we were in the bottom two (or even dead last).  Is he now saying we're not aiming for promotion next season, or not being drawn on it?  He obviously talks a good game at events like last night's, but during the actual season he handled a lot of stuff pretty badly.