The Partick Thistle thread

[timbermill tactician]

Pars fan here. Noticed last night that Foster went straight to the dressing room when subbed. Does he normally do that or is it a sign of something not quite right there. I get his frustration but players normally hang around after being subbed.

[D'Jaffo]

It was his decision to play defenders and midfielders out of position.

And this is why he will probably never win anything at this level. Was I gutted that he left us? Yes. However it was incredibly frustrating at times with him as manager as you always felt that he couldn’t take that extra step with us. A lot of us put it down to the fact we were skint and if we had more money he’d make it work but I’m genuinely not sure now. He’d likely just have signed more players with no idea of how to use them. It’d be interesting to see what happened if he left Thistle and we were also on the lookout for a manager. With Graeme Mathie being at the club I don’t think there’s any chance of him coming back to us as I couldn’t see them working together and I can’t see us ditching Bullen any time soon.

[Highlandmagar]

5 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

And this is why he will probably never win anything at this level. Was I gutted that he left us? Yes. However it was incredibly frustrating at times with him as manager as you always felt that he couldn’t take that extra step with us. A lot of us put it down to the fact we were skint and if we had more money he’d make it work but I’m genuinely not sure now. He’d likely just have signed more players with no idea of how to use them. It’d be interesting to see what happened if he left Thistle and we were also on the lookout for a manager. With Graeme Mathie being at the club I don’t think there’s any chance of him coming back to us as I couldn’t see them working together and I can’t see us ditching Bullen any time soon.

The sooner he leaves, the better.

[Bishop Briggs]

17 minutes ago, timbermill tactician said:

Pars fan here. Noticed last night that Foster went straight to the dressing room when subbed. Does he normally do that or is it a sign of something not quite right there. I get his frustration but players normally hang around after being subbed.

Foster is just back from injury so he may gone for treatment or to warm down.

[D'Jaffo]

The sooner he leaves, the better.

It’s tricky because he’s still a very good manager and when he gets it right the football can a joy to watch. You also don’t know if you’ll be able to replace him with someone better if you do decide to part ways.

[Highlandmagar]

Just now, D'Jaffo said:

It’s tricky because he’s still a very good manager and when he gets it right the football can a joy to watch. You also don’t know if you’ll be able to replace him with someone better if you do decide to part ways.

Something is rotten at Firhill just now. From top to bottom. McCall has ran out of steam. We need fresh ideas, more than likely on a lower budget,. Preparing for a few years in the Championship if nit lower.

[Bishop Briggs]

2 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

It’s tricky because he’s still a very good manager and when he gets it right the football can a joy to watch. You also don’t know if you’ll be able to replace him with someone better if you do decide to part ways.

We've just conceded 8 goals in 2 games to the Accies and the struggling Pars. Those were games that we would have expected to win. Our next two games are against Killie and Arbroath. Our chances of making the play-offs are looking slim atm.

Morton took a risk on Imrie and they have beaten us twice recently. Our board would have not have the guts to do that. It seems that we can't afford to sack our management team anyway. The alternative would be to put Archie back in charge and that could be disastrous.

[Rob1885]

And this is why he will probably never win anything at this level. Was I gutted that he left us? Yes. However it was incredibly frustrating at times with him as manager as you always felt that he couldn’t take that extra step with us. A lot of us put it down to the fact we were skint and if we had more money he’d make it work but I’m genuinely not sure now. He’d likely just have signed more players with no idea of how to use them. It’d be interesting to see what happened if he left Thistle and we were also on the lookout for a manager. With Graeme Mathie being at the club I don’t think there’s any chance of him coming back to us as I couldn’t see them working together and I can’t see us ditching Bullen any time soon.

I'd love him at East End.

[Nightmare]

If you’re looking for a bit of stability at this level then Ian McCall is fine. He’s a good salesman and is usually able to attract fairly good players to sign, so his teams will usually be competitive over the course of a season. They also generally play football which is easy on the eye, although our disgrace of a pitch has rendered that idea impossible this season.

However he’s not without some pretty worrying flaws. He seems to sign players without any real idea about where they fit in his team, and this results in numerous players repeatedly out of position. I doubt we’ve had a game this season where we played a full 11 in their natural position, and often it’s 3 or 4 guys in the wrong place. He’s also tactically inflexible, as evidenced by him being tactically outclassed twice in the past month by Dougie Imrie.

I can see McCall’s tenure with us going roughly the same way as last time he was at the club. Stabilised things after a previous joker in charge (Dick Campbell, Gary Caldwell) and then floats around 3rd-5th in the league until being replaced a few years down the line when the staleness becomes unbearable.

The only way I can see that being any different is if we somehow fluke a playoff run and get promoted (lol), or the finances at the club become so dodgy under the charlatan Low that he walks away sooner than he otherwise would.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still all better than it was with Caldwell, but we’re not a club that’s going anywhere anytime soon.

[VictorOnopko]

As a few other folk have said, very mixed feelings at the moment.  We're still in 4th and we looked decent pre-window; scoring goals and tight at the back.

Then, we let our hungry young striker leave when we could have kept him for another 6 months and had a decent chance of pushing high up the play off places, and replaced him with dross to back up 34 year old Graham.  Meanwhile our pitch turned into the Somme due to the idiotic decision to share it.  The last few weeks have been nothing short of a farce and the last two games were genuinely shameful, rage-inducing performances and results.  Hard not to see another at the weekend.

I'd have taken top half respectability at the start of the season with a chance of playoffs after the debacle of Caldwell and relegation to L1  -   but now, if we cling on to the last playoff spot (very unlikely), then we've done OK over the whole season, but will have staggered over the line.  Just now, I wouldn't say McCall's management is stale - it feels more like it's in chaos.  Meanwhile, the finance mess rumours and Chairman Low's usual Pravda-esque comms are reason to be deeply uneasy about the future. 

All in all, not great.  At least the sun's been out the past week, eh?

Edited March 23, 2022 by VictorOnopko

[Highlandmagar]

5 minutes ago, VictorOnopko said:

As a few other folk have said, very mixed feelings at the moment.  We're still in 4th and we looked decent pre-window; scoring goals and tight at the back.

Then, we let our hungry young striker leave when we could have kept him for another 6 months and had a decent chance of pushing high up the play off places, and replaced him with dross to back up 34 year old Graham.  Meanwhile our pitch turned into the Somme due to the idiotic decision to share it.  The last few weeks have been nothing short of a farce and the last two games were genuinely shameful, rage-inducing performances and results.  Hard not to see another at the weekend.

I'd have taken top half respectability at the start of the season with a chance of playoffs after the debacle of Caldwell and relegation to L1  -   but now, if we cling on to the last playoff spot (very unlikely), then we've done OK over the whole season, but will have staggered over the line.  Just now, I wouldn't say McCall's management is stale - it feels more like it's in chaos.  Meanwhile, the finance mess rumours and Chairman Low's usual Pravda-esque comms are reason to be deeply uneasy about the future. 

All in all, not great.  At least the sun's been out the past week, eh?

Yeah. The sun is out and shining and Thistle are NOT repairing the leaky roof 

[Jacky1990]

The last 10 days have been shite with some horrendous performances/results but I think people are going a bit overboard here.

Before last Tuesday we had lost twice in the league since September (20 games).

Last night was our 8th game in 4 weeks with a threadbare squad that on the face of it has been hit with injuries/covid to key players. 

Questions need asked how poor our January window has turned out to be and why McCall insists on playing players out of position or in terrible form (or both). But we are about to go into a run of 6 games with time in between for players to rest and recover and the coaching staff to get more time on the training pitch.

As shite as the last three results and recent performances have been, we are still in a monumentally better position on the pitch than we were this time two years ago. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Jacky1990

[thistledo]

I don't usually engage in rumour mill stuff online, but, I did hear something happened during the festive period that may have caused some issue between McCall and Rudden. Could be total bollocks, although I've always thought it was odd to loan out our second best striker while pushing for promotion. 

The financial rumours, I'm not quite sure yet where the substance is for this, having had a look at our companies house filing I don't think there is any immediate concern, we're definitely not rolling in it though. 

The ownership situation, is a total mess. Seems to be lacking in so many areas, I don't feel Low is particularly as vocal on it all as she normally would be. I'm unsure if this is a sort of 'say nothing, sit back and wait for it to fail and then say I told you so' situation or she doesn't want to be as involved in the club as she was before. I fully expect fan ownership to fail to get off the ground either way. 

The football right now and even prior to these three defeats, lets face it, was not that good at all. We've shitfested countless 1-0 games this year, we've rode our luck and for a large part of it relied on what was a very solid defence. I think you can apportion a lot of blame for this quite rightly across, the pitch, subsequent fixture pile up, injuries, some very meh signings and McCall trying to shoehorn players into positions they just don't play in. 

I still back McCall to sort out the football aspect of the club, that doesn't massively concern me. The ownership situation is growing increasingly concerning though. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

6 minutes ago, thistledo said:

she doesn't want to be as involved in the club as she was before. 

Aside from anything else, I would be fucking ecstatic if this was the case.

Jacqui Low is a charlatan who can’t f**k off quickly enough. 

[jagsfan57]

7 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'd guess everyone mocking Partick fans is pretty much just doing it based off this, which tbf is outstanding now.

 

To be fair we had been on a good run of results when the post was made and had been fighting to the end in most games. These last 3 games have been pretty shocking and the next couple I can’t see being any easier.

[TONTROOPER]

9 hours ago, TheScarf said:

That was more the BBC during every Friday night Championship game. 
 

The BBC’s local club, one of their pundits plays for them, you can see why they were pushing that angle.

Correct.

[TONTROOPER]

6 hours ago, Jollyjag said:

 Wee Lawless bursting a gut to score against us was funny

.... bet you'd love him back.

...aye ye wid.

course ye wid. 

[Bishop Briggs]

2 hours ago, thistledo said:

I don't usually engage in rumour mill stuff online, but, I did hear something happened during the festive period that may have caused some issue between McCall and Rudden. Could be total bollocks, although I've always thought it was odd to loan out our second best striker while pushing for promotion. 

The financial rumours, I'm not quite sure yet where the substance is for this, having had a look at our companies house filing I don't think there is any immediate concern, we're definitely not rolling in it though. 

The ownership situation, is a total mess. Seems to be lacking in so many areas, I don't feel Low is particularly as vocal on it all as she normally would be. I'm unsure if this is a sort of 'say nothing, sit back and wait for it to fail and then say I told you so' situation or she doesn't want to be as involved in the club as she was before. I fully expect fan ownership to fail to get off the ground either way. 

The football right now and even prior to these three defeats, lets face it, was not that good at all. We've shitfested countless 1-0 games this year, we've rode our luck and for a large part of it relied on what was a very solid defence. I think you can apportion a lot of blame for this quite rightly across, the pitch, subsequent fixture pile up, injuries, some very meh signings and McCall trying to shoehorn players into positions they just don't play in. 

I still back McCall to sort out the football aspect of the club, that doesn't massively concern me. The ownership situation is growing increasingly concerning though. 

We needed a £500k from 3BC to survive. If we are still losing money now, there could be major cash-flow problems over the next three months until the season ticket sales revenue comes in. At that point, The Jags Foundation is supposed to take control of the club. It appears that TGF has not undertaken due diligence, possibly because it cannot afford the necessary professional advisers.

With little or no cash, season ticket prices will need to increase significantly to put some money in the bank. With the pitch needing major work and other  costs rising, it's hard to see how we can afford to maintain the current staff and playing budgets. It seems that the current Board has gambled hugely on winning promotion and the fans will have to cover future losses. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Bishop Briggs

[R&Y99]

As infuriating and abysmal the last two to three games have been, we are still somehow in 4th place. If we manage to remain within the top 4 then McCall has done enough to earn another season in my opinion. It’s hardly been a shocking season, however, there have been some big issues of late. 
 

The way I look at it is we were shite for a lot of last season, but in the end we achieved our goal by winning the league, so McCall rightly earned himself another season as manager. So, if we finish in the top 4, as a club who has just come up from the third tier, we would have achieved what was realistically our pre season goal.

There needs to be some surgery to the squad in summer, certain areas of the pitch in particular that come to mind is full backs, wingers (we may have to prepare for Tiffoney leaving) and another 10+ goal a season striker that we lost in Rudden.

[TONTROOPER]

11 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

We need  £500k from BBC to survive. 

No problemo.

I'm sure Fossie will use his contacts at Firhill Quay to get things sorted.