The Arch

I'm considering voting Yes but there's no way I'm going to hold up a placard in support of it. No interest in mixing football with politics.

#PrayForIanMac

One thing I thought was interesting was Archie said he'd been after Seaborne since January. Previously said he'd been looking at Osman since March, and tried to sign Stevenson in January. He's clearly been pretty meticulous about the signings. Sure other managers would have just signed Barr, but he wants the right guys.

From the official site picture he certainly looks about 2-3 inches taller than Archie. Not sure what height Archie is. Always presumed he's been just under 6 foot. Agree with you on the first trialist. I thought he looked decent but Archie's never mentioned signing two centre backs, and sounds like Seaborne will only play left back in emergencies. Archie said the first trialist was pretty young, so could maybe bed him in in under 20s.

Clearly in my excitement at the new signing I forgot I had the ability to read.

I'm off today so the club's image remains untarnished.

Interesting story about Danny "Google" Seaborne - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/southampton-footballer-dan-seaborne-left-151257#.U-ipQvldWSo

Yeah these songs are cringe. The songs where we imply David goodwillie is a rapist/paedophile need to be dropped as well

Also the mention of "completing formalities" suggests we'd been working on it for a few days and he was possibly the guy Archie was talking about last week.

The second par of the official site story is a great retort to the haters on here. Be interesting to see which defensive space we're still looking to cover if he can play left back and centre back. Time will tell.

That's not really his fault. I can see why people would rather he wasn't playing, but always "puts in a shift" and matches up to his man physically. I find him frustrating to watch but don't think he deserves the stick he gets on here.

I don't really see how any Thistle fan can really dislike Christie. For a guy with minimal talent, he has eked out every last bit of it over the last few years. He's also clearly worked very hard to get ahead in other ways, by putting in a great shift every week and bulking up to become one of our fittest/strongest players. He would have been a real fans favourite in our poorer teams over the last 10 years. It's testament to how much our team has improved, that guys like him and craigen are vilified, despite being good pro's and decent enough options.

He was a bloody nightmare. Even more noticeable than he usually would have been given it was an empty stand.

Thought it was an interesting workout. Was really impressed with Dale Keenan first half, at least in an attacking sense, but thought he was poor second half. Can only hope it is tiredness from Monday's game because the second half version of him would be a liability in the top league. Thought Osman looked a really decent replacement for Osbourne. Not the greatest first touch, but great at getting the ball back. Just what we needed. Stevenson doesn't quite fit in with the quick build up at times, but he's a great option to mix it up. Think our front six for the start of the season will be out of Osman, Bannigan, Fraser, Stevenson, Lawless, Higgy and Doolan. Will be interesting to see who drops out. Doesn't deserve to be Lawless if he played like he did last night but would imagine it would be him. Seem to be in the minority in preferring first half trialist to the second one. Archie seems to be hinting he's very young, which has positives and negatives. Thought Zubar looked a nightmare on the ball, but strong in the tackle. Could work out.. Thought Watmore was very impressive for them, and worth looking at on loan if we weren't already stacked for wing options(admittedly not great ones). Danny Graham was absolutely anonymous. How the mighty have fallen..

All your posts on the forum so far seem to be negative about Scott Allison. By all means inform us of the background..

Looking forward to seeing Duncan Watmore - and nobody else I recognise - taking the field.

I get the feeling that although our under 20 team seem to be pretty impressive, an even more promising batch of players sit below them in the under 18's/16s etc. Would be great if we could finally start producing our own players and becoming like a Falkirk or something. It's pretty scandalous that a club of our size has produced so few players. I've been going to games for 15 years and can count on one hand the amount that have came through and been any good. We seem in good hands though. I'm told Scott Allison is a very impressive guy, and Britton seems very good at youth level too. PLEASING.

I get that people are worried about signings but some of you need to get a grip. The majority of posts on any transfer thread this close season have been an embarrassment. Think I'll go to the Fellow Jags page on Facebook for intellectual discussion from now on.

I get people don't like Chris Jack but it's a pretty easy story to check out. Call club. Club say "here's the situation. Don't attribute it to us." Guessing that's what happened although might be wrong.

It's pretty clear he has spoken to the club and that's where he's got all his source info from, as a journalist reading it. It's no huge surprise the club aren't commenting on it.

You could have made the best point in the world there but nobody will read it cause of the font.

One of my pals was speaking to McFadden's dad. Supposedly he's really enjoyed the training. Had a few offers from elsewhere. Didn't mention whether he was signing or not.

We were perhaps slightly too loyal to our inexperienced centre halfs, but our promoted side were a much better team than this Dundee one. Slightly different set of circumstances. We'd have regretted completely ripping apart our promoted team like Hartley has with his.

Where's the suggestion we've got Cregg on trial come from? Not read of it anywhere apart from here. Think he'd be a decent enough signing. We need a defensive mid for certain games. He'll probably help add some know how on seeing out the sort of games we collapsed in last season.

Long term deal announced today that our first team and youth team squads are going to be based at Garscube. They'll play all home Scottish Cup games at Firhill as part of the deal.