The Arch

As far as I'm aware, he's been pretty clear from the summer that he definitely won't be signing a new deal, which I think is fair enough. One good thing is that he won't be moving to a rival as such. It will be Championship, English Premier at a push or Celtic I imagine. He was quoted recently as saying that he wanted to try down south.

Scott Allison seems a very impressive character from the bits I've read about him. Sounds like he knows what he's doing. Read an interview from Middlesbrough player Andy Halliday, who used to be at Livi as a youth player, who said Allison has been the most important person in his career. Gives hope for the future.

How would people feel if they were to start bank rolling us Mileson style and we just went transfer crazy? I dunno how I'd feel about it. It wasn't really what I signed up for when I chose Thistle.

I'd imagine if the Weirs are happy with how it's going after three years, they may continue to make the same investment. Not as if they can't afford it. One other benefit of this scheme I'd imagine is that it says in the press release that it will the offer 1000 boys and girls the chance to play football purely for enjoyment and fitness. Surely a decent percentage of those will go on to attend our games. A lot of future fans, and potential revenue, added into the mix.

Not as if all the chances are being missed by our striker though. Our midfield need to man up and start chipping in too.

I've not been hugely impressed with Higginbotham tbh, but I missed the St Mirren and Aberdeen games where he was meant to be very good. I do think we need to tweak the formation though, so someone's closer to Doolan, and I think he's the best option. I think we 100 per cent can play both of them but if you're playing two sitting midfielders, you need the other three attacking midfielders to be closer to the striker. Bannigan isn't comfortable as the attacking midfielder, so that is causing problems, along with Lawless being out of form. Brazil traditionally play with attacking full backs, and two holding midfielders, and they do alright. The main issue is the balance of the three in front, which at the moment, I don't think is right. One issue is whether Bannigan, Welsh and Osbourne can all play as a midfield three, and I think it's too defensive. That's the issue, not whether purely Welsh and Osbourne can play in the same team, because I think they can. We just perhaps need to sacrifice one of the three for Forbes or Craigen, who are much more comfortable there. Apologies for overuse of the word "issue".

The more I think about it, the more I think we actually do miss Erskine. We're playing lovely football, but so much of the time our main aim seems to be getting it out to Sinclair to whip it in, especially first half. We were much less predictable with Erskine. The interplay with Lawless for a start, and he allowed us to play much more around the box, rather than from the wings. On another thing, I think Bannigan needs dropped. Just because he's our youth product, and in the under 21's, doesn't mean we have to play him every week. He's been pretty average for best part of a month, and with so many different midfield options, someone else deserves a shot.

Few quick thoughts. Higginbotham needs to be taken off corners. They are absolutely dreadful. Forbes deserves a shot in the team. I'd probably play him instead of Lawless, who at the moment is not producing the goods. He was good for assisting a goal a game at Firhill last season Forbes, and his delivery could help bring around more goals hopefully. Balatoni got turned too easily at the goal. Been good for the majority of games, but has made his fair share of costly errors. Muirhead had his best game since we got promoted. Very commanding. SOD excellent. Was watching some of the after match highlights and everything good came through him. Doolan shat it on the big chance. At least he's getting the chances though. Hopefully doesn't dent his confidence too much.

Britton's giving up his job as a lawyer to do it, and it's 250k for each of the next three years. All came about through Beattie and the Weirs becoming pals rather than going and begging them for cash.

Can't imagine there's two Sandy Hodge's in football. Looking forward to our conveyor belt of shite centre halfs. Would imagine Peter MacDonald is the Dundee footballer, and Ryan McCann the full back. Surprised to see Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills on the list though.

Whoever it was at the club that managed to convince them to get on board deserves a big kiss. I've no idea how much other SPFL clubs spend on youth development, but this can only be good news.

I think Kilmarnock will be the next team to take a fall. Apart from them, everyone seems in decent shape, although it's hard to tell. I know people have their issues with our board but they are excellent when put next to someone like Michael Johnston at Kilmarnock. Offering cheaper tickets to Celtic fans than their own supporters is absolutely ridiculous. I think we've got a really bright future. We just need to stick with the principles at the moment. Best thing Ian Mac has ever said was try and follow the Swansea model.

We also need a strong but pacy back up defender to Muirhead and Balatoni. Someone like Rio Ferdinand in his younger days. It's ridiculous Archie hasn't found someone like this.

Tom Hosie's a huge asset to the club. Gets the tone of the club's Twitter just right and runs the website really well. Hope his role isn't diminished. Understandable we'd want a new PR though. Michelle Evans has never really been replaced, and she was meant to be very popular with journalists. Being easy to deal with makes a huge difference in the sort of press a team/company gets.

Great lads. Hopefully we find a pub showing the game on Alba, and we'll be laughing.

#WeAreAllJimAlexander

He looks like he should be fast. I just wanted to use the phrase "deceptively slow" really..

Feel a bit sorry for guys like jags365, who are clearly good sorts and trying their best to improve things at the Jags Trust. I struggle to see it ever becoming popular again though, with OneThistle carrying much more "real" power.

First time I'd seen the under 20's and was pretty impressed. We were well organised, and played similar structure to the first team, even down to the central defenders splitting so the keeper could always pass it out. Thought everyone played quite well. I'd say the midfield all had nice touches, but they'd all need to bulk up a bit if they were to come into the first team, apart from Wilson. McDaid reminded me a bit of Strachan actually with the fancy footwork and the way he drifted about with the ball, but think he's got something. Maybe needs to keep it simple sometimes, and work on the final ball. Collina looks quite a way off the first team, although had a few nice moments first half. Brownlie looked like a solid centre half, and slightly more comfortable on the ball than Lindsay. Both full backs were decent enough too, with Keenan coming on to a game after a few woeful passes first half. Duggan looks a decent player. Deceptively slow though. A few times he was easily caught up despite having a head start. All in all, better than I was expected. We have a pretty small under 20 squad, but might be worth sending guys like Brownlie and Wilson out on loan later in the season, and see whether they sink or swim.

Shame that ATS and Lawless will be off at the end of the season but if we only lose two every season, then we'll still be a very decent side. I think there's a very decent chance Erskine will be back at the end of the season, which would be a perfect like for like. I hope they're getting decent Championship moves or something because Sinclair moving to a team like Aberdeen or Hibs would be a complete waste. He's been outstanding since we've gone up, and don't think Scotland is out of the question. If you were offered to swap him for Whittaker would you take it?

Anything interesting come out of the meet the manager thing? Always interested to hear what comes out of these things.

Craigen has always been technically very good. I just didn't think he imposed himself enough at times last season but he's certainly stepped up this year. Seems to be a huge favourite of Archies. He must have started about 80/90 per cent of games since he's started. He's also never subbed because he doesn't tire. Got some energy. Also seems like a top boy which makes it all the more pleasing.

He's only here till December. If he was a young guy we've got on a two year deal then it's slightly different but I'd imagine Archie would have been hoping he'd challenge straight away. I don't think we'll see Henoc play for the first team but we'll see.

I doubt we're paying much money, if anything, for him. Archie's allowed a couple of duff moves after all his success stories.

Archie sees him on a day to day basis. If he's not been given a chance it's probably because he's shite. I'm told Archie had never seen anything of Mukendi before he signed him. He was offered to us and we took a punt. Probably the case he's not as good as we hoped he might be.