
laukat
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There were camera's filming as we left Starks park on Saturday. I assumed they were there for the documentary but could have just been Raith TV looking for tears and snotters. Didn't see them do any interviews but I suspect that would be because they would need to bleep most of them out. One of the best watched documentaries on football teams was about Sunderland as they descended through the English leagues. I suspect that is because most people enjoy a disaster film. So if a behind the scenes look at misery sells than we may be onto a winner. Sunderland 'till I die was quite good because you got to see some of the boardroom struggles and get candid opinion from senior decision makers in the club particularly as the manager struggled for results. Not sure the camera crew for our documentary would know who is charge to ask for an opinion as 4 days after Saturday's horror story it appears no-one in the main stream press has been able to get someone to comment and no-one form the club has. One of the things that really peaked my interest in Sunderland 'till I die was when Martin Bain appeared. By that time he had a reputation in Scottish Football as being a bit of a charlatan. Who takes that role in ours?
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Sorry can you clarify is that your suspicion, guesswork or assumption that there was too much conjecture? Reads like an opinion or comment but they're not allowed are they?
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Appreciate you weren't at the game on Saturday but McBeth wasn't good at centre half in the first 45. Not the worst performer as Megwa and Fitzpatrick were awful and non-existent but I expected McBeth to be taken off to allow Reid on at leftback and O'Reilly back to the centre. Also expected Megwa to go off and I hoped that would mean Muirhead at rightback but knew it would be Turner that would be moved. Also thought Fitzpatrick would be taken off for Mackenzie. Instead we had Reid for Martin with McBeth in midfield and Megwa for Crawford with Turner back to rightback. The managers choice of subs was bizarre but then again so was his initial starting 11. Ashcroft and O'Reilly were reduced to playing long balls as every time they looked for a forward pass into midfield absolutely no-one showed. At best a midfielder (usually Bannigan) would drop deep and pick it up only to play it back to the centre-halfs and we would be back to square one. Chalmers was again our only out ball and Raith marked him out the game so there was zero movement all game. We were reduced to hoofing the ball up in the air towards McBeth in midfield like a rugby up and under because nobody wanted the ball. Bannigan isn't getting scapegoated for his performance, he's getting criticised for the stupidity in giving away the penalty. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a fan of Bannigan but the blame for Saturday and recent performances are not his fault, they are entirely with Doolan and McDonald. The management team need to go and I honestly struggle to get my head around why they haven't gone already.
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I think you are correct. Sometimes you see a team in a rut and you sense that its just a run of bad form. Sometimes you see things that make you think there is a serious problem and to my mind that squad look like they have a serious problem. No idea what was said at halftime but to my mind I reckon a few of the senior pro's didn't agree with what was being said and being done by the management team. I reckon the same happened in the away game at Ayr where we lost 2-1. I think there were elements of in the loss to Falkirk I suspect experienced players like Graham, Bannigan, Ashcroft, O'Reilly know the answer to shoring things up is people who will work hard and fight such as Crawford, Stanway, Muirhead, Martin and not an out of form Megwa or Fitzpatrick. I suspect the also believe they were 2 goals down due to Doolan and McDonald choosing not to start the only left back we have. I reckon non of the senior pro's came in front of the camera because either they didn't want to defend the managers team selection and subs or the management team stopped them from appearing as there was a risk of them saying what they actually thought That doesn't excuse Bannigan. I'm not a fan of his style of play at the best of times but he's meant to be a leader. Doing what he did was embarrassing however I reckon the squad have no faith in Doolan or McDonald. I still can't believe there has been nothing from the club after Saturday. Are we that poorly run that the board won't issue a statement backing Doolan or is the board sitting back hoping Doolan makes the decision for them?
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I don't see it as the answer. I see it as we need someone to take interim charge and he's the only one in the squad capable of doing that whilst we do a proper recruitment However I think most see it as the way the club will go as we tend to go for ex-players and equally its probably the easiest/laziest way which again the club has form for.
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You are correct, made the mistake of just looking at the current squad
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One of the many things going wrong or that has gone wrong is player recruitment Handing out muti year contracts to older players leaves us in the position we will have this summer where we have quite a few signed up for next season (Ashcroft, Crawford, Lawless, Graham) and a couple that should be going but that we've not really considered how to replace (Mitchell, Bannigan) I know under Lambie's last spell we felt hard done by in losing players like Alex Burns and Stephen Craigan without getting a transfer fee because they were on 1 year contracts. However Lambie's unofficial policy was sign experienced pro's, get a year out of them and then move on. When McCall came in for his first spell we started to issue multi year contracts to counter that however he was Largely signing younger players in first spell were we could get a resale value. Even in his last spell he was pretty good at finding younger players at other teams that he could develop (Tiffoney, Rudden, Milne, Turner, Fitzpatrick, Docherty) To my mind we need an approach that welds both together i.e. 1 year contracts for anyone over or near 30 and only players who should be considered for more than 1 year deals should be under 25 so we retain resale value. Between 25 and 29 there is some discretion and over 30 by rare exception will we look at more than a 1 year contract Doolans approach has been way off this. I don't think he's permanently signed anyone younger than 25 ? He seems to have only looked at younger players from our own academy. He's given out a few 2 year contract to older players. For example, I didn't see a huge problem offering Bannigan a contract in 23/24 but offering him 2 years didn't make any objective sense.
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I think a lot of what you say is true. (Jim Traynor is a bit out there though!) To my mind we as a club have lost our sense of purpose. We are meant to be a competitive football club and through putting a decent team on the pitch an alternative to watch the 2 cheeks. That doesn't mean we need to fix society's problems or not be ruthless when it comes to moving players or managers out the door. Outside of the playing and management team I'm not sure we really know who does what at the club any more. We seem to have a lot of non-playing staff but I'm not sure what purpose they serve? We really need a root and branch review of who at the club is aiding our goal of being a competitive football club and if it isn't directly related to providing income to make us more competitive then they need to go no matter how nice they are or however worthy the item they are taking forward is. Yesterday it started to feel like the support had turned on Doolan staying as our manager. In the past there would be questions asked of the board and calls for the chairman of the day to take action. However I suspect we didn't get any shouts for that because no-one really knows who's calling the shots. Should we be asking TJF to act? should we be calling on Beastall to act? Is it really McClymont we should be looking to?
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Only part of your post I struggle with is the bit in bold. I don't get why we would wait until we are 5th? Morton could catch us by the 25th February but that would mean they win 3 while we lose against Airdrie. Fairly confident we can meet our part of that but Morton winning their 3 looks unlikely Raith could be level with us by the 25th as well. More likely this happens but we could still potentially be in 4th on goal difference and whilst Raith comfortably extracted the p*ss against us they aren't anything special to them winning 3 on the bounce is unlikely. My guess is we drop out of 4th after embarrassing ourselves against Ayr at home. At that point new person has 7 games to save the situation with a demoralised squad. Why wait until then?
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I'm not Bannigan's biggest fan and I've stated plenty of times that we need to move on from him. However I don't entirely blame him for his 'heads gone' moment yesterday Last week he had a 'heads gone' moment when he took the shot from our kick off. Others thought it was worth a try but to me thats a sign of heads gone petulance. Both are out complete frustration at his team being completely outplayed and having no way of changing it. We have had one style of play all season. Defend and then put the ball into Graham in the hope he can hold it up or play in someone else that might release a winger Whilst putting a leftback at leftback at halftime corrected the obvious starting line up mistake there was absolutely no change to the tactics and there hasn't been all season. If anything we made our midfield worse by the other changes we made. It was embarrassing watching us in possession yesterday particularly in the second half. Raith were tight on our wingers and played a high line safe in the knowledge that our only plan of attack is to get it wide and hope our wingers beat their man. We have no-one able to pick up the ball in central midfield on the turn and play a forward pass, we don't have anyone running beyond their back line, we don't have anyone that can run centrally with the ball. Our only other tactic yesterday was to lump it in the air in the hope McBeth might flick it on which was truly schoolboy stuff. When we play a midfield that contains 3 out of Stanway, Bannigan, Martin, McBeth or Crawford then we just compound the issue. Turner is able occasionally to run with the ball in central areas but he has been ruined this season by putting him at rightback so much so that he's almost forgotten what to do in his infrequent shots in midfield. A more seasoned manager with current form and what he has available doesn't blindly stick to the same formation and tactics. Yesterday an experience manager sets out to not loose but we just go from one game to another hoping the thing that hasn't worked and which has increasingly less chance of working will work. I suspect Bannigan, Graham, Ashcroft and few other players in the team know that and that's why I can understand Bannigan's frustrations and not entirely blame him for those moments. Unfortunately all roads lead back to Doolan and McDonald need to go. Forget who comes next as its now a question of making it clear that we will not accept this standards. If its Graham then I'm ok with that on the basis that its to the end of the season and if it doesn't improve then we get someone else. We should not fall into the same trap of awarding a permanent contract after 1 month of improvement. If its Graham and he shows an improvement over the next 3/4 months then he gets a 1 year contract not a rolling or long term contract. P.S. Whats the deal with Muirhead? Thats a couple of weeks in a row were we have brought him on with 10 minutes to go for no real reason. Does he get some financial/ contractural reward for appearances? If we were going to play him then why not put him at rightback when we took off Megwa?
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I don't get the - 'we don't have enough money to get rid' argument We're going to lose at least 1 league place by letting this continue and I would be willing to bet next Saturdays attendance v Airdrie will be down. The cost of keeping him now outweighs the cost of getting rid I honestly can't believe anyone that witnessed today's steaming pile of nonsense on top of the performances since early December is suggesting Doolan should stay? Does anyone still believe he should stay? If so how on earth do you think he turns this around?
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He needs to do the honourable thing and call it a day. Staying any longer will only risk tarnishing his well earned status as a thistle great
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Absolutely honking Same crap performance we have had all season but without Graham on the pitch to provide a gimmer of organisation, drive or goal threat then we looked abysmal. Zero attempts on goal in 90 minutes is an all new low. This is way, way, way worse than when McCall got punted and possibly worse than when Caldwell got his marching orders. Anyone that thinks somehow Graham got himself sent off last week should have a look at what Bannigan did to gift Raith a penalty today. Proper heads gone stuff from one of our most experienced players. Today was the first day I saw our singing section give up and leave early and with 30 minutes to go there was virtually no-one in the away end. If we don't loose 4th spot (my estimate is we finish 6th) then we will lose supporters as we are a complete shambles. Be under no illusions if the management team stay Airdrie will beat us next week. 36 points is borderline safe from the relegation playoff and right now I don't see us getting another point We need change now, I don't care if its Graham in temporary charge until the summer but Doolan and McDonald need to go now, not the end of the season, not next week - tonight
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To my mind Adeloye is a good signing for Morton were he will be regularly played but probably not a great signing for us were he will be at best a sub and occasional starter. If we're getting another striker in to the end of the season then I firmly expect it to be a cheap loan from the premier league. However I would hope if Turay is back with us that he's on the bench today and given minutes if Ablade tires. Not too sure if a cheap loan from the premier to be 3rd choice striker is better than giving a few minutes to one of younger players and seeing what they can make of the opportunity.
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Gareth Evans and David Moss?
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Pat Docherty? Think its the league cup game we lost 2-0 in 1988
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Its a fit leftback so has to be an improvement on an unfit or non-existent leftback Hopefully he's ready and raring to go so we can get O'Reilly back in the centre of defence
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With no Graham and now we have a leftback I would like to see the following Mitchell Megwa-Ashcroft-O'Reilly-Reid Martin-Bannigan Lawless - Turner-Chalmers Ablade If Megwa's not at the races I would rather play Muirhead at right-back equally I would be tempted to give Mackenzie a go. Please no more of Turner at right back as we are absolutely killing a very good player. Hopefully MacKay is fit and able to make an appearance. Only issues I can see is that we have a lack of height so I suspect McBeth will start and O'Reilly will get played at leftback.
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So if the average wage on @jlsarmy numbers is correct at £43k then @Third Lanark was correct to say there will be players on £50k? Looks like could also be correct that Milne was on £1k per week ~ £52k per annum? Also suggests some could be on considerably more than £1k a week as presumably @jlsarmy is using playing budget figures from previous years accounts? Apologies in advance if I have picked up any of the above incorrectly or got my maths wrong
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National Living wage is around £460 per week Average weekly earing in Scotland are more than £700 per week Employee Earnings - Annual survey of hours and earnings: 2024 - gov.scot I expect some of the younger inexperienced members of the squad will be on closer to the living wage but almost all will be on higher than the national average Players such as Aschroft that are proven league winners may well be earning £75k per year. Can't imagine Brian Graham isn't getting a decent pay check. If we were smart we would have tied wages to win bonuses and in that case the players may end up owing us.
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I've watched thistle for the last 44 years. We have had much worse teams and seasons. For example the Benny Rooney, Derek Johnstone era's were way worse but we never really went into those seasons with any aims of challenging for promotion On face value the seasons similar to that were pretty well backed to get promotion but completely made a mess of it. So Archie in 2018/19 and maybe something like Peter Cormack in 83/84 (some mitigation due to our financial state) However whilst nothing was as bad as watching us under Dick Campbell, the experience of watching us is perhaps closest to 05/06. We were never able to compete with Gretna to win the league that season but we should have been able to at least be 2nd. Instead of which we scraped into 4th spot and fluked the playoffs. We are just an awful watch at the moment and its felt like a chore going to Firhill rather than a joy. I can't think of a performance or a moment this season that is memorable or that you would want to remember and in that context this is the closest to watching Dick Campbells team. Here's hoping we fluke the playoffs .
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Preparing his application for Sporting Director?
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Caldwell always looked a terrible idea even before he was appointed and when you add that other external appointments in the last 35 years have been Sandy Clark, John McVeigh, Murdo McLeod, Tommy Bryce and Dick Campbell then it doesn't appear to sell the idea of looking outside of ex players and managers. However what we are really saying is that in 35 years we have not develop the ability to successfully appoint someone we didn't already know. That suggests to me that we have a systemic fault in how we identify new managers when compared to other clubs as they are appointing successful managers who didn't have a history with them. Its something we need to address as we are running out of 'Thistle legends' to appoint.
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I don't think its an explicit rule and I would absolutely recognise that my numbers are fairly random as I'm selecting clubs to compare against. However if there is anything in the comparison its that we on average only going to certain sources to make managerial appointments. If we are to be more line with other more successful clubs then it suggests the next series of managerial/Sports Director appointments should not have any past or current history. Again this is a quick glance across but prior to 1990 the clubs above would have went to similar places as us to recruit i.e. ex-players and ex-managers. There will always be some ex-players and re-appointments that do well and I was more than happy to see Lambie, Auld and McCall return. However I suspect that constantly returning to the same appointments so frequently inhibits the clubs mindset on how to identify talent and in a modern game where turnover of players and staff is high if you are going to be long term successful then you need to establish a mindset and culture that is better at that aspect.
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Really great to see Queens win yesterday. The instant joy of winning a cup tie like that is hard to beat. However I think measuring success against if we can occasionally win against either arse cheek is where we go wrong. We should measure success against teams like Motherwell, St Johnstone and St Mirren who are all of similar size but have spent significantly more time in the top league, have played in Europe in recent times, have regularly won against the 2 and have won actual trophies. The way in which they have done that is to focus on being in the top league. If you are constantly in the top league then at some point you will get lucky and either qualify for Europe or win a cup. I think they have shown that one of the ways you achieve long term status in the premier league is their approach to appointing and retaining managers. If my numbers are correct (and that's a big if!) than since around 1990 St Johnstone have changed managers 14 times, St Mirren 19, Motherwell 21. We have had 14. 14 seems to compare with St Johnstone numbers until you look at how many times either team have re-employed the same manager. We re-employed Lambie 3 times and McCall twice in that period but I think St Johnstone have not re-employed the same person twice. Motherwell I believe only did it once (Mark McGhee?) and St Mirren once (Tony Fitzpatrick) I suspect if we looked at the amount of appointments that we have made that are ex-players or internal promotions in comparison to other successful teams of our size then there may be another tale to tell that suggest we go with what we know. I think that suggests we haven't modernised our approach on appointing managers because when push comes to shove we go back to the people who did ok for us before (I would be first to plead guilty to wanting Lambie and McCall back) in the hope that will give us another brief visit to the upper echelons whereas other clubs have became ruthless in making changes and therefore better in identifying alternatives. We are about to move forward with a sporting director. To my mind number one qualifying criteria is no ex-players or ex-managers. Give them clear performance objectives i.e. recruit a squad to achieve promotion within 2 years. Also make it clear if its off track get rid and go again so maximum length of contract is 2 years. No more rolling contracts and if they are recruiting the Head coach/manager then no old pals