Juanito

Excellent topic and some really great posts and with all the recent boardroom movement something that has occupied my mind. For me Thistle are a club which should be somewhere between 8th and 16th in Scottish football, given its size location and history. Given the information above that is pretty much on average where we are. I would be interested in other peoples thoughts but the jags are a pretty unusual team to follow, smaller core support (due to location, wealth, recent success) than Killie, Motherwell maybe even St.Mirren or Falkirk but i think we have a higher percentage of that core support which go home and away. So it seems to me that it is more difficult to hide at Thistle, maybe why managers are very hit and miss, we are a very passionate support (which is good and bad). If we could get our season ticket sales up to 2000 and our home support up past 4000 consistently then I think we can look at moving the goalposts up a place or two, Killie and Motherwell survive on being somewhere between 6th and 11th usually. I do think we would have to knock one or more of the established teams out of the league to do this. I would happily spend many hours over a beer discussing how possible this is to achieve.

No rush to complete any Cammy Smith deal this week as loan or not he won't play on Saturday.

I will try and find the interview that is most stuck in my mind, but maybe my memory is clouded by the years, it was when he was playing at Raith Rovers pretty sure he came out in the press saying stuff about scoring against us to keep us down and help Morton win the league. I could be biased as I have always enjoyed giving him pelters. To be fair I had a pretty similar low opinion of Scott McDonald before his first interview on Jagzone.

Also Brian Graham has been pretty vocal about his dislike for Thistle and its supporters over the years, going back over a decade. He has chosen not to sign for us at least 3 times. The last one being when Archie tried to sign him and he went to County instead. Will make for an interesting first interview, if he is the guy? Also McGinty has to think that his time at Thistle is over given he has lost his place to Saunders and also on Saturday Penrice was moved inside instead of a straight swap. Similar for Robson, Slater, Palmer, if you are not really trusted from the bench time to move on.

What are the feelings on the standard of football and competitiveness? Is the Glasgow cup a decent replacement for the reserve league, seems to have served it purpose in getting a few players return game time and given the younger players in the under 17 a chance to set up and play with the older pro's Or are the games still played at a walking pace like many of last years reserve fixtures??

Just during the day is not overly useful if you are going to run a youth academy from it as all the kids train in the evening. The senior team are training at Huntershill just now anyway??

Was disappointed with O'Donnell's comments, the side of the player is always given but never the supporters. As a fan of Thistle I am well aware of the role McNamara and Donnelly had in putting together a great group of players and playing style. But the way he left the club with no regard for the fans was very poor, that is the reason he takes stick. Look at Erskine, treat us with respect and we will do the same for you, regardless of where you go after. Only thing Caldwell said that was interesting was that when he arrived +6 players were skipping training pretending they were injured after each game, it looked like that on the pitch for the last season of Archies first spell.

Very pertinent article written by a Rochdale fan, not sure if tomorrow is going to provide some clarity to the situation but lets hope the long term future of PTFC is brighter after the AGM. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49787539

If you are only interested in the development of players through the vehicle of the club then there should be no problem? Could easily come to some sort of legally binding agreement?

Ideally the club would move to 51%fan ownership, Beattie could keep his shares and remain Chairman given thus far has been a good and steady hand. No problem if the club then want to work with the Barnsley owners ( or they want to become a minority shareholder with a seat on the board) to develop players to the benefit of both clubs, or would that just be too easy?

Great news to brighten my mood after yesterday. Welcome home Cally.

Is it not a rule that you are only allowed to loan two players from one club at a time?? with a limit on the number of loan players that a club can have over the age of 21. I am sure if you are clever you could get around the rules but also players are only allowed to play for a certain number of clubs in a season so we would have to know by at least the winter transfer window that players were required, so not really any different to last season when we used our parachute payment to outspend other clubs (Alloa, QOS) which eventually led to us staying up, just.

Same reason I would to make the club better and make a difference????

Yeah rule applied, the rule has reduced the chances greatly of the keeper making a save from a penalty, or Fox and Fon-Williams are really poor at penalties. Probably a bit of both.

Still not really sure what formation GC favours, if it is three/five at the back. Four players for me and the standard of 3 of them is going to have a big say on our position in the league. Back up goalie. Striker better than the two we currently have (pace or height preferably both) we lacked goals last year and have lost Spittal, Mcdonald and Doolan who provided most of them. Mobile central midfielder with height we are pretty poor in the air in the middle of the pitch, don't win a high percentage of second balls. Depending on formation either a winger who goes outside and crosses the ball, Cardle, Spittal, Storey tended to go inside or not be able to cross the ball, if its 4 at the back. Five at the back another centre half, big and mobile as Morton, Dundee, Dundee United will all go direct.

Best news of the transfer window so far

There is an SFA accredited course on scouting which provides you with the basic tools for the job. Two types of scout seem to exist in the scottish game, player scouts who look for players and report on them. Tactical scouts who go to watch a team and report on shape, tactics, individual strengths/weaknesses.... I seem to remember that the club was actively looking for people to act as scouts recently and would provide training for interested parties?? Don't think you need to be an ex-pro to provide either function but obviously the way the game works is that managers/clubs will go to mates first who are interested in staying in the game in some form or other whilst injured, between jobs or retired from playing.

Decent player at times, but pretty glad he is away, doesn't really fit comfortably into a system we have played in the last couple of years, good guy though and at times really looked like he cared about the team in both the last few seasons. Had such high hopes after the St.Mirren game at Firhill in the Bet Fred Cup that we had unearthed a gem.

Somebody gave him the heads up on Twitter, seems to have got the 'We are THISTLE' message.

Maybe its my long association with Thistle but I am not expecting a great deal of interesting news from tonight. Think it might be used to announce - back to training dates, training camps, friendlies, fitness changes, at best maybe a signing like Lewis Mansell. Would like to know about what is happening with the reserves, youth progression to first team, a direction for style of play or type of player we are after, but for several reasons I think it will be quite light on information. I think anybody going with the hope that an explanation or apology for the last couple of seasons performance or communication issues is out of luck. The current board or management team seem unlikely to do that.

Only time will tell but if we take the Keown / Anderson swap on paper looks a bad deal (swapping a 23 year old for a 33 year old) but anybody who has seen either play over the last 18 months would agree that the heart and desire that Anderson plays with is something that our back line has lacked in our descent down the league. As a supporter just not having to watch Keown, Bell, Ntambwe, Mutombo again has been the positive of the week.

Good luck, what a bear pit to play your first pro games in. Character building.

I am aware that it has been a tough couple of seasons and I may have zoned out on some games but did I miss a manager coming and going??? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46889425 Good old BBC, never misses a trick.

Would like to see any manager assistant combination of Craigan, Lennon, and Callum Davidson, the three of them are aware of the rigors of the scottish game and what is needed to succeed. Also have had success and experience working with younger players which is a direction we are going to head for the rebuild.

Dead man walking