Firhillista

To be perfectly honest, I don't give a flying fcuk about Rangers or what happened seven years ago. Seriously? We're still dredging this crap up to pass judgement on someone who's focus is currently on the future of Partick Thistle? If this deal goes through, then David Beattie and others will get back the money they invested in the club. Money they put in at a time when it was required to guarantee our existence. These pigeons have been flying about for a good number of years, now they're coming home to roost. I don't think it's fair to criticise folk who want their money back. Everything Beattie is on the record as saying supports the view that he has the best interests of the club at heart. I get that some folk don't trust him. I honestly don't see where that's coming from. Obviously, there's a concern that his head will be turned by the money on offer. Which brings us back to the deal. Which we have to wait for. Patiently or otherwise.

And this is the nub of the whole issue. We don't know what the deal is. David Beattie and the returning board clearly think it's a good deal. That's why they're back - to see the deal through. Until there's some clarity about what the consortium intends for Thistle, all we can do is have these circular discussions about motivations and intentions. It's incredibly frustrating, but we're just going to have to wait.

One day we'll look back on all this and laugh...

Don't know who said it to be honest. It certainly appeared to be a focus in some newspaper stories. By the way, I'm not obsessed with buses. Beginning to lose the will to live on all this...

At last! Some clarity on the bus front! While it's clear there's much to be concerned about at the club currently, I'm beginning to think that the original newspaper story and the rumours that preceded it included a lot of stuff that was lumped in to make the current board look as bad as possible. Throw as much shit as you can and something will stick. Although that's not to say that all's well, of course...

Which I'm absolutely fine about, but the concern is that the players have been told that they'll have to get themselves to all away matches in future and that will include Inverness and Dumfries. This isn't how a professional club, at any level, operates. Surely this position should have been refuted in the statement?

My God, I understood all that - close to a first in all this. So we're protecting the playing budget currently, but expecting to be running at a loss for the season as a whole which is obviously an issue for anyone wanting to buy the club. This makes sense to me. Doesn't reassure me, but it does make sense.

Seriously? We can't run a coach to away games? If that's the level of our financial position, then we must be in significant financial difficulties. How much does it cost to hire a bus?!

I've read the statement three times now. Not the easiest thing to interpret, which is in itself concerning. The only issue it addresses is the playing budget which they state is the same as was agreed with Caldwell at the beginning of the season. They state that the board " strongly refutes any suggestion that £200,000 has been removed from the playing budget, as the figure available to the Manager remains as it was under the previous board.” If this is true, then we can assume we're back to looking at three or four players still to come in. I'd certainly feel a lot happier if that process started with a signing sometime soon - what about the centre back, Ben Hall, we were linked with? It would also provide some confidence in the claim that the board still back us for promotion this season. However, until there's some movement on the signing front, I'm going to be deeply worried about the current board's intentions. Why no mention of the the other points made in the newspaper story? What about the team bus? What about Colin Weir? I get that they can't talk about the proposed takeover, but the fans deserve to know that the club is currently able to function as serious contenders for the Championship this season.

I have to say that I haven't agreed with much you've posted on here over the piece, but I'm desperately hoping you're right about this situation and that it'll all end for the best. I think we can all agree that some statement from the board - even if it's limited in content - would provide some reassurance that we're not facing Armageddon...

Surely there has to be a statement from the board today? Other clubs are taken over by rich investors and their fans, setting aside not unreasonable concerns, look forward to the potential of financial stability and some big name signings. Thistle are linked to billionaire investors and we scrap the team bus, put a hold on further signings and say that promotion is 'not a priority' - what the actual fcuk? I'm clinging to the hope that 'the insider' is painting as black a picture as possible because they don't like what's happening, but that the reality isn't anywhere near as bad. But hopes and fears aren't what we need at this point. Someone needs to explain what's going on.

This is a shambles. Without knowing anything about the details of the club's finances, it seems to me unlikely that we're in financial trouble - there's been no suggestion in the recent past of any difficulties and we've just had reasonably large amounts from transfer fees. So this seems more likely to be about the new owners blocking further spending. Way to go, guys, at getting the fans onside.

That explains why he didn't react to my helpful words of advice yesterday when I was screaming, "Gavin, fur fux sake!..."....

Gavin Williamson reminds me of SOD a bit. Just sayin'.

No, sorry, I don't buy it. Any half decent professional player can play in this formation. Don't forget there were two teams playing with three at the back yesterday - it was just that Alloa were the ones who looked like they knew what they were doing. The issue is still with the players. We all recognise it, we've watched it for two seasons or more - that faintly distracted air, that 'oh look, there's a squirrel' thing when they incomprehensibly loose concentration at the worst possible time, those puzzled looks between players when one passes to the other and the recipient hasn't made the expected run, the slow, slow passing of the ball because, well, who knows? reasons?, the faffing about with the ball to ensure the opponent has maximum time to get a tackle in. And on, and on. And then they switch on and it looks like they know what they're about. The ball goes zipping around the place, players make powerful runs, the opposition is on the back foot and all's right with the world. Caldwell can be criticised for a lot - and he is - but players like Bannigan, Penrice, Saunders, McGinty - and others to be fair - need to up their game. Toot sweet.

Did think Alex Jones looked good when he came on. Maybe he's the one who'll score 15 goals for us this season....

As disappointed as I was with yesterday's performance, on reflection I think the gap between us getting a draw and winning was paper thin. Their goal was a deflection that gave Sneddon no chance (although that it came off Saunders didn't surprise me - he's becoming my most feared Thistle defender, with McGinty coming close behind); the Alloa keeper made some brilliant saves to keep us out; we hit the bar; Miller was unlucky with a header... On another day, as they say, we might have won that. The interesting thing is that, even if we had, the concerns expressed here would still be valid. Unlike others, I don't think the formation is the issue: it's the players inability to play it. Given that Caldwell works with them all week (and has done for months) why did so many look lost yesterday? And yet immediately after the start of the second half, we were right into them and scoring seemed only a matter of time. I find it all depressingly difficult to understand. More concerning for me, are the rumours that we can't afford further signings and there's some kind of financial instability at the club. Next Saturday's opportunity to ask questions of the chair at the open day is going to be a must.

Spot on. My concern is that we have four midfielders who weren't playing yesterday - Palmer, Slater, Harkins and Wilson - and I don't think the inclusion of any of them would make a significant difference. Given we've got six players (add in Bannigan and Gordon) for three positions, what's the chance of bringing in another midfielder who can transform things?

Pitch was more 'normal' size, not that it helped, to be honest. I get that Caldwell should be criticised for the set up, (lineup exactly as you called it, Thistle88), but some of those players need to take a long hard look at themselves. That was one of the poorest performances from Bannigan that I've seen and Penrice clearly isn't as good a player as he thinks he is, some of his play was downright sloppy. We were still playing three at the back at the beginning of the second half and we were, at last, putting Alloa under significant pressure. The formation wasn't the optimum one on the day, but the players were the ones who ensured it was never going to work. I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed with a draw away from home. The first game of the season tends to come with raised, maybe unreasonable, expectations, but that performance was well short of anything approaching acceptable. I'll be there on Friday, of course. Second game in and already it's a 'must win' game. Jesus, but this is exhausting.

Bizarre game. Thistle players making stupid mistakes all over the place, struggling to put moves together, but Alloa's goalie made a couple of brilliant saves while Sneddon had nothing to do - their goal took a huge deflection to get by him. Nothing to suggest we're going to be challenging this season, though.

The sheer lack of logic behind this story has been commented on here already. Caldwell is quoted in the Evening Times that we're still looking for "three or four" players to bolster the squad. No suggestion that he's been told that there's to be no more signings. As for the bus thing - what?! We've so little money that we can't hire a coach to go to Alloa! Despite the money that's recently gone into the club from the transfers of Lindsey and Fitzpatrick and despite the previous board members threatening to take anyone to court who suggested that the club's finances are in anything other than rude health? I think the suggestion that the motivation for these stories might be boredom is very generous. Someone is at it, I think, and given that we play our first league game this afternoon, I'd suggest they don't have the best interests of Partick Thistle at heart.

If Nisbet had played as well with us as he has with Raith Rovers and Dunfermline, we wouldn't have released him. He's on record as saying he blew it with us because he thought he'd made it and he stopped working hard enough. He's not so much the one that got away, as the one who screwed up his first chance as a professional footballer, but worked hard to rectify things. Should we have signed him? Who knows? We're we ever in the running? I suspect we'd have been happier with Rudden over Nisbet - a move that's beginning to look a possibility.

Into the final on less than 1% of the vote!

For me, Hall would be a direct replacement for Saunders. Big Stevie always looks like he's one moment of distraction away from disaster...

Thistle pursuing Ben Hall, Northern Ireland under 21 central defender, released from Brighton. Reported in this morning's Sun, apparently. (From BBC Gossip - I don't read the Sun...)