Westend Jag

Cant believe how some of these threads end up going! Sit on someones knee if they're in "your" seat...they'll soon move!

Agree, Osman out also means the midfield needs a tweak. We can change in the game to a more direct two in the last 20mins if it is the right thing to do.

And his attitude is perfect, responds to being on the bench this season the way you would hope, does his best for the team when called on and scores and doesn't chuck his toys out....was similar when he and Lyle were fighting it out for the striker role last two seasons. Echo all the positive statements around Kris - love the guy. My only criticism is that in some games he gets lost / can on occasion be ineffective, often through the service being given to him, I guess if he was a world beater all of the time he'd be at a higher level. Definite hero of the recent past...favourite goal for me is the tap in from the cup final at Almondvale a few yrs ago - crowd went nuts. I do love the way he can trap a ball with that left peg...

whats he said on instagram?

can't argue he didn't want to celebrate...weird one. i like him, think we should be getting more from him though - I was surprised to see him pushing people away when you consider we've won the game in that fashion...hopefully he is just p*ssed off he isn't in the team right now... Archie was also positive with his changes, something we can't always say.

Sarcasm right? Never felt so flat watching Scotland and after 18 yrs of frustration that's saying something!! Home top not too bad, just a shame that those wearing it aren't great...more annoying for me is the deal that sees it exclusively sold through 1 retailer.

Was cringing at that "discussion" last night, course they were won on the park!!that's not the Q - it's the quality of player available due to being able to "afford" them and how they were able to afford them that people are challenging! Anyway, more importantly that highlights programme is brutal...can't help looking through rose tinted specs and wishing we had some of the blokes from the past commentating and presenting.

yup all sensible, also what sits beneath top flight - 2nd tier of 16-18 with regional pyramids is important, it all has to work at all levels & be integrated....then we can start talking about pricing & when our leagues start & finish in the year broadcasting etc etc...easy eh?....sadly it won't happen.

yup that position started to gather real pace when david murray led the charge for a breakaway league in the 90s....coinciding with our national sports spiral into the sh*te

Or even Holland, belgium, Portugal....16-18 teams is the way forward along with a load of other changes that have been mentioned...but whether it is a self interest thing or whether those in charge genuinely think they've got it right at the moment, sadly it won't change. Never got the meaningless mid table clash stuff and how the the removal of that perceived situation with the split makes for a better quality product on the park, better development of younger players etc. excitement at the bottom end maybe but quality? clearly not so and as for the securing a Euro spot excitement that the top 6 brings (cos only 1 team will win the league) - that's forgotten about around mid August in the following season when all our teams are out bar Celtic!..because we aren't creating quality players. Seems to me that the apathy amongst most people who were once weekly attendees at football in our country and all the empty seats (in some cases cunningly disguised by big banners in some grounds) we see week in week out suggest that too many people see the current set up as "meaningless".

Agreed it is clearly more complex than that, point I am making is it doesn't help the next stage of a younger players development if the focus is "survival" each season as they either don't feature at the expense of more "experienced" pros or make costly mistakes which hammers confidence which in some cases they don't recover from. I'd point to countries across Europe with a far better record of producing talent as evidence that the league structure is critical (regardless of population size)...along with a host of other things that obviously need to be taken in the round...mentality, attitude, ambition, diet, training, coaching/technical development hours, style of play, mentoring, targeted investment, youth / national culture, climate when we play etc etc.. What issues would be caused by a larger top flight & restructure beneath that you see that would prevent it from being sensible along with other big changes? - two of our supposed top teams played yesterday in the second tier, (so there's 14) and frankly outwit the big 4-5 teams in this country there isn't really a sustainable difference between everyone else at the moment..it can't be about quality. Our game is amateurish top to bottom and the league structure is a key component to that - it is what drives the product...I'd argue it isn't fit for purpose as you put it because there's a lot of empty seats, broadcasting is poor, our national team is poor, commercial appetite to support it is also minimal and we aren't producing top quality technical footballers...yet each time we fail to qualify as a nation for a tournament we naval gaze for a bit and then don't take a holistic approach to sort it. Agreed, perhaps off topic but shoving Jimmy Calderwood forward as someone who could help us stay up kind of also makes my point in a managerial sense too.

the league set up is a total shambles and does zilch for our games development...top league of 16-18, 2nd tier of 16-18 then support with regional pyramids a la German structure...its all great having a youth set up but if you can't then move them along into the next stage without fear of relegation etc then young players have less of a chance of making it...but we never learn in this country

At what?

Good post Jag agree with virtually all of it, I have a high expectations of Stevenson and like what he is capable of bringing, my grumble is that it took a while to get going last season and it is starting to look similar this season - whatever the reasons. I was annoyed at him Saturday as he wasn't good (neither were Amoo etc etc) and frustrated that he kicked the ball out when he did. Reading the press last week he made no bones about his time at hearts and the respect he has for their fans, thats great but as a Thistle fan I don't care about that, he plays for us now, Ive paid £24 for him to bust a gut for us and he didn't... but I'm also not really bothered if he wants to clap them when he's being hooked and not bothered if he claps us either - doesn't matter - Im more bothered that he was ineffective the whole time he was on the park. If he isn't fit get him fit and until such times bench him and adjust the starting 11. We didn't play well, no where near good enough and that's unacceptable - the manager has said it as have some of the players - some people have the opinion that there are certain games we shouldn't expect points from - nonsense, whats the point if that is the view?if we are going to get beat lets leave nothing on the park, lets not turn up with the mindset of low expectations...chances are it is a self fulfilling prophecy and you'll get beat...even if you set out a perceived weakened line up for whatever reason, the aim should be to score more than the other lot. Jag's point has also got me wondering, some of the personal abuse certain people get on here is really daft (especially the red monkey fellow who gets more than his fair share - even if you agree or disagree with some of his posts) - are people actually able to put a face to a name on this forum? if so I am amazed there aren't square goes every week at Firhill or is it the fact there seems to be two stands that separate some the only saving grace?

Think it's fair to say Ryan didn't endear himself to many thistle fans today...fairly anonymous, gave it away when he had it, put it out when we were breaking for an injury to their player then gave a glare when most in red n yellow wanted us to attack then did a lap of honour n clapped the hearts fans when he was hooked... I left with two mins to go but at least I turned up unlike most of hour team today... It's gonna b a long season

thats far too sensible and won't annoy anyone so will never work!

looks like initial allocation is all we are getting...200 left as of 10mins ago - should sell our end out...I wonder if there'll be any Jags in the home end?!

you mean hearts season tickets? section L which is next to us isn't all season ticket & available for public sale each wk...so assume we have a chance of some of them if we need...

will be amazed if we don't sell that wee section M by today and need to get some more from hearts...hopefully we can get some more

He also wasn't good enough though...good enough = old enough, granted they need to be managed closely

Also add, think the two young boys who have come in look steady and full of potential - quite excited about them, hopefully we see more home grown players coming in over the season and yrs to come

I live near him and have spoken to him a couple of times, nice lad and comes across as quite intelligent too...genuinely has an affection for thistle and the fans...he wants a new challenge but also get impression the money we were able to offer him (and higgy etc) was also a factor in him seeking a new challenge...pretty sure he's been using HIbs training facilities but not sure he will go there, think he fancies the continent even if at a low(ish) level. Genuine bloke who did a great job for us but time for both parties to move on.

We need to retain the 4 central midfielders we have...form, injuries & suspensions dictate this necessity...would like another wide player though to create...i do think that we need to be able to flex our style week to week and in game though...On Sunday we didn't play at a decent tempo and our set up wasn't that conducive to troubling celtic in the defensive areas hence dick van dyk had loads of time to stroll through things... Annoying for Archie in that after a decent season last yr we lose people like Higgy because of money to a team like killie...must frustrate him, rather than being able to build on the quality he had he is now trying to rebuild in key areas again...ideally we'd have kept taylor, higgy, odonnell but finance dictates... noticed last night the killie fans didn't turn out in huge numbers either...

chris sutton on bt sport....what an eejit

that said we need to play with more belief...