[Thistle vs QotS Thread]

7 minutes ago, Auld Jag said:

I realise I am in the minority, but I did think we deserved something from the game. QOS were better in the first half, but I felt we were better in the second. As others have said we are short up front and although Mansell doesn't score a lot of goals, I feel we should have him on the bench for games like yesterday when we needed somebody upfront to help Miller.

Had we equalised or won the game I don't think anyone could have said it would have been a steal for us.

Players still lacking confidence - we havn't had a good period of winning at home and playing comfortably for a number of years now.

[Play the ball out of the defence]

Playing the ball out from the back only works if you have technically good players with good ball retention and accurate passing. It seems to be a very modern approach but it won't work in the Scottish second tier because we will never have a squad of that kind of player. We need more graft in midfield and more directness in attack, it should be simplified.

[Who Will Replace Caldwell?]

4 hours ago, jagfox said:

McCall's record at Firhill. Obviously some mitigating factors involved and he's thankfully moved on with things.

Would he even want to leave Ayr at the moment? 

As I remember, not spectacular. Gary Harkins in his pomp got us second but in reality we weren't close to St. Johnstone that year.

I can remember plenty of duff performances under McCall, and also plenty of the much-hated 'tippy-tappy' ineffective play...

[Caldwell Sacked]

2 minutes ago, Semi Nurainen said:

Chesterfield.

Would any of other the available candidates had no similar posts at all on their CVs?

[Caldwell Sacked]

 

 

19 minutes ago, Blackpool Jags said:

Let's get the Thistle spirit back into Thistle. 

Can you explain to me what "the Thistle spirit" is and how it is demonstrated?

[Caldwell Sacked]

9 minutes ago, laukat said:

When Archie for the sack we should have been looking for a manager that was able to make us defensively better and more direct in attack to aim for a quick return to the top flight. GC clearly wasn't that guy hence it was always a struggle.

This time I think we should be looking a manager that can initially make the current squad play to their potential and recreate Partick Thistle as a club that finds good young local talent  with the overarching aim of a return to the premier league within the next 2 seasons. That needs someone with a track record at this level of identifying undiscovered talent, that can develop players and mould them into a team.

With that in mind my selection for manager in order of preference:

Ian McCall -some distance- Stephen Craigan, Danny Lennon, Jackie McNamara, Kris Doolan --some distance --- Billy Dodds, Derek Adams

Managers that I would avoid like the plague:

Hughes, McIntyre, Pressley, Miller, Duffy, Stubbs

 

Why have you said "Kris Doolan" when you have then outlined your criteria as "someone with a track record at this level of identifying undiscovered talent, that can develop players and mould them into a team"

[Caldwell Sacked]

1 hour ago, Auld Jag said:

Our last board appointed the wrong person.

I think if you look at their record at their previous clubs, that gives you an idea of how it might go. Caldwells managerial record before he came to us was poor. Now I think he will find it extremely difficult to get a managerial job in football at  a decent level.

Won League 1 with Wigan in England and Manager of the Year - looks very good on a CV and a higher level than his predecessors at Thistle.

Clearly came across very well at a job interview. Not completely surprising he was given the job and I'm not sure his appointment at the time can be hugely criticised.

[Caldwell Sacked]

3 minutes ago, West of Scotland said:

Yes, I think we can all agree we have to get the right replacement. You'd have to be somewhat perverse to want the wrong person.

Yep, you kinda only find out if they are the right replacement a while after they are appointed.

[Caldwell Sacked]

4 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Also preferable imo that whoever comes in has a firm understanding of the Club.  

 

I've heard words to this effect mentioned by a number of people. What does it mean in practice?

[Kris Doolan Testimonial]

1 hour ago, Woodstock Jag said:

Oh and basically everyone ever connected with Partick Thistle doesn’t have a good word to say about Gary Caldwell.

It would be interesting to hear specifically who you had spoken to, or, if it was in confidence, the number of people you had spoken to.

If Gary Caldwell hadn't released Chris Erskine last season would you still hate him as much, and if not, why?

[Statement]

Just now, scotty said:

So the club will know where to send the invoice if they get fined then?

I agree with the principles of the song and I don't think any of us should have to pretend any respect for the Old Firm.

[Statement]

It's a great song and nobody is really stupid enough to think it's anything but anti-Old Firm and Sectarianism.

Of course, tens of thousands of people will belt out anti-Catholic/pro-IRA songs at Ibrox/Parkhead every week but the Police are clearly never going to bother taking that problem on.

It would be far easier for them to try to make an example of a club with fewer supporters to be seen to be doing something.

Unless prominent figures emerge in the media who are prepared to call out the Old Firm as the focus for sectarian hatred in Scotland then I would continue to sing our song.

[Bannigan and O’Ware told to leave?]

If Bannigan and O'Ware don't want to play for PTFC under Gary Caldwell then what's the point in them staying on beyond the transfer window?

O'Ware has been at PTFC for over a season, has been injured otherwise contributed nothing to the club on the pitch so why will he be a big loss?

[Bannigan and O’Ware told to leave?]

11 minutes ago, Woodstock Jag said:

Is your number one loyalty to Partick Thistle rather than Gary Caldwell?

If yes, Gary wants you out and will (typically) replace you with someone whose priority is themselves.

He is ripping apart the soul of this club.

Dry your eyes FFS. You are the biggest bleeding heart on here and P&B. I'm convinced Gary Caldwell wants PTFC to win football matches and I wouldn't care what players he does it with, as long as he does it. Too many players like Bannigan and Erskine picking up easy wages as fan favourites. The only "soul" this club should have is trying to win.

[vs. Ayr United, Aug 31]

40 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

Think it’s time for Caldwell to come out and tell us why O’ware isn’t playing, if it’s injury related then that’s ok but O’ware before his injury was probably one of the best defenders in the league and also the highest goal scoring defender in Europe .

After rupturing his ACL, and some Greenock fans saying he was quite good, Tam O'Ware has mythically transformed into Thistle's greatest centre back of all time. He hasn't particularly impressed me at any point. 

[vs. Ayr United, Aug 31]

2 minutes ago, sandy said:

Bottom of the table tonight. 

Let that sink in. 

How can that be acceptable to us? 

It isn't. Caldwell will he gone if it stays like that much longer, which I'm sure he'll be aware of. Might depend on the takeover going ahead though.

[vs. Ayr United, Aug 31]

11 minutes ago, sandbank boy said:

.

i get an inkling that Banzo doesn’t like playing for our current boss.

He should just leave then. He's been terrible so far this season and wasn't much better last.

[Doolan]

16 hours ago, alx said:

Caldwell sacks Dools somehow taking the 'hard decision' (deluded arrogant f***wit more like).

So we start very badly next season, does Jacqui Lowe take the 'hard decision' and sack Caldwell? No chance.

I can feel in my waater a Dick Campbellesque season approaching. He'll need to go by Christmas unless he gets one of the veteran striker targets to save his skin.

It's almost as though you (and some others) want this to happen...

I personally would have given Kris Doolan a contract for another season as I think he would continue to score a good number of goals if playing in a team which wasn't struggling to the same extent as that assembled by Archibald for the start of last season. I'm not a football manager, however.

I think Caldwell is right to an extent in his interview in that I'm not sure what the "nice way" to release a player is. Brings to mind the scene in the film Moneyball, where the management are deciding to release players and basically agree to be completely blunt with them. Doolan would obviously have been upset/angry in his interviews - we all would be after losing a job.

I'm a massive fan of Kris Doolan and always will be, but I'm a Thistle fan first and foremost. 

Hopefully we can all move on a bit and get behind the team for the new season.

[Doolan]

32 minutes ago, Woodstock Jag said:

I was commenting on how *Caldwell* treats people. When a player has played for a decade for your club, and there’s a good chance he won’t be here next season, and you’re 3-0 up with an unused sub on the last day of the season, you give them a cameo to say goodbye to their fans.

You brought up the irrelevant question of the testimonial, something Caldwell had no involvement in setting up, as a way of suggesting he had therefore treated Doolan right.

He hasn’t.

I don't agree with this. A game of that significance, with the very real threat of relegation, is not the correct context for a "cameo". Completely different, for example, to when Lambie brought on Chic Charnley for last 5 mins of his last game in charge - a meaningless end of season game.

The fans wouldn't have been aware that it was a farewell cameo anyway. His testimonial game is the correct time to say farewell on the pitch.

[Caldwell Like or Loathe]

In my opinion, Gary Caldwell has done a completely satisfactory job.

The squad Alan Archibald assembled last Summer was one of the worst Thistle sides I have ever seen, thus proving his major weakness in player recruitment. Bell, Jeffries, Scobbie, Ntambwe, Storer, Quitongo, Melbourne... Mutumbo, allegedly signed via a recommendation text message from an out of work manager. McGinty and Keown the worst centre back duo since...Keown and Devine. A squad that looked like it had been put together using Champ Man, Instagram and Transfermarkt.

I think that side would have been relegated automatically, given how Alloa and Falkirk picked up over the course of the season.

After 20 minutes of the new season, 2-0 down at Ayr, we were just trying to halt a downward spiral.

Gary Caldwell has done that with good signings and developing a team spirit. Well done to him and he fully merits being Thistle manager next season.

[Caldwell’s Massive 7 Days]

23 minutes ago, sandy said:

GC has no cognisance of how Erskine & Doolan felt about the Club; and even if he did, it wasn’t an important factor in his decision-making.

If there was ‘hysteria’, it was because there was very little communication coming out of Firhill as to GC’s rationale and his plans for rebuilding. All we saw was a long-serving player who loved the Club, gradually being frozen out (again, a perception).

One day Doolan & Erskine will manage us, that I’m sure of.

"Feeling strongly" about the club doesn't neccessarily equate to winning football matches, otherwise we'd have a starting line up of the most die-hard fans out the stand.

Doolan and Erskine could manage us in the future if they are the best candidates for the managerial job. Not simply because they would be popular former players. Insisting on hiring "your own" should be left to the "Celtic-minded" or "Big Rangers Men"  of the Old Firm. Alan Archibald was treated far too leniently because he was a popular former player. Which didn't make him a good manager.

Erskine and Doolan may have no interest in being football managers. 

[Caldwell’s Massive 7 Days]

59 minutes ago, sandy said:

Interesting analysis. I think Archie & Shaggy we’re worn out from the effort of keeping us in the top flight. Nobody within the Club seemed to recognise that or be able to help. So the sacking felt painful. Still does. 

The fact that I haven’t warmed to GC has nothing to do with what happened to Archie. I just don’t think he has understood Thistle (witness release of Erskine) nor has the tactical nous  or decision-making ability  (witness 18 month contract to Harkins) to put in a decent promotion challenge. 

We need an overhaul this summer, starting with a new manager and maybe some Board changes too.

What would "understanding Thistle" have been?

We should be an organisation focussed primarily on winning football matches. I didn't necessarily agree with releasing Erskine either, but if it was part of a squad overhaul which results in us staying in the division, it will have been justified. The level of hysteria surrounding the whole event was ridiculous.

[Caldwell’s Massive 7 Days]

I think Gary Caldwell did well in the January transfer window but there seem to be other problems going on. Perhaps he has annoyed a number of players and he is certainly persistent in certain approaches to playing games of football, even if something more straightforward might work better. I know little about football tactics, however.

There are other problems which long predate Gary Caldwell, and I'm certain we'd have been in a relegation battle with Alan Archibald and very possibly with any other available candidate too.

 I struggle to think of any convincing, comfortable league game performances over the past 3-4 years. The finger always hovers over the self-destruct button and there is a weak mentality which has been pervasive for a long time. This will only really change with a 10 game or more good run of form from a comfortable league position (Alan Archibald certainly wasn't acheiving that).

I'm pretty convinced Gary Caldwell wants to be a successful football manager but he has a difficult task on his hands - as I suspect his Chesterfield job was. He'll be nowhere near another job in England unless he were to get Thistle promoted and playing convincingly in the top flight. He could arguably be sacked from the Thistle job now, but are there any real good options here at all for us?

He has 7 (+\- 2) games remaining to realistically save his career in management. We can't afford any bad performances in these games, and I think we do have a groupd of players who are capable of getting out of this situation. But they will need to be interested, motivated and the starting line ups will have to right.

I'm sure we are all desperate for us to succeed.

[Lets fill the J.LS. vs Stranraer..]

21 hours ago, partickthedog said:

I suppose I would generally be classed as a Clappyhapper, trying to find positives, and while a committed supporter, usually viewing my Thistle football through a lighthearted lens.

This next comment should not be construed as saying that Archie should still be manager. His time, though much appreciated, had certainly come and gone.

However, I thought that my daughter put it well recently in saying that when Archie struggled, you felt like you were suffering with a friend, but with Caldwell, you feel as though you are suffering with a stranger.

 

Perhaps a matter of taste. Personally I tended to find Alan Archibald uninspiring and insipid - and of course his teams ended up turning in lots of insipid performances. 

I'm certainly aware he was a good player for us and has been connected with Thistle over many years, but I never really felt that a burning passion for PTFC came across. I didn't really relate to him much as a manager.

If Caldwell has ego, arrogance, I don't think it would have bothered me at al if he had got good results so far. In fact, perversely I quite like his wilfully thrawn comments such as blaming refs and being "outstanding" and "controlling" games even when we've had a terrible result - which doesn't make sense but is almost endearingly bizarre.

[Caldwell]

10 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

what PTFC are all about .

What do you mean by this?

I'd hope PTFC would be all about winning football matches. For me, Gary Caldwell has a few more games left to aee if he can do that.