King Kenny

Based on nothing but blind faith, I think we’ll do ok this year. We need a few more signings in key areas and luck with injuries but I like the fact we’ve been written off before a ball is kicked, let’s the team start the season with less pressure than last year. St Johnstone & Ross County have the squad depth. Ayr have signed a lot of experience but that doesn’t always work despite their early good form (happened last year as well). I might be wrong but I don’t think Brown will take them up. They also have injury issues already including Dempsey and Bannigan being out. If we can get off to a decent start, especially at home, I think we’ll do ok.

As frustrating as it is for us fans, it must be absolute torture for Dan to keep having these set backs. Fingers crossed he gets a bit of luck soon, he’s certainly due some.

That’s an interesting signing and hopefully sounds like he might be a central midfielder who can play forward rather than sideways! Best of luck to him.

It’s a decent signing if we can use him correctly. Last few times he’s played against us I’ve been impressed by his attitude and work rate which was previously questioned. My only issue is that he’s missed 3 weeks of pre season, hopefully he can get up to speed quickly. Watt plus another striker (Moore would seem like a sensible back up) is probably not a bad place to be. Different type of striker to Graham but that might not be a bad thing for the likes of Chalmers, Lawless, Fitzpatrick and Mackay.

It'll be interesting to see who/if we bring anyone in for central midfield. Turner will be back soon enough but it would be nice to see him played further forward. Martin will be out until next year and realistically won't be up to speed for a while after that. Crawford, Stanway and Mackenzie as our current available central midfielders isn't going to be good enough. McBeth could be moved up but he's excellent at the back. Keen to see how we line up. Three at the back certainly plays to a few of our players strengths but not so much our four wingers although given Lawless age/injury he might play a more central role now. Glad it is Wilson who needs to come up with a plan and not me!

I like it, looks smart.

It seems to rumble on because for the last 3 or 4 days he's been in the media talking about it. It's boring now to be honest. He was offered the job, he knocked it back which he is perfectly entitled to do and he's now moved on. He's got a good move to a Premier team and we've got an interesting management team in place. No hard feelings on either side, time to move on and look forward to a new season.

Fair enough article and the draw of playing at the top level whilst giving him more family time must be very appealing. Agree that it’s odd to comment on it being a “head coach” role, that was very obvious that was the role for months. He did also add numerous punditry roles etc to his busy day job so can’t put all the blame at Thistle’s door for that one! Time to move on, we got good service out of Graham and he did well out of Thistle. Good luck to him, I’ve a feeling we might end up happy with how Mark Wilson does.

Well he certainly speaks better as a coach than a pundit! I enjoyed that interview, thought he spoke very well. Maybe he’s the man to get our midfield finally moving forward!

I'm not really a fan of Alex Rae, he was always the pantomime villain during his playing days but he just came across as a bit of an idiot (for want of a better word) with some of his punditry. No real issue with Wilson picking him, he obviously trusts him and with all the teams Rae has been involved with he must have some decent credentials as a coach. He has played at a very high level (as has Wilson) which should obviously help when it comes to knowing the standards required in training etc. It also probably won't hurt to have a bit of a nastier streak on the side line either. Best of luck to them both.

Wasn't much between Bud and Mitchell last year. I guess his age leaves plenty of room for improvement and won't have taken up too much on the wage front. Interesting to see he mentions coming back to work with Kenny Arthur, he must be staying after all (again!)

I’d have kept Bannigan based on how he played last year which was better than any of our other midfielders. It’ll be interesting to see who we get in to replace him, our problematic midfield of last season is needing lots of improvement.

The usual negative views from some Ayr fans on P&B about his ability. Got a text from an Ayr supporting mate to say that he was sorry to see him go. Can't say he stood out much for better or worse in our games against them but he's been the starting left back for a team that has finished in the Playoffs the last few seasons so must have something about him. Happy enough with that signing, it's a position that needed filled and has been with an experienced championship defender. A good start 🙂

The way it ended is not something we’d have probably foreseen a few weeks ago but he’s gone now and leaves after a very successful Thistle career. We’ll probably not know the full reasons why he didn’t stay and/or take the manager’s role and I can’t say I’m that fussed. He’s essentially been doing three jobs over the last 6 months, perhaps the chance to just be a player again in a higher league with a manager he likes and a bigger wage was a good opportunity to get a better family life/work split again for a while. We really could do with a few decent signings in the door early next week, just to buck the trend of negative news coming out of Firhill just now.

Graham signs for Falkirk.