Woodstock Jag

I was making a Singing Kettle reference!

Well. There's five. Not sure about that Cowie guy. Seems a bit of a wrong-un.

Stop. Look. Listen. This is not about the green cross code. This is about Partick Thistle.

There are six candidates standing for election to the three available places on TJF's Board. You can read the candidate statements here: https://thejagsfoundation.co.uk/tjf-elections-2025/candidates-2025/ Voting will commence no later than Sunday 1st June and will close Sunday 15th June at 10pm BST.

TJF’s 2025 AGM will take place on Thursday 19th June More here ⤵️ https://thejagsfoundation.co.uk/notice-of-agm-2025/

Aha. Ignore me!

As far as Wikipedia can tell me, Caddis signed a one year extension to a one year contract last year, which would leave him out of contract end of this season.

I appreciate that time feels like it moves more slowly during the play-offs, but Ian Baraclough only joined the Club on 8th April, less than 6 weeks ago.

Also, in case you've missed before, TJF is on a wide range of social media channels. You can follow us on: Facebook (TheJagsFoundation) Twitter/X (@Jags_Foundation) BlueSky (@thejagsfoundation.bsky.social) Instagram (@thejagsfoundation) LinkedIn (the-jags-foundation) WhatsApp (Channel) YouTube (@thejagsfoundation) And there's a link to everything you'd ever need on our LinkTree. General enquiries can be emailed to: [email protected] Membership enquiries can be emailed to: [email protected]

Hopefully this thread will be treated as intended: a bulletin board with TJF updates, rather than a place for tedious discussion of usual talking points (those can go in another thread!) Today's announcement is that, after some persistent campaigning from @Fawlty Towers TJF now has an EasyFundraising cause site. EasyFundraising is an affiliate link scheme. It enables causes to generate commission on online shopping platforms, at no additional cost to you. You can sign-up to use TJF's affiliate links using this link here. Ways that you can raise commission include: When you sign-up for various types of insurance, whether directly or via relevant price comparison websites When you sign-up for various finance products When you shop with various online retailers When you take out a new mobile contract When you switch utilities providers When you book your travel/holidays Particularly common affiliate links folk might want to consider using include: Amazon eBay Etsy B&Q Dunelm Boots Currys Argos Groupon Wowcher Apple John Lewis Tesco Maplin Morrisons Sainsbury's Waitrose There is also a browser extension that can prompt you to buy via the affiliate so you don't need to remember to go through individual links.

I've changed my mind, Megwa's great.

I agree he's been underwhelming relative to hype, but almost for the opposite reasons. Compared with what we've become used to in a wingback, Megwa is too often really meh at trying to take on and beat a man. Too easily closed down, too rare an out-ball to a winger, rarely ready to make an overlap. Defensively, he's fine without being great.

It depends on what you regard as "official". The Club considers it to be 100. Thistle Archive considers it to be 99.

Simply sensational tonight.

I didn't say that it was him who said those things, or that you were intemperate. I was providing context because he (mistakenly) said that the Club had budgeted for breakeven. Do you accept, given the factual context I have given you, that the "punt on promotion" was not taken by TJF or the Trustees? And yet no such offer was made to the previous board. Because they pretended the problem didn't exist. The board that replaced them, and the one with fan representation, did not pretend the problem didn't exist. It acknowledged it, sought investment and secured it.

John Baird. Edit: Oh wait he literally never scored for us!

I would also add that you called Mark Wilson and Brian Graham "dimwits". Unnecessary. You are entitled to criticise the Club's senior leadership. Crack on. But having done so intemperately and with a lack of basic civility there's not going to be much sympathy for you when you tell others that "there's no need to be impolite". We don't actually know this for certain. The Club Board set a playing budget that they believed to be competitive for that objective, and I think most people would accept with hindsight that it wasn't well spent. But we cannot say for certain that it was the highest in the league (though it was higher than the one we had in the previous season). There is plenty of anecdotal information that suggests the budgets of several other Clubs increased significantly on last season, as they saw the same opportunity as the Thistle Board did - an opportunity to win the league with no stand-out high spender like Dundee United or Dundee in the previous two seasons. This is not correct. The Club Board presented the Trustees with two budget options last April: one based on a 3rd place finish and the other based on a 5th place finish. Both would have seen losses in the region of £200k or more. Breaking even this season was never on the cards because it wasn't possible to increase revenues enough to meet that objective on that timescale (given a range of legacy commercial contracts) without also significantly compromising the playing budget. The Trustees said it was more prudent not to assume 3rd place prize-money for a playing budget that was comparable to the 2023-24 season and suggested that the budget should be more pessimistic about footballing assumptions (something we were absolutely 100% vindicated on given what has since happened). The donations made by benefactors to boost the playing budget by £300k or so were made after the Trustees had already approved a budget for a largely unchanged playing budget. We had no say in how that extra money was to be spent. It is a misconception that the Trustees somehow "signed-off" on a punt at winning the league. The playing budget was simply preserved, from our perspective. Others (the donors) then chose to top it up, taking a "punt" at us winning the league. Yes, this area of the Club's budget has not performed to the level it should have. It's been off-set by better performance on other budget lines, but it's an area that deserves continued scrutiny into the next season. The Club is imminently going to be announcing the arrival of a new Business Development manager and has also brought Grant Stupart onto the board to get a better grip on this area of the business. I am cautiously optimistic those interventions will get us closer to where we need to be on that. That's not what you said in your last email to me, but you are free to call me any time, Lance. You also have my number.

That's exactly the purpose of facilitating a conversation with those who are interested. If it's not for you it's not for you, but best to find out!

Nope! Nope! Nope! And not claimed. Nope! Nope! Let's wait and see until the document actually gets published before trashing it? Well I was thinking we might invent a time machine and change the past. Nope. Partick Thistle became fan owned when the trust deed was reformed in the summer of 2023. There has been ONE manager in that time. Kris Doolan. Not bad, considering the financial predicament the Club has faced. Not where we want to be, but hardly a catastrophe. Disappointing, yes. But TJF and the Trust aren't responsible for what happens on the park, and have essentially no say on what goes on with the football department. At all. We're not a (majority) shareholder. So we absolutely will not be pretending to be one. The Club Board runs the Club. The shareholders do not run the Club. The shareholders own the Club.

I see it totally the other way around. We need to score early and get them on edge. If we sit back there's a good chance (given our injuries situation) they'll score a second anyway. So let's get them nervy. If they beat us after us having a go, fair enough, good luck to them. But to go out with a whimper would be disappointing.

I know Cappielow's a dump, but there's really no need to call it The Other Place.

Well there you have it. Clearly some fans, like eljaggo don't think the answer is "obviously no" so what do you do in that situation? Do you merge the groups in the fan ownership structure or not? Yes or no? You're not a TJF member. You don't get to have a say on how TJF spends member funds. TJF paid for legal advice sought by the (then) Trustees in relation to the Club Boardroom dispute of late 2023 because it was thought inappropriate to rely on the Club Board's own legal advice. There would have been a clear conflict of interest there, which as custodians of the Club the Trustees were duty-bound to avoid. I am absolutely prepared to defend the fan ownership groups doing their appropriate due diligence in response to a situation like that. The legal advice in question was secured at a sensible cost: £526 including VAT, as shown in TJF's most recent draft accounts, circulated publicly. If any actual members want to question the decision to seek that advice, I'm more than happy to defend the decision at our AGM or in correspondence in more detail. The Club Board has already explained that it will be providing more detail on the Strategic Plan in the coming weeks. That's for them. Not TJF or the Trustees. Fan owned not fan run.

If forum members want to keep this place alive, there is a way to do it. Tom has indicated a willingness to hand the forum over to a new set of admins and moderators if they're willing to step up and take on those responsibilities. TJF has no interest in running the forum itself (its value is in major part its independence from the club's custodians). But we are willing to facilitate discussions about a handover if there are willing volunteers. More here ⤵️ https://thejagsfoundation.co.uk/we-are-thistle-fans-forum/ And you can put yourself forward as a potential admin/moderator here ⤵️ https://us7.list-manage.com/survey?u=eaf3d8731772f76e0555a69c4&id=e61358497c&attribution=false

This isn't a flippant question. I would love nothing more than to have just one fan group in our structure. It would be much simpler, less admin in the long run, and more straightforward for fans to understand. But the reason we have three different fan groups involved is for reasons that are historical and entirely outwith TJF's control. Fixing it would be a significant logistical undertaking with (I would predict) five-figure costs associated with it. The honest question has to be asked is re-opening the governance structure, at significant time and cost, worth it for the simplification it delivers. Part of the reason TJF has been able to increase its financial commitments to the Club, Academy and Women's team is because we've been able to clamp down on legal costs compared with previous years. They are down by a five-figure sum for the financial year ended 30 September 2024 compared with the year ended 30 September 2023. If you think TJF should now spend a significant five-figure sum in legal fees for trust deed changes and in stamp duty, instead of put that money into the Club itself, by all means make the case for that. But any sensible discussion about it has to acknowledge that trade-off.

Okay. Who should pay the legal fees to make this happen?