Caldwell’s Massive 7 Days

[Dick Dastardly]

FWIW, here are my thoughts (as everyone else is expressing theirs)

On results, pre-New Year this was unacceptable. I know that he was dealt a bad deck, but I think he could have got more out of Archies players. Just 1 win from these games would have made a huge difference now. Post-New Year we have been good. Good enough to have made the playoffs had we had this for all season. I would like to think that going forward this (or better) is what we should expect.

On transfers, I think he has done a good job. I saw the flaws and addressed them well with the players who were available in the January window. It is clear that Caldwell does have some good contacts, so I would be confident that the squad would be improved over the summer.

Where he has totally failed is in the PR. I'm sure that SAS-gate and Squad-gate were both done for good reason, and probably do have some merit, however the way the stories have come out have made us laughing stocks. As a result he has lost the good will of the vast majority of supporters (aka customers). Even those supporting him are not doing it with 100% conviction. I think that this is his biggest failing and I have seen nothing to suggest that he is able to address that.

 

However, there are 2 unknowns to us mortals. What do the players think ? Are they behind him ? I know what they say publicly, but when has a player ever slagged of the current manager unless they desperately want a move. I'm sure that our CEO will speak to the players and will know that situation, so while I don't have much confidence in the board, I wouldn't expect them to hold onto a manager who has lost the dressing room.

 

The other unknown is the finances. Do we have the cash to pay him off, and would that be money well spent at this time. Again, this is one for the board to make a judgement call on. 

[Semi Nurainen]

You're absolutely right: "Caldwell Get Tae F---" wasn't baying for his blood, it was merely a mild imprecation larded with good humour.

[javeajag]

45 minutes ago, sandy said:

We would be discussing Caldwell because he has failed to deliver, even with signing his own players. 

As ever missing the point .... we have Caldwell because Archie was still the manager after getting relegated if he had been let go or done the decent thing and resigned last May we would not have Caldwell as manager 

[sandy]

19 minutes ago, Semi Nurainen said:

This is the man who signed Lewis Mansell who hasn’t scored a single senior league goal in three seasons! A incredible signing feat, just short of Petershill singing the goalkeeper with the wooden leg.

We would have better signing Nigel Mansell

[sandy]

Just now, javeajag said:

As ever missing the point .... we have Caldwell because Archie was still the manager after getting relegated if he had been let go or done the decent thing and resigned last May we would not have Caldwell as manager 

“As ever”

[Third Lanark]

10 hours ago, sandy said:

Oh @javeajag, you are just as presumptious. Such an over generalisation.

But hey, let’s ignore the fact that Archie got us up in 2013 and kept is there for 5 years. He wasn’t perfect but he achieved more than GC has for the Jags.

Still, carry on if you want denying that we have not met the Boards objectives set to Caldwell when he convinced them through his PowerPoint slides that he had dossiers on all the players and could deliver.

Wow a guy in a post achieving more in 5 years than someone in a post for about 6 months- would never have thought that 

[AndyMac]

10 hours ago, javeajag said:

Interestingly I never said that .....

so to be clear management and leadership are different things 

if you google the Differences between management and leadership you will see what I mean 

I said "A good manager is a good leader"

You disagreed and said "a good manager is not  necessarily a good leader"

Which I took as you "believe that someone can be a bad leader and a good manager at the same time".

Apologies if I have misquoted you, or taken what you said out of context Javeajag.

Let's hope we get a good result on Saturday

 

[ARu-Strathbungo]

This is the one that really worries me:-

Spent some time with an ex Town player in the week who said how bad Caldwell was - cold with players and disconnected with the people around the club completely. Was very very disliked at Wigan by his fellow team mates.

It worries me as what I saw on the playing field in the first half of the Dunfermline game, most of the first half of the Alloa game and 75 minutes of the Ayr United home game was a group of individuals, not a cohesive unit. To give GC some credit, two of those games were salvaged by a good effort in the second half of the game. But simply put, I'm not sure his communication skills are all they need to be to be a reasonably successful manager.

Another one indicates to me that he did have a plan, but was incapable of clearly explaining to he players what he wanted them to do:-

….  he said to one of his assistants, "You don't have faith in what I'm trying to do. The reply was something along the lines of, "3 wins out of thirty, you bet I ******* don't.”

I can only hope the players we have on the pitch this Saturday know exactly what the manager wants.

[sandy]

Worrying indeed.

[jlsarmy]

1 hour ago, dl1971 said:

Nobody was baying for his blood. People were unhappy. But no one was foaming at the mouth. That was my experience. As i have said repeatedly that mood will change if the worst happens. 

So are we saying Caldwell’s tenure is really based on tomorrow’s game and we conveniently forget about the 7 months that Caldwell has been in place .

Do you watch the games and see the negative and safety first tactics that he asks the players to play 

Just wondering 

[Semi Nurainen]

There is not the slightest doubt that should we somehow, either by our own efforts, or more likely by events  60 miles away, manage to avoid the play-offs it will be hailed on here by the fan bois as a great success, that we should all give thanks to our maker for beings spared the ignominy etc., ect., or at least presented as Caldo having 'saved us' from relegation (those exact words have already actually been used).

Whereas, having brought us to this, instead of 'challenging for promotion', he should be punted regardless.

[javeajag]

10 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

So are we saying Caldwell’s tenure is really based on tomorrow’s game and we conveniently forget about the 7 months that Caldwell has been in place .

Do you watch the games and see the negative and safety first tactics that he asks the players to play 

Just wondering 

But your not really 

[javeajag]

Just now, Semi Nurainen said:

There is not the slightest doubt that should we somehow, either by our own efforts, or more likely by events  60 miles away, manage to avoid the play-offs it will be hailed on here by the fan bois as a great success, that we should all give thanks to our maker for beings spared the ignominy etc., ect., or at least presented as Caldo having 'saved us' from relegation (those exact words have already actually been used).

Whereas, having brought us to this, instead of 'challenging for promotion', he should be punted regardless.

New side of the 45rpm please 

[sandy]

5 minutes ago, javeajag said:

But your not really 

you’re

[sandy]

2 hours ago, Third Lanark said:

Wow a guy in a post achieving more in 5 years than someone in a post for about 6 months- would never have thought that 

Archie achieved more in his first few games than Caldwell has done!

[Third Lanark]

10 minutes ago, sandy said:

Archie achieved more in his first few games than Caldwell has done!

Not disputing that at all, he achieved far far more, albeit he inherited a far better squad than Caldwell.   I can see why the board might make it his last ever game and I wouldn’t have a problem with that.  I doubt he will be as successful as Archibald was and is likely not as good a manager. Though you don’t seem to be capable of accepting Archie had serious flaws.

but thats not really the point - it was to do with the way you seem to have spent hours on here day by day hating the guy since he was first appointed.  Not really healthy or normal behaviour 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Third Lanark

[Garscube Road End]

9 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Not disputing that at all, he achieved far far more, albeit he inherited a far better squad than Caldwell.   

Yes, he did inherit a better squad which he pushed onto promotion and survival in the premiership. Although Caldwell inherited s worse squad than Archie did he hasn't improved it. Archie did.

[sandy]

33 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Not disputing that at all, he achieved far far more, albeit he inherited a far better squad than Caldwell.   I can see why the board might make it his last ever game and I wouldn’t have a problem with that.  I doubt he will be as successful as Archibald was and is likely not as good a manager. Though you don’t seem to be capable of accepting Archie had serious flaws.

but thats not really the point - it was to do with the way you seem to have spent hours on here day by day hating the guy since he was first appointed.  Not really healthy or normal behaviour 

Are you a psychologist now?!

Caldwell was the wrong appointment, he has been rumbled, more fans now see that. 

Chesterfield should have been a red flag to our Board.

Edited May 3, 2019 by sandy

[Third Lanark]

19 minutes ago, sandy said:

Are you a psychologist now?!

Caldwell was the wrong appointment, he has been rumbled, more fans now see that. 

Chesterfield should have been a red flag to our Board.

Don’t need to be a psychologist to observe your strange behaviour - again follow your own advice and chill out, you have been on how many hours this week obsessing over Caldwell - you even spending hours on the chesterfield forum 

he very probably could be the wrong appointment in much the same way at the board made the wrong decision given Archie so long - these things happen - perhaps you also thought they got it wrong with that and should have given him life membership 

though there has undoubtedly been an improvement since January and not actually sure he has lost that many games since 1st January which is probably why I have not been completely swayed by the Caldwell out campaign- though I can see their criticisms 

[Firhillista]

Despite all the calls for his immediate execution, the jury's still out on Caldwell. He was an ambitious appointment - much more so than McCall or Goodwin would have been. This is a guy who wants to manage in the English Premier, absolutely no doubt about that. Whether he's got the ability is very much still open to question. He's made the kind of mistakes most young managers make - he's got some things wrong, but he's got some right as well. If he's sacked tomorrow night, I won't shed any tears for his departure: if he's still manager for next season, I'll wait with interest to see who he brings in and how we progress. But what really rips my knitting are the posters on here who blame every negative thing relating to Thistle on his appointment. It's a witch hunt, plain and simple - let's throw him in the canal, if he drowns, he was a bad manager, if he swims to the bank, we'll stone him to death for being a bad manager. And as for claiming Alan Archibald as some wronged idol we should all regret having left us, does no one remember the team he put out on the opening game of the season when we couldn't even fill the subs bench? He said he would rebuild the team after relegation and he totally, TOTALLY, failed to do that. There's an unpleasant wee vindictive bubble on this forum relating to Caldwell: not everyone shares the view.

[Third Lanark]

1 hour ago, Garscube Road End said:

Yes, he did inherit a better squad which he pushed onto promotion and survival in the premiership. Although Caldwell inherited s worse squad than Archie did he hasn't improved it. Archie did.

Not really disputing the main point of your post, he probably has improved the squad a bit skippy better than the departed strikers, Anderson and Saunders an improvement on some of the departed defenders 

[Dick Dastardly]

1 hour ago, Garscube Road End said:

Yes, he did inherit a better squad which he pushed onto promotion and survival in the premiership. Although Caldwell inherited s worse squad than Archie did he hasn't improved it. Archie did.

Seriously ?

[allyo]

1 hour ago, Garscube Road End said:

Yes, he did inherit a better squad which he pushed onto promotion and survival in the premiership. Although Caldwell inherited s worse squad than Archie did he hasn't improved it. Archie did.

If Caldwell has convinced GRE that Archie was a decent manager, he must be hopeless. :-)

[muirparkman]

There really is some bitchfest going on over this, but I for one will be going to Dumfries on Saturday to watch Partick Thistle play a game of football. Now I will be hoping we get a result that keeps us from entering the playoffs, and if this means needing Ayr to do us a favour I'll take it. I don't care who comes out that tunnel wearing a Thistle strip, I'll be right behind them the whole game. Even if their heads go down mine won't, because at the end of all this some of them can just walk away, join another club and kiss another badge. But I will still support Partick Thistle. I can't do the walking away part, cos this is my team and I think all of us should just think about it a little before posting some of this crap. Get to Palmerston and support the team . That's what being a fan is about, not fighting between ourselves. Difference of opinion is one thing but some of the posts on here are poison.

[Dark Passenger]

4 hours ago, sandy said:

We would have better signing Nigel Mansell

• McDonald's goal at Alloa.
• Fitzpatrick's last-minute winner against United. 
• McDonald's opener at Falkirk.

Three crucial goals that Mansell has laid on a plate for the scorer. But let's pretend he's been an unmitigated disaster.