Squad For 24/25 Season (And Signing Rumours)

[Weebaw1]

Unlike last year, our worst players are out of contract.

Goodbye to McInroy, McMillan, Snedden, Neilson, Alston, Ngwenya. They were all very disappointing this season.

I agree we need pace. There are some excellent players under contract so let’s join the dots. Chalmers and Megwa would be a great start.

[Lenziejag]

3 minutes ago, Weebaw1 said:

Unlike last year, our worst players are out of contract.

Goodbye to McInroy, McMillan, Snedden, Neilson, Alston, Ngwenya. They were all very disappointing this season.

I agree we need pace. There are some excellent players under contract so let’s join the dots. Chalmers and Megwa would be a great start.

I would give McMillan a bit of slack. He didn’t have a preseason and never really recovered from that, I feel. Despite what we think, he still got into the players team of the year. Even although we think he wasn’t as good as the previous season, I think it still tells you his fellow professionals think he was the best in the league.

[jagfox]

6 hours ago, exiledjag said:

My main Strikers would be Adeloye and Diack with Graham as back up.

Wow.

Player of the year and league top scorer for a guy who is currently on crutches.

[Lenziejag]

50 minutes ago, exiledjag said:

I see RC are in the play-off final yet again

I suggest a new rule that if an SPL Club finds itself  11th in the SPL League Table on 2(or perhaps 3) consecutive seasons then they should be automatically be relegated on the basis they have proved being unworthy of SPL membership .  The play?-offs for promotion to the SPL would be abandoned for that season and the club that  finishes second in the championships hold be automatically ally promoted.

Anyway back to this season. Who do we want to win - Ross County or Raith Rovers?

I would opt for Ross County on the basis that if relegated  Mcgregor would give them a massive budget to ensure they go straight back up and effectively buy promotion. I am not sure Raith could do this.

 

 

 

The problem with your 1st suggestion is that the semi final might well have been decided and 2nd placed team lost, before knowing who 11th is.

[partickthedog]

17 minutes ago, Weebaw1 said:

Unlike last year, our worst players are out of contract.

Goodbye to McInroy, McMillan, Snedden, Neilson, Alston, Ngwenya. They were all very disappointing this season.

I agree we need pace. There are some excellent players under contract so let’s join the dots. Chalmers and Megwa would be a great start.

I think "all very disappointing" is a little harsh. I will allow you "disappointing", though would probably prefer "could have been better" or something to that effect.

All of them, especially McInroy, McMillan, Neilson, and (belatedly) Alston had their good moments.

I will agree as regards Chalmers and Megwa!

[Barney Rubble]

3 hours ago, Weebaw1 said:

Unlike last year, our worst players are out of contract.

Goodbye to McInroy, McMillan, Snedden, Neilson, Alston, Ngwenya. They were all very disappointing this season.

I agree we need pace. There are some excellent players under contract so let’s join the dots. Chalmers and Megwa would be a great start.

Cammy Smith would generously qualify as very disappointing.

Very disappointing is not a description that befits any of the players you have mentioned.

 

Edited May 19, 2024 by Barney Rubble

[Third Lanark]

If Adeloye won’t sign as backup and if Raith went up I would hope we would look at Callum Smith.  Scores goals in the championship but mostly used as a sub and maybe would not bother as much being backup until Graham slows

[MarciaBlaine]

The problem with signing a striker as backup to Graham is that every one of them will know he’s exactly that: backup. It’s very hard to convince a quality player to sign on that basis and it’s not a good use of resources.

If we continue to only play one striker, then having Diack as primary understudy and Robinson as another option will do fine. The money is better spent on other recruitment.

[exiledjag]

23 hours ago, jagfox said:

Wow.

Player of the year and league top scorer for a guy who is currently on crutches.

Yes I agree - a radical idea.

I like Graham and he has been both a great signing and in phenomenal form totally deserving of player of the year. Let me acknowledge your point and change my suggestion, until Adeloye proves his fitness, my main strikers being Graham and Diack. However I fall back onto original suggestion as I see Graham as a short term option. I doubt Graham can keep going at the pace and intensity we need to play if we are to make a serious challenge for the title. 

I think, unless Grahan defies the odds, at some point next season we are going to have to go with A & D if we play two up front. If Doolan sticks with one then it's all academic.

[exiledjag]

On 5/19/2024 at 6:41 PM, Lenziejag said:

The problem with your 1st suggestion is that the semi final might well have been decided and 2nd placed team lost, before knowing who 11th is.

Yes I recognised this situation when I made the suggestion but didn't think I needed to go into this degree of detail. The problem is essentially one of scheduling so can easily be accommodated ' where there's a will ..................'!

BTW agree with suggestion about signing Chalmers and Megwa if we could get them. 

[jagfox]

1 hour ago, exiledjag said:

Yes I agree - a radical idea.

I like Graham and he has been both a great signing and in phenomenal form totally deserving of player of the year. Let me acknowledge your point and change my suggestion, until Adeloye proves his fitness, my main strikers being Graham and Diack. However I fall back onto original suggestion as I see Graham as a short term option. I doubt Graham can keep going at the pace and intensity we need to play if we are to make a serious challenge for the title. 

I think, unless Grahan defies the odds, at some point next season we are going to have to go with A & D if we play two up front. If Doolan sticks with one then it's all academic.

Adeloye isn't even a Thistle player. He has been released by Swindon Town, his parent club.

The rumour connecting Oakley does suggest we are looking at someone who can play in if he needs a rest or drop in form or even just something else with the opposition  to deal with.

It worked with Doolan and Craig in our first division title winning season back in 2012/13.

I doubt t we will see two up unless we are playing 5-3-2 against a difficult opponent or during the course of a game. 

It is essentially a defence setup - I hope we don't have to employ it next season. Especially with a screening midfielder in front of a back 3 unless we have a friendly against Real Madrid or Manchester City lined up.

 

Edited May 20, 2024 by jagfox

[Yellow & Redneck]

It's important to recognise that Graham will start to slow down. Despite improvements in conditioning, I think back to Mark Roberts. Scored his last goal for Thistle and then never scored again for 6 months before being moved on. Now, Robo was already on the downward trajectory (whereas, Graham only seems to be reaching his peak now!) 

Putting all our eggs in one 37 year old basket would be worrying. Especially since we don't score a lot of goals from the midfield. Diack looks promising despite being raw (3 goals in around 15 games ain't bad). But I'd like to see the addition of another striker who will push Graham while also adding some goals from elsewhere on the pitch (O'Reilly from CB anyone?) 

[partickthedog]

Is Zak Rudden a totally ridiculous suggestion or is there too much historical baggage there?

[JAGSMAN1968]

Totally 😀

[partickthedog]

44 minutes ago, Yellow & Redneck said:

It's important to recognise that Graham will start to slow down. Despite improvements in conditioning, I think back to Mark Roberts. Scored his last goal for Thistle and then never scored again for 6 months before being moved on. Now, Robo was already on the downward trajectory (whereas, Graham only seems to be reaching his peak now!) 

Putting all our eggs in one 37 year old basket would be worrying. Especially since we don't score a lot of goals from the midfield. Diack looks promising despite being raw (3 goals in around 15 games ain't bad). But I'd like to see the addition of another striker who will push Graham while also adding some goals from elsewhere on the pitch (O'Reilly from CB anyone?) 

Agree that we need centre backs, midfielders and perhaps also full backs who know how to score goals.

Thinking back to the likes of Kevin Holt, Conrad Balatoni, Danny Lennon etc, who were regularly on the scoresheet. Although he could square pass with the best of them, Danny Lennon was often making runs past the strikers. When do we see our midfielders do that now? Come to think of it, Blair Alston showed the way in that connection, but rather late in the day!

 

[partickthedog]

6 minutes ago, JAGSMAN1968 said:

Totally 😀

Fair enough!

[laukat]

2 minutes ago, partickthedog said:

Is Zak Rudden a totally ridiculous suggestion or is there too much historical baggage there?

I think he killed his own career by leaving us 6 months too early. If he had stayed to the summer he would have got a move to a premier league club and an entire season to prove himself. Instead he got a few months at a Dundee team who were always struggling to stay up. Since then he's never held a starting slot for more than a few games. 

At 24 years old there is still potential there and I would take him at Firhill as he is the sort of age that could take over from Graham in the long term. If he had brains he would also recognise that coming to Firhill to finish learning his trade from Graham and Doolan would reap long term rewards.

However I think he'll end up at Dunfermline or Falkirk chasing a pay day and slowly slide down the leagues.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

2 hours ago, jagfox said:

I doubt t we will see two up unless we are playing 5-3-2 against a difficult opponent or during the course of a game. 

It is essentially a defence setup - I hope we don't have to employ it next season. Especially with a screening midfielder in front of a back 3 unless we have a friendly against Real Madrid or Manchester City lined up.

Spot on. Playing two upfront in a 3-5-2 (5-3-2) is a wee bit too canny. Useful perhaps if we were in the top tier or if we're protecting a lead.

Incidentally protecting a lead is something we need to work on. I reckon this season when we should've been seeing out a game comfortably we've often ended up near 10%/90% possession. And about the same ratio in each others half. Midfield has been blamed usually correctly but our forward players too easily ceding possession have been just as culpable. 

[sabbath]

Anyone who has a football brain, and not just a smart agent. On consideration, our squad would be decimated if this was the criteria...

[Yellow & Redneck]

Heard we are looking at Nathan Shaw. Left-winger at Inverness. 

[jaggy]

1 minute ago, Yellow & Redneck said:

Heard we are looking at Nathan Shaw. Left-winger at Inverness. 

Is that the tall gangly boy?

[Third Lanark]

I hope we are looking at Steven Bradley from Livingston who has put in a transfer request- highly rated and a winger which we need but even more so is apparently a Partick Thistle fan- I wonder when we last had someone in the team who supported the club as a kid

[partickthedog]

29 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

I hope we are looking at Steven Bradley from Livingston who has put in a transfer request- highly rated and a winger which we need but even more so is apparently a Partick Thistle fan- I wonder when we last had someone in the team who supported the club as a kid

David Craig fitted that bill.

[jags on tour]

1 hour ago, jaggy said:

Is that the tall gangly boy?

Aye he’s looked half decent in a few games, looks like he went off injured in March and hasn’t kicked a ball since though. Duncan Ferguson said in the post match interview it was a re-occurance of a hamstring injury, so we’ll probably sign him to sit on the treatment table all season.

[Jaggernaut]

4 minutes ago, partickthedog said:

David Craig fitted that bill.

And I thought he did well. Was disappointed when he got released.