New Manager Thread

[Lenziejag]

1 hour ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

Agreed - but only because we overspent - building a massive squad in the first place 

I would say that 3 were due to injury - Robert’s, Mackay and Ablade and Nilsson was brought in to cover Williams leaving. We certainly had a number of players that didn’t perform particularly well, but it wasn’t built deliberately.

[laukat]

To my mind the problem with the squad wasn't particularly the size or quantity. It was massively unbalanced, only really supported one formation and didn't make good use of the budget available.

We have 4 wingers on permanent deals and every one of them when fit would be good enough to start in a top championship team. I would assume all are on a decent wage which seems not a great use of funds when at best only 2 could ever play at one time if they were all fit. Loaning in Smith who never looked strong enough to carry the team hamper never mind a starting place just confirmed that Doolan had only really considered one formation when recruiting the squad. 

Early season we took far too long to sign a rightback. For most of the season we have had 1 recognised rightback. That's resulted in costing us a league cup spot, a poor start to the league campaign and ruining our best midfielder. 

Midfield recruitment in the summer was a shambles. We shouldn't have ended up as reliant on Bannigan. I think Doolan assumed McBeth was the new Abdul Osman and that Turner, Crawford and Robinson could gel to form a new midfield forgetting that two were the wrong side of 30 in a team that was always going to be starting with a 37 year old striker and because of his failure to recruit a rightback he limited his own selection. With back up options of Stanway and MacKenzie we had poor starting choices and poor backup. 

January outgoings made more sense. It was better to get some money for Milne than let him leave for nothing in the summer and better to get Muirhead out on loan before his appearances triggered another contract extension. We didn't control Roberts being recalled which is the nature of loans. Add to that Nillson, Diack, Smith, Sayers and Williams were just not contributing anything useful then why keep them around?

Business in the January windows already pointed to the board having lost faith in Doolan. Not convinced Doolan was the main driver in Scott Martin joining but no matter who did it swapping Robinson for Martin looked to address a gap and if Martin has stayed fit I think we would all be thinking that was a great bit of business.

We needed a leftback and by the time Milne goes and Drysdale is injured we could only go down the loan route. Reid was a leftback available on loan so there was logic in taking him.

Jakubiak and Kelly were always a risk because they hadn't played much but again we had just changed managers, had limited time left in the window and desperately needed experience up front to take some load of Graham and another left sided defender so we at least had 3 right footed and 3 left footed defenders.

We also needed another goalkeeper as Mitchell had a fair degree of injuries so Budinauckas again made sense given he had played at Championship level and was available on loan.

So in Summary Doolan's recruitment was poor, Graham & Wilson did they best they could with the resources they had to patch things up.

Unfortunately for Graham & Wilson injuries have arrived just at the wrong time and to one of the best January signings (Martin)

 

[Jordanhill Jag]

22 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

I would say that 3 were due to injury - Robert’s, Mackay and Ablade and Nilsson was brought in to cover Williams leaving. We certainly had a number of players that didn’t perform particularly well, but it wasn’t built deliberately.

For the Money spent we could have built an experienced Team - we didn't - too many former “Academy” Players from down South 

[Barney Rubble]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

Ashcroft is a quality signing apart from playing against Clyde 😂 but yes great signing 

Chalmers is fantastic when playing at his best, disappeared in a few games as well though 

Agree about O Reilly

Arfield totally disappeared v us before being hooked. Falkirk's points per game total apparently didn't much improve after his signing either. Admittedly that may not have been down to him - he certainly knew the way to score against us in the two games he faced us.

Let's stop splitting hairs about Ashcroft, Chalmers, and O'Reilly. They've unquestionably been quality signings by Kris Doolan.

[Lenziejag]

14 minutes ago, laukat said:

To my mind the problem with the squad wasn't particularly the size or quantity. It was massively unbalanced, only really supported one formation and didn't make good use of the budget available.

We have 4 wingers on permanent deals and every one of them when fit would be good enough to start in a top championship team. I would assume all are on a decent wage which seems not a great use of funds when at best only 2 could ever play at one time if they were all fit. Loaning in Smith who never looked strong enough to carry the team hamper never mind a starting place just confirmed that Doolan had only really considered one formation when recruiting the squad. 

Early season we took far too long to sign a rightback. For most of the season we have had 1 recognised rightback. That's resulted in costing us a league cup spot, a poor start to the league campaign and ruining our best midfielder. 

Midfield recruitment in the summer was a shambles. We shouldn't have ended up as reliant on Bannigan. I think Doolan assumed McBeth was the new Abdul Osman and that Turner, Crawford and Robinson could gel to form a new midfield forgetting that two were the wrong side of 30 in a team that was always going to be starting with a 37 year old striker and because of his failure to recruit a rightback he limited his own selection. With back up options of Stanway and MacKenzie we had poor starting choices and poor backup. 

January outgoings made more sense. It was better to get some money for Milne than let him leave for nothing in the summer and better to get Muirhead out on loan before his appearances triggered another contract extension. We didn't control Roberts being recalled which is the nature of loans. Add to that Nillson, Diack, Smith, Sayers and Williams were just not contributing anything useful then why keep them around?

Business in the January windows already pointed to the board having lost faith in Doolan. Not convinced Doolan was the main driver in Scott Martin joining but no matter who did it swapping Robinson for Martin looked to address a gap and if Martin has stayed fit I think we would all be thinking that was a great bit of business.

We needed a leftback and by the time Milne goes and Drysdale is injured we could only go down the loan route. Reid was a leftback available on loan so there was logic in taking him.

Jakubiak and Kelly were always a risk because they hadn't played much but again we had just changed managers, had limited time left in the window and desperately needed experience up front to take some load of Graham and another left sided defender so we at least had 3 right footed and 3 left footed defenders.

We also needed another goalkeeper as Mitchell had a fair degree of injuries so Budinauckas again made sense given he had played at Championship level and was available on loan.

So in Summary Doolan's recruitment was poor, Graham & Wilson did they best they could with the resources they had to patch things up.

Unfortunately for Graham & Wilson injuries have arrived just at the wrong time and to one of the best January signings (Martin)

 

Letting Milne go was the biggest risk unless the fee was more than the difference in prize money between 4th and 5th. After losing Roberts, Robinson and Milne it seemed like we were settling for 4th at best and Milne’s transfer fee was the safety net if we dropped to 5th. 
Why did it take 6 weeks to get a goalkeeper, though. 

[Lenziejag]

44 minutes ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

For the Money spent we could have built an experienced Team - we didn't - too many former “Academy” Players from down South 

Two former academy players.

[laukat]

25 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Letting Milne go was the biggest risk unless the fee was more than the difference in prize money between 4th and 5th. After losing Roberts, Robinson and Milne it seemed like we were settling for 4th at best and Milne’s transfer fee was the safety net if we dropped to 5th. 
Why did it take 6 weeks to get a goalkeeper, though. 

When Roberts left it was already fairly obvious we weren't winning the league but our top 4 spot looked sorted so I think the club thought Mitchell should be ok to see us to the end of the season, possibly Doolan also thought Mitchell should be ok and if he could get any of Roberts wages to redeploy he didn't want to use that on a keeper. However we then proceeded to get only 4 points from the next 6 games and Doolan gets sacked. I suspect Graham & Wilson probably made getting a keeper a higher priority and say to the club that they need one to have a chance of getting top 4.

Letting Milne go was a risk and to my mind handled poorly. The quickness of how the Hearts deal came about struck me as we were desperate to save cash. For example I seriously doubt that Doolan or any of his team had seen Drysdale play so similar to letting Rudden going a few years ago we let a prized assett go for peanuts as we quickly changed approach from promotion chasing to settling for playoffs. I suspect in the case of Rudden and Milne we didn't get much income from a transfer fee but did eliminate a wage therefore saved money. When Rudden left I think Dundee paid Jakubiak's wage and I think Hearts were doing the same with Drysdale. The really daft part about the Milne/Drysdale move was that we signed a player who appears to have been injured and didn't put anything in the deal with Hearts that says if Drysdale can't play that we get an alternative player. 

[geecee]

Has Milne played much for Hearts. Haven't paid much attention to the Premier league lately. 

[partickthedog]

1 hour ago, geecee said:

Has Milne played much for Hearts. Haven't paid much attention to the Premier league lately. 

Like you I have not been watching too closely. I was aware that Harry played against Celtic, but that was as an auxiliary centre back. James Penrice seems to have made the left back position his own. Apart from that I do not think that Harry has had much of a look in.

[Lenziejag]

9 hours ago, laukat said:

When Roberts left it was already fairly obvious we weren't winning the league but our top 4 spot looked sorted so I think the club thought Mitchell should be ok to see us to the end of the season, possibly Doolan also thought Mitchell should be ok and if he could get any of Roberts wages to redeploy he didn't want to use that on a keeper. However we then proceeded to get only 4 points from the next 6 games and Doolan gets sacked. I suspect Graham & Wilson probably made getting a keeper a higher priority and say to the club that they need one to have a chance of getting top 4.

Letting Milne go was a risk and to my mind handled poorly. The quickness of how the Hearts deal came about struck me as we were desperate to save cash. For example I seriously doubt that Doolan or any of his team had seen Drysdale play so similar to letting Rudden going a few years ago we let a prized assett go for peanuts as we quickly changed approach from promotion chasing to settling for playoffs. I suspect in the case of Rudden and Milne we didn't get much income from a transfer fee but did eliminate a wage therefore saved money. When Rudden left I think Dundee paid Jakubiak's wage and I think Hearts were doing the same with Drysdale. The really daft part about the Milne/Drysdale move was that we signed a player who appears to have been injured and didn't put anything in the deal with Hearts that says if Drysdale can't play that we get an alternative player. 

We were 10 points behind Falkirk at the end of the year but we were only 4 points behind the 2nd placed team. After the Dunfermline game, that changed to 6 points. By the end of January,the picture had totally changed. We were now 10 points off 2nd and 9 off 3rd. Our top 4 spot might have looked secure but that was only because Raith and to a lesser extent Morton had games in hand throughout January/February. It was always much tighter. 

[elevenone]

7 hours ago, partickthedog said:

Like you I have not been watching too closely. I was aware that Harry played against Celtic, but that was as an auxiliary centre back. James Penrice seems to have made the left back position his own. Apart from that I do not think that Harry has had much of a look in.

Spot on.  The Celtic game has been his only appearance for Hearts to date and manager who signed him is now offski.  Just a pity we could not have held on to him until summer if knowing this was to be the case.

[JAG1970]

1 hour ago, elevenone said:

Spot on.  The Celtic game has been his only appearance for Hearts to date and manager who signed him is now offski.  Just a pity we could not have held on to him until summer if knowing this was to be the case.

Be interesting to see if their next manager wants to keep him or not. Maybe we could try and get him back, perhaps initially on loan. 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I reckon Milne is a more than decent left sided centreback. That makes his signing at Hearts a sensible move if they needed back up for more than just the left back position. I thought at the time his move to Tynecastle was a wee bit surprising given his age. But again makes more sense if they see him as merely a back up player.

[Lenziejag]

12 hours ago, laukat said:

When Roberts left it was already fairly obvious we weren't winning the league but our top 4 spot looked sorted so I think the club thought Mitchell should be ok to see us to the end of the season, possibly Doolan also thought Mitchell should be ok and if he could get any of Roberts wages to redeploy he didn't want to use that on a keeper. However we then proceeded to get only 4 points from the next 6 games and Doolan gets sacked. I suspect Graham & Wilson probably made getting a keeper a higher priority and say to the club that they need one to have a chance of getting top 4.

Letting Milne go was a risk and to my mind handled poorly. The quickness of how the Hearts deal came about struck me as we were desperate to save cash. For example I seriously doubt that Doolan or any of his team had seen Drysdale play so similar to letting Rudden going a few years ago we let a prized assett go for peanuts as we quickly changed approach from promotion chasing to settling for playoffs. I suspect in the case of Rudden and Milne we didn't get much income from a transfer fee but did eliminate a wage therefore saved money. When Rudden left I think Dundee paid Jakubiak's wage and I think Hearts were doing the same with Drysdale. The really daft part about the Milne/Drysdale move was that we signed a player who appears to have been injured and didn't put anything in the deal with Hearts that says if Drysdale can't play that we get an alternative player. 

We were 10 points behind Falkirk at the end of the year but we were only 4 points behind the 2nd placed team. After the Dunfermline game, that changed to 6 points. By the end of January,the picture had totally changed. We were now 10 points off 2nd and 9 off 3rd. Our top 4 spot might have looked secure but that was only because Raith and to a lesser extent Morton had games in hand throughout January/February. It was always much tighter. 

[Lenziejag]

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Milne at Falkirk next season.

[MarciaBlaine]

2 hours ago, Lenziejag said:

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Milne at Falkirk next season.

He'll be with a top flight side anyway. Only chance we'd have of getting him on loan next season, in my view, is if we're promoted.

[Jaggernaut]

Does anybody truly believe that Thistle can win this tie, and then the next, and then the next, to win promotion?

Other than a major national trophy win, I can't imagine any other (football related) event that would bring me more pleasure if it comes to pass! (Well, maybe a couple of Scotland miracles....)

Firhill will be buzzing tonight, in one of those special floodlit games. Fingers crossed for a great result for Jags players, management, backroom staff and fans (starting to look like no live stream for VPN-less overseas supporters; Damn the brit propaganda corp!!....(To be edited, if appropriate...)).

[Lenziejag]

9 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

Does anybody truly believe that Thistle can win this tie, and then the next, and then the next, to win promotion?

Other than a major national trophy win, I can't imagine any other (football related) event that would bring me more pleasure if it comes to pass! (Well, maybe a couple of Scotland miracles....)

Firhill will be buzzing tonight, in one of those special floodlit games. Fingers crossed for a great result for Jags players, management, backroom staff and fans (starting to look like no live stream for VPN-less overseas supporters; Damn the brit propaganda corp!!....(To be edited, if appropriate...)).

Think you’ve posted on the wrong thread? For this tie, I think it all depends on how fit/unfit the walking wounded are. I am certainly going along with a fair amount of hopeful expectation. Getting the win against Livingston on Friday at their place was a big boost too as it broke a long winless run against them. The premiership team is another level though.

[Jaggernaut]

52 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Think you’ve posted on the wrong thread? For this tie, I think it all depends on how fit/unfit the walking wounded are. I am certainly going along with a fair amount of hopeful expectation. Getting the win against Livingston on Friday at their place was a big boost too as it broke a long winless run against them. The premiership team is another level though.

Full agreement.

[Auld Jag]

Seen John Rankin outside Firhill before the game tonight. Hope he was just there as a spectator. 

I will say it again imo we should give the current interim management team the post full time for 25/26 season with an option to extend if they match or exceed the targets set by the board.

[Fearchar]

On 5/5/2025 at 8:18 PM, laukat said:

...The really daft part about the Milne/Drysdale move was that we signed a player who appears to have been injured and didn't put anything in the deal with Hearts that says if Drysdale can't play that we get an alternative player. 

Perhaps that is why we now have a Director of Football - to guard against administrative errors like that.

[Big Col]

1 hour ago, Auld Jag said:

Seen John Rankin outside Firhill before the game tonight. Hope he was just there as a spectator. 

I will say it again imo we should give the current interim management team the post full time for 25/26 season with an option to extend if they match or exceed the targets set by the board.

No.

[Jaggernaut]

I wouldn't be upset if our two co-managers are kept on. They know our strengths and weaknesses better than anyone, aren't afraid to try different things, and managed to get us into the play-off semi-final.

[Albert's Ghost]

8 hours ago, Big Col said:

No.

So who's better?  John Rankin?  Dougie Imrie?  Both 'spotted in Firhill Rd' I'm told.

[scotty]

7 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

I wouldn't be upset if our two co-managers are kept on. They know our strengths and weaknesses better than anyone, aren't afraid to try different things, and managed to get us into the play-off semi-final.

Their roles would also be as head-coaches and as such would have a diversity of skills and experience to pass on as a former front player and a defender. I don't know at what stage they are with coaching badges but would think these would be a priority going forward. A lot of the other roles a manager has would be taken on by the Director of Football freeing them up to concentrate on on-field issues.

Edited May 14 by scotty
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