Mr Bunny Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 I don't think we'll get anyone better. He has his downsides, but any manager in the Scottish First Division is going to be in the same position. We can go for one of the usual, uninspiring suspects who I don't think will be an improvement on McCall, or we can take a risk in search of the 'next Owen Coyle'. Given the financial situation at Firhill, the ever decreasing playing budget, I think (admittedly from a distance) that McCall was doing a more than decent job and it will be very difficult for the new man to improve on where we are just now. As an aside - I hope we aren't even considering another joint managerial team. If we're going with McNamara then fair enough, I understand the reasons although it's unquestionably a risk, but just give him the job on his own. The current situation is that MacNamara is interm manager until the end of the season. His assistants are Simon Donnelly and Ian Cameron. So one would assume if he was given the job, that's how it would continue. I think the mentions of a joint-managership are just folk thinking back to the Britton-Whyte situation and comparing with it unconsiously. I don't think that's likely to happen again, although if he gets the job I'd imagine he'd work quite closely with Donnelly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Third Lanark Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 never a jags man in a hundred years decimated the team and fans . look at our crowds heading towards the one thousand mark, get duffy in now How exactly did McCall decimate the Jags Team - when from? If your referring to the clear out of Campbells teams then I am glad he did. IF you are referring to afterwards then look to the board to blame for that by their continual cost cutting. How did he decimate the crowds? Every team in Scottish football bar Dundee is having huge reductions in crowds, even the National Football Team does not have the same numbers following them - you going to blame McCall for that as well. Scottish football is over priced, we are in the middle of a recession there are lots of reasons for people not going. You will probably find more people dont go because of some of the custodians of our club rather than any Manager. Also who exactly has been a real Jags man other than Lambie - and he wasnt before he joined Partick Thistle as he was a Rangers supporter. Come on I would love to see the list you have of all these Managers we have had who have been real Jags fans. As for your comment about Jim Duffy - theres a reason he is Managing the worst team in the country right now - because no one else wants him. Yes he seems to be doing okay there but they are still bottom and theirs a massive difference between taking over and Managing a team bottom of the third divison and taking over and Managing Partick Thistle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 How exactly did McCall decimate the Jags Team - when from? Does it really matter when? Surely his employment became untenable the minute he started slaying every tenth player? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodstock Jag Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 Does it really matter when? Surely his employment became untenable the minute he started slaying every tenth player? This is made all the more confusing by the fact that when McCall took over we didn't even have 10 players still at the Club. He'd have been slaying a fraction of a player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 This is made all the more confusing by the fact that when McCall took over we didn't even have 10 players still at the Club. He'd have been slaying a fraction of a player. While singing that famous Aretha Fraction number, Slay a Little Player for Me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 This news puts a completely different slant on UB40's (I am the) One in Ten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted April 18, 2011 Report Share Posted April 18, 2011 This news puts a completely different slant on UB40's (I am the) One in Ten. Thanks for the reminder, time for a glass of red red wine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanarkjag Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Does it really matter when? Surely his employment became untenable the minute he started slaying every tenth player? Would have been a good motivational technique though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodMcDonaldJag Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 All comments made about John Lambie all through his time at the club as well. Agreed.... Lambie had a wee bit more than a 2nd place finish in the 1st division as his finest achievement as Jags manager though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Heron Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Agreed.... Lambie had a wee bit more than a 2nd place finish in the 1st division as his finest achievement as Jags manager though. Undoubtedly, but Lambie also had an awful lot more to play with. McCall has managed a relatively smaller budget which has been shrinking year on year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpool Jags Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Slightly strange that after four years at the helm, I don't think many of us could say that we understood McCall, or what he was really about. That's probably because he confused us so often: bizarre substitutions and tactical shifts at the start of and during games. He was no stranger to talking to the media, yet rarely explained himself and his footballing ideas with the fans; all very general stuff and would go on about eg the need to put in a good run of performances, the need to strengthen in certain areas, the importance of a sound youth structure etc etc. Very little on particulars such as "I dropped X back to midfield with 15 minutes to go and introduced Y up front as their number 10 was making unchecked runs" and stuff like that. Maybe he was aloof, maybe he was just a private, old-school sort of manager who didn't feel the inclination to talk details with the fans. Certainly, he didn't have his issues to seek off the park; some of his personal quirks and foibles were heavily speculated on if not necessarily fleshed out in detail. It does seem, though, that our better runs coincided with a McCall who was properly focussed on the team and was in-between personal crises, and vice versa. I think the 'was he good for us or not?' debate will carry on for a good while from now. My own verdict is that he came in at a time when, to paraphrase the job Campbell was meant to have been brought in to do - stop us bleeding to death - we were probably on a helter skelter ride out of footballing existence, and stemmed the bleeding. He gave us the (stunted) title challenge of two years ago, something we couldn't have contemplated a year or two before that. He bequeaths us a tenable youth structure and some very decent, if not breathtakingly spectacular, players around whom his successor(s) can build something more promising. Or can they? This is where the board factor has to be evaluated; he dealt, for the most part of his time at Firhill with bozos. Despite recent apparently key changes in the boardroom, it strongy appears that he would've had nothing to look forward to in terms of the financing of his project which would've been no more than trying to build the foundations of a side which could've mounted an earnest title challenge next year, in a division which isn't over-blessed with great sides. The football world which Thistle inhabit these days is far removed from the one which the energetic Lambie-led movement inhabited; it is stale and reeks of fatigue, boredom and penury. Could McCall have done much more than he did for us under the restrictive framework in which he operated? I very much doubt it. Did he get out at the right time for us and for himself? Most likely - time will tell. Was he the best manager that he could be for us and did he arrest, albeit temporarily, our otherwise inevitable plunge into oblivion? Absolutely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vladimir Putin Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Excellent post Blackpool, sums up my feelings on McCall exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Agreed; excellent post, all except the conclusion about us heading inevitably into oblivion. We as individuals might be ultimately doomed, but the Jags will be here long after we've all given up the ghost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpool Jags Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 (edited) Agreed; excellent post, all except the conclusion about us heading inevitably into oblivion. We as individuals might be ultimately doomed, but the Jags will be here long after we've all given up the ghost. Yes, I was referring to where we were when he came in, and where we may well be if we get, pretty much, any future appointments wrong - eg his predecessors. That's what I meant by 'temporary', in his case. I am, for the most part, an optimist in a Mr Micawber sort of way. Edited April 19, 2011 by Blackpool Jags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillresigned Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Slightly strange that after four years at the helm, I don't think many of us could say that we understood McCall, or what he was really about. That's probably because he confused us so often: bizarre substitutions and tactical shifts at the start of and during games. He was no stranger to talking to the media, yet rarely explained himself and his footballing ideas with the fans; all very general stuff and would go on about eg the need to put in a good run of performances, the need to strengthen in certain areas, the importance of a sound youth structure etc etc. Very little on particulars such as "I dropped X back to midfield with 15 minutes to go and introduced Y up front as their number 10 was making unchecked runs" and stuff like that. Maybe he was aloof, maybe he was just a private, old-school sort of manager who didn't feel the inclination to talk details with the fans. Certainly, he didn't have his issues to seek off the park; some of his personal quirks and foibles were heavily speculated on if not necessarily fleshed out in detail. It does seem, though, that our better runs coincided with a McCall who was properly focussed on the team and was in-between personal crises, and vice versa. I think the 'was he good for us or not?' debate will carry on for a good while from now. My own verdict is that he came in at a time when, to paraphrase the job Campbell was meant to have been brought in to do - stop us bleeding to death - we were probably on a helter skelter ride out of footballing existence, and stemmed the bleeding. He gave us the (stunted) title challenge of two years ago, something we couldn't have contemplated a year or two before that. He bequeaths us a tenable youth structure and some very decent, if not breathtakingly spectacular, players around whom his successor(s) can build something more promising. Or can they? This is where the board factor has to be evaluated; he dealt, for the most part of his time at Firhill with bozos. Despite recent apparently key changes in the boardroom, it strongy appears that he would've had nothing to look forward to in terms of the financing of his project which would've been no more than trying to build the foundations of a side which could've mounted an earnest title challenge next year, in a division which isn't over-blessed with great sides. The football world which Thistle inhabit these days is far removed from the one which the energetic Lambie-led movement inhabited; it is stale and reeks of fatigue, boredom and penury. Could McCall have done much more than he did for us under the restrictive framework in which he operated? I very much doubt it. Did he get out at the right time for us and for himself? Most likely - time will tell. Was he the best manager that he could be for us and did he arrest, albeit temporarily, our otherwise inevitable plunge into oblivion? Absolutely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillresigned Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Excellent posts encasulates all my feelling viz, IMcC and in prticular the dire future which seems to be in store for this club. Even though it's a cracking night I can't go 'cos I'm working it's just no fair! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Traveller Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 Swayed by Blackpool Jag's excellent post, I'm bumping my rating of McCall from 3 to 4. Which will be a comfort to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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