KelvindaleJag

In that link is this gem: " 9 or 10 first-team boys out injured...doesn’t help when the manager has his ideas about how he wants the team to play", i.e. the manager has a fixation that his plans are right and doesn't know how to change anything when the unexpected occurs. There's a sense of inevitability about it.

I forewent the Methil trip, but was Gerry actually trying to dump on the club's brightest hope for the future as well as on the most loyal customers of the business he's trying to run?

Time to start a "The Next Impermanent Partick Thistle Manager" thread?

Could you not volunteer to write the club's official announcements? At least we'd get a laugh.

I think you're being a bit melodramatic. I bought a season ticket too. I wasn't conned, I took a punt like I do every year hoping that it will be worthwhile. Being disappointed isn't the same as being conned. The signs were all there last season, if not before. We can still look forward to the outpourings of adulation and songs for the club's favourite manager as he takes us to the playoffs - against Alloa Athletic, Raith Rovers, etc.

It seems to have slipped under the radar here that the post of Lead Physiotherapist is being advertised, without any of the usual niceties over the previous incumbent (contributed to the club's progress, best wishes for the future, etc.). Maybe an optimistic announcement about Coulibaly ("subject to international clearance", i.e. it's not yet a done deal - very unusual for the club's announcements about signings) is being used to obscure that action is being taken after the previous season's disastrous medical record.

He's probably heard from the current manager how winning is not really necessary.

It does make you wonder what the health and fitness team are really up to, doesn't it?

Which is why, in our household, the board wasn't seen as credible and season tickets became something for the past: the only way to shake up business people is to make them look at declining income.

But now you can read the club's gaslighting on WAT!

It's arguable that that "couple of players with grit and experience" were in last season's squad, in the form of Osman and Dumbuya, but (for whatever reason) obviously Archie didn't get them to contribute as we'd have wished. :-( IMHO the perfect example of a real leader on the park was Scott "Boab" McCulloch, who IIRC was also the last part-timer in the first team. Do players in general become stale by concentrating on football all the time?

But what about the answer to the question on the lips of the whole of Scottish football: will there be a hedge?

I think you'll find that it's in the small print of his contract that he will recuperate in 6 weeks' time.

He can keep Bannigan company, then.

So a slow team showing signs of lack of fitness at the start of the season, injuries keeping players from starting and not enough players assembled by the first game to form a full squad yet, let alone to train together. Oh, and great hopes placed on Bannigan's return. Was that a groundhog I saw flying past the window?

It may be that a less mobile player like Barton does well among other players with a more athletic approach: teams need combinations, and last season's midfield was notably stilted. At the same time, Barton towers above most other players.

Deutschland hat noch eine Mannschaft, gar in der Übergangsphase.

Die Mannschaft und vor Allem das deutsche Publikum sieht das etwas anders: the German team and in particular the German public would like to get shot of him.

Ah, but Cammy Bell will have the famous health and fitness crew of Partick Thistle to contend with in addition to potential injuries.

Possibly the "no change - as you were" attitude, whatever the (currently unsigned) players may or may not be. It's up to the management to turn it round, and there hasn't been any sign of that so far. Keep doing the same, and you'll get the same results.

Not to mention the top flight's worst goal difference by far, a very poor disciplinary record and possibly Scottish football's worst injury record. The wonder is that the competition was so poor as to let us stay within reach of saving our status.

Given the travails of multiple seasons in the top flight, with late (including panic) signings, late substitutions, late goals against and players who were so old they were almost late too (indeed, in footballing terms, many clearly were, judging from the last season's result), it would be hugely optimistic to expect many changes. Either the board will end up showing it's soft by allowing more than one season in the Championship without any serious change at the top, or they're being devious enough to buy time to line up an alternative management team, with the excuse of their statement for dropping their man when the bottom falls out of the approaching season. The real aim for the forthcoming season has to be survival in the Championship, after the freefall instituted by the thrawn refusal to adapt timeously in the top flight. Tough times ahead, I'm afraid.

Couldn't possibly be, as long as Isabella Müller-Reinhardt wreaks her Denglisch on viewers of Bundesliga Football Highlights - absolute car-crash TV presentation, with the added boak factor of backing Bayern München.