The Partick Thistle thread

[Rednyella]

 
 
 

 
The mistakes I pointed above. Continual late shite the beds, failure to organise a defence, poor signings and garbage cup runs. We can add in the failure to do much against the top three teams into the mix. I have already stated I don't expect more than bottom six generally most years but I don't expect repeated errors and lack of progress in others.
 
Was I? Please pull the quote in which I did from the end of last season. Like most fans I have my fickle moments but I don't remeber gushing over Archie at the end of the season.
 
Being critical of your club does not mean you suddenly don't support your club. Blindly being positive about everything relating to your club and berating those for being critical is "happy clapper moron" at its peak.
 
I want to see Archie respectively removed from his post and would happily see him remain at the club in another capacity. Nobody here is wanting him hung along Firhill Road.
 

I don’t disagree with your points on Archie. But facts are he did keep us in league for a longer spell than any modern age manager. He did also take us to highest league position in more than 30 years. That’s fact.

I’m not even saying he should stay. I’m just put aback by the comments of some about him on social media and this platform. The fact the club is taking a few days to decide the best course forward isn’t worrying and it is not worthy of getting riled up as I’ve seen on here. I think it’s smart. Bad season or not Archie deserves to at least play a roll in these discussions and everyone should just chill, don’t say anything they regret and let’s see what club decides.

Social media gives many a voice and many of those voices are in my eyes ridiculous.

[mrcat1990]

Why?
Several similar sized clubs have reached semi finals, finals and actually won things, winning European ties, away trips to far flung places,  you canny beat that shit. Explain in great detail why your club cannot be part of these experiences. 

Let's be real here and list how many clubs our size have had that on a few occasions? Outside of St Johnstone there aren't many and the time that came was during the period we had no Rangers, Hibs or Hearts. I have however already covered my frustration with our shit cup runs which involves us reaching Hampden. Your point is fairly valid though.

[Jumps]

3 minutes ago, mrcat1990 said:

Let's be real here and list how many clubs our size have had that on a few occasions? Outside of St Johnstone there aren't many and the time that came was during the period we had no Rangers, Hibs or Hearts. I have however already covered my frustration with our shit cup runs which involves us reaching Hampden. Your point is fairly valid though.

Recent major final appearances/wins (off the top of my head):

Ross County (won), Caley Thistle (won one, lost one), St Johnstone (won), Falkirk (lost), Motherwell (lost x 2), St Mirren (won). Not to mention Hibs who won the Scottish Cup whilst in the Championship, and all in the last 5 years.

I'm a fan of Archibald, always have been, but I do believe this season has been so bad that it's enough to see him relieved of his post. And I think to say that the lack of a cup run, results against the 'big' teams are irrelevant because of the "size of club" we are, highlights the acceptance (and even encouragement) of mediocrity that is prevalent amongst a proportion of our fanbase.

[Nightmare]

I think it’s definitely a fair point that we are lacking in any credible success over recent years compared to other clubs of a similar size. The St Johnstone points are obvious, and while they’ve put every similarly-sized club to shame in recent years and not just us, almost everyone else that’s roughly similar in size and structure has fared better than Thistle.

St Mirren had a 9-year run in the top flight recently, and while their league performances were pretty pish (didn’t make a top six and we beat their highest points tally three times in our five years), they won a cup.

Falkirk have had a similar run in the league to us in the past 20 or so years (up & down, similar finishing positions) but again they’ve reached two (or three?) cup finals.

Dunfermline also made a cup final and had a couple of games in Europe, albeit their success came while running up a shit-ton of debt, but still - definitely have more to shout about than us.

Could be worse, though. We could be Morton.

[Armand 2]

Archie staying.

On balance, I think it's the right decision.

Must realise that he's in credit with a growing percentage of the support but if anyone deserves a chance, it's Archie.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Armand 2

[Kyle]

Archie staying and that interview with the chairman reads like he'll have a bit of clout to work with in terms of his budget. Can't fault his loyalty or ambition to get you guys back up.

[Ad Lib]

The statement has got the tone right, which is more than could be said of the club if it did something like this 5-6 years ago.

The merits of the decision itself? Jury's out.

[Dollar Jag]

Does "competitive budget" mean one that is the same as the season just concluded? Will that make us one of the top-spending teams in the Championship?

[Ad Lib]

7 hours ago, Bell™ said:

There have been a lot of unrealistic expectations the last five years, like qualifying for Europe, when avoiding relegation was the priority. We stayed up for a few years, now we're down again. It's not the end of the world. We had a good adventure, but now it's time to look forward to the next one.

Almost nobody thought we'd be qualifying for Europe.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Right, that’s that then.

First order of business for Archie, euthanise Danny Devine.

[AMMjag]

Certainly more than he deserves, but at least the issue has been put to bed early on and the budget can focus on the playing staff. An encouraging statement of intent, and also on the training ground too.

[Dollar Jag]

2 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

Right, that’s that then.

First order of business for Archie, euthanise Danny Devine.

I wonder how many season ticket holders we'll lose just by the continued employment of that one player.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Dollar Jag
spelling

[H Wragg]

Arsene Archibald.

[Nightmare]

Fair enough.

Not a decision I agree with, but we'll just need to get behind the team & hope all the chancers getting punted turns the whole attitude at Firhill around.

[jagfox]

2 minutes ago, Dollar Jag said:

I wonder how many season ticket holders we'll use just be the continued employment of that one player.

Hopefully none...

[jagfox]

Can Archie achieve another top 6 finish next season?

 

[cilitbang]

It would have been ridiculous to get rid of Archie this late. Draw up list of candidates, interview once/twice, decide on candidate, candidate then has to decide what players to let go etc, THEN start looking at who they want to bring in.. and by then the best targets *ought to have signed elsewhere.

The only positive I took from that statement was that it appears the training ground will be unaffected in terms of investment/size

Edited May 23, 2018 by cilitbang

[Hammer Jag]

Good statement from the club. Time will tell if they were right to keep Archibald on, but I’m delighted to see them publicly state their intention to challenge next season.

This is shaping up to be an absolutely massive season for the club. We are at a crossroads and a wrong turn could lead to years in the wilderness. I wish Archibald all the best.

[jagfox]

Quote

The Board of Partick Thistle has announced its decision to retain Alan Archibald as manager following the Club’s relegation to the Championship last Sunday.

Chairman David Beattie explained the decision saying:

“While we take hard lessons from this season on a number of fronts, our focus is now on getting back to the Premiership by this time next year. Learning from other clubs before us, it is clear that slashing budgets is a false economy. For the Club to succeed in the Championship and remain prepared for that return to top flight football, we need to have a competitive budget that will fully match our aspirations. Because of financial prudence in recent years, we are in a position to provide that.

“On the playing side the team needs to be rebuilt, effectively from scratch, and there is money in the budget to do that. In considering the best person to help us achieve our objectives, it is our considered opinion that Alan Archibald is still the best man to be the Thistle manager.

“Alan steered the Club to Premiership promotion and kept us there for five seasons, including a top six finish, a feat not achieved by any other Thistle manager in at least 25 years. His honesty in admitting that mistakes were made last season is the mark of a man of integrity and his commitment to this Club has never been in doubt. He’s an intelligent manager, who knows Thistle and still has a passion for it. As a young manager, he remains well-regarded in the footballing world. All of these things were factors in our decision. But, most importantly, Alan indicated in the strongest terms that he wanted the opportunity to put right what has happened, not for him personally, but for the sake of the Club. We believe he can do it and that he deserves that chance.

“So the challenge we have set Alan is to rebuild the team with the aim of one season in the Championship then back to the Premiership. We have also agreed that we must return to playing football like Partick Thistle – we can’t be anyone else.

“There will undoubtedly be those who feel we are being naïve or lacking in ambition in making this decision. We are neither. It is our job to act in the best interests of this Club – we believe keeping Alan Archibald falls under that heading. The Board has faith and confidence in him and his ability to do the job in hand.

“The rebuilding of the team got underway on Monday. Further news on this will be announced by the end of this week.

“Elsewhere, to all intents and purposes, it will be business as usual for the Thistle Weir Youth Academy and there won’t be any non-playing staff redundancies at the Club. We are also delighted that Three Black Cats has confirmed that it is continuing to develop a training ground for Thistle. It will be operational from the start of the 2019/20 season, with further news on that in mid-June.

“Season tickets will go on sale from next week and, despite the pain of the last few days, I hope that fans will show their support by renewing and continue to play their part in getting us back to the Premiership.”

 

[Midlife Crisis]

Let's see what kind of squad he assembles before we get too optimistic. If it's anything like his recent signings (Woods, Cargill, Sammon) we've got another 12 months of turgid pish ahead of us.