One in One out
Thursday 21st May 2009
Earlier this week Ian McCall made his first signing of the close season when 20 year old Chris Erskine agreed a deal that will see him become a Partick Thistle player.
Today the restructuring of the first team squad continued apace with one player departing Firhill while another arrived at the Club.
Leaving Firhill will be defender Simon Storey. Australian Simon made his first team debut for Thistle against Stirling Albion on the opening day of the 2007-2008 season as a trialist before signing a contract a short time later. In total Simon pulled on a Thistle jersey on 83 occasions and scored one goal.
Said Thistle manager Ian McCall;
"We had offered Simon a new deal but, as is his right, he was looking for a little more money and wanted to consider his options. With it unclear as to whether Simon would sign a new deal we made the decision to take the offer off the table and allow Simon to pursue what other options are open to him. He leaves Firhill, however, with our very best wishes. He is an excellent professional and in his two seasons at the Club gave us excellent service. Simon's departure obviously meant that we had to look for a replacement and having been successful in doing just that I feel that I have signed a player who is ever bit as good if not better than Simon."
That player is 31 year old defender Martyn Corrigan who passed a medical at Firhill this morning and will officially become a Thistle player on June 9th after signing a pre-contract agreement.
Martyn started his career with Falkirk before having a spell in Finland with FC Jokerit before returning to Scotland and Falkirk. He was on the move a short time later when he joined Motherwell and during his time at Fir Park he made just shy of 250 appearances in the SPL. Following a short loan spell with Dundee he joined Kilmarnock in January 2008 and spent a year at Rugby Park before spending the second half of last season with Ross County.
A short time ago manager Ian McCall spoke to www.ptfc.co.uk;
"I'm delighted that we have managed to bring Martyn to Firhill. I actually tried to sign him, and offered a lot of money to do so, when I was manager of Dundee United. Martyn must have played close on 300 times for Motherwell and when I previously tried to sign him he couldn't have been too far away from a Scotland cap."
"He is a utility player that can play anywhere across the back four and if we go with three at the back then Martyn is the most likely player to occupy the central role in that trio. He actually offers us something a bit different. He is a defender very much in the mould of former Thistle player Scott Paterson and is an excellent footballer."
"His deal is initially for one year but there is a clause in his contract that gives him the option of a new contract once he has reached a certain number of appearances. At 31 if he stays fit them I'm confident that that we can get a number of years service from him here at Firhill."
