Partick Thistle Football Club

It has been an interesting few days. Saturday's defeat at Morton had barely been digested when speculation started surrounding the future of manager Ian McCall and a possible move to Dundee. By Sunday morning that speculation had turned into something more concrete and there then followed a, thankfully relatively brief, period of uncertainty before Dundee confirmed the appointment not of Ian McCall but of Queen of the South manager Gordon Chisholm. 

A little earlier today www.ptfc.co.uk spoke with Ian and he took us through the chain of events and some of the multitude of emotions that he went through.

"On Saturday after our match with Morton, and our programme editor will verify this as he was there at the time, I took a phone call from Dundee Football Club. They also spoke with my agent and again with myself. The upshot of which was that they made it clear that they wanted me to become their new manager. I immediately then spoke to our Chairman, Allan Cowan, as there is absolutely no way I would have simply resigned as Thistle manager."

"There is a clause in my contract that allows me to leave Thistle if a certain level of compensation is agreed upon and negotiations between the two clubs did take place but Dundee fell well short of that figure and at that point they looked elsewhere for a new manager."

"As our programme editor will again confirm, I was in absolute turmoil when I became aware of Dundee's interest and was so for the rest of Saturday and Sunday. Ultimately it came as something of a relief not to have to make a decision that I might not have wanted to take. I do have a family to think of but it would have taken something ridiculous, and it never got that far, to get me to leave Partick Thistle. I've developed a real bond for Thistle and the people at the Club. This is a club that I think suits my personality perfectly and one that I am proud to be part of."  

"I'm anxious for people to realise that although I have lived a large part of my life in the west end of Glasgow and that my son goes to school locally that being manager of Partick Thistle is not the easy option for me. My drive and ambition hasn't been blunted at all. Being manager of Partick Thistle is a tough job but I've said from the moment I came here that I wanted to do something at Firhill that people would remember for some time and that ambition hasn't changed any."

"There have been some difficult decisions made recently for which I don't blame the Board of Directors for, indeed I believe that we have an excellent Board at Firhill, and the next two years could be challenging years for the Club. Though with most clubs going to be forced to cut their cloth we will be far from unique in that respect. Over the last few years I think that we have taken steps in improving all aspects of the Club and now that this business with Dundee is at an end I want to continue with the job of taking this special football club forward."