Partick Thistle Football Club

In a career that began with Queen’s Park back in 1993 and, in addition to his time as a Partick Thistle player, spanned spells as a player with St Mirren, St Johnstone and Ross County, Ian Maxwell has experienced more than his fair share of pre-season build ups. This one, however, is just a little bit different for the player who joined Thistle from the aforementioned St Mirren just over two years ago.   After assisting manager Ian McCall in the latter stages of last season Maxwell will start this season, formally, in the role of Assistant Manager.

Thistle were into their fourth day of pre-season training when www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with the newly  appointed Assistant Manager in a Coaches Room deep with in the bowels of Firhill that displayed all the paraphernalia you would associate with pre-season training. Sheets of heart rate times vying for space alongside the day’s papers and a blackberry on a cluttered desk.

Given his change in circumstances the first question to ask Ian was whether he was finding this season’s pre-season training different from his previous experiences?  

“It’s different in as much as I’m now involved in setting things up on the training ground and helping to get  the boys as fit as they can be whilst at the same time trying to limit the potential to pick up injuries.”

Building up fitness levels is an important part of pre-season training with a lot of hard work, and some moaning, before the ball comes out.

“There has been some moaning but I think some players just like to have a moan for the sake of having a moan”, laughed Maxwell before going on to give us a bit of an insight into how the first few days of pre-season training had gone.

“The players are given close season fitness programmes to follow and that helps make sure that they come back in for pre-season training in good shape. Gone are the days of players coming back a stone over-weight. Players realise that if they keep themselves in shape over the summer then pre-season training won’t be quite as hard.”  

The first part of pre-season training though remains tough no matter how good the condition the players have maintained over the close season period.

“The last few days have been pretty hard and have largely focused on conditioning work and it will probably be the same in the early stages of next week as well. There hasn’t been much in the way of ball work so far for example.”

What helps keep the players going during the hard slog of the first week or so of pre-season training is the thought of getting back into action even in a low key surrounds of a pre-season friendly.

“I think all players are desperate to see the footballs coming out. Never mind the start of the actual season, I’m looking forward to the game with Queen’s Park at St Andrews as no matter how hard you train nothing beats taking part in a match.  In some respects it does seem a bit strange to playing a pre-season match while the World Cup is still going on and it does feel as if we are back really early this year. At the same time though we did finish early last season at the start of May so I think we have all had long enough of a break and we are all really looking forward to the season starting.”

As well as helping prepare the squad for the rigours of the season ahead Ian has to make sure that he keeps himself in tip top condition as he is far from ready to give up on the playing side of things.

“I’ve got to try and do as much as I can myself during pre-season training and so far I haven’t missed a single session. I played about 30 games last season and while I maybe don’t expect to play every game next season I still want to be involved as much as I can be. With Alan Archibald out injured for the first bit of the season it could be that I will need to fill in during that period.”

Widely considered as one of the strongest characters in the dressing room it seemed natural to ask  Ian whether he had found it strange moving away from the dressing room culture to the coaches room?

“It is a little strange but the period I spent doing the job last season has definitely helped. It has certainly  eased the transition from being part of the squad to part of the management team with my initials on my top.”

The role of Assistant Manager is one of the less clearly defined roles in football and Ian was able to give a little detail onto what it will exactly entail for him at Firhill.

“In addition to doing the jobs that the manager doesn’t have time for I’ll be operating as a go between the dressing room and the manager’s office. If the players have any issues or concerns then they can come to me initially and then I can bring them up with the manager.”

The league season may season may not start until August 7^th but Ian finished off our conversation by taking a wee look ahead to the league season and did so in an optimistic frame of mind.

 “We will be going into the season with a small squad but I don’t think that we are going to be alone in that respect. We have a solid base of good experienced players at the Club and then there are the younger players like Paul Paton and Paul Cairney who we will be looking to have big seasons. When you add in the young boys who featured towards the end of last season then we see no reason why we shouldn’t have a good season next season.”