 A Rumbling in the Northern RegionsWritten by Bluetaff on Tuesday, 23rd Apr 2013 10:02 Michel Bruyninckx is one of only a handful of famous Belgians I am aware of, others of note are Hercules Poirot and the bloke that wrote the Tin Tin books – not a long line of notable achievers. Michel though is quite a remarkable man; some of you might remember a blog I wrote exploring the new coaching techniques advocated by this Belgian visionary. At the end of the piece I highlighted that his techniques were being advocated in Scotland and since writing that, I have been following this club from afar to see what effect his coaching belief has had on the club. In the past, all I knew about this club came from Billy Connolly: “For years I though the club’s name was Partick Thistle nil!†GlasgowBlue could provide a better synopsis but here is my attempt. Located in North West Glasgow in an area called Maryhill, the club has sat in the shadows of the two Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers for years. For those unfamiliar with the delights of Glasgow, you will have seen Maryhill used as the backdrop for the television show Taggart and the film Trainspotting and for those with a particular interest, Maryhill was the birthplace of Donovan, Robert Carlyle and Maggie Bell. I’m drifting though. I had wanted to see at the end of the season how Partick Thistle had incorporated the ideas of Michel and how they had benefitted from them, if at all. What I found was a little diamond of a club. I make comparisons of most clubs I see with our own Ipswich Town, particularly of our golden years of Sir Alf and Sir Bobby (with a little bit of George thrown in for good measure). All clubs in my eyes though fail to reach the pinnacle of our achievements as they are all flawed in some way: Barcelona have a huge fanbase and has cornered the television money in Spain, Manchester United have cornered the fanbase of Surrey and are top of the evil Premier League tree and Norwich City are just evil. What I see in Partick Thistle though is a club very much like our own, or how we used to be. The 'Ipswich Way' exists in small club amongst the tenements of Glasgow. On a drunken night in Portugal a few years ago, an ardent fan (albeit a rich one) took to telling the current incumbents a few home truths about Scottish football and the state of the club he had supported as a boy. The next morning as his head was clearing from that recognisable fuzz, he was informed that he had been accepted onto the board as the new chief executive of the club. So then began the reign of David Beattie. The club had always remained in an almost constant period of flux following a series of near financial collapses. The community had rallied around and raised almost £130,000 to help keep the club afloat and the club had responded in kind by handing over portions of the club ownership to the fans, David Beattie recognised this and believed that his period of ownership should be to look after the club for the fans. In little over a year, losses of £450,000 were reduced to £250,000 and that improvement in fiscal sense has continued. Incentive schemes were introduced which has seen a rise in attendance figures against a backdrop of plummeting numbers across the rest of Scotland. Under-16s are allowed in for free with the club reporting on average 500 taking up the offer of free tickets. Average attendances are up from 2,344 last season to 3,853 this – the season following relegation in 2004 had an average attendance of 3,400. As the rest of Scottish football languishes, this little corner is smiling. Darkness descended over David and his family though when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. The club and the community rallied around and supported him as he had supported them, treatment and care followed and David is now in remission, he puts a great deal of his ability to fight down to the support of the club and community. With stability assured off the pitch focus turned to the playing side. Ian McCall left the club and the reigns were handed to ex-Celtic defender Jackie McNamara in 2011. It was a chance encounter that Jackie had during his coaching course in Northern Ireland which set the club on its current path. Kevin McGreskin is an innovative coach with new ideas who had been studying coaching techniques alongside Michel Bruyninckx – Jackie was taken with some of the ideas Kevin put forward and upon taking over at Partick invited Kevin along to try and implement some of them. Therein began a focus to coaching that had never been seen in British football before, never mind Scotland. Witnesses to the training sessions could see the players wearing brightly coloured gloves, techniques to improve players' awareness. A new type of training ‘ball’ invented by Bruyninckx was introduced also (and is also now being used by Fulham) – all methods to improve awareness in the players and to sharpen up the technique. The youngsters at the club soaked this all up like a sponge. Impressive pre-season results led to an explosive start to the 2012/13 season which had Partick take the league by storm. The Manager of the Month award for August followed for Jackie and the rest of the Scottish First Division sat up and took notice of the lovely flowing football that the Partick youngsters started to play. With a squad average age of only 23.7 years, McNamara had built a team of young kids, brought in from the likes of Whitby Town and Auchinlek FC to mould using the new coaching techniques of McGreskin and Bruyninckx. Anyone who has been to see lower level Scottish football though will understand that a flowing style of play through the winter period is difficult. Partick were no exception to this and on the quickly deteriorating pitches they started to stutter slightly. But never giving up on their ethos they battled through some difficult matches to stay firmly rooted to the top at the turn of the year. Disaster struck though as Jackie McNamara was tempted away by the bright lights of the SPL in the form of Dundee United and in January 2013 he left. Following the lead set by the likes of Liverpool in the 70s and 80s, Partick recruited from within and gave the role of manager to player-coach Alan Archibald. Doom-mongers from the press and Scottish football in general gathered and grim predictions of a fall from grace were gathering. The ‘can’t win with kids’ mantra was reverberating around Scottish football. Archibald took the role and understanding the emphasis the previous manager had, re-enforced it and took the club on a 14-game unbeaten run including two Manager of the Month awards for himself. On 20th April, Partick won 2-0 at Falkirk claiming the Scottish League Division One title and earning promotion back to the SPL. The players who had remained silent throughout the criticism of anticipated failure donned T-shirts at the end of the game emblazoned with “Kids v Experience #wegotthis†– directly aimed at their detractors in the press and Scottish football at large. When looking at Partick’s season, I had been hoping for a few good news stories which backed up my original point, perhaps a future international star or a big money transfer but this was fairytale stuff. Proof if proof were needed that by simply adhering to the norm is not necessarily the best way forward, this small club has taken an idea and made it their own and although I am fearful that next season will be difficult for them in the SPL I am now, more than ever, firmly of the opinion that a resurgence of similar proportions could be achieved at Ipswich Town. Bryan Klug has stated that lifting the youth set up from Category Two to Category One is well within the capabilities of the club. That they are planning for such a move makes me comfortable we have now in the right hands an advocate of a youth system that will once again bring benefits to the club. All we need now is to complete the circle both on and off the pitch, as Partick have done. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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