Partick Thistle managing director Ian Maxwell hopes that the club’s new £4million training facility can help them to attract the best kids in Glasgow to the club ahead of Celtic and Rangers.
The Jags have entered into an agreement with Three Black Cats, a company set up by lottery winners and Thistle supporters the Weir family as a vehicle for long term investments, to build the new state-of-the-art facility.
They will then re-allocate the money that they currently put towards the use of the Garscube Sports Pavilion, owned by Glasgow University, and Lesser Hampden for training to pay commercial rent to Three Black Cats.
Maxwell has hailed the deal as a massive step forward for the club, and he will take the lead in customising the complex to Thistle’s exact requirements.
He believes that having such a facility at their disposal will not only give them an edge over clubs of a similar size when it comes to wooing senior players, but it will help them to attract the best young players in the country.
When asked if the pathway from the Thistle Weir Academy into the first-team allied to the new training facility could help them pip Celtic and Rangers to the best local talent, Maxwell said: “Definitely.
"It’ll be huge for the academy, in terms of having the one training centre and knowing where we’re going but also, the amount of time that Gerry and the coaches can spend with the kids will increase, because we don’t have to be off in an hour as there’s not another team coming on after us.
“So, we’ve got to sell it as best we can and if they can see the training platform and that progression through to the first team then it gives us that opportunity.
“If you look at the Premiership in a group of clubs that are all similar sizes, similar budgets and when there is a player out we are all going for the same one and it’s about how you sell yourself as a football club, from the style of play, management, the players in the squad.
“But something like this, to be able to take a prospective signing out to our training facility, show them round, show them what they’re getting rather than saying 'well we train here this day and if it’s raining we train there.'
“So, it’ll be incredible from that point of view.”
The news comes on the back off an amazing week for Thistle, with their top six status confirmed with the win over Motherwell on Saturday. In fact, it is probably Maxwell’s best week since arriving at Firhill.
“It’s a Carlsberg week,” he said. “It’s an unbelievable step forward. The strides we’ve made in the last few years, the training facilities and the fact we are all over the city on various nights of the week, that’s been the one missing link that we’ve not had somewhere settled and dedicated that we can call our own.
“To be able to look forward to that it’s transformational for the football club.
“Gerry [Britton] will be in half a dozen different venues on any given night across the city because of the amount of contact time we want with the kids. We’re all over the place, half an hour here, an hour there.
“I remember coming here and jumping in the mini-bus and going ‘right where are we training today?’ and going to see what’s available.
“Because we have to move it means sometimes the boys are eating here and chasing to go elsewhere. But now they’ll turn up and it’ll be purpose built.”
The location for the centre has yet to be decided, and a date for the complex opening has still to be set, with Maxwell’s research and preparation for the venture now about to get into full swing.
“We’ve got ideas,” he said. “There’s land all over Glasgow and I’d imagine that the phone will start ringing now with people who have a bit of land we can use for it.
"Lennoxtown is nowhere near Celtic Park, and Murray Park is nowhere near Ibrox, so they don’t need to be linked.
“Obviously, it would be somewhere near the Glasgow area, but we’ve not really got our heart set on anywhere. We’re at the start of the process.
“In terms of timescale, as quickly as we possibly can. If we can get it up within a couple of years, that would be brilliant.”
Maxwell took the opportunity to express his gratitude to Colin and Christine Weir, who already bankroll the Thistle Weir Academy, for their ongoing support of the club.
Their backing has enabled Maxwell and the Thistle board to move the club to a level they never dreamed possible just under 20 years ago during the Save the Jags campaign, when the support saved the club from going bust.
“It still feels absolutely ridiculous that I’m going to get to go and build [a training centre]," he said. "It’s incredible.
“I had a brief conversation about this with Robert Reid, our club historian. He’s supported Thistle for longer than anybody and he couldn’t speak.
“Robert was involved in Save the Jags and was selling programmes and Patrick Thistle pins and has been there through the bad times.
“This will mean a lot to supporters that have seen us through those times. You look at the progression since then it’s been amazing.
"[The Weirs] are lovely people and they always do what they do because they want to do it.
"We are very fortunate that they are happy to back the club."
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