Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall says ‘the work starts now’ ahead of their return to the Scottish Championship next season.
The Firhill club lifted the League One title on Wednesday after being controversially relegated to the division last season due to football’s shutdown at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s why the SPFL and SFA were not welcome at the Firhill party, although it didn’t dampen spirits after Thistle’s terrific end of season form helped win the league.
A title lift for worthy champions.
Partick Thistle, 2020/21 League One Champions 🏆🔥 pic.twitter.com/sry6IZffYS
— Not The Old Firm (@NotThe_OldFirm) May 5, 2021
McCall says it’s time to draw a line under everything that has happened and look forward: “I am very happy. It’s a bit strange but we have managed the hard work. The players were fantastic, it’s great. I think that question answers itself (why the SPFL and SFA weren’t at the title lift celebrations) but what I would say is there is now a line drawn.
“We are moving forward. If we do something next season then the SPFL and SFA will be very welcome here. We will never forget what happened to us but it’s time to move forward now and move this club forward, together. We made a point and things that happened deeply affected us. But we move on.”
He won’t be getting on a plane, but McCall does plan to get away for a few days after a hectic season. The Partick Thistle manager will continue to work ahead of next season though, with transfer talks and meetings already happening. He joined the club he loves from Ayr United in 2019 and McCall has a smile on his face after a tough 12 months.
The work is underway at Partick Thistle. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
McCall said: “I am not going to go away this year as I am still a bit freaked out about getting on a plane so I am maybe going over to Mull for a few days. But work starts now, I am actually meeting a player on Friday. I need to talk to all my players too. So the work for next season starts now. We will probably be back training on the 10th of June.
“I turned down a number of jobs because I owed Ayr United everything. But once this opportunity arose… I am very emotionally involved with this club, perhaps too much. I am vindicated in terms of the amount of pressure we were under to win a league and come back up after everything that happened to us.”
NTOF now offers a YouTube channel featuring exclusive interviews, post-match discussion, in-depth debate, and much more – LIKE and SUBSCRIBE and don’t miss any of our videos.