Mark Wilson on landing Partick Thistle role and Brian Graham's future

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Wilson, who previously served as Under-18s manager at Firhill, was offered the job after Graham turned down the position, bringing Thistle's protracted search for Doolan's successor to a close.
He is the first head coach appointed by sporting director Ian Baraclough – who spent yesterday getting married - and while he accepts that the length of the hunt left some supporters feeling a little antsy, he believes the club board took the correct steps during the interview process.
Wilson said: 'Well, quite often it's the case, when it's a new managerial hunt at any club, people think they're getting Ancelotti, don't they, at every turn? And they quite often don't - and certainly in this case, they haven't!
'But I'm comfortable with how the perception was going to be. I've got broad shoulders enough to carry the pressure, what the expectation level was to where we are now. The one thing I can say is that the board and the club have went through a thorough process with some great candidates, and it was up to them to decide.
'I had a fortunate live interview process for three months that people saw me at the club working on the pitch, and they saw me working behind the scenes. That's the best tell for anybody.
'My message would be to support what's happened here, even though it's taken a bit longer than usual. But we're here now, we've got an appointment, and myself, the backroom team, I'm sure, will be announced in the coming weeks.
'And it's about supporting the team because this club has got a huge support, a huge fanbase that are colourful and can bring the best out of the team. We saw a glimpse of that at the tail end of the season, and I want to experience more of that going forward.'
Wilson added: 'It's a huge honour, of course, just because of the stature of the club. That's definitely not lost on me - the size of this job, and how fortunate it is that an opportunity presented itself to me.
'So it means everything to me because there's very few jobs that hold this level of support in Scotland outwith the top flight. And it's certainly a club that would be comfortable in the top flight, but there's a lot of work to do in the meantime to get there.'
Top of Wilson's in-tray will be the future of Graham. The Championship's top scorer for the previous two seasons, the 37-year-old – who scored his 100th Thistle goal against Ayr United in the play-offs – made no secret of his desire to land the job permanently, going as far as to claim that he would perhaps have to leave Firhill if the board went in a different direction.
The club captain's contract still has one year left to run, and Wilson would like to see him remain at the club – but he insists the decision is Graham's to make.
'The ball's in Brian's court,' he explained. 'It's a slightly awkward one because Brian does have a year left in his contract.
'Brian's a good mate of mine. We've been through a lot together, played together, we came through this period together, and we still remain on great terms. So time will tell on that.
'One thing I will say, Brian's been a legend for this club. A hundred goals, he's carried this club, or his contribution has certainly helped this club reach the heights that they have done in previous years, and that will never be forgotten.
'And that's a decision for Brian to make, and I'm sure that will become clearer when you speak to the guys on the board, and the chairman, and Brian himself. But for me, if Brian still has a playing contract, I would certainly look to get the best out of him, and we'll see what happens.'
Mark Wilson (Image: Colin Mearns) Of he and Graham's application process, Wilson added: 'Both of us were asked to help the club out in that short period of time. The club obviously then went through a process that they were wanting to take a bit more time, and of course, with what we were doing in and around the club, I think they could see that we certainly knew what we were doing together as a team.
'Once it got to the end of the season, there was certainly an appetite, I think, from both of us to continue this journey, and the club clearly saw that. So both of us were put through the same interview process as any other candidate, and I think everybody understood what happened next in that process.
'The club took their time with it, Brian certainly took his time with it, and it fell to me to then take up the opportunity. And it certainly wasn't going to be an opportunity that I passed up. I'm well aware of the size of this club, and these opportunities don't come around too often.'
Wilson, who has previously had unsuccessful managerial stints at Airdrieonians and Brechin City, will be putting his radio appearances on Clyde1 Superscoreboard to one side now that he has landed the top job at Firhill.
After spending some time away from first-team management – Wilson was dismissed from his post at Brechin in 2020 – the former Dundee United man is now back in the limelight, and he insists he always had hope of returning to the senior game.
'Without a doubt,' he explains. 'The drive was always there, but I specifically made a choice to go back to under-18 football. Coming out of Airdrie and Brechin, and having different experiences as a head coach and as a manager at Brechin, I thought it was time to kind of re-educate myself, and take a bit of time, rather than chasing results in your job - to go back and just take a bit of time in the coaching aspect, and figure out what's right and what's wrong.
'Partick Thistle offered me that opportunity, and I enjoyed my time [as Under-18s manager], a year and a half. And within that I got a little taste of going in and dipping into first team and reserve games.
'So when the opportunity came around to go in and help this first team over a tricky period, then of course I took it. But once you're in there, you get a real taste for it again.
'I'm working with a group of players who, I don't think it's being disrespectful to the other clubs, are a step above what I was working with there. The message gets across quicker, and you see better results and quicker results.
'So that drives you on and focuses you on where you actually want to be. I've loved my time at Partick Thistle academy and in youth football. But certainly first-team football, where I want to be about.'
Mark Wilson (Image: Colin Mearns) Wilson continued: 'I think everybody around the club was aware of the volume of work I was getting through with the first team and the under-18 squad. So it was long days, starting at half seven in the morning, finishing at eight o'clock at night, with the occasional radio shift in there as well. Because it was incredibly fortunate, when you find yourself out the game, that you've got a great company to keep you involved in football.
'So I loved that side of it, I did love that side of it. It was long weeks for those 15 weeks, but I was certainly never afraid of that, and I love doing that. This just presents an opportunity.
'The workload's going to be great within this. I still want to keep a real grasp of the academy as well - it just means I won't be taking the under-18 team when the games come about but that's fine. That's what this club needs - it needs a bridge between the academy players and the first team, and I hope I can give that.'
As for Wilson's objective at Thistle? Promotion, he says, has to be the ultimate goal. He admits that the rest of the second tier will hold similar ambitions, and he is fully aware of the scale of the task that awaits.
'Every team in this league, if they've not got that [promotion] in their mind, it would be silly,' Wilson noted. 'But we're under no illusions of how difficult that's going to be this year. It's proved difficult even with a really strong budget, it really has, and you've seen that in previous years from other teams.
'Now you've got two teams coming down from the Premiership, you've got a Dunfermline side who are going to be heavily backed with Neil Lennon in, and you've got Ayr United who will throw everything at it. And that's not to discount any of the other teams, and Morton and Airdrie and ourselves.
'So it's going to be a really competitive league, I would love to take this club up, but there's got to be an element of realism. That will come out in the wash really before a ball is kicked, and how we look as a squad, compared to how others look.
'It's all about smart recruitment, it's not about spending the most money. And if we do our recruitment right, with Lee Turnbull and Ian Baraclough and myself, then we've got every opportunity of having a successful season.'
Baraclough will be on his honeymoon for the next 10 days, but the former Motherwell boss will have his phone switched on and will be available to conduct club business during that period to aid Thistle's pre-season preparations.
Wilson has had some talks with the board about the resources that will be made available to him this summer, although he stresses that the Jags will not be embarking upon a spending spree right away.
'Well that's going to take a bit of time,' he explained. 'The club had to go through a lengthy process to get to this point, and obviously the appointment of head coach was going to be the most important one at this period.
'So I'm well aware of what's in the building. I'm aware of what it looks like and how things are going to look in comparison to other years. There's a bit of change in the landscape in that, the club maybe has a different vision from what was the previous years.
'That's why you see the structure has changed, firstly with Ian Baraclough coming in as the sporting director. It was always going to be a head coach and not a manager. So I know what we've go. I know certain things that we need to do, but summer is always so difficult, as any transfer window is, and it might be a slow burner.
'There's no point hiding that. As it is for every club, but obviously we want to do our recruitment as soon as possible - but we also have to be patient within that.'
Wilson continued: '[Ian] is an incredibly busy man at the minute, but that's where the whole structure of the sporting director comes in. That's the whole beauty.
'I've worked under those parameters before, and I've got to say I'm pretty comfortable with that - that the head coach coaches the players, the tactics, the identity of the team.
'The recruitment of players - along with the sporting director and the head of recruitment - and the budget, and the finances, and the contract negotiations, falls to the sporting director and the board. That's how this was put to me, how it was going to work. I was delighted with that.'