Binned is the word to perfectly describe the end of Ian McCall’s second spell as Partick Thistle manager. Even down to the black bags in which his personal belongings had been dumped when he went back to Firhill to clear his desk.
To say it was a surprise sacking is an understatement. The Jags had just come close to pulling off a big Scottish Cup shock at Ibrox. Michael Beale’s Rangers came back from a goal down to win 3-2. It was almost exactly three years ago and McCall is still hurting at the way the deed was done.
‘Everyone knows the place in my heart I have for Thistle so you can only imagine how hard that hit me. It really set me back. It was nothing to do with football.
‘The place was in turmoil at the time. There were 3,000 Thistle fans at Ibrox shouting my name. We should have been three up at half time.
‘It was a personal thing I think. I still don’t really know. I got a phone call on the team bus on the way back from Ibrox.and I was told I couldn’t go in and say cheerio to the players. I was very close to them. They still text me all the time.
Ian McCall has managed for nearly 1,000 games and wants a return to the dugout
McCall still feels the pain from his abrupt sacking by Partick Thistle in February 2023
‘All the stuff from my office was put in bin liners and dumped at the bottom of the stairs for me to collect. You’re talking about pictures of my mum and dad that had been thrown in a black bag and crumpled letters, one of them from Scotland’s greatest ever manager (Sir Alex Ferguson). It was really hard. I found it very, very hard. Alan (Archibald) and Neil (Scally), who were working with me, found it tough to take as well but I guess I took the brunt of it.
‘As a manager you’re gonna get the sack sometimes but, at Dundee United for instance, Eddie Thompson (chairman at the time) was absolutely brilliant. He did it the right way. It was done properly, There were no arguments. It hurt for a week.
‘Leaving Ayr United was hard after so much success there. I think the fans knew that. I turned down at least five jobs while I was there because of what (then chairman) Lachlan Cameron did for me. It was a magical time. There was a real togetherness about the place.
‘But the Thistle dismissal was different. The way it ended was brutal. It was never properly explained. I was going to say it’s taken a long time to get over it but I’m not sure I am over it. I was devastated at the time and it still hurts to this day.’
McCall has managed since. He answered the call from Clyde two seasons ago when they were under serious threat of League Two relegation and guided them back from the brink to cling on to their SPFL status.
The pair parted company, amicably, the following season with McCall edging tantalisingly close to 1,000 games as a manager.
McCall’s last game in charge of Partick Thistle was a 3-2 Scottish Cup defeat at Ibrox
‘I’m on either 956 or 958 depending on which set of stats you go with. It would be nice to get into four figures but I’m not so obsessed that I would jump at any old job. I was on the short list for the sporting director job at Thistle and that went to Ian Baraclough so I’m keeping my eye open for opportunities. But it needs to be the right thing, both for me and for the club.’
McCall’s opinionated, straight-talking style is not to everyone’s taste and his 46 year involvement in football, as player, coach and manager, has been a rollercoaster ride. Personal issues have, at times, hampered his working life. He conquered a gambling addiction, remarried shortly before his 60th birthday and says he’s reinvented his life.
‘I don’t like talking about my troubles, the personal problems I’ve had. They’re way behind me now and I’m very proud that I’ve managed to come out the other side.
‘When I think about my career as a manager, it falls into two parts. One before my personal issues and one after. When I got myself straightened out after four years away from the game and went in as manager at Ayr United in 2015, I know the club contacted four or five people and all of them gave me a glowing report in terms of my life and the type of person I was.
Martin O’Neill has returned to management with Celtic at the age of 73
John McGlynn has managed Falkirk from League One to the top half of the Premiership
‘If you work in football for a long time you’re gonna have people who don’t like you but I’m lucky that there are a lot of people who do like me and those ones who do know me pretty well.’
McCall’s 61 now. Is age a concern as he seeks a return to football management?
‘I genuinely don’t think so. Right at this minute, at the top level in Scotland, you see the effect Martin O’Neill has had at Celtic and he’s 73. John McGlynn at Falkirk is 64 and they’re both demonstrating what experience can do for a football club.
‘John is, arguably, this country’s most successful manager over the last few years. He’s reinvented the way he wants his team to play. I’ve managed against John many, many times and years ago he played a very different type of football to what he’s doing now. I think sometimes there’s a perception that a manager gets to a certain age and doesn’t change or can’t change. But he’s living proof that managers do develop and I’ve certainly changed over the years in how I go about things and set teams up. We all do.
‘But some of the things I learned very early on from some really top managers, and some of the stuff I picked up myself, are the basics of the game and they never change. They’re as valid now as they’ve always been.
‘Neil Lennon was talking to me recently about people he describes as ‘new age managers’ who behave as if they’ve reinvented the wheel, talking about cultures and false tens and nines. It’s all about winning. It’s as simple as that. You’ve got to win, firstly, then establish your own style of football.
Ian McCall during his spell managing Dundee United in the Scottish top flight
‘I was known for a style of playing, certainly in the second part of my career, that was all about scoring lots of goals. I think you have to be really, really flexible. And that’s not something you lose as you get older. There’s a misconception about that.
‘People talk about dinosaurs but they’re missing the point. It’s about holding on to principles which are very, very important. One big thing I’ve garnered over the years, when I’ve been lucky enough to be in the company of some of the best managers around, is how simple they keep things at the top level.
‘When I was managing at Dundee United I had a lot of conversations with the great Jim McLean. Sitting, watching reserve games at Tannadice and just listening to him. He just simplified everything and he was a genius. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.
‘Sometimes there’s a tendency to overcomplicate football and to think that the coach or the manager is the most important component. The most important part of any football club is the players. The biggest part of the job is signing good players. It’s that simple. Signing players and then making them better.’
Aberdeen have still to decide on a permanent replacement for Jimmy Thelin. Does McCall, a former Falkirk gaffer himself, think the aforementioned John McGlynn would be a good shout?
‘I’m not sure John would want to work within the management structure they have at Aberdeen. Do I think he’s good enough to go in there and make a success of the job? One hundred per cent. But I think John would want the final say on all things to do with the football department and I’m not sure he’d get that. But he could do the job, of course he could.
Ian McCall played for Dunfermline, Rangers, Dundee and others in his career
‘And don’t forget, there’s another Premiership club looking for a manager at the end of the season – Celtic. If John McGlynn keeps this up, why’s his name not involved in that discussion? There’s talk about Jens Berthel Askou at Motherwell who’s done fantastically well but so has John.
‘I just think it’s a perception thing, a snobbery thing. It’s a bit like Rangers not signing Lewis Ferguson before he went to Italy. It’s a bit like Celtic not signing John McGinn before he went to Aston Villa. It’s a bit like neither of them signing Lawrence Shankland last summer when he was out of contract.’
But what about his own employment prospects? McCall’s at peace with himself these days and that hasn’t always been the case. He’s watching plenty of football as a BBC pundit but he’s ready to return to the coalface, as he puts it.
‘I’m at a point in my personal life where I’m absolutely ready to get back in. What I’ve got is a proven record of putting a winning team on the pitch, a proven record of achieving things. I feel now like I felt when I ended my four years out of the game.
‘I managed at Ayr and Thistle and they definitely got the best of me. Nobody could say those clubs weren’t miles better by the time I’d left them. And I’m ready to go again.’
