Sorcerer’s apprentice is surviving his own way

Archibald has staying power but remains in awe of Lambie the maverick

JANUARY has come and gone, as has another year in the job for Alan Archibald. In more ways than one, it provides an opportune moment for reflection.

The Partick Thistle manager is discussing the addition of just one player to his squad last month before the conversation turns to how he came to be the longestserving manager in the top flight.

The idea is put to him that he is a disciple of a management style which no coaching manual would ever dare teach.

His mind wanders and he puffs out his cheeks, smiling.

‘I honestly don’t know how he did it,’ Archibald says of John Lambie. ‘We would come into training every Friday and he had signed a new player, without fail, every single week.

‘I don’t know how he would have coped with a transfer window. He was a maverick when it came to signing players.

‘John’s advice was always clear — you’ve never got enough players. Always sign as many as you possibly can and don’t ever tell the board that you’re finished. You always need another one.

‘He had this knack of signing the right players at the right time. Real characters that became huge figures in the dressing room.

‘It was his man-management. He was a brilliant motivator. Even if we all thought at the time that he was just a crabbit old git!’

The question doesn’t even need asking as to whether Lambie has been the greatest influence in Archibald’s career. His gushing endorsement of the legendary Thistle manager says it all.

But their styles could scarcely be more different. Where Lambie was a magnificent linguist capable of fitting seven expletives into a six-word sentence, Archibald is often a quiet man of few words.

When Lambie wasn’t tending to his pigeons, he’d be clutching a Canadian Club in one hand and a betting slip for the 3.45pm at Lingfield in the other. Surrounded by plumes of cigar smoke, of course.

A compulsive gambler, it was only natural that Lambie would relish taking a punt on a new player. Of all those who turned up each week, only some of them were footballers.

Others were business associates of Chic Charnley, enquiring as to the whereabouts of the Thistle midfielder.

Which brings the conversation back to Archibald. It seems counter-intuitive that the product of such a chaotic environment should go on to become a model of stability. But he has.

Now five years at the helm, Archibald is the longest-serving manager in the Premiership and the second-longest in the entire country, behind only Peterhead’s Jim McInally.

Yet the whole thing sort of happened by accident. He openly admits that he got the Thistle job essentially by default.

‘There was no one else to take it,’ says Archibald of the point when Jackie McNamara negotiated the release from his contract to take over at Dundee United in January 2013. ‘It was a case of: “Here you go — get on with it”.

‘It was bizarre because I took over in late January, but we didn’t have our first game for about three or four weeks later because of call-offs. So, by the time I took charge of my first game, we were nine points behind.’

It is credit to the impact Archibald had on his players that they were able to go on and win the old First Division and clinch promotion to the top flight.

He was a total novice, but he would have commanded respect. He is now 40 and, since signing his YTS forms at Firhill as a 16-year-old, he has gone on to spend almost half his life as an employee of Partick Thistle, across two separate spells as a player and, latterly, as manager.

There is no telling when his time at the club will end. But the talent he possesses as a manager means it is inevitable that he will move on to bigger things. Where Lambie was the headmaster of the old school, Archibald is a stylish operator; the epitome of the modern coach, whose ego requires considerably less maintenance than many Five years and counting: Thistle manager Archibald and (inset) with former Jags boss Lambie of his contemporaries in the Scottish Premiership.

A combative centre-half in his pomp, Archibald is more shy and retiring in public. He hates a fuss being made.

‘It has been a rollercoaster of emotions,’ he says of his five years in charge. ‘There have been plenty of highs and lows but I’m a far better manager for coming through it all on the other side.’

He cites a 4-2 victory against Hearts at Tynecastle in May 2014 as his personal highlight. Trailing 2-1 at half-time, Thistle produced a stunning comeback to clinch safety in their first season back in the top flight.

The lows? Well, a 5-1 thrashing at Kilmarnock in December is an obvious candidate. That left Thistle bottom of the table and a section of fans feared that a top-six finish last season had soured to the point that their manager might be removed.

Other clubs would have nervously pulled the trigger. But Archibald says: ‘If I was to walk away tomorrow, I could look back on it all and say it has been great — a pleasure, actually.

‘But there has never been a morning when I’ve walked in and thought: “This is it — my time’s up”. The board trust me and I trust them.

‘We are generally in the bottom half of the league, so there needs to be an understanding. The club are building something and it’s good to be part of a long-term plan, rather than the short-termism you see elsewhere in football.’

Thistle travel to face Motherwell today looking to register a first victory at Fir Park since 1996, but buoyed by two consecutive wins away from home since their return from the winter break.

After being crippled by injuries in the first half of the campaign, Archibald’s squad is fit once again and there is renewed optimism as to what they can achieve over the remainder of the season.

He laughs when asked what his old gaffer might have done when confronted by such a lengthy casualty list. But Archibald didn’t panic.

There wasn’t a phone call to Shettleston Juniors to see if they happened to have a spare leftback. From Lambie’s unique brand of sorcery, the apprentice is doing things his way.