MAXWELL CAN’T DODGE AWKWARD QUESTIONS
ALAN ARCHIBALD isn’t the only man facing some difficult days if Partick Thistle go down. On Tuesday, the SFA introduce their new chief executive to the media. And before Ian Maxwell sets about justifying his predecessor’s indefensible decision to take on an end-of-season Scotland trip to Peru and Mexico, he’ll have one key question to answer. Why should he be trusted with the future of the national game if his previous team finished the season tumbling into the SPFL Championship? A one-goal deficit from the first leg playoff defeat to Livingston can still be turned around. But they’ll have to play far better tomorrow than they did in a woeful display in Thursday’s flattering 2-1 defeat. To lay the blame for Partick’s demise solely at the door of their former CEO would be disingenuous. Daft, even. Chief executives don’t pick the team. Maxwell (right) didn’t stick with Miles Storey and Connor Sammon up front when Kris Doolan was twiddling his thumbs on the bench. The buck for that stops with Alan Archibald and the Thistle directors who stuck by their struggling manager. Yet one of the reasons Maxwell’s star burns brightly now is Thistle’s top-six finish last season. When a team are going well, the chief executive accepts the plaudits. When they fall through a trap door he also has to accept a portion of the blame. Give the man this much. By swapping one troubled, difficult job for another he’s either showing unshakable self belief or a masochistic streak. He’ll be drinking from a poisoned chalice on Hampden’s sixth floor from day one. A decision on whether to stay at Hampden or move to Murrayfield is top of the in-box. Major sponsors like Vauxhall need to be replaced. The issues around the granting of a European licence to Rangers in 2011 weep like festering sores. And people think he was only picked as Stewart Regan’s replacement because he’ll do what the big clubs tell him. Yet the most awkward question Ian Maxwell might have have to answer on Tuesday is this. If he is leaving Partick Thistle in the grubber, why should anyone trust him with the welfare of Scottish football?