Tuesday 13th August, 2024 at 10:59am
Hello everybody. I wanted to reach out with some comments to supporters now that I’ve been with the club for two weeks. As is always the case in football, things move at speed and often in unanticipated directions. There was certainly quite an in-tray on arrival, and there remains lots of opportunity to support this fantastic club as we grow and reach the potential that is undeniably all around us.
I’d like to start with a sincere thank you to everybody around the club for their support in what has been a difficult time personally. Anybody who saw the announcement of my appointment will know that I was due to start with the club on July 15th. Unfortunately, in the intervening days I suffered a close family bereavement and was unable to be here for a further two weeks. Watching on from afar as the men’s team navigated their early fixtures, and women’s team their pre-season friendlies, was a frustration and not ideal for either myself or the organisation, but everybody around the club was incredibly supportive and I was touched to receive flowers and a sympathy card before I had even started the job. It was my first experience of the unique family culture that this club has created, and I already feel that it’s a truly special place to be.
I wanted to explain a little about what everybody can expect from me and my approach. I also thought that it might be helpful to explain what my remit is, as the club originally intended to recruit a CEO and now fans may wonder where I appeared from and what the title of ‘General Manager’ means. To take the second point first, the GM role has stemmed from a decision by the board that what the club really needs from me is a focus on ‘off field’ operations. The integration of our women’s team continues and the academy has begun to thrive, and in the men’s team we believe that we have a very talented manager and staff, supported by a capable football committee and provided with the resources that will enable us to succeed at this level. We hope for stability in this area to allow Kris and his team to achieve their potential and, while I feel I can bring a lot of value to this organisation, that value is never going to be in spotting a talented full-back! (On that subject, as much as I’d like to, I can’t take credit for yesterday’s signing! Welcome to the club, Casper).
I am keen to work with all our teams and understand how I can contribute to their success, but at the same time I want to focus largely on our off-field operations just as the manager focuses on ‘on-field’. I want to ensure that the back-office team have everything that they need to be successful and to deliver a first-class, Premiership-ready customer experience for our supporters. From matchday operations to commercial revenues, supporter engagement to facilities management, everything that supports the first team, brings revenue into this club and works toward putting us on a sustainable footing is where my focus will be over my first few months. Right now, after only two weeks in the job, that still involves a little bit of learning who everybody is, what they do and – crucially – how I can help. Equally, some changes can be implemented quickly. Supporter feedback was clear on the need to reintroduce the popular all-inclusive package within our matchday hospitality offering, and I’m pleased to confirm that we will now be bringing this back alongside the new package and offering both throughout the season. This solution gives supporters more choice and caters to more budgets while being sensitive to the traditions of our fantastic matchday facilities.
Hopefully that explains a little bit about the role and the reason for me being here. To answer the other half of the question – what to expect and how I will approach it – I think this can be condensed into three objectives: clarity, credibility and communication.
Clarity comes from articulating what our objectives are. What do we want to achieve? How are we going to get there? The board have already begun the process of setting a multi-year strategy for the club and my job, as well as inputting into this, will be to operationalise it. Once we know what good looks like for Partick Thistle, it’s about putting the bricks in that wall. If our mission is to be a sustainable Premiership club, what does that really look like? Increased revenues certainly, but also a slicker customer experience. A matchday that caters to all sections of the local community. A club that reaches out into that community and works to improve it. These are all examples of those foundation stones and being able to clearly communicate both to the team and the board, but also to the wider support, what those objectives are and how we will measure success, is a major priority for me. Having played a part as CEO in Barrow AFC’s return to the English Football League after a 49-year absence, having seen their attendances grow and the club become sustainable at that higher level, having watched the positive impact that the club began to play in the community, I already feel that I can start to see some of the objectives that need our focus most. In time, that picture will become even clearer. And with that clarity of purpose, we can set the direction in which we need to move.
But as important as setting a course is having credibility in delivery. Fan ownership, which I experienced in part at Barrow, is a powerful and overwhelmingly positive thing. But it also creates a very complex stakeholder map and a huge amount of voices around the table. Each will have a view on the right way forward and each, to a point, will be correct. The challenge is taking those wish lists and opinions and being able to prioritise and deliver them with the resources that we have available. This club should never over-promise. We should be very honest about the challenges we face, even while we recognise the fantastic opportunities and the exciting times that we all believe are ahead. I will never say that we can achieve X by Y date if I don’t feel it’s possible, but by the same token I expect to be held accountable for those objectives we do set. This is my approach with my team and I am sure it will be the supporters’ approach with the club. There will be patience during a period of transition, there will be a willingness to give everybody the right tools to deliver their job, and then there will be an expectation that we get on with those jobs and achieve what we say we are going to achieve. I will work hard, as the rest of the staff and volunteers at the club already do, to establish that credibility. Since my arrival I have seen staff working late, volunteers sacrificing weekends, supporters’ groups passionate about the success of the club and wanting to engage and to bring their ideas and opportunities. The fantastic thing about the environment here is that we have all the tools at hand. My job is to bring it together, harness all of the passion and talent that a fanbase of this size can offer, and win the trust of the supporters that we can achieve what we all want to see achieved. In short, establishing credibility.
And finally, while all of this good work is going on throughout every area of the club and in our communities, I want to tell the world about it. Those of us who spend every day in a football club can easily forget that 99% of supporters don’t have that access. There is naturally a thirst for information, especially in a fan-owned club where that sense of belonging and ownership is at its highest. Having started my career in football as a supporters’ board representative at Barrow, I absolutely understand the need to get that communication right. While my late start in role hasn’t been ideal, I have tried to use my time effectively since arriving. Before the Morton game I met the Charitable Trust CEO Fraser Cromar and Lynsey Kane and Derek McLeish of The Jags Foundation to introduce myself and catch up on where we are with outstanding actions. I also received a warm welcome at Friday’s Business Club event which was a great chance to meet with some of the local organisations that share our principles and actively contribute to the club’s success. Seeing that these successful business leaders share our view of the potential of this club is hugely encouraging. I also travelled across to Kirkcaldy on one of the supporters’ buses at the weekend and it was nice to engage with some of you in the pub on arrival. I appreciate that many still don’t recognise me, and we will look to follow up on this update with a video Q+A posted soon to enable Thistle fans to get to know me better. But already I think some of the early steps toward understanding and introducing myself to this fantastic club have been made. It is an immense privilege to be here and without question the biggest role of my career to date. The significance of this is not lost on me, and I look forward to spending more time out in the community, engaging with supporters and understanding what Partick Thistle means to everybody. We all have a slightly different history with our home clubs, a different entry point as a supporter and a unique perspective on the role it plays in our lives. These stories are what makes the game so fascinating, and a business environment like no other.
I hope that the above gives a sense of who I am, what I’m here to help everybody to achieve and the priorities that I see in getting us there. Even in two short weeks I see so much potential in this club and I feel immensely proud to have been entrusted with helping everybody to achieve that potential. There is much to do, and in the short term there are several focuses which I think will set us up for future success:
Updates like these will come on a regular basis. I feel it’s incredibly important to remove the mystery around how a football club is run and how its decisions are made and I’m very happy to play my part in that process. For now, I hope that the above gives a sense of who I am, what I’m here to help everybody to achieve and the priorities that I see in getting us there. Even in two short weeks I see so much potential in this club and I feel immensely proud to have been entrusted with helping everybody to achieve that potential.
The magic of football is that, even when the destination is set, nobody knows how long the journey might take. We will stay on the path and we will be relentless in our commitment to that destination. I am honoured to walk the next leg of that journey with you all.
Levi
