Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald is out of the running for the vacant Shrewsbury Town post, and he has immediately set his sights on completing his “unfinished business” at Firhill.
The English League One side approached Thistle on Wednesday with a view to speaking to Archibald about taking over at New Meadow.
Archibald never spoke to the club though, and they are understood to be making an appointment today from a three-man shortlist that does not include the Jags boss.
If the developments had been a disappointment to Archibald, he did a good job of hiding his despondency as he discussed his relish for the task at hand in Maryhill.
“I’ve got unfinished business here, of course I have,” Archibald said.
“We’ve started something here and we’ve took the club on leaps and bounds both on and off the pitch. It’s been a fantastic journey, and long may it continue.
“It would be a massive wrench to leave Thistle. I’ve spent 19 years here. I’ve been here for half of my life, and I’m not going anywhere, I’ll be here on Saturday and hopefully I’m here to the end of the season and we’re still in the league.
“I’m flattered there was a bit of interest, but that’s as far as it went. I didn’t speak to them and now I move on towards Saturday.
“You are flattered by it, it’s great, but we’re second bottom of the league just now and that’s the main priority.
“We’ve done a decent enough job, but we’ve still got a big job to do and that’s keeping the team in this league this year and that’s our priority, getting out of the trouble we’re in at the moment.
“When you’re second bottom of the league you don’t expect people to come calling, so that was a bit surprising. We’ll take that as a compliment though and batter on.”
While Archibald is honest enough to admit that managing down south would be of interest in the future, he looks at what happened to Alan Stubbs this week as a reminder that the grass isn’t always greener.
“Football changes so quickly and you’ve got to bear that in mind,” he said.
“I didn’t have to make a decision, I didn’t have that bridge to cross, but it would have been interesting if I did and then I would maybe have been able to give you some answers and something to speak about.
“I’m happy and content here and I’ve got a good board that works with me. I work closely with Ian Maxwell and I’ve got a very good relationship with him, so I’ve nothing to complain about.
“I would like to manage in England at some point, it’s something different and I’ve said that before, I think anyone would.
“There will come a point when Thistle fans will have had enough of me as well, that’s how football works.”
Archibald says that the speculation around his future hasn’t had an effect on their preparations for a huge match with Ross County at Firhill tomorrow.
“Our working week has been exactly the same,” he said. “It was in the background, I was aware of it, but it didn’t really change my working week at all.
“It’s the same incentive as last week, we’ve got a chance to get above our rivals. They are round about us, it’s a massive six-pointer, and all of the games we play against these teams are huge. The onus is on us, we’re at home, and I’ve said that to the lads.
“We analysed the Hamilton game back on Monday and at the end of the meeting the positive thing to come out of it was that we’re only three points from sixth place, which is remarkable when we’ve only won one game.
“That’s the positive, but we have to go and get three points.”
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