CHRIS and Colin Weir are in danger of obliterating the stereotypes about multi-millionaire lottery winners. Others who have come into life-changing sums of money – as the couple from Largs did when they scooped £161 million in 2011 – have tended to ditch their moral compass before embarking on a gaudy and hedonistic spending spree, stockpiling Ferraris, speedboats and mansions like a pensioner getting in tins of soup ahead of a harsh winter. Their almost inevitable descent back into poverty when the money runs out tends to be just as spectacular.

Not with the Weirs, however. It must be difficult to remain grounded and rational when your life has been turned upside down but, barring the odd indulgence here and there, they have instead put their new-found considerable wealth to rather more productive use, their Weir Trust philanthropic venture having already given away around £6m to worthy causes.

And then there is their interest in football. There must have been champagne corks popping inside Firhill when word reached them that Partick Thistle was Colin Weir’s team since childhood, and that he and his wife were willing to back them financially. Again, though, it has all been done in a pragmatic fashion. The brash thing would have been to buy the club, appoint yourself chairman and then splurge millions on strengthening the first team.

Instead, the Weirs have taken a long-term view. They have provided more than £1m in two tranches to help the club establish a full-time youth academy and will now also fund a new £4m training ground somewhere in the Greater Glasgow area. Little wonder that the man in charge of running the youth set-up is almost overcome with gratitude.

“They are an amazing couple,” says Gerry Britton, now holding the position of academy director after previously representing Thistle as a player, co-manager, assistant manager, and Reserve team coach. “If I wasn’t going to win the lottery and had to choose someone else I would pick them. The altruism in them is unbelievable. You think of the difference they have made, not just here at Thistle but with the other initiatives they are involved in. They are a special pair.”

Britton is honest enough to admit that without the Weirs’ benevolence none of this would have transpired. There have been attempts in the past to put down lasting foundations at the club but the money and the commitment to do so was never there. Even John Lambie, the legendary three-time Thistle manager, was never convinced of its merits.

“We tried before [to get an academy established] when I was manager but we got relegated and it was scrapped. We then had another attempt when I was assistant manager and we were getting there but it was still just a glorified boys club compared to other academies. We didn’t have the funds required and the mindset of the club had never been that way inclined.

“We were always done in by the Lambie factor. He was always so good in getting short-term gains from players. I would have arguments with John 20 years ago about youth development structures and he would ask how much it would cost. I would say, “25 grand” and he would say that was a first-team player’s wage and that had to take priority. So we were held back in some ways by John’s success.

“It really took the benefactors getting involved to change the long-term ethos of the club. They could have decided they wanted to focus on the first team but, by doing it this way, it sets the tone for the whole culture of your club. They didn’t come on and say 'here’s £750,000, go and buy three Kris Doolans'. Instead, the whole vision has been about stabilising things, to stop being the yo-yo club that used to bounce between the divisions.”

These are relatively prosperous times for Thistle but Britton, who endured many of the difficult days, is still able to keep things in perspective.

“We’re not getting carried away as we’ll always be a club, since the days of Save The Jags, that will live within its means. But being able to plan and prepare properly is night and day to what it was before. I remember when I was a player Sky TV were up filming us once at Ruchill Park before a cup game against Celtic and the parkies came and kicked us off the pitch. So it shows how far we’ve come from even just 10 years ago.”

Britton has sacrificed plenty to get to this point. His career as a defence lawyer was progressing well when the chance came to return to Firhill but this was a post he felt he couldn’t turn down. Even his initial plan to continue working a day a week for his law firm had to be eventually shelved as the demands of overseeing 23 different kids and women’s squads took their toll.

“I miss being in court as that’s what you become a lawyer for. You’re not doing it because you want to be sitting in a police cell on a Sunday morning with all sorts going on. The banter in court between clients, judges and lawyers is terrific. A lot of it is on different levels, some of the chat going right over people’s heads.

“I had just got a promotion with the firm and was effectively running it when this job came up so it made for an interesting chat with my wife. But she knew what this meant to me. This is the only job I would have left for. I never wanted to be a manager. It was youth development I was always interested in.”

Despite the long hours, returning full time to Firhill has brought Britton closer to his family. “I’ve got four daughters. Three of them are at uni and finding their own way in life, and I’ve also got an 11-year-old who plays football and comes to all our home games. Some of the girls also work in the pie stalls to make a few quid.

“So football has actually brought us closer together. You make decisions in life on how you want to spend your time and there’s nothing better than being able to do the job you want to do. I’ve seen the other side of things and what some people have to go through in life so you’ll never hear me grumbling. I’m a happy man.”