There’s being busy at work and there’s doing the job of three people at once. Welcome to Brian Graham’s world.
The 37-year-old is Partick Thistle’s club captain and is enjoying an Indian summer to a playing career that began in 2006.
Graham joined the Glasgow-based club in 2020. He is just three goals away from joining their 100-club and was named the Scottish Championship player of the year last season after scoring 20 goals. A Golden Boot is within his grasp this term with Graham jointly leading the top scorers’ charts with 13.
The striker’s age-defying feats are noteworthy in a sport that is increasingly a young man’s game. They are borderline miraculous when you consider that leading the line on a Saturday is just one of his many responsibilities.
Last month, following the departure of Kris Doolan, Graham was appointed caretaker manager of Thistle’s men’s team, a role he combines with playing and shares with U18 coach Mark Wilson, the former Celtic full-back.
The dugout and technical areas are far from alien positions for Graham to find himself in. Since September 2020 he has managed Partick Thistle’s women’s team, to great effect.
Manager x2, club captain, star striker. If Graham ever tires of football, he might make a good juggler in Glasgow’s west end.
“Listen, it’s been great,” Graham tells The i Paper about his spell at Partick Thistle, before admitting in the very next sentence: “The last five and a bit years have been crazy.”
Besides a five-year stint with Greenock Morton at the start of his career, Graham had been a footballing nomad: two seasons with Raith Rovers, one with Dundee United, one with St Johnstone, one with Ross County, one with Hibernian, one with Cheltenham Town down south, 18 months back at Ross County.
Things changed after joining Partick Thistle. He found stability. Graham had offers from Scottish Premiership clubs, but his decision to join the Jags has been vindicated. He has prolonged one career while kickstarting the next.
Within nine months of signing, he was appointed to lead the women’s team at just 32, despite having no official qualifications. Graham was able to balance both jobs by playing for the men’s team on Saturdays and managing the women’s team on Sundays.
“I wasn’t really sure [about management] if I’m being honest,” he said. “[But] I felt like I needed to take it as it was a fantastic opportunity and that’s the way it’s panned out.”
Graham now has a Uefa A Licence – the second-highest coaching qualification after the Pro License. The team have improved each year, achieving promotion to the Scottish Women’s Premier League, recording back-to-back sixth-place finishes and reaching the League Cup final last March.
“There’s not a lot of money in the women’s game,” says Graham, who concedes that it is getting harder to overachieve. “You can see this year that the top five, who are now full-time, have really kicked on and the gap is getting bigger.”
Graham’s experience in the women’s game ensured he felt prepared to accept the SOS call to manage the men’s side and not feel “wet behind the ears”. Thistle are planning to hire a new director of football before appointing a new head coach.
“When you start managing and coaching you look at the game differently,” he explains.
“When you’re younger you probably just concentrate on the ball but there are so many other different factors going on in the game that you need to keep your eye on and try and pick up on things.”
He stresses the importance of managing people and not just players. Graham underwent a mental health awareness course delivered by the Scottish PFA to be better equipped to understand what his players might be going through on or off the pitch.
Writing for Fifpro – world football’s player’s union – last year, Graham revealed that a parent of one of Thistle’s women’s players called him to say that their daughter had attempted suicide the night before. It was a wake-up call that the job entails far more than just tactics and results.
“I think it was really important that I went away and tried to understand the mental side of the game,” he says.
“You have self-doubt, you have those little voices in your head. I had them when I was younger. If I can find out ways to try and deal with that it’s only going to benefit me and my players.”
Graham credits his experience, in football and life generally, as the key to still going strong as a player at 37. When once he would beat himself up over missed chances, now he plays with less pressure. “If you make a mistake, who cares?” he says.
Another secret to his enduring success is a Saturday night cheat meal. Scottish football’s Jamie Vardy has his own magic formula, albeit in the form of a Chinese takeaway box rather than a can of Red Bull.
“I’ve done it my whole career. Chinese on a Saturday night after the game. That will not change!” Clearly, it’s working for him.
Brian Graham’s weekly schedule
- Monday: Training with men’s team in morning and afternoon. School run. Dog walk.
- Tuesday: Training with men’s team in the morning. Tactical analysis with staff. Attend women’s training session. Dog walk.
- Wednesday: Watch upcoming opposition matches. School run. Dog walk.
- Thursday: Training with men’s team in morning and afternoon. Press conferences for both teams. School run. Dog walk.
- Friday: Matchday preparation. Run through potential in-game situations with Mark Wilson to inform tactics/substitutions. Dog walk.
- Saturday: Play for men’s team.
- Sunday: Manage women’s team.
Graham’s footballing know-how, amassed over two decades in the sport, will have helped him handle the last few weeks in which an already hectic workload has increased further.
Thistle’s men’s team are currently 4th in the Championship, the final play-off position, while the women’s team are top of Group B in the Premier League after coming 7th out of 12 in the regular season.
Graham kindly sent The i Paper a rundown of his weekly schedule and just looking at it is enough to make you feel tired for him.
He has welcomed help from others and is eager to highlight the job they have done to make his life easier. Wilson is trusted to make tactical tweaks and substitutions on matchdays, while women’s assistant Ross Stormonth has taken most training sessions.
Still, there are a multitude of tasks for Graham to wade through from Monday to Sunday: multiple training sessions, looking at data and analysis, watching footage of upcoming opponents, attending press conferences, discussing tactics with his assistants, playing on a Saturday, managing on a Sunday. Helping out with the school run.
I ask Graham whether he ever has any downtime and if so, how he manages to switch off from his day job(s).
“I just walk my dog, Reo,” he says. “Just peace and quiet, me and him.”
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