Jack Thomson Signed on a pre-contract

[Allan]

Thought this signing/piece of news should have it's own thread ... so player comments can be added....

Jan 31st 2025:  Killie have secured the signing of Jack Thomson on a pre-contract, per the Killie Chronicle, A Product of Rangers’ academy - having joined at the age of 10 before leaving aged 22 - Thomson is a central midfield who can also provide cover at centre-back. The midfielder has made just under 150 senior appearances in his career, with 133 of those coming at Queen’s Park. He has scored five goals and notched 11 assists during his four seasons at the club. Rumours linking Killie with Thomson have circulated throughout the month. Derek McInnes confirmed that the club had signed a player as part of planning for the 2025/26 season. 

[Pompey Repatriated]

Seems to be a CM but more defensively minded. Hopefully can provide a viable alternative to Donnelly

[piffer]

2 hours ago, Pompey Repatriated said:

Seems to be a CM but more defensively minded. Hopefully can provide a viable alternative to Donnelly

Maybe the player in that role we’ve needed since the end of Dicker. Cant say he’s one I'm familiar with and haven’t heard a lot of people going on about like others in that league.

[skygod]

Daily Record "exclusive":

Kilmarnock have agreed a pre-contract for Queen’s Park’s Jack Thomson.

Killie boss Derek McInnes will sign the midfielder this summer. The 25-year-old will return to the top-flight with the Rugby Park outfit. McInnes believes he is ready to take the step up to the Premiership.

Killie have fought off interest from other Premiership and English clubs to land Thomson. The player is currently recovering from an Achilles injury but is expected to be fit for the final run-in. It is a blow to Queen's Park boss Callum Davidson but he always expected to lose him. Thomson came through the ranks at Rangers before he moved to Queen’s Park, where he has made his mark with the Championship club.

Kilmarnock are still pushing for the top six although they will need to go on a good run before the split. McInnes’ men are five points behind sixth-placed Hearts with five games to go.

Making the top half could boost Kilmarnock’s financial muscle. Killie have a string of first-team players who are out of contract in the summer, including captain Kyle Vassell, Joe Wright and Danny Armstrong.

The Ayrshire club are also keen to land youngster Bobby Wales on an extended deal.

 

[Pride_of_ayrshire]

3 hours ago, skygod said:

The player is currently recovering from an Achilles injury

 

Our signing policy is superb

[killie1961]

4 hours ago, skygod said:

Daily Record "exclusive":

Kilmarnock have agreed a pre-contract for Queen’s Park’s Jack Thomson.

Killie boss Derek McInnes will sign the midfielder this summer. The 25-year-old will return to the top-flight with the Rugby Park outfit. McInnes believes he is ready to take the step up to the Premiership.

Killie have fought off interest from other Premiership and English clubs to land Thomson. The player is currently recovering from an Achilles injury but is expected to be fit for the final run-in. It is a blow to Queen's Park boss Callum Davidson but he always expected to lose him. Thomson came through the ranks at Rangers before he moved to Queen’s Park, where he has made his mark with the Championship club.

Kilmarnock are still pushing for the top six although they will need to go on a good run before the split. McInnes’ men are five points behind sixth-placed Hearts with five games to go.

Making the top half could boost Kilmarnock’s financial muscle. Killie have a string of first-team players who are out of contract in the summer, including captain Kyle Vassell, Joe Wright and Danny Armstrong.

The Ayrshire club are also keen to land youngster Bobby Wales on an extended deal.

 

More chance the budget will be cut next year.

[Squirrelhumper]

13 hours ago, killie1961 said:

More chance the budget will be cut next year.

I think that's a given.

The funding of a £1.5m pitch renovation has to come from somewhere.

[AliBaba]

2 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:

I think that's a given.

The funding of a £1.5m pitch renovation has to come from somewhere.

It all still seems a bit of a mystery (or secret) on just exactly what the plans are for the new pitch and its funding. Now we are into March it is now coming up on six months since back in September the then Trust club director spoke about some kind of “pitch in” initiative but yet - all these months later - there has been ZERO from the club in terms of what is going to be happening. At a minimum, there has to be some information shared on this at the AGM.

Not a “pop” at the Trust but the £50K to “kick-off” things - in the absence of any kind of wider information and/ or plan - made absolutely no sense at all….

[GT]

3 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:

I think that's a given.

The funding of a £1.5m pitch renovation has to come from somewhere.

Added to, I expect, a drop in ST sales. 

I do wonder if McInnes will hang around.  It's a handy 'out' for him, saying he can't improve the squad/outcome with the reduced budget.  He won't want another relegation fight next season & potentially the season after - he thinks he's better than that.

[bgb02burns]

On 2/1/2025 at 12:54 PM, Pompey Repatriated said:

Seems to be a CM but more defensively minded. Hopefully can provide a viable alternative to Donnelly

I suspect that either this means Donnelly not offered a new contract or significantly less than he was on. So he probably leaving. 

Think this was agreed in January and is released now as a PR exercise. Just a theory on the timing. 
 

Supposed to be pretty decently and highly sought after. Probably not playing an overly glamorous role has him under the radar of some but we clearly be looking at him for awhile. Queens had him on a long contract after he left Rangers so obviously we not much for paying for players that clubs do not want to let go. 

18 hours ago, Pride_of_ayrshire said:

Our signing policy is superb

You miss the part him expected to be for the run in to the end of the season. Also think it was agreed before the injury, and it just announced now cause fans needed a distraction. Either that or an injured player got more time to decide on his future and sign contracts. 

[Cyril the Squirel]

18 hours ago, Pride_of_ayrshire said:

Our signing policy is superb

Did you miss this bit "The player is currently recovering from an Achilles injury but is expected to be fit for the final run-in"?

[skygod]

32 minutes ago, bgb02burns said:

Think this was agreed in January and is released now as a PR exercise.

There has been nothing official from the club, unless you know otherwise. 
 

[AliBaba]

4 minutes ago, skygod said:

There has been nothing official from the club, unless you know otherwise. 
 

No there hasn’t. As a club, I don’t think we tend to do that when it comes to PCAs…..thinking back to Deas, it only got announced following the end of the season even though a PCA had been agreed months previously.

In contrast, Sevco and Dundee have both already gone public that Cameron has signed a PCA and just this past week Hibs announced they had signed McGrath from Aberdeen on a PCA.

[bgb02burns]

3 minutes ago, skygod said:

There has been nothing official from the club, unless you know otherwise. 
 

Nope, just got the impression it was a done deal in January and we tend to release this type of information. Randomly. So just a theory. In my mind we had already signed him. We do not tend to leak info like that unless it concrete. Was leaked when people were frustrated for January signings and even rumours and then it is officially confirmed when people upset about form and league position etc. So not baseless. I just do not think we leak info on trying to sign him unless it pretty much a done deal (if not done completely). Anyway that is my logic, might be spot on or nonsense for all I know. 

[bgb02burns]

2 minutes ago, AliBaba said:

No there hasn’t. As a club, I don’t think we tend to do that when it comes to PCAs…..thinking back to Deas, it only got announced following the end of the season even though a PCA had been agreed months previously.

In contrast, Sevco and Dundee have both already gone public that Cameron has signed a PCA and just this past week Hibs announced they had signed McGrath from Aberdeen on a PCA.

The fact he currently injured makes it less of a big deal for Queens and then when he comes back he can get a farewell period. Sort of logic our club uses when being nice. 

[piffer]

1 hour ago, GT said:

I do wonder if McInnes will hang around.  It's a handy 'out' for him, saying he can't improve the squad/outcome with the reduced budget.  He won't want another relegation fight next season & potentially the season after - he thinks he's better than that.

I'm of the same mindset. It’s going to be a rebuild again in the summer as what we have done this season hasn’t worked. Publicly we don’t seem to be doing a lot of the work on it. One pre contract signing but a number of key players and our hottest prospect not tied up yet with Joe Wright the latest to say there is no deal on the table.

Maybe he’s realised he’s taken us as far as he can. If he goes in the summer as long as we are a Prem team then he preserves his reputation. He can paint it positively that club couldn’t match ambitions, the difficulty juggling league and Europe(for a month), injuries to key players. 

[piffer]

6 minutes ago, AliBaba said:

No there hasn’t. As a club, I don’t think we tend to do that when it comes to PCAs…..thinking back to Deas, it only got announced following the end of the season even though a PCA had been agreed months previously.

In contrast, Sevco and Dundee have both already gone public that Cameron has signed a PCA and just this past week Hibs announced they had signed McGrath from Aberdeen on a PCA.

Is there not underlying reasons with other teams announcing deals?

We were never going to pay to get Thomson in January especially if injured.

I believe Sevco looked at doing a deal for Cameron in the window but Dundee held firm. Announcing things upsets the applecart and can help force a deal.

Hibs have signed a player who was regarded as one of Aberdeens better players early in the season. The fact they are now in a race for third it can be portrayed as a major scalp taking one of their talents and could deal a psychological blow to the Dons. 

[skygod]

12 minutes ago, AliBaba said:

As a club, I don’t think we tend to do that when it comes to PCAs…..thinking back to Deas, it only got announced following the end of the season even though a PCA had been agreed months previously.

I think that is ideally what should happen but with a player, agents and two clubs involved, keeping a PCA secret must be a challenge!

 

Edited March 1 by skygod

[malcr0]

Interesting that Leon King is off to QP on loan until end of season 

one that we were reportedly interested in 

[Slippers]

We’re not exactly short on CM options. Presume this means there will be multiple not getting extension offers…

[piffer]

5 minutes ago, Slippers said:

We’re not exactly short on CM options. Presume this means there will be multiple not getting extension offers…

Which midfielders are out of contract? Donnelly, Magennis, McKenzie?

Edited March 1 by piffer

[Skora11]

3 hours ago, AliBaba said:

It all still seems a bit of a mystery (or secret) on just exactly what the plans are for the new pitch and its funding. Now we are into March it is now coming up on six months since back in September the then Trust club director spoke about some kind of “pitch in” initiative but yet - all these months later - there has been ZERO from the club in terms of what is going to be happening. At a minimum, there has to be some information shared on this at the AGM.

Not a “pop” at the Trust but the £50K to “kick-off” things - in the absence of any kind of wider information and/ or plan - made absolutely no sense at all….

The club is going to require putting a grass pitch. I’m unsure how you can turn the Trust contributing £50k to get things up and running for that purpose a bad thing. 

[Slippers]

2 minutes ago, piffer said:

Which midfielders are out of contract? Donnelly, Lyons, Magennis, McKenzie?

I think Lyons has another year, just the other 3.  McInnes like Magennis and Donnelly so would be surprised if at least one of them wasn’t offered a deal. 

[piffer]

27 minutes ago, Slippers said:

I think Lyons has another year, just the other 3.  McInnes like Magennis and Donnelly so would be surprised if at least one of them wasn’t offered a deal. 

I checked after the post and edited. Lyons signed a new deal last April.

For me the midfield needs a revamp. I don’t believe we should have stuck with same faces as last year and I think it would be risky doing the same again.

I like Donnelly but given the personnel already on board I'd be inclined to cut him loose. Magennis is a talent and I'd be happy to see him stay the main thing we need to evaluate is how much availability we get from him. Hopefully the long term problems are over but can he do two games in four days. Can he last 90minutes. Will we need to take into account travelling and having to leave him out when he has a twinge. 

[Pride_of_ayrshire]

2 hours ago, Cyril the Squirel said:

Did you miss this bit "The player is currently recovering from an Achilles injury but is expected to be fit for the final run-in"?

“Expected” is the key word.

we expected Kennedy to be fit in November remember