Nesbit seemed to be a real prospect but his loan spells at both Ayr & Dumbarton were underwhelming and he himself apparently accepts that his attitude at Thistle was not good so I suppose there can be little criticism of the decision to release him at that time.
I didn't have an opinion of his ability because apart from a few minutes as an occasional substitute, I didn't ever see him play for Thistle. I do think it is a legitimate criticism of the Weir Academy and Scottish Football in general that young players with potential are not given a real chance in the first team. Instead, we gave regular starts to Ryan Stevenson (talented but with poor application and not a striker), Pogba ( lumbering, lazy & useless), Azeez (fast, strong, hopeless finisher) and Myles Storey( got into great positions then messed up) plus a few other random almost forgotten guys like Nathan Eccleston. I don't think that lot scored much more than 10 goals amongst them.
I would much rather have seen a young Kevin Nesbit given the chance to see what he could do.