Swello
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Posts posted by Swello
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2 minutes ago, jam20 said:
I think anyone who is punting themselves for the job won't be getting the job.
I really hope that's true. I guess that we either have a replacement in mind (lined up already?) or the fact that Robinson is on-board allows them a little time to see who's up for it....
I'm not mad on the twitter - but has 'Flow said anything on his personal account yet?
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I see some people's choice, Jim Duffy, has written a timely column in the Sun showing disbelief that the "board" at 'Well would ask "the supporters" their opinion before sacking McGhee. He somehow thinks that letting "supporters into the Boardroom" is a problem - the bizarre inference being that boards without supporters' rep's somehow make more rational decisions - something that is patently nonsense given the decisions that traditional Boards have been responsible for over the years.
He seems totally unaware that in this case, the "supporters" are actually part of the main board (and are not in a majority in any case AFAIK). These Reps are party to the same information as the other Directors and are making decisions from the the same position. It isn't as if they balloted the members of the 'Well society before making their decision and have overruled the other Directors (the only such ballot was whether or not to admit The Rangers into the SPL, called by our traditional board at the time).
I didn't favour Duffy anyway as I remember that Hibs team he relegated against all the odds - but the pish in that column means he can f**k off basically...
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Ripley was decent (we'd gladly have him back now IMO), Grimshaw looked potentially good. Both Tait and Hennegan have both looked good/very good at times but have been part of one of the worst defenses we've had (and that's saying something). After that - literally no-one.
Whether it was McGhee/Bara or the Board is almost irrelevant (I would imagine that the Manager gets a say based on a scouting report and the board have to approve the deal) - the question is more, "Is the strategy good but the execution has been poor?" or "Is the Strategy a lot of shite because enough good players to make it work are not available in our budget range?".
I find it difficult to get away from the case that there is still a tendency to under-estimate the gap between English Non-league/League2 and our league. Moult and Johnson were, for whatever reason, playing at a level below where they should have been - but it's not clear that players that were merely decent in the lowest leagues down south are suited to playing against the better teams here...
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I thought the strategy was sound - but we've not signed players of sufficient quality this season, no two ways about it. I think McHugh is potentially an excellent player but almost everyone else from this season's batch looks either below the level we need or at best unproven. Our issue may be more to do with the fact that a lot of our "experienced Scottish players" are unable to contribute as they have in the past, which leaves a hole that is very difficult to fill with English non-league players..
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2 minutes ago, jagfox99 said:
^^^ MJC likes this.
Nah - he slagged off McCall even more than McGhee - and that was when we were at the other end of the table
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One thing I will say about this - by Motherwell standards, it's quite ruthless to punt the manager in the way that we have. We are normally like a Mark McGhee substitution - ie- too late to make a difference - but by being decisive and punting him now, they at least give the new guy a chance to make some changes and (hopefully) stabilise things. I'd also (as a member) be interested in the extent of the consultation with the 'Well Society that apparently took place...
PS - a Stuart McCall/Terry Butcher Ex-Gers dream-team to get us to the end of the season?
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Is this the bit where everyone mentions former players - and then it never happens? Can I have Owen Coyle and Billy Davies as my wrong guesses?
McGhee reached the end of the road and can have no complaints really. Given that he got us to 5th last season from a similarly shite position that we are in now, his appointment wasn't a total failure overall IMO - but this season peaked at non-descript and has gone downhill from there. Every manager has a finite amount of goodwill from the supporters and given that he wasn't well liked by many when he rejoined, he was never realistically going to survive after Saturday and the month that had gone on before....
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You know you're a 'Well fan when.........You read the news that the Irn Bru cup final will be at Fir Park and you think "How long 'till a big team takes our Groundsman".....
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2 hours ago, capt_oats said:
That's Robinson officially back, took training today.
http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2017/02/20/robinson-returns-as-first-team-coach/
A tacit admission that Faddy (as an inexperienced coach) hasn't filled the gap that Robinson left? I think it's now a weird setup as I'm not sure what Faddy's role entails, however, I'm happy to see Robinson back.
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I see Faddy is up at the presser today - I hope McGhee has a decent excuse and hasn't shat it and sent his assistant out to face the music...
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"Ambition" in football seems to be a shorthand for "money". John Boyle showed more ambition than any other owner before or since and almost put us out of business. I think we all need to be realistic about how ambitious we can be - under McCall/Dempster for instance, we were loss-making and running unsustainably, even as we finished runner-up 2 years running and in that time, scarcely brought in a transfer fee despite having one of the best 'Well teams of the last 25 years.
I think a long term ambition where Motherwell run on a sustainable basis, prioritise youth development & the community and aim to comfortably stay in the top league is a good and achievable one - but it will likely involve a lot of mid-table finishes of the type we will probably get this season, which doesn't seem to satisfy a lot of people. There is simply a budget limit that we will operate under - and therefore a level of player that we bring in that limits where we can go, exceptional seasons aside. The fact that we've been in the top league for 30 years is a minor miracle as none of our peers have done that - and we should never take it for granted.
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I think there is a danger that we can go mad after last night's debacle - but maybe worth remembering that there was a very similar level of doom last season at this time after we got beaten 2-0 by Killie - which had things looking far more hopeless than they are at the moment with us being a point from safety and 6 points off the Top 6. Things will be worse after the defeat this coming saturday but it's not wrist-slitting time yet...
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I agree that this has been a desperately poor season from a supporters point of view; a lot of poor performances (especially against the Top 4 teams), the most stop-start season I can remember, lots of long distance midweek away's, etc, etc. Add to that the fact that the 1st team seems to have been really unsettled and that recruitement has been scattergun and with very mixed results so far - and it's clear to see that there is plenty to moan about.
On McGhee - I'm really torn on his future. MJC says that he's dined out on one good season - but his record has us finishing 3rd, 7th and 5th, all of which are at least acceptable positions for a club of our size & budget. It looks like we will finish lower than that this season - but would finishing (say) 8th or 9th really be enough for us to pull the trigger? The memory of Barraclough is still too fresh for me to be comfortable with the risks of dumping Mcghee without a very well thought through plan on what happens next.
That said, I think McGhee should be disciplined by the club - and publicly so, as his behaviour was unacceptable and has clearly brought the club into disrepute (to use that classic football term) - and no-one should be above that.
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I can imagine Wes Fletcher's twitter output is really exciting as he always came over as a funny guy, ahem.
With a very few exceptions, football player twitter is the most boring twitter: "great performance from the lads #COY<team>", "fans were amazing <insert bicep emoji>", "tough result - we go again #winning" "baller". Chuck in a couple of awkward bits of banter between players that were team mates 10 years ago and have nothing in common apart from that - and that's yer lot.
On the other hand - supporters who obsessively follow players' social media to see if they are eating properly ("he's had two Mcdonalds this week!") or read a hidden meaning into a tweet about X-Factor are even worse. Also: following the wives/girlfriends of players - seriously?
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What's fletcher got to do with it??
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What's the story with Kennedy? I'm none the wiser after reading Steelmen on-line....
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Nice to see a positive article on the pitch - something that would have been unthinkable even a couple of years back:
the secret of what has improved the pitch is hidden down the article a bit.....
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Stuart McCall - a man ahead of his time:
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18 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:
Not a problem when you just take a throw which had been awarded as a free kick to another team. And the referee is lecturing a player and not paying attention. And you score from it.
#martindale #stillseething
Haha! Was at that one - I'm sure we were bottom at the time and that kicked off the revival - Happy days
ETA - Fill yer boots - hilarious stuff
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Motherwell have just reached a significant milestone, having taken 500,000 shite, hesitant throw-ins since I started watching them. There's no team in top-flight history can match our record of giving the ball back to the opposition after a heavy first touch.
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4 minutes ago, mjw said:
Must have been unlucky and got a different panel from the one who overturned Kiernans red card for punching another player.
Exactly.
On the other hand, the red card for McDonald against St Mirren that was rescinded to allow him to play in the playoffs was an utter let off for us IMO, as it was a clear red and given how well he played across those two games, I think we're still up on the deal.
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Skippy's appeal failed. Not one to be outraged about IMO as it was always an outside chance but a big miss for our next 2 games. The inconsistency of Collum and the feeling that he evened things up is the most annoying thing - but arguing that Kiernan should have been red carded as well doesn't really help us.
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PLeased with that - the definition of a low risk signing. From having a weak midfield that has been our major problem this season, we could now have one that looks like Pearson-Lucas-McHugh-Cadden, which would arguably be as strong as any in the teams around us and still would allow us to have Lasley and Clay in reserve.
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2 hours ago, capt_oats said:
Something else that's probably worth mentioning is the fact that we kb'd 2 offers for Moult and 1 for McDonald. It'd be good if the club could actually reinforce that message to some of the utter roasters in our support who are still coming out with the "we just give our players away"-type chat. Obviously there's history of that but it seems increasingly clear that unless it's a deal that suits the club then they're not just going to roll over and get their tummy tickled.
It's great that the club is not rolling over any more - a massive step forward in fact and one that the current management don't get enough credit for. It's only possible as long as we are realising profits on the players that we give longer deals to. Marvin was the first player that we gave a longer contract to and were then able to then sell at a decent price, giving us enough money to fund longer contracts for other targets. Moult and Cadden will hopefully allow this model to keep going - but it can only keep going in the long term if we continually identify "sellable" players, or produce them ourselves.
McDonald, although we have stood firm on keeping him, is a throwback to our old way of doing things. We have only been able to get him on 1 year contracts and so there has been constant uncertainty around him, to the point where he has missed chunks of pre-season (and the build up to big cup games). We may take a view that for "special" players that we are in no position to get them to sign a longer deal and the uncertainty is worth it to have them in the team - but it does illustrate why we should never go back to short deals as a general approach.
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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
I see the club are advertising for Supporter Liason Officers. If you can power through the jargon-heavy job description (that is like something for a 100k-a-year job in a FTSE 100 firm) - it sounds like a decent role for the right people. I'm sure free entry to home and away games (and travel expenses to away games) will appeal to a lot of people but it looks like a big investment in time for a voluntary role (ie - you need to be at the club at times during the "normal" working week) - so it would probably suit someone who is a total die-hard already....
I think it's good that the club are doing this as a lot of the stuff that goes on could be easily solved without the usual fuss. If they can get clubs to open more than one turnstyle when we have an away game in the cup, they'd be worth every penny the club spends