capt_oats

Pretty much this. It's not the first time Aberdeen have just went ahead with an announce regardless. Declan Gallagher's PCA being a case in point. They've announced at 10am, it's currently 10:40am and we're still wishing Callum Slattery a happy birthday. I mean, fucking hell... 100% this as well.

He takes the Aberdeen job on 27th February so I'd imagine his replacement will be announced before then.

"Many people say our training is a shambles."

Yes. To be clear, I'm talking about this VERY specific circumstance rather than taking a general "Yeah, fake news is totally fine" position!

Aye. I noticed that @wellboy1991’s post has also become a hot topic over on SO. Talk about going viral. From that same thread, it’s interesting to see there are some who are still really quite defensive of Hammell. There are none so blind etc. As I said the other day I’m not sure it even matters if @wellboy1991’s post is or isn’t true. We don’t look like a well coached team and once you strip away all the noise that’s really the bottom line. I mean, it’s not exactly a stretch to believe that we’re a shambles on the training ground. In fact, if it would actually explain a lot if it is true.

I have also been to Norfolk but not Norwich (about 12 miles on the outskirts). I had a nice time. An all night party put on by Vice? Peak #indiesleaze lads...

To re-up this, he's joined Santander.

Tbh, it's this realisation that nudged me from a vague "I hope he turns it around" position to "absolutely f**k that guy". Generally speaking, good managers delegate (I guess that's true in industries other than football too). Identify your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses. If something's not working then explore options to find a fucking solution. Instead, before the board sanctioned signing The January 9, we had months of Hammell's "we need to do better. Defensively not good enough" chat but zero solutions just doubling down on the same shape and running a team into the ground. Aside from the fact that improving the players is literally his job (and one he's broadly been failing at) ruling out getting help in on a self-preservation basis and making it a red-line is a weird move because, you know what actually keeps you in a job Steven? Winning games of football.

Actually, I don't think Hutchison was officially on the board at that point although IIRC he was involved in Bara's appointment. So my mistake there. Anyway, aye, I definitely have questions as to whether this board of directors have it in them to do what's necessary. It's also part of the reason that, while he's obviously a current board member, I'm absolutely fucking terrified about Burrows stepping down as once you take him out the equation it's literally just a bunch of old dudes.

I mean, it's not. The board of directors when Bara got the job was: McMahon, Weir, McCafferty, Reid, Kellie, Thomas and Hutchison. Current BoD is: Burrows, Dickie, Feely, McMahon and Wilson.

I mean, I agree that an anonymous post on a fitba' forum doesn't prove anything but it terms of eye-test...do we *look* like a well coached team atm? Players don't look like they know what they're supposed to be doing The team doesn't seem to have a clear plan Persistent defensive issues haven't been fixed Players seem unmotivated Massive regressions individually and collectively as a team Zero improvements in player performance I think most of us have seen well coached Motherwell sides and this...isn't one. Tbh, there's an echo of where we are just now and McGhee's 2nd season of his 2nd stint where, ironically, there were also persisting rumours about training. The story went that because McGhee was commuting it meant training was being taken largely by McFadden (who also had zero first team coaching experience) and a handful of the senior players.

Aye that was specifically mentioned in the news story as well. I mean, Craigan kept his media work on the go in a similar-ish role so I've no issue with it. Like I say, I'm just curious as to whether he's actively involved with the first team and whether any of his fingerprints are on the current shitshow.

Aye, to be clear I'm not suggesting that's what you're getting at. It's just that, as you you say, there have been allusions to Kettlewell being there for "support" and held up as someone on the staff with "experience". I wasn't at the AGM but if it's the case that he was named specifically then it'd be interesting to know precisely how integrated he is. Again, for avoidance of doubt I'm not putting Kettlewell forward as any sort of answer to our problems. I suppose what I'm getting at is that there's clearly a massive difference between Hammell getting a bit of advice or picking up the phone to someone (Kettlewell, McCall,...whomever) and having that "experienced" person out on the grass in an active role. When a continuing failure to address identified issues suggest that neither the manager or his assistant are capable of coaching a team worth a f**k it feels a bit disingenuous for the club to put forward "How very dare you. Stuart Kettlewell's in the building (but on Radio Scotland on a Saturday). We're covered." as a solution. Although again, I suppose they have to be mindful of not being seen to be undermining Hammell while he's still in the post.

Oh yeah, I get that there would be dialogue but what I'm curious about is whether he's actually out on the grass taking first team sessions with Hammell, Kerr and Alexander.

Genuine question, is Kettlewell actually involved with the first team? The news story that was put out when he got the job seemed quite explicit that his remit was specifically development stuff.

Just to follow this up, I'd kind of forgotten a reply from @Nelly78 over on the St Johnstone thread last month... I mean...explains a lot.

Similar but it's actually worse. At least Glass had 38 games with Atlanta II and 19 games with the actual team. Prior to Hammell's couple of games as interim before he got the job he had zero first team managerial experience and promoted Brian Kerr from his u18s role as his assistant. Kerr previously had 43 games managing Albion Rovers (who he relegated) and 12 games managing East Kilbride before taking the assistant role with Gary Caldwell at Thistle (sacked in the September of their 2nd season where they were eventually relegated). In hindsight our season has went as you'd have expected it to.

I mean, I had been advocating the idea that Hammell could have done himself a favour ages ago and taken on additional staff to lean on and handle the coaching. Similar to what we did with Robinson coming back in McGhee's final days. Going by @wellboy1991's reporting over the weekend that seemed to confirm my suspicions that we might be a fucking shambles in that respect it seems like it might have been a good idea. That ship seems like it has long since sailed though and tbh it sounds like Hammell doesn't see any issues with him and Kerr as the coaching set up. So that'll be that.

Coyle got the County job the following season. I always took it that whatever moratorium was in place with his prior contract had lapsed by that point. That was Robinson's first full season in charge. The 2 cup finals one when we were fairly comfortable bar that run in December when we had half our team out injured.

If he was someone with no affiliation to Motherwell he wouldn't have been given the job in the first place.

The other thing is that the longer we wait the less appealing the job becomes. As it stands with 14 games to go and only 1 point off safety (with a game in hand) I can imagine potential candidates would look at that and think "Yeah, that's doable". The more that window closes the more shallow the pool of potentials becomes. We saw how thin on the ground candidates were when McGhee was launched and we ended up with Robinson that was end of February 2017 (actually was the chat not the Coyle was intended as the original replacement but it fell down because of his severance terms with Blackburn?). The league looked like this: It's a fine balance to judge. I mean, he won't be but if he was as it stands...1 league win in 15 etc I don't think Hammell could have too many complaints if he was emptied regardless of having just signed a bunch of players. Kind of echoing a post from @thisGRAEME a few pages back but there's definitely a point at which the threat of actual relegation supersedes the optics of bumping a manager having signed off on 9 new players and him being a club legend.

f**k. I thought I was being chill about it too.

*scratches head* "Yeah, disappointing. We were well prepared and had a good week in training. So, yeah. Disappointing."

Tbf, outside the league he was also taken to ET by East Fife in the LC and bodied out the competition by Morton. His sacking felt very much a result of bad vibes though. His final league game was a 1-0 loss to Accies (of course it was).