capt_oats

In terms of the management candidates it's probably worth taking into account the brief for the job that Burrows outlined the other week which was essentially: win games (duh) develop players work alongside the club to develop their management career relentlessly improve people's lives (be on the same page as the club in terms of community and engagement. "Someone who can lead, someone who can inspire") There are pros and cons with all the options. Hammell has his badges but is inexperienced and has been Academy Head rather than necessarily coaching but seems committed to a style of play and has been in and around the club to be aware of the issues. Simo's never managed in Scotland but has 300+ games as a manager and experience of coaching and implementing his style of football - whether that translates to Scottish football and the squad he has at his disposal is a different question. The main difference compared to his previous applications is really the timing - we're not deep into the season. Lambert's clearly experienced, coached at a high level and has the profile of a European Cup winner and international footballer and I'd imagine he'd be likely to be more 'pragmatic' but we'd be his 10th club and there's probably a question of how 'motivated' he'd be to manage Motherwell. Beyond the chat amongst fans on Twitter there's been nothing concrete about Duncan Ferguson AFAIK but since his name's mentioned a couple of posts above arguably he fits (roughly) the sort of candidate profile Burrows was outlining more than any of the others: he left Everton last month because he's looking to manage so is presumably motivated for a management role, while he only has a handful of games as caretaker to his name he's been on a coaching staff with some genuinely exceptional managers (and presumably managed Everton's academy sides), he has experience in academy football and as a 'personality' he feels like the sort of character that could get the fans onside.

For a bit of context on the whole passes business here's the WhoScored data from the 4-2 win against St Mirren last season. Our pass success was 65%.

Was about to post and thank the admin for the stats but this really does speak to Hammell's point about "it'll take time" - better pass accuracy seems a relevant point too up 10% from last week. Even in the St Mirren game last week we made (marginally) more passes than the opposition.

The problem we have is that not only do we have an incomplete squad (the rumour is that the board throttled Alexander's spending this summer off the back of the unconvincing 2nd half to last season) we've also done a hard reset on how we're trying to play so we're effectively trying to get the players to unlearn everything about the way that Alexander's had them playing for the past 18 months and get back to playing some sort of football. Saying we're a work in progress would be the polite way of putting it. As @Handsome_Devil hints at above we've had both Hammell and now O'Donnell basically say we're miles off it at the moment.

Scott Burns' Express piece last week suggested that there were a few options that we wanted to "sound out" which gave the impression that we had at least one candidate in mind who may not apply but we'd like to speak to. Of the options so far ie: Hammell, Valakari and potentially Lambert none of them really fit the profile of manager we've gone with in recent years, not least that all 3 are former players. Given it took Burnley an age to get Vincent fucking Kompany a visa/work permit it makes me wonder how long that process would take for Valakari given the increasing emphasis being put on the need for finishing off recruitment. You'd think we'd want whoever gets the job to be able to get their feet under the desk stat.

The reason I mention it is that going by what he's saying it sounds like the club appreciate that we need to make changes to the squad (clearly) but it also sounds like a few players could be toast as well.

It was mentioned a couple of pages ago but Hammell's comments post-match are interesting, not necessarily in the sense of whether he gets the job or not. Just generally:

Speaking of the weans they're playing EK on Tuesday.

Ah! I get you. Fair enough. What I would say is that at that point Tait had lost his place at RB to Liam Grimshaw and LB to Jake Carroll so it's a fair guess that it'd have been a reduced offer he'd have been made compared to his prior extension so your shout that we'd only have offered 1 year doesn't seem wide of the mark.

That's not strictly true. We offered Tait a new deal in the January before the Covid hit. He rejected/stalled on it then once the league shut down decided he'd better take the deal but it was at a point at which we were restructuring our budgets as a result of the pandemic (understandably) and the original offer was no longer on the table. He was offered a revised deal with a coaching pathway included which again, he chose to reject. Motherwell's side of the story is here: https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2020/06/21/clarification-on-remarks-made-by-richard-tait/ Either way he was offered a new deal by Robinson.

Tbf, post-Hammell I think we've had a couple who have been good but not consistently so. Depending on whether you're opening it up to LWB then Tait was fine there for a while. Carroll was alright in his first season as well but if you're using Hammell as a benchmark both were below that level especially when you're talking about consistency. But aye, when you start adding up your ZFA, ATS, Lord Straker, Stephen Hendrie, Super Joe Chalmers etc we've managed to consistently sign some amount of junk for that position.

Apart from Stevie Hammell?

Aye, he missed 3+ months with concussion. In fact, he may have had issues earlier in his time with us as well.

This is something I've been struggling to get my head around as well. Posted this when he signed but of his 300+ games 207 of them been as a left midfielder.

I suppose the hope is that the players we bring in help lift those around them and the new manager can get a tune out of those who are struggling. It's probably not a widely held view but IMO there's a perfectly functional mid-table side amongst our squad. @Handsome Devil touched on it a couple of pages back but by and large the bulk of these players (less Watt and Woolery) were sitting 4th at the winter break. It's really up to whoever the new manager is to try and work out what the actual f**k has happened and fix it. Similarly @Al B's post earlier in the thread about us being in a position where we're having to "unpick" the tennents of Alexanderball that have been coached into the players is spot on and as Hammell's said in his interviews it'll take time. The fact that we've taken the decision early, like before a ball was kicked in the league means that while we're still obviously playing catch-up it's not as bad as it could have been had we done what would usually have happened and given the manager the first few weeks to "turn it around".

Given we've only signed 3 players so far and there were 10 left at the end of last season plus Woolery during the window I'd imagine there's scope to bring players in even taking Alexander and Lucketti's mutual consenting into account. IIRC it was suggested at the AGM we were looking at 5 in maximum - we're still 2 short on that and I'd like to think there's some sort of contingency built into our budgets to account for unforeseen circumstances. I mean, I can't really see us being naive enough to think that any incoming manager isn't going to want backing before the end of the window.

He's been injured since last season has he not? He popped up in the background in the video from 1st day of pre-season but he's not been seen since.

That would presumably put us in the market for a left back then? Reason I mention is there's a bit in The Record from Hammell's interview suggesting that we'd be open to looking at signings regardless of the manager situation, essentially if the "right player" was available.

Hutchison didn't want to own a football club though. He was clear about that. He gave us a float to allow us to transition to fan ownership. Which is what we did.

Tbh, I'm with @thisGRAEME in saying I don't think Hammell necessarily wants the job. To my ear he was clever in what he said, he didn't say he didn't want it but chose not to commit to saying he did - saying “If that’s to then progress to the first-team manager, then fantastic. If that’s what the club want and they feel it’s the best thing for the club, it’s something I am prepared to do.” is different to saying he wants the job IMO. Basically the way Hammell's played it lets him go back to his Academy role without it seeming like he's been overlooked which was an awkward position Lasley put himself in with the various times he put his name forward. It really depends who else is actually in for the gig.

Good lads... Motherwell: Aitken, Ross, Garcia, Gould, Bone, Miller, Nevans, Wells, Ferrie, MacDonald, Ross (Sneddon, White, Beattie, Flatman, Tomany)

That's what's struck me as well. I guess the last time there was a much shorter window as we were mid-season and bottom of the league, it felt like the names for a shortlist were leaked much more quickly. Looking at page 1068 of The Thread Alexander's name landed in the betting market on 3rd January although he appeared in The Record's list of potentials on the 31st December the day Robinson resigned (along with Tommy Wright, Pep Clotet, Jonathan Woodgate, Jim McIntyre, Derek Adams, Alan Stubbs and erm...Billy Davies). That said, if the reports were correct of those supposedly interviewed Wright, Alexander, Lasley and Simon Grayson. Here's the SkyBet market on January 5th.

Fair play to Hammell, he's saying the right things as a caretaker.

He's in the training photos that the club put up on the socials yesterday. Whether that means he's clear to play is a different story I guess.