capt_oats

Our accounts for the 20/21 season mentioned: "there is an overall increase in the Staff Costs and Other Operating Expenses of £650,000. This was due, in part, to a horrendous injury list during the term, which, at its height saw 18 players unavailable for periods in February 2021. The abnormally large playing squad, where and additional ten players were recruited between the end of the Summer Transfer Window and the end of the January Transfer Window, is not something we wish to repeat." I mean, clearly your deals will be different but that's a frame of reference I guess.

@Marinello has given a better, more succinct version but anyway... They're both extremely Robinson-type players in so much as they're not necessarily technically great footballers but they were useful in his squad and he was able to find a tune from them (playing in positions that totally weren't where we signed them to play). Them leaving at this point felt like a fairly natural outcome in terms of things having run their course. Grimshaw's main plus point is that he'll give a team energy and will run for days (he also seem to be a really good lad around the dressing room). He originally signed as a midfielder but he was never technically good for the role at this level (IMO) but he offered a lot of energy. He had a stand out game in a midfield diamond at Pittodrie in the 17/18 where his instructions seemed essentially to be for him to just chase the ball and press. He eventually found a spot at right back where he held his own and took Tait's place (with Tait moving over to the left). He absolutely peaked for us at right back in the 19/20 team. The following season he seemed to go off a cliff, other teams were identifying him as a weak link and targeting him. He picked up an illness, IIRC it was glandular fever, and completely disappeared from the team. He didn't get an opportunity to play for Alexander until this season where he was initially tried at RB (we lost to Dundee in the Betfred) before getting a fairly solid run in midfield (he started 9 of our opening 11 league games) but dropped out for the next 3 before he got a start but was hooked at HT when we were bodied 3-0 by Dundee at Dens. He only made 3 sub appearances in the rest of the season. Donnelly signed as a centre back but really struggled. He only made 7 league appearances in his first season. IIRC Robinson commented that he'd misjudged the step up in level and his strength and conditioning was no where near what it should have been, he continually picked up knocks and niggles. That said, he found his niche as a midfielder when Alex Gorrin moved to Oxford and was part of a nicely balanced midfield 3 alongside Polworth and Campbell. There was a purple patch of goal scoring and he can strike a ball but he picked up a serious knee injury (there's a video on Motherwell's YouTube about his rehab) and missed almost the entire 20/21 season (save the opening game where he missed a penalty when we lost 1-0 to Ross County). By the time he came back Robinson had been emptied Alexander's team was a bit less fluid and he picked up another injury which meant he missed the first half of last season as well. In Alexander's team he looked more like someone playing out of position he'd get caught on the ball, players would run off him. They're faults that were there when he was playing for Robinson but they were less of an issue because there was a bit more rotation. Of the two I could imagine Donnelly being the one who may have more options given he's a NI international. I mentioned it before but I could see Donnelly finding a club at L1 level in England and being absolutely fine. Although, the same could be said for Grimshaw I guess. Scott Burns tagged this on to the end of his Express piece about Lamie's new deal the other day...

Shout out to @thisGRAEME and @dezz, that season review is a thoroughly enjoyable 31 minutes of Patreon #content. Smashing.

Genuinely quite intrigued to see how far Robinson commits to this bit now. Scenes when Christy Manzinga and Deimantas Petravičius rock up in Paisley.

That's how I read it.

Absolutely fair play in just erasing the Celtic game from existence. Didnae happen.

DOC signs with Morton.

Kind of related but re: Alexander's comment about looking at "structure" here's where we are with the squad as a 4231 - element of rearranging deckchairs etc but with this and the 3412 it explains why Spittal might be a thing as there's a space in the #10 for both shapes. Speaking to the defensive side of things, I suppose it's worth mentioning that at the winter break our GD was *only* -2 (including the 1-6 scudding we took off Rangers). I mean, don't get me wrong 27 conceded was still 4th worst but it was still only 4 and 5 more than United and Hibs at that point. Things really went off the rails post-break when we were scoring fewer and conceding more frequently.

Genuinely not sure how much of this is ghost written but the language here is interesting: It's well known that Dundee chucked money at him, which is fine, there would need to be an incentive given we were 4th at the time and they were 11th. Having said that it doesn't necessarily sound as if we've tried to match it or anything.

There he is...

I was just away to post that. If we pivot to the 3412 that appeared in the last few games it potentially opens up a space in the defensive area to bring someone in. If we wanted to look at an alternate LWB then there's an argument that McGinley could be a back-up to Lamie on the left side of the 3 I guess. Oh...I just clocked this at the end of Scott Burns' piece re: Lamie in the Express...

Aye, it stood out that he specifically referenced the "structure" when he commented on the goals against. Finishing Top 6 in 21/22 vs Bottom 6 in 20/21 probably skews things a bit but here are the goals against averages since Alexander has been here: 20/21 - P 18 GA 23 (1.27 GAPG) 21/22 - P 38 GA 61 (1.60 GAPG) (Pre-break = P 20 GA 27 (1.35 GAPG) / Post-break = P 18 GA 34 (1.88 GAPG))

I mean, it's funny in the way that a PCA getting pied is a laugh and also the circumstances around the situation in January where Dundee presumably thought we'd just roll over and let him walk because he'd signed the PCA and they saw it as a heavy lean. As it turns out we "didn't need another bag of balls" when they put their in offers which led to them scrambling to sign the boy Killie had on loan, eventually having to appeal because he signed after the deadline to then only make 4 appearances. All of that is objectively funny, even more so because it's Ricki Lamie and as @mwellhighland points out he scored the goals to get us top 6 and European football. As others have said though I can't see them being overly bothered given by all accounts they were overpaying and the manager who signed him was binned months ago (and they were relegated). Given the changes in circumstances it was a smart move by Lamie to have that clause included. From our POV as @crazylegsjoe_mfc says, it's kind of hard to square Alexander identifying our goals against column as being a massive issue with going into next season with the same 4 CBs under contract and our defensive options.

I mean, it's none of my business but going from "Davis is coming to Saints", "this will happen guys" to "Davis has been offered a deal that's what I was told" is some shift of the goalposts.

Gboly having a nice time.

HA!

I think the suggestion is that he may have a similar get out clause in his deal as Lamie. He's only at Dundee on loan just now. Dundee actually announced his PCA though.

I mean, aye I'm sceptical. He's not going to get rich(er) with us and you'd think he'll have plenty other options but to be objective...we've just seen 3 midfielders leave as of Friday so there's a space in the team for him, he'd play regularly, he's precisely the type of player we need (experienced and can control a game) and with Lasley having left for St Mirren there's a vacancy on the coaching staff opened up. Although in fairness I'd imagine plenty of other clubs will be able to make a similar pitch. It's really a case of what he wants tbh.

Aye. We're in the market for someone in budget, who's going to be happy to sign up and be parked on our bench which narrows our options from the jump. If we're talking OOC SPFL players it's a limited market. Yes please. Sold.

As an aside it's interesting to see the age breakdown as well: 18-24 = 5 25-30 = 6 31+ = 1

Going back to last summer it's interesting to see the breakdown of where our signings came from given the only player we've really been linked with as yet has been Spittal (there was some really vague stuff about Alfie May and Matt Butcher I suppose). Of our 12 signings only Shields and Roberts came from SPFL clubs. 7 came from England (plus Mich'el Parker who had just been cutting about). Ojala came from Denmark. Johansen came from Norway. Going back to @Casagolda's post a while ago linking to an interview with Daws about recruitment where he said: And going further back there was a comment in the piece about the recruitment process the club put up just after the window closed. There are far fewer positions we need to recruit for this summer so I wonder if we've taken any lessons from how our recruitment played out last year and whether we're planning on pitching for the same type of player?

As it stands, with the squad as it is (not including Lamie) this is how it looks as a 433. It really depends on whether you view Mahon as a "first team" player but before you get into whether there's room to upgrade etc. there are 3 obvious gaps IMO (I've shifted McGinley to fill the space left by Lamie).

Spittal is more a forward than a midfielder though. I'd have thought if he's signing it's as a replacement for Amaluzor/Roberts/upgrade on Efford. Still leaves us looking for replacements for O'Hara and Donnelly IMO.

Aye, arguably the play-off under Baraclough was as good an example as you can get of someone who didn't seemed to be "conditioned". What's interesting about the drift of staff that it was a culture that we were actively trying to build. I seem to remember it being something that Robinson and Burrows were talking up as a positive. Fast forward a few years and there's been a fairly natural evolution. McFadden left in 2017 and tbh he said himself at his press conference that coaching hadn't been in his thoughts when he was offered the job, Craigan stepped down from the u20s in 2018, McManus left for Celtic in 2019, Ross hardly fits into that bracket but he was a former player (albeit briefly) he's away, Boles had been at the club since 2015 but left for Celtic in January just past. Now that's Lasley and Hinchliffe away. On the playing side it probably leaves Barry Maguire as our longest serving player. The habit we had of bringing back former players was kind of a double edged thing but in the specific case of McDonald and Pearson it kept us in the division. Players move on all the time and tbh it still feels like we've struggled to replace that intangible element we had most recently with Hartley and Tait (but then we came back from behind at Ibrox twice this season). I mean, when it comes down to it I'd rather have good players/coaches at the club than figureheads or totems. If they can be both then great but it really depends on who's out there.