capt_oats

PJ away to Alloa on loan. There was an interview he did last year and was saying he wanted games but I've a feeling he picked up an injury earlier in the season. Actually here's the quote:

We're back in business lads.

Possibly a "now is not the time" point but that's Alexander played Rangers 4 times and he's only lost one of them (3 draws and a loss). As far as the team selection goes, there's an element of it feels like horses for courses as much as it does a tombola IMO. We pretty much know we're not going to be "on the ball" much at Ibrox so it makes sense to bench Goss for that reason alone. It also seems more than a coincidence that Deano's last two starts have been against Rangers and Celtic. Fwiw, this is the team that drew with Rangers on "Flag Day": Not risking KVV just feels like common sense given the games we've got coming up to the split. Alexander's post-match leaned heavily into the idea that these games coming up are the ones that matter - and he's not wrong tbf. I don't have the citation but I'm pretty sure I read/heard Alexander say at some point that he didn't want to have a situation with the squad where we have an obvious "best XI" and while I'm at the point where I'm taking pretty much everything he says publicly with a crate of salt, it's also true that any of our 8 midfielders could realistically start on any given day. It's an unusual situation for us to be in where we have a squad that can potentially be rotated to the extent after years of knowing pretty much what XI we're going to see week in, week out.

Tbh, there's an argument that this is the game that completely broke him. We'd only lost 1 of our 5 prior to that (3 draws and 1 win), this was his run of results after it.

I'm not actually sure that's the case. He has definitely said in the past that his preference is to have a smaller, more "competitive" squad and admitted that the squad we had up until the end of last season was too big. 35 players or whatever? No shit it was too big (it also cost a fortune to the point it was even noted in this year's accounts). Then again he also said at the start of the season that he wanted to carry a couple of extra bodies on account of the whole Covid situation which is fair enough. IMO the sort of numbers we should be carrying in a normal season are 24 or 25. We've currently 27 1st team players albeit one of them is out on loan (O'Connor), we've had a couple on longer term injuries (O'Hara, Donnelly) and we have 4 who were signed on short term(ish) contracts (O'Connor, Nirennold, Amaluzor and Roberts). As it stands we're 100% maxed out but it's nothing like last season and I'd say there's a lot less excess than we saw in the Robinson years. What's definitely different compared to the Robinson-built squads is that there's far less of a drop off between first team and bench, which I guess is where the "competitive" angle comes in. Looking at Maguire, O'Hara, Shaw, Slattery, Cornelius, Donnelly, Tierney and Goss...all of them could legitimately start games.

Aye, Carroll's contracted to the end of next season. Agree that the status quo is probably the case but there's a chance (albeit small) that Carroll getting a run at centre back recently could compensate for Lamie leaving which could potentially free up a left back spot. Unlikely perhaps but either way we'll still have to replace the Bathgate Maldini in some shape or form. Tbh, thinking back to last summer and the whole change in approach with recruitment one of the aims was to reduce the churn and turnover of players at the club. So in that respect the 'better the devil you know' aspect @crazylegsjoe_mfc alluded to re: McGinley makes sense. Folk were losing their shit when Alexander gave Bevis an extra year last April and that's worked out OK. Actually, thinking about it, around the time Bevis signed his 1 year extension last season there was a lot of pearl clutching from the Lovejoy element of our support about how it definitely meant we'd be going into this season with Mugabi and Lamie as our first choice CB pair which was 100% unacceptable. Then we went out and signed our culturally Scandinavian pair. So with that in mind I'm kind of fine with just waiting and seeing what happens tbh.

To update this we're now down to: GK - Morrison DF - O'Connor, Grimshaw, Nirennold MF - O'Hara, Donnelly FW - Amaluzor, Roberts Loans expiring - Shaw Pre-contract - Lamie (to Dundee) Based on appearances you'd imagine that O'Hara and Donnelly are the two obvious ones who'd be offered something. Morrison = 0 - n/a O'Connor = 5 (4 starts 1 sub) last start 24/07/21 - currently on loan at QoTS Grimshaw = 15 (10 starts 5 sub) last start 27/11/21 Nirennold = 0 - n/a O'Hara = 13 (10 starts 3 sub) last start 19/02/22 Donnelly = 19 (15 starts 5 sub) last start 19/02/22 Amaluzor = 11 (3 starts 8 sub) last start 28/08/21 Roberts = 17 (8 starts 9 sub) last start 09/02/22

This is kind of it for me. If Lamie is fucking off to Dens then one of either Carroll or McGinley becomes a potential back-up CB which potentially means there's a left back spot on the go.

Genuinely quite tickled that folk thought we wouldn't be offering a new deal to someone who's made 28 appearances so far this season tbqhwy.

It was mentioned in our thread as well. Carson's got family in the North East, he was linked with a move back to Hartlepool before United moved for him at the last minute and he had a loan option in January to move back there before Robinson signed him for Morecambe. He's spoken a few times about travelling back and forth to Newcastle to spend time with his daughter. Robinson was fine with it when he was with us: https://www.glasgowworld.com/sport/football/international/trevor-carson-motherwell-goalkeeper-reveals-how-stephen-robinsons-superb-man-management-helped-persuade-him-to-stay-2916729 He didn't get the playing time with United on account of Siegrist sticking around and I guess there's a chance he could feel pretty scunnered if he's turned down the opportunity to move back closer to his family but Robinson convinced him to sign at Morecambe then fucked off a couple of weeks later.

Going by the article it was during McGhee's first stint in 2007 so our 'keepers were Smith, Daniels and Meldrum.

Aye, it's gone now. They had published a vacancy for the Head of Digital and Communications role.

100% It's like they've missed off a zero. Edit: Also, I'd add proof reading to the essential knowledge, skills & experience section.

Ah, that's quite annoying...I'd have been well up for Douglas playing for us.

Unrelated to this particular role but given the chat a while back re: the WS job that had been advertised that did specify the ball park salary I noticed Hibs were advertising for a 'Head of Football Operations' (which seems important) with a £30k-£35k salary range.

On one hand Carson's at least getting first team games that he wasn't at United but equally given he had other loan options closer to his family when he signed for Morecambe if it was Robinson being there that's swung that decision for him then I can imagine he's pretty scunnered that Robinson's just fucked off in the way he has (even if it is only a loan until the end of the season). With Donnelly, the fact that he was becoming a fixture in the NI international squad prior to his knee falling to bits along with his form in 19/20 makes me think we'd be reluctant to let that potential walk out the door for nothing. Agree 100% with the point about O'Hara though. It's worth remembering that there was a spell last season where he looked like his best fit in the team was as a centre back.

Surprisingly quite a few: OOC - McGinley, Grimshaw, Donnelly, O'Hara Contracted - Fox, O'Donnell, Carroll, Mugabi Pre-contracted - Lamie

Aye, Mark O'Hara is an extremely Stephen Robinson player. IIRC St Mirren were in for him when we signed him permanently from Peterborough. Given we paid a "nominal fee" for him I'd guess he's probably on a relatively decent wage (for us). This is a really clunky way of putting it but I half wondered if Donnelly's game time recently is kind of related to him being out of contract in the summer, given the fact he missed a chunk of the first half of the season and hasn't really played much for Alexander - essentially he's getting a run of games to see what he can do. Fwiw, I know he's not for everyone but I'd say that he's probably one of those who has a certain value to have around the squad.

Scott Burns ran this story last month but IIRC it was around the time that Watt had fucked off so I'm guessing they decided it probably wasn't the time to announce because...optics. So that leaves the following as OOC in the summer: GK - Morrison DF - O'Connor, McGinley, Grimshaw, Nirennold MF - O'Hara, Donnelly FW - Amaluzor, Roberts Loans expiring - Shaw Pre-contract - Lamie (to Dundee)

It really is worth revisiting.

I mean, it's possible but it's kind of undermined by the fact that he's started 4 of our last 7 in the league since the break. It's not like he's been Polworth or Lawleff'd.

Cheers. That's a cracking write-up.

Tbh, I think this is kind of a knock on from the way we've leaned into being secret squirrel about everything team-related under Alexander. I'm sure it has its practical benefits but also leads to a shit ton of questions from fans about why such and such isn't playing. We know there was a Covid outbreak over Christmas/winter break but we only found out about that after the fact and Ross Tierney popping up in a video interview saying he had the 'vid. We (as fans) don't necessarily need to know that and it's been notable that unlike other clubs who've put out statements we've just seemed to keep things on the QT but let's say Slattery was one, it'd explain him not starting after the winter break if he'd missed training. Similarly the last games he's started: Hearts - we lost 2-0, St Mirren - we drew 1-1, Celtic - we lost 4-0, United - we lost 2-0. The games we've won ie: Morton and Aberdeen - he didn't start. That's not putting losing those games exclusively on him, tbh I think Slattery is probably our best midfielder and a couple of his recent starts were in that whacky 5221 shape we tried then aborted but it also feels like he's kind of been a victim of Alexander trying to shift things about and find some sort of new balance in compensating for Watt having fucked off - see also Liam Shaw. Edit: @Pettigrew's point above makes sense and doesn't seem particularly controversial to me.