capt_oats

I'd dispute that tbh. Prior to the point the original games were scheduled we'd beaten St Johnstone and scudded Aberdeen 3-0. We'd also beaten Glentoran 5-1 and though we didn't play well we went through to the next round of the Europa against Coleraine. I don't think that anyone would dispute our form was poor at the start of the season but from the end of August up to the St Johnstone 1-1 the only sides to have beaten us were Celtic, Rangers and Hapoel. The forfeits were announced on the 4th December, we were 8th at that point - 2 points off top 6, 5 off 5th with 2 games in hand albeit also 4 points off St Mirren in 2nd bottom. Our form in the previous 10 games (not including the 3-0 walkovers) was (most recent first) XLWWLLWXWW - there's not a lot of gloss to put on that. Our form then went off a cliff (funnily enough around the point we lost our first choice goalkeeper to a long term injury and 2 Scotland u21s being forced to self-isolate after the Scotland u21s shitshow). Basically, our run of poor form has largely been after the forfeitures were announced.

Yes to the former, he spent the opening games of the season literally tripping over the ball and Robinson had said more than once that our wide players "haven't been playing well", so count the bold Jake in that number. Who knows to the latter, Robinson pretty much said it had taken until December to get him fit enough to contribute. He's started the last two games for us though. IIRC McInnes was apparently keen on Hastie when his contract was running down but he obviously chose the money at Rangers. And fair play to him, we did well out the deal in picking up the £350k development money. There was also a story about Atlanta wanting with an added twist that didn't get any further than the forums that the plan was for Atlanta to take him and loan him back to Aberdeen in a Cadden-esque snake situation.

A better example is Hastie, who they actually signed. They paid us the £350k development fee plus a sell on. Effectively swapping Wright for McCrorie seems quite a good deal tbh.

What a time...

Shocked that Thompson didn't make a "BUT LISTEN TO THE SOUND" argument when they established that no, it clearly wasn't a penalty.

Alexander seems to have gone for the "clean slate/show me what you can do in training" approach, which is fine and probably preferable for general morale than coming in and telling everyone they're shite. There seemed to be the suggestion that he'd be using this week to assess the squad and sit down with a few players to see what their plans are. I suppose what was interesting about yesterday was that we only used two subs (same as last week) and there were players on the bench who were once again unused - Crawford (whose loan is up in a week or so), Seedorf and McGinley. Given where we are I'd have thought that movement in and out would be essential. As much as I was a fan of Robinson I'm actually quite interested to see what Alexander's approach is with recruitment. I mean, I think most of us would be happy never to hear the phrase "he's a forward who can play anywhere across the front three" again. I'll not lie, I've genuinely no idea how Alexander's previous teams set up or if he has any sort of preference of style. I did however notice that he signed Jamille Matt for Fleetwood (we were linked with him at one point) and also took Ivan Toney on loan from Newcastle when he was at Scunthorpe.

Aye. I mean, it's not a penalty no matter what sort of mental gymnastics the VLs are trying with still photos. So in that sense it's hard to be particularly down on Bevis (assuming it was him it was given against). BUT by my count that's the 11th penalty we've conceded this season and so many of them have been for completely needless reasons or just being clumsy in the box. Gallagher set the tone in the first game of the season with that. 1. County (Gallagher) 2. Livingston (Lamie) 3. Glentoran (Robinson) 4. Coleraine (O'Hara) 5. Coleraine (Mugabi) 6. Hapoel (Gallagher) 7. Rangers (Mugabi) 8. Rangers (Grimshaw) 9. St Johnstone (Mugabi) 10. Kilmarnock (O'Hara) 11. St Mirren (Mugabi)

Clocked this from Alexander's post-match press stuff: Ideally I'd like a centre back, a midfielder and a centre forward pls. I'd like to think that this week will give him a chance to get his feet under the desk and have a look at the bodies he has - in fairness he pretty much said as much in his post-match.

There he is.

Aye, I mean it'd have been smashing if we'd suddenly turned into 1970s Brazil but I guess an accurate reflection of the season gives Alexander an idea of what's up. We've still moved up a spot and not losing after last week's shitshow is...a positive. Given the circumstances where we've got a new manager just in the door who's had 1 (one) training session and is probably lucky if he knows everyone's names plus (another) new goalkeeper making his debut it feels like today had the potential to go a different direction.

Annoying to chuck in another goal in the last 15 mins. We've done that a lot. Even then, given the circumstances I'll take a point; we were scudded last week, the new manager's only just in the door and has has 1 (one) training session, we were also starting (another) new goalkeeper. It could have gone a different way.

Chapman doesn't even make the squad. I mean it's not a surprise but still... O'Hara's back.

Aye, they were really enjoyable listens. Good work. re: the 2 new signings, it absolutely makes sense if they were binned with Robinson walking but assuming they did actually exist it also kind of lessens any suggestion that the board wouldn't have given Robinson a bit of backing in the window. Tbh, from everything I've read from him since it just sounds like he was scunnered and didn't really have the energy for it any more - whilst also realising that the longer the poor run went on the more his stock would drop.

The 3 Patreons are great. Definitely worth everyone's time. Was there not a story that we supposedly had 2 players lined up to come in on the Saturday but Robinson chucked it on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning? The bit that caught my eye in McGowan's interview in The Mail was about 3rd being our ceiling (fair comment) and him wanting the training ground and infrastructure improved (again, we knew about that but global pandemic m8) That's from the headline for McGowan's piece in the Mail.

Mentioned this in our general thread but Eric Nicholson's "how very dare Motherwell not give Tommy Wright the job. Who do they think they are?" piece in The Courier is a totally normal one. It's only hard to escape that conclusion if you've decided that's the reason that Wright was overlooked. There are plenty of completely rational reasons why someone like Alexander might be viewed as a better fit for the Motherwell job than Wright - and none of them involve the way he dresses or the fact he has a beard. Equally this idea that "In short, Wright would have been a cast-iron guarantee of Motherwell staying in the division and more than likely reaching the top six." is a completely unanswerable question because the only club he's managed in this division is St Johnstone. He has no track record to suggest how he'd do at another Premiership club. There's a high probability he'd keep Motherwell in the division...but cast-iron guarantee? Nope.

A good appraisal from Alexander in The Record. I notice Robinson's been piping up in the press as well. It seems he'd considered chucking it after the Rangers game. Also interesting to see his framing of the NI job which in fairness was his position at the time. (I'm on a don't link to The Sun bit but that's where this is from)

This bit I genuinely don't get. Gallagher literally had the opportunity to play for Wright when he left Livi but chose to sign with us. Have I missed something about Gallagher being on record about wanting to play for TW?

Tbh, I'm getting strong Robinson v2.0 vibes. One thing I would say is that having watched Grant's interview with him after he was announced, his wee bit on SSN earlier and that press conference - he's only just in the door but he already kind of feels like he's been here for ages in terms of tone and the marks he's hitting. Dunno, maybe I'm just projecting with that. Actually, it's probably more to do with him having almost 1000 club appearances, 40 caps and almost 400 games as a manager that he's just comfortable talking to the press.

So that was the first big press conference of...2021

Was it this one?

Neville's explanation for his sacking was interesting. It seems a bit harsh to judge a guy who's been sacked for doing a good/great job tbh.

Well, yeah. He was sacked at the start of the season when they were 5th and hadn't lost a game. So there's that. He also got them promoted from the National League and took them to EFL Trophy final. He got Fleetwood promoted from League 2 to League 1. He got Scunthorpe into the Play-offs. They were 5th in the league when he was sacked there. Overall his CV is absolutely fine.

Watching Alexander's interview back just there I thought his comment on the "youth" question was interesting: See, I know the main takeaway there is "all we are saying, is give youth a chance" but it'd be quite nice if we could just like...sign some good players without necessarily always looking at that "development" bracket. Tbh, while I'm all for us signing some b*****ds I'm quite curious to see what he's actually going to be looking for in a player. I noticed he'd signed Devonte Redmond from Man U when he was at Scunthorpe and took him again at Salford - he doesn't exactly scream "hammer thrower" (he's currently at Ryan Reynolds and Rob rob McElhenney's Wrexham). That's not a suggestion that he's someone we'd look to sign, I genuinely have no idea if he was/is any good or not. Just an example of someone Alexander has signed twice in the past.