capt_oats

IIRC they played in the same Thistle team that was relegated.

Before that Tweet is used to show anything one way or another I suppose I should jump in here and say that Maguire acknowledged he fucked his figures. I thought it was weird as the number he included doesn't match what's in the accounts but figured there was possibly some accounting interpretations involved.

If you go a run of 15 (FIFTEEN) games without a win then you are going to be under pressure. That's just facts. That's before you even get into the inability to keep clean sheets of it all. 3 (THREE) in 35 (THIRTY FIVE) games...*and* being bodied out the Scottish Cup by Greenock Morton. There's clearly been a lot going on this season that Kettlewell's had to deal with from being instructed to reduce the player numbers, bring the wage budget into line with a figure that our risk averse board are comfortable with along with a ridiculous injury list and several recalls to key players along the way. On the bright side, we score goals, are attractive enough to watch and despite the period between September - November where he absolutely lost the run of himself he's keeping his head above water. I'll be honest a season where we stay up comfortably and beat the **** at Ibrox is a successful enough campaign for me. As others have said he seems to be doing fine and tbqh that's borne out by his record in comparison to other Motherwell mangers which is better than some while not *quite* as good as others although there are various caveats you can apply to each respectively. Stuart Kettlewell Steven Hammell Graham Alexander Stephen Robinson Mark McGhee Ian Baraclough Stuart McCall

Well...that's a laugh

Put some respect on Dheeraj's name.

100% this. The idea that because we didn't sell him for profit then his spell is somehow diminished is for the birds tbqh. Would it have been nice to sell him for £1m? Sure. That we didn't doesn't change that over his time at the club he's had a net positive contribution.

Kelly was similarly 3rd/4th choice 'keeper at QPR. You can also add Long to that list as well given he was at Sheffield United and tbf has gone on to have a very decent career for himself. Without wanting to step on @MurrayWell's point I'd guess the hope would be that we're looking at recruiting a player who fits a clear profile that has worked in the past. I agree that there are no guarantees but there are probably intangibles around the goalkeeping position that are quite hard to articulate outside of you kind of know when someone's been brought in as first choice. Tbh, I know it's a turn of phrase but I'm not sure it's a case of us having been spoiled by Ruddy, Randolph and Gillespie it's more a case of our recruitment when it's come to #1s has just been good. The only choice that stands out recently as absolute fuckery was the decision to just hand the gloves to Samson with Dean Brill as back-up along with whatever the f**k McCall was up to (delegating to Gordon Marshall?). Since Randolph we've had these runs of first choices: Hollis/Nielsen Twardzik/Long Ripley Samson Carson Carson/Gillespie Carson/Chapman/Archer/Kelly Kelly

There's a chance that the money thing plays a part but for me I think part of the problem has been the platforming. I totally get it's part of the sales pitch that brought him here and when it comes down to it I'd much rather we sucked up the cost and got him in ahead of United (who were supposed to have been the favourites to get him that summer - if they get Kelly do they sign Birighitti and end up relegated etc) but it's hard not to bump against things when the club is gaslighting the support with "Scotland's future #1" posts while he's chucking them in on a semi-regular basis not to mention the section of the support who actively seemed to buy into it. You also have the fact that we clearly paid a fee for him so you have that other section who will class him a failure because we didn't sell him for £1m. Fact is that between his loan and permanent he's kept us up when Robinson bailed, had a season where we qualified for Europe and had two wildly inconsistent seasons. Whether he's been value for money is really a matter of personal opinion but he's not been a failure by any means - certainly not in the way your Twardzik or Samson types were.

Frail said pretty much same in terms of wanting a more settled pre-season when he spoke to the press last week. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/motherwell-aim-squad-shape-early-32705681 In fairness the punting players was on instruction. He'd been told to bring the spend down in line with a level the board were more comfortable with so it was a case of finding takers for as many as we could and generally re-appraising our approach. That was before we even hit the one-in-one-out stage. From memory Weir said at the AGM that the difference between where we were and where the board wanted things to be was something like the equivalent losing 6 players. Which explains us binning the Reserves and just choosing to run with u18s and bounce games over the sort of wastage we'd been used to through the Robinson, Alexander and Hammell eras. I mean, when you look at the sheer level of movement we've seen between last summer and now it's absolutely nuts and tbh it's credit to Kettlewell in terms of him actually having done a good job (shoutout @thisGRAEME's chat on the Monday/Tuesday pod - another rare treat IMO). In terms of numbers since the end of last season (I've only included each player once as there are some overlaps eg: Mahon and Campbell were both loaned out and released, Oli Shaw was famously returned then sent back to us and Ewan Wilson has been loaned out twice): Departed/loans expired/released: 18 Out: 11 Loan (Out)/recalled: 12 Like I say, nuts...

Going back to the bold Johnny Koutroumbis story from yesterday...interesting.

This is it, I don't think anyone who's paying attention is looking at this and thinking Celtic are signing Kelly to be their #1 - it's clearly a box ticking exercise. Which is fine. That said from Kelly's POV he's already done a stint as 3rd (4th?) choice keeper at QPR, which is how he ended up with us in the first place. So as you say, unless he's changed his mind on the whole wanting to play games thing then if he has other options on the table that might give him a more realistic shot at meaningful game time then it's hard to see what the upside is for him other than the uplift in salary and even then is it likely to be significantly more than he was on at QPR? I mean, I wouldn't blame him for taking the move but it's definitely the right to for parting ways.

Tbf, regardless of whether it's Celtic or not, going by the reporting I think the main takeaway from the Kelly thing is that (as expected) he's most likely away. Which is fine and I think everyone agrees that a fresh start somewhere else is what he needs.

Seems like the Record have deleted the Tweet but it’s Stephen McGowan’s exclusive… Either way…as plot twists go

This is mildly interesting as part of the whole *comperitiveness* discussion. Also, our wages/income % is down considerably from previous seasons.

Tbh, I was away to say this in reply to your post about Kettlewell stumbling onto it. I genuinely think he was of the view that what we gained by having McGinn moved to the centre wasn't worth the trade off of losing him 'on the ball' on the right especially when the options were Bevis and Casey who, with the best will in the world aren't ball players.

Unless there’s a project to transition SOD into the back 3 (which I wouldn’t be against)

I mean, that’s a giggle. Interesting to see he’s apparently a right back. I just assumed he’d be a centre half.

It's that time of the year...

Tbh, the vibe from the AGM (and also the January videos where McMahon was saying the quiet bits loud) was that we view Miller on par with Turnbull in terms of value. Essentially we're viewing him as the deal to "de-risk" the club for future seasons.

On that point here's the breakdown of contracted players by position vs expiries and as you say, midfield is the one area we have bodies: Contracted GK: N/A DF: Casey, Blaney MF: Halliday, Paton, Zdravkovski, Miller, Tierney, Wells FW: Bair, Ebiye, Ross Total: 11 Expiring (incl loans expriring) GK: Kelly, Oxborough DF: O'Donnell, Gent (loan), Mugabi, McGinn, Devine (loan), Montgomery (loan), Elliot, Butcher MF: Maguire, Spittal, Slattery FW: Obika, Shaw (loan), Nicholson, Vale (loan) Total: 17

I mean, I know he's not been away that long but come on.

Agree with all of this. As a rule it also feels more sensible to have an experienced back-up as opposed to a younger 'keeper that isn't trusted. Prior to Kelly/Fox (who, ended up never actually playing a game for us) the most recent example of that dynamic was when we had Ripley on loan from Boro and the very weird Samson/Twardzik situation in the background where Samson left Killie because he didn't want to be second choice and signed for us where he was...second choice (and didn't actually get on the park until a post-split dead rubber against Hearts at the end of April having signed the previous September). Having Gillespie and Carson on the books at the same time was a) unintended and b) closer to having 2 #1s. I know we have a GK coach in Alexander but looking at things in a broad sense I kind of go back to Kettlewell talking about us being understaffed when he took the job. Since then Archibald's been in then away to Killie, Foster's been promoted etc it may be the case that we haven't announced any additions but it doesn't really feel like we've added to the staff. I mean, Clarkson's still in the dug out on a Saturday which AFAIK Hammell never was. You could argue that having an experienced back-up offers value in a non-playing sense that, respectfully, you probably don't get from having Oxborough taking up the second choice spot (on our 2nd highest wage ). I know Halliday's been getting it tight recently however if the idea is to bring in a few more of these types of players to help with the 'culture' around the club then I'd not be against it. Assuming that's the purpose rather than any great expectation that they'd be rolling back the years. It feels relevant given, as has been pointed out at regular points over the season, Kettlewell is still a young manager - he's 39 (until he's 40).

The TeamTalk article also said Liam Miller was his Da so…

On the ‘keeper chat, it’s probably worth bearing in mind that there’s a reasonable chance we could be shopping for 2 goalkeepers this summer - which tbf I think @MurrayWell alluded to earlier.