capt_oats

That's us fucked now lads.

The bold Sean Goss in the N.I squad... Well.

Big Fabrizio on the MJ story now is it?

Aye, don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing for a jobs for the boys situation that certain fans used to get bent out of shape about both here and on SO. Looking at that list some were better hires than others, some had more of an affiliation with the club than others: Craigan won the Youth Cup and a stupid number of his players went on to make first team appearances, McManus obviously ended up coaching at Celtic and by all accounts we still haven't managed to replace the special sauce that Lasley brought to the club whereas we chucked McFadden into the assistant job essentially to justify him still being in the building. IIRC at his press conference McFadden admitted he hadn't even been considering moving into coaching at that point and hadn't even thought about the job before McGhee asked him. Hammell may have be our record post-war appearance holder but that particular gamble is still very fresh in the memory - we don't need to go over that one again. I'd rather we hired good coaches and the right people than prioritised people who'd played for the club or have been season ticket holders or whatever but there's definitely something to be said for having an identity and people who understand the club around the place - especially in a culture of Modern Fitba' that is increasingly fleeting and transient. In fairness he does qualify it by saying that we still need to win games. It's the sort of statement that people make that generally assumes that our form doesn't drop straight off a cliff again and from that POV we're probably in the same boat as St Johnstone where we're only needing 3 more wins to break 38 points which is entirely achievable (considering where we were). I agree that it's not a particularly helpful narrative to have floating around there though. I think it was @bunglebonce who posted about Kettlewell having, for better or worse, built his County team around Vigurs and it made me wonder what SK would make of Goss as there are definite similarities between the two. Spittal is also interesting purely because, despite it only being 4 games, this seems to be a genuine case of the manager getting the best out of him simply by understanding what he's good at. One of the big issues with Hammell was the fact that en masse we'd seen a regression in performance from the players individually and collectively whereas at the moment we're seeing individual performances improve as a result of tweaks in their roles.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, this is something I hadn't really considered; with Hammell and Kerr's exit and the appointments Kettlewell has made so far, this will be the first time since 2016 that we won't have had any former players on the coaching staff (save Clarkson currently in place as Academy Director which isn't really a coaching position as such). In that time we've had, at various levels; Craigan (u20s/Development), McFadden (first team assistant manager), Lasley (first team assistant manager), McManus (coach), Ross (head of 18s to 21s), Hammell (first team manager) and Kerr (u18s coach/first team assistant manager). I know Robinson was big on the idea of there being a "culture" established with the backroom and tbh, that seems to have really been diluted over the past while.

Not to speak on behalf of all 'well fans I think our season would be best described as "a fucking shitshow". Amusingly, as it stands, we're not only just 1pt behind you but you've lost more games than us as well. To speak to your broader point, similar seasons to this have seen Motherwell managers either resign (Robinson 20/21 - 17 pts after 19 games - we were on 19 pts at the same stage this season) or be sacked (McGhee 16/17 - 24 pts after 26 games - 26 pts at the same stage this season).

fucksake Grezza.

I mean, fair play making this your hill but again you can dispute whether he'd have been 1 v 1 all you like - we don't know how it'd have played out because your boy Baldwin cleaned him out as last man so it's a moot point as to whether Connor Randall would have had any influence. You could make the argument re: Randall being a "covering" defender if he was in line with Baldwin, but he's clearly not. Regardless of whether Randall was running at "100 mph" ( very good Malky) he was still a good few yards behind the incident and had KVV not been wiped out in the manner he was he'd have been through on goal. As I say, I have sympathy with the argument that VAR wasn't supposed to be about refereeing by proxy so the original card should have stood, but since that doesn't seem to be what we're doing then I'm not surprised someone's had a word in Robertson's ear and said "are you sure about that?".

I mean, we'll never know since Baldwin wiped him out before he got the chance to be 1 v 1 with the 'keeper.

I wouldn't be moving Butcher anywhere anytime soon tbh. We've 2 clean sheets in our last 4 games. For context, we hadn't managed a clean sheet in 11 league games prior to Kettlewell pivoting to the back 3. Right now Butcher feels ideally suited to the role in the middle of the back 3 organising in the same way Hartley was when he first arrived - I'm not sure we've another defender who offers the same. @Swello's post in the United thread re: the value of good business in the January window vs the manager kind of speaks to a discussion I noticed when I dipped into SO the other day. This is the post for context: I mean, I disagree that Hammell was the victim of anything other than having been promoted into a role in which he was out of his depth but it's factually true that the players Kettlewell has been getting a tune from have included Hammell's January signings (Butcher, Casey, Furlong, Obika plus the recalled Max Johnston - that's half a team). I'm not sure if the intended implication of that post is that Hammell might have fared better had he been given the opportunity to work with them but given his final game had the same players available but in the same shape he'd been failing with along with McGinn at left back, Spittal as the #6 and KVV on the left wing I'd respectfully argue...probably not. Either way, the fact that half of our January signings have made an initial impact on the first team and Kettlewell has quickly found a shape that for the most part suits the players he has available, (McKinstry and Crankshaw have both been unlucky in that respect), is a positive. Especially given where we were at 11pm on Deadline Day.

It's the question of refereeing the game by proxy I suppose. Robertson saw the challenge and the context and gave the initial decision. He didn't *miss* it. You then ask if it's a clear and obvious error or whatever. As I say, I don't think a red card for the challenge is at all controversial but I can see why folk would be annoyed after the referee having initially given it as a yellow. Having said that, we've seen a few instances of VAR suggesting to the ref that they upgrade or downgrade cards.

Aye. Like, I don't think it's controversial at all. The question of whether VAR needed to get involved after Robertson had initially given it as a yellow is a different story I suppose.

I know you mentioned this in our thread yesterday but it's nuts that you made that original post a month ago and 4 games later we're a point behind you with a better goal difference.

Hi.

Watched the first 3 episodes that 'dropped' on Amazon last night and had a lot more fun than I expected. Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid's book it hits every 70s rock band trope you can imagine. The premise is that it's the story of the rise and fall of their rise and fall of a fictional band told by each member of the band years after the fact. There's a bit of Almost Famous, a bit of The Last Waltz and if you've any interest in watching a fictionalised story about a made-up Fleetwood Mac-style band then so far it's been a pretty good hang.

Had a look at his IG and his most recent photo is him hanging out with Hatate. Genuinely seems to be having a lovely time. Living his best life. Absolutely fair play.

That was, instinctively, my reaction as well. I mean, I have no idea if Stephen Frail is a good coach or not but having just had a swatch at his LinkedIn it feels like a choice that's been informed heavily by recent mistakes.

Interesting that Kettlewell addressed the "experience" point in the news story. I mean, it's not Brian Kerr.

per @welldaft

There's the 16 minute sixteen second presser. Interesting he's asked directly about Riku, talks about Tomoaki, covers Max Johnston and as @supermarv says confirms that we've agreed terms with his new assistant. Exciting.

Pretty much this. It feels daft to change things unless there's a good reason. Ricki Lamie being fit again isn't a good reason. Like, it's nice to have options again but moving things around when we finally seem to have a bit of balance and consistency in our team selection isn't for me. I get that Lamie's nose will be put out of joint if he's not a starter but as far as I'm concerned...tough.

Incidentally the advert for the job is still up on the 'vacancies' page of the official to give an idea of what Foster's role actually is. Job description is here.

The chat about SO last night prompted me to dip in for the first time in a while. I noticed a poster reacting to the Ricky Foster appointment asking what the (footballing) structure at the club was/is. Which is a fair question I suppose. Without going too deep into things as it stands I think it's something like this (plus some added media team): Chairman - James McMahon Board of Directors - Tom Feely, Douglas Dickie, Andrew Wilson CEO (formerly Alan Burrows) - vacant First Team First team manager - Stuart Kettlewell First team assistant manager (formerly Brian Kerr) - vacant First team coach (formerly Keith Lasley) - vacant Head of goalkeeping - Neil Alexander Kit Coordinator - Alan MacDonald Academy Academy Director - David Clarkson Lead Development Coach (formerly Stuart Kettlewell) - vacant Head of Academy Coaching - Richard Foster Head of Academy Recruitment - Stuart Ogilvie Medical & Sports Science Head physiotherapist - David Henderson Lead Sports Scientist - Liam Jukes Performance Therapist - Callum Davidson Performance Therapist - Tom Jones Recruitment & Analysis Head of Recruitment Operations - Nick Daws Head of Performance Analysis - Ross Clarkson Performance Analyst - Graeme McArthur Media and Communications Head of Digital, Brand and Media (formerly Grant Russell) - vacant Senior Producer (formerly Laura Brannan) - vacant Media Assistant - Scott Gibson

Cheers. If nothing else it’s interesting from a timeline POV given we emptied Hammell 2.5 weeks ago and only gave Kettlewell the job permanently last week. You’d imagine any discussion has been going on longer than that. Begs the question who was driving that one or if it’s one our recruitment team has put on the table. Hammell stuck religiously to a 4231 despite it clearly not working and literally not having the players to play it (he finished the last Aberdeen game with a back 4 consisting entirely of full backs). Kettlewell has blown that up and is playing a 3412 which means the wingers Hammell signed aren’t getting off the bench including your boy Olly Crankshaw. It also means we have 3 players for the 1 spot as the #10. It feels that it’d have been a Hammell deal. We’ve previous for just cracking on with a PCA regardless - Connor Shields was a PCA despite Alexander’s feet barely being under the table. Then again, 6 of our 9 “forwards” are OOC or their loans expire in the summer (Efford, Aitchison, Crankshaw, McKinstry, Mandron and Obika) and the expectation is we’ll mutual Josh Morris so there’s definitely space. I’ve never really paid much attention to McMullan other than when he’s scored against us. Is he exclusively a winger or can he play different roles?

22 games.