joewarkfanclub

Very encouraging comments! Here's hoping he is the kinda guy who just needs a club where he fits, and that club is us. As others have said. We have a record of that kind of signing. Lets hope history repeats!

Scotland v N.Ireland in a World Cup Qualifier in 1981. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. Dont remember too much about it apart from the crowd being huge and having to watch the game perched on a fence at the back of the East Terrace! Back in the days when you could buy your tickets from A&T Mays in Lanark High Street! Of course we qualified for our 3rd World Cup in a row and as a 12 year old I was absolutely hooked! Love the "Old Lady". Despite all her faults, she's still got it......

Cheers bud. So a speculative signing and certainly wont be ahead of Sheilds who already has folk wanting him out the door. Best to be realistic. Announce Dipo!

Any murmurings about whether he impressed in Holland and he could develop into the real deal?

I would imagine we are looking at a squad of 22 with 2 players for each position and supplementing with youth players if required. That being the case there will undoubtedly need to be some of our current squad going out the door if we are looking to freshen things up. Kelly / Oxborough SOD / McGinn / Bevis Butcher/ Blaney / Lamie McGinley / Miller / Slattery Spittal / Tierney Efford / Paton Obika / Shields / Fowler Probably raises serious questions over the future of Danzaki and Maguire as I dont see where there is a place for them in a trimmed down squad, and thats before we even look at getting a replacement for Goss. I would suggest we need to be looking at 2 full backs, 1 centre back, 1 midfielder and 1 striker. Some of the younger boys may end up taking those spaces if we cant move anyone on.

Tait was very good for us in his first couple of seasons and seemed just as comfortable on the left as he did on the right. But something happened in that close season when he came back he seemed to have lost a yard of pace and looked like he was towing a caravan. It was all very strange as he is a super fit guy and seemed to take care of himself very well. I did wonder at the time if he hadnt put on too much muscle with the whole crossfit thing and it had an adverse effect on his pace. Was a shame how it ended with us, but bygones and all that. Wish him well with whatever the future holds.

Regardless of the fee incoming, getting the KVV deal done early does give Kettlewell a bit more scope to start getting some of his own targets in early. We know Kev is going, its just a matter of how much for and where to. Freeing up his wage knowing there is a fee also forthcoming should take a bit of the pressure off.

I would say £500k for KVV is disappointing on the basis of the value of his goals to our team. However, I also agree that you have to consider his age and what was agreed when he signed his contract extension. It may well he that £500k triggers a release clause. Hopefully the add ons are good/realistic and we have already identified a replacement. As for Carroll. Was very good going forward, but poor defensivley. Rarely stopped a cross coming into the box. Might have thrived in our current 3-5-2 but the manager clearly has other plans.

Take KVV out of the equation and Spittal would be our POTY. I really dont get the hate for him from some quarters. Really entertaining end to the season. We were poor first half and probably should have been behind at the break, but we more than made up for it 2nd half and thoroughly deserved the win. Overall, pretty pleased with where we ended up after much pain and gnashing of teeth in the first half of the season. Gonna be really interesting to see what Kettlewell is able to do in the close season. KVV and Max look to be away so that should release some funds. However, there are some out of contract we would want to keep (Casey and Furlong) and a few still in contract that we would want to move on (Lamie and Mugabi). Some wheeling and dealing to be done.

I know they dont. But Burrows does....

I really dont care what the result is today as long as KVV gets 4 goals in an all out end to end attacking display! If we lose, we lose. But we go out in blaze of glory and the big man gets the send of he deserves!

I get that Doncaster is just a lightning rod for the clubs, but it SHOULD be his job to grow the game and promote the whole league rather than just the big two. However, that would take the chief execs of all the other clubs to grow a set and challenge the status quo. Unfortunately there is too much risk attached to that for any of them to put their heads above the parapet. Im wondering now that Alan Burrows is at Aberdeen and with a more powerful club whether he might seek to address some of these issues. He is a proper football man and did a lot for Motherwell in his tenure. Unfortunately we aint a big enough club to wield enough power to get things done.

Sorry to hear Lamie has had health worries. Regardless of whether he is good enough to be a first team pick for Motherwell, its never good to hear about in a relatively young person. Hope he gets back to full fitness soon and can kickstart his career whether it be with us or another club.......

I think with McCalls squad we were paying pretty hefty bonuses to attract the kind of talent that we did then. Not a bad plan as it meant any monies paid out were performance related. However, I seem to recall that although we finished 2nd and the extra prize money that entailed, we actually ended up losing money due to the bonuses that were paid out, so we obviously hadnt done our calculations properly!

I think the problem with both Lamie and Bevis is that they can look like good players a lot of the time, but bith seem to have at least one mistake a game in them. Thats what was hurting us under Hammell. We werent shipping goals but the ones we did lose were self inflicted and more often than not cost us valuable points. They were undoubtedly more exposed playing in a flat 4 and Hammells refusal to identify and change that is one of the things that ultimately did for him.

As others have said above, familiarity is the biggest barrier to improving the Scottish game. We play each other way too many times so every manager and player knows the other teams players and tactics inside out and fans get bored of the same old, same old. Scotland could easily support 2 leagues of 20 playing each other home and away. A total of 38 games, same as we have now. That would allow for proper relegation and promotion and proper play offs instead of the self protecting nonsense that we see now and could be supported by the pyramid structure. You could argue that it would result in lots of meaningless games in the middle of the table come the end of the season, but we are crying out for a system that takes away the incredible pressure on mangagers to avoid the drop, that prevents them from giving young players the exposure to first team football that would develop them (which cant be replicated playing in a geremandered 5th tier). There would also need to be re-distribution of revenue and going back to sharing the gate money would encourage away fans to get back to going to other grounds, knowing that their club will get the benefit of their support. Of course none of this will happen as our entire tv deal is based on 4 Glasgow Derbies every season and the big 2 will never agree to giving away any of the pot because they arent really interested in competition.

The Well Society has put this out to its members for consultation in advance of the vote. If the results are representative of the Motherwell fans Ive spoken to it will be a unanimous no from the Society. How that impacts the clubs decision remains to be seen, but we are usually pretty switched on when it comes to listening to the views of our fans. Hopefully the other clubs have similar avenues to make their voices heard. This is too important to let slide......

Yup. Interesting to read between the lines there. Clearly looking to keep some who are out of contract, move on some who are still under contract and make sure we finish 7th so he has as much wriggle room as possible to wheel and deal in the summer. Lamie is an interesting one. We are undoubtedly more secure at the back with Butcher and Casey and it seems clear Blaney is ahead of Lamie in the pecking order. I think Lamies future and potentially that of Bevis will depend on what Casey does. If he goes then Blaney steps up and maybe Lamie or Bevis have a place as squad players, but if Casey stays, there surely isnt space for all of them and we need to look to offload at least one. Will either of them be happy being squad players or look to get out somewhere else for first team football? Add in that McGinn has looked secure in a 3. If that is our shape going forward I guess SK would be looking to keep him. I guess similar converstions will be happening all over the pitch. Looks like being an interesting summer, and in a good way for a change!

I always chuckle when people from the North of Scotland think everyone from the West of Scotland lives in Glasgow!

Well done KVV. Large slice of humble pie for me tonight, served up with extra helpings of contrition. Get him signed up with Louis on a pay as you play and watch them wreak havoc next season!

I was actually thinking that last night watching Sportscene. He wasnt the striker we needed at the time, but I think he would be a good foil for Kev.

Remember that bid was before his current purple patch and POTY nomination. Not saying we will get anywhere near the £1m for him but we need to start somewhere north of there in negotiations to ensure we dont short change ourselves. I dont think £750k is out of the question.

Really good interview. Both Kettlewell and Frail come across as really good guys who know what they are about and the direction they are taking the club. Impressive.

Personally I liked it. Put a lot of questions to bed and let the manager concentrate on talking about the game. I do appreciate Kettlewell giving updates though. Its more than we have had in a long time when these things just werent talked about.

I agree. Not looking for war and peace. But we used to do a list which was basically players name, injury type and estimated return date. Thats all it needs. If its not an injury, all we need to know is '"illness" no further details required. Re the rotation, Kettlewell pretty much said we need one more win to be mathematically safe and that the prize money at stake for 7th place was a big deal for us. It will be a full strength first 11 until that is acheived.