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dezz

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Posts posted by dezz

    Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    23 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

    I just voted against the Well Society losing it's majority shareholding.

    I didn't join instantly myself. From memory it was £300 to join in the beginning before they started monthly memberships and the fact that I was a student at the time, coupled with the fact that team was class meant that £300 from any Motherwell budget would be going on away days or euro trips back then. 

    If I'm honest, after that, for a few years, I wasn't as interested or engaged in joining, until I did so just before the pandemic.

    I'm still very pragmatic about fan ownership - if I think it's the best solution I'll be for it, if I think it's not I'll be against it - but for us, I genuinely think the 'Well Society having a majority shareholding is what is best for the club. Say the club sold it to a wealthy man, with no ulterior motives or red flags. They could run the club successfully for a period of time, but that won't last forever. At that point, they will want to sell the club for the best deal possible and probably won't be concerned who to and us as fans won't have a say in it.

    That's what sells it to me - having a say in this investor, the next investor and the one after that. 

    Looking at the figures @capt_oats posted of our P&L since being fan owned, it's actually fairly encouraging. Getting to two cup finals in one season and selling David Turnbull does appear to have helped us run for a few years and had we not had to do the structural work and then subsequently fix it, things would be looking very kind on the bank. 

    It's really hard to be overly critical of finances, when we have money in the bank and generally remained in the black due to the aforementioned cup finals and player sales, which is actively our model. Not to mention surviving a pandemic and giving free season tickets out the following year.

    My obvious concerns around that model going forward are how much we shit the bed in cup competitions and how much Brexit has affected our youth players even reaching the stage where they get to a professional contract for us. Part of me does think that we are seeing Lennon Miller in our first team just now because his Dad was a pro himself and seems to have his head screwed on to advise him on what's best for his career. I reckon most others in his shoes would've taken the McAlear / Leitch / McKinstry route by now. I also have doubts about our ability to "buy to sell" in today's market, given Slattery and Kelly's three year deals look like they will be seen out without any serious interest.

    I am definitely of the thought that a hybrid model of the society and outside investment is the best thing going forward. I have serious concerns about growth in the society. In thirteen years, surely there are very fine margins to be gained by new members? I'd imagine just about everyone interested would've signed up now. Are we reliant on current members upping their monthly payment? With the area not being the most affluent and the climate we are in, there might not be the biggest scope for this. I also think in so many ways the horse has bolted in terms of re-engaging disengaged fans. I do also think that it would be a tough sell for someone with no link to the club to invest, without getting the biggest say for it.

    Ultimately, if we continue to go down The Well Society route, we might see a drop in our standard of player, we may see us drop divisions and find it tough to come back, but at the end of the day we'll still have the club. As much as it may not appeal to others, that's good enough for me.

     

     

     

    I’ve had a go a couple of times over the last week or so to stick my thoughts regarding external investment down in a semi-coherent post but ended up deleting them.

    Thankfully @crazylegsjoe_mfc’s post here perfectly sums up my thoughts in a much better way than I could articulate. Interested to see how the vote plays out in the next few days but expect it’ll be a fair majority voting against the Society losing its majority.

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    VAR?

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    4 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

    Am I right in thinking Morton were the only club to consult their fans?

    Can any Morton fans confirm what form that took, and if I've missed any consultation from other cubs, it would be handy to hear about it here.

    Don't want my letters or Sportsound truth-bombs to be full of errors.

    Motherwell asked members of the ‘Well Society for their views but, if memory serves right, gave us a whopping 48 hours notice before the club vote. Essentially a pointless exercise and only for show as no doubt the club had already decided they were voting it in.
     

    FWIW I submitted a pretty lengthy email at the time outlining my reasons for being completely opposed to VAR (most of which have already been mentioned by others on this thread) but unsurprisingly didn’t get any response from the club.   

    1

    The Big Relegation Thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by dezz

    Aye, I don't expect we'll be adding many points to our tally between now and the end of March with Hearts, Celtic and Rangers in 3 of the next 4 games. The other game away to Livi midweek is huge. Lose that along with expected losses in the other 3 and we could be right back in the dirt.

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    Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by dezz

    30 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

    That's definitely a risk but alternatively we appoint someone else on a two-year deal, have a poor summer as they're not used to Scottish football and half our support want them sacked because we're eighth or ninth this time next year.

    Aberdeen are maybe a different case because an era ended with McInnes and they made an insane appointment but I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that being seen to do something to show ambition is a total false economy. At least when you operate in the market we do for managers.

    Jack Ross was perfectly respectable while at Hibs, had got them a rare third and various trips to Hampden before having a stinker and getting punted. If instead their board had accepted a bad 21/22 and given him the January and summer windows to rebuild, would they be worse off now? I'm far from certain. The counter-point is sacking him was correct but the subsequent appointments weren't - well, aye, because our level you're much more likely to land on a managerial failure than a success.

    Someone else mentioned looking forward to appointing someone with a long-term plan...SK is arguably halfway through the clear-out, how about seeing how this long-term plan turns out first?

    While everyone else tears it up every 12-18 months, the contrarian in me is more and more wanting us to try being different because I don't think the odds of failure are any worse. Let's roll the dice in a different direction (usual caveats on the next months applying!).

    I keep flipping my opinion on SK but I'm more coming round to your thinking on this.

    This season has shown us what happens to the budget when you're paying off various management teams in a short period, and when you look at SK's numbers/story there's zero guarantee we will be able to attract anyone better;

    - Took over a sinking ship and kept us up more than comfortably, while getting the best out of KVV;

    -Did some excellent work in cutting deadwood and trimming our massively bloated squad in the summer/January;

    - Has us sitting midtable (at the moment) despite clearly being told to work with a considerably reduced budget and being limited by injuries to key players;

    - Introduced Lennon Miller to the team, has transformed the bold Thelonius, and has Blair Spittal playing his best football in years (ever?)

    - Has a strong record in academy football up at County, which should be attractive for a club that's always going on about how the academy is the lifeblood of the place.

    Clearly the points above don't tell the full story (like 1 win in 19, being papped out the cup by Morton and chucking a 3 goal lead the other night), and I'm far from an SK fan-boy, but with an upcoming refresh behind the scenes, the vast majority of the current squad being OOC in the summer and the opportunity to hopefully use next seasons budget a bit more sensibly, I think SK has done enough in his year in charge to justify giving him the opportunity see through the squad overhaul he has begun. 

    Should add though, if we end up in the playoffs or worse this season he can GTF. 

    7

    Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

    I actually think Clark staying in at Hearts makes it less likely for Kelly to go to the Euros.

    Gunn is a shoe in.

    Clark is going to finish 3rd and has already shown to be favoured by Steve Clarke.

    I'd then say, regardless of games played, I'd take the old experienced head who's done it at the highest level, over the goalie with one cap who's been hemorrhaging goals for a team fighting relegation.

    Totally agree. The chances of your 3rd choice keeper having to play are so minimal that you'd much rather take along the vastly experienced guy who is clearly a respected member of the squad, even if he's not played that much club football, rather than the fringe keeper who's having a shocker of a season. From a Scotland perspective, I'm hoping Hearts get 3rd sewn up fairly quickly and Gordon can get a few more games between now and the end of the season. 

     

    0

    The Dons v Motherwell

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    29 minutes ago, betting competition said:

    The clock is ticking for Aberdeen’s Motherwell's chances of qualifying for Europe, with an 11-point gap to bridge. It’s crucial that we capitalise on our upcoming home away games to secure the points. Although Our historical record against Motherwell Aberdeen at home Pittodrie isn't stellar, so let’s remain hopeful for a positive result tonight

    I like the positive spin of still aiming for Europe, so I've made a few minor tweaks to your post to make myself feel better about our season.  

    5

    The Dons v Motherwell

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by dezz

    1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

    @Div just posted this on the P&B Twitter - we've only won 1 away game in the league all season (at Tynecastle) but apparently we've only lost 4 which is a record only the top two can better.

    I mean, we'll lose this one but still, what a weird season.

    That's a mental stat! Very much sums up our weird season. 

    A bit off topic, and probably one for the Motherwell thread, but it made me take a look at the wider league table. We've scored more goals at home (24) than anyone outside the Old Firm; only 3 less than Rangers, 4 less than Celtic, and double the number Aberdeen have at Pittodrie (12). The problem is clearly at the other end where only the bottom two have conceded more than us. 

    To bring it back on topic, the stat above clearly shows the majority of our away games are fairly tight - we've conceded 14 in 11 games, but only scored 8 times on the road - and I think it'll be the same tonight. The two goal deficit in the 2-4 game at Fir Park massively flattered us, and although I expect we'll be more competitive tonight, I think we'll see a similar difference in the scoreline. 

    Stating the obvious here, but a win for us would be huge with Hearts, Celtic and Rangers making up 3 of our next 4 fixtures. I can't see it though - 2-0 Dons; Miovski penalty and someone from a corner/freekick crossed into the box (obviously). 

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