Desp Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Aye, no idea why Ya Bezzer is getting all defensive over Dom Thomas. He's had ample opportunities in the first team over the last three seasons, as well as three years of training sessions, to prove himself. I wish him well wherever he ends up, but he simply doesn't have either the ability or the mentality to make it at Premiership level. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NM_1919 Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Just looking through the QotS thread and the jury seems to be out on Thomas down there as well.Maybe if we had got him in that wonder gym we are supposed to have and he 'bulked up' it might have worked out for him.I'm sure every Motherwell fan would love to see him starting every match and bringing us the kind of fee Marvin did but unfortunately it doesn't seem likely. Jury isn't out really, he was a good signing for us who had a significant impact for 5/6 games maybe faded a wee bit but was still assisting goals. I'd take him back in a heartbeat, if he goes to killie I think as long as they use him right they'll have a player on there hands. Naysmith outrightly said if he had chance again he'd use him differently and maybe not have played him as much, but in the form he was in, it was hard to leave him out, blames that for dip in form. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 (edited) I like Dom Thomas and he was regularly one of the best players on the park when I went to see the u20s but let's not get things twisted; Yes we've signed some dross from the lower leagues in England but us signing Craig Clay and Jake Taylor isn't the reason Thomas hasn't been playing. It's because when he has been given chances he's not done enough to warrant getting a regular game against those ahead of him in his position. Johnson, Frear, Ainsworth and especially Cadden have all offered more. Ross MacLean would have featured more last season had it not been for the injuries he's picked up while Jake Hastie has gone on to offer more end product from the same position as Thomas in the u20s since taking his place in that side. It's probably fair to say that the only reason Campbell was starting for us was because McHugh was having to play centre half but the fact that he held his place was because he played well and took his chance, if he hadn't he'd have been bombed out the team in the same way Jack McMillan and David Ferguson were. Similarly Ben Hall was given a chance ahead of "dross" like Laing and Kennedy and he became a first team regular. Thomas has by and large failed to do enough when he's been given those chances. By all accounts Thomas seems to have done quite well at QoTS but there's a fair chance that the reason for that is because, right now, that's his level. Which is fine. Good luck to him and everything but a fresh start is almost certainly what he needs at this moment. Edited July 10, 2017 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Aye, but what about Euan Murray? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 I'm still hoping for Adam Coakley to make the breakthrough. This season could be the one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del_Superwell Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Don't forget the mighty Bobby Donnelly, cutting about the amateur game with Lee Hollis lol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 I can see what you are trying to do there - and failing. The whole point is that Marvin Johnson, despite often sullenly doing the square root of f**k all for 4 or 5 weeks at a time, got picked on a regular basis because he had a little something about him. What would any of these players done if restricted to 4 sub appearances over a season? How many matches did Ainsworth come on and do literally nothing? Or start matches for that matter. And, as I'm sure you'll know but conveniently forgotten in order to make a bad point, there have been whole swathes of seasons when we didn't have a player who could play wide rather than there being a conveyor belt of top talent blocking the way. That only thing you got right there was your attempt at irony. Thomas has shown absolutely nothing at any senior level to suggest he'd be a better option than any of the above players. Obviously his opportunities have been limited, but that's true of all young players. In similar positions, Chris Cadden showed enough to force his way into the first team, Ross Maclean looked well on his way to doing the same before he was curtailed by injury. Thomas has had 33 chances to make an impression and has failed every time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Dom Thomas hasn't been good enough to secure a place in the first team - end of story. I simply don't believe in the theory that there are magnificent players languishing in the 20's that would have made it if only it wasn't for a succession of managers somehow missing something that the East Stand can see (presumably) by the way a player does keepie-uppies during the half time warm up. Breaking into the first team requires a level of skill and dedication (to get to the physical level required) and Thomas has been deficient in at least one of these. As we saw with someone like Ross Forbes - even a fantastic level of natural ability doesn't guarantee that you'll "make it" on a long term basis. There are young players that haven't made the grade with us who have gone on to play 1st team football of course - but I can't think of one off-hand that has exceeded the level we play at, either in a sporting or financial sense. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 That's it Swello. There hasn't been a single player that's left us without a chance and subsequently gone onto a higher level than us. Stevie Lawless is the only one who would come close, playing at Partick, but even it wouldn't exactly bite yer hand off to get him back. He also came through at the wrong time when we had a great side that finished 3rd, 2nd and 2nd. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 He also came through at the wrong time when we had a great side that finished 3rd, 2nd and 2nd. Shite team, mate. Worst in our history. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gianfranco Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 There's some merit in saying certain youth players deserve more of a chance but Dom Thomas wasn't a good example. I wonder what Kevin MacDonald and Kenny Wright are up to these days. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 He did come on and change the game against Stirling though. If we were aiming to play a game of "pick the wrong option and run right into defenders". The fact that this was his issue last season, and the season before that, surely tells something. You can get away with that if you have the ability to get defenders out your way, Ojamaa and McDonald are examples of players that could go through defenders despite their smaller stature, but Dom hasn't seemed to develop either the strength to do that, or the deftness to beat a grown man. That's not a criticism, for me it's just a case of a young player who has the raw ability, but hasn't developed like we'd need him to at our level. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del_Superwell Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 There was an article a few weeks ago in the evening times which showed that Dom Thomas has started up his own soccer school business, that for me told he was planning for life after Motherwell and he might play lower down or something I'm not sure but starting up his own business at the age of 20 suggests he knows he doesn't have a future at Motherwell. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 The only thing Dom Thomas has ever done in a Motherwell shirt is skin Jim Goodwin. And that was about 3 years ago. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Londonwell Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 (edited) Putting aside Ya Bezzers strange Thomas related rants, he currently has at least Frear, Cadden, Tanner and Maybe Maclean in front of him for a starting place. We all hoped he would come good as he clearly had potential at U20's level but just hasn't showed enough or anything at all really at 1st team level. Apart from turning the game against Stirling in a pre season If Robinson didn't need to bin a few players in order to bring new ones in then I'd probably be in the 'last chance saloon' camp. But as things are it seems best that the lad has a fresh start. eta. he also comes across a complete dobber on twitter, so there is that. Edited July 10, 2017 by Londonwell 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 (edited) You could make an argument for his progress having been stunted if it was a similar scenario to the McCall era where we were finishing 2nd with our worst team ever in our history and signing players on high wages and short term deals while the u20s seemed to be mothballed, without an obvious pathway to the first team along with a manager whose priority clearly wasn't "developing" players. However while we're signing, as some may put it, "dross" from the English lower leagues the players from the u20s are getting more of a platform. What they do with it is then up to the player, a manager be it Baraclough, McGhee, Robinson or even Craigan isn't going to keep giving a player chances in the hope they come good. I'm really not sure that Dom Thomas' development would have been aided any had we been signing Andy Geggan and Andy Ryan rather than Craig Clay and Wes Fletcher tbh. Off the top of my head, since Thomas made his debut we've seen Watt, MacLean, Cadden, Ferguson, McMillan, Gordon, Hastie, Livingstone, Hall, Mackin, Campbell, Turnbull and Fry have involvement with matchday squads all from the same group as Thomas. Even the likes of Erwin, Leitch and Moore were probably slightly ahead of him but were Academy players who had involvement prior to Thomas making his first team bow. Some have established themselves, some haven't as yet and some have moved on. There's only so much the manager or the club can do. Ross MacLean "assisted" Tuton's goal against Stirling and Rose's goal against Gateshead. Thomas certainly looked busy in his 45 mins against Stirling but as Al B says his final ball, the aspect of his game that has been continually highlighted over the past couple of seasons, was lacking. There's only so much of that you can blame on a manager or recruitment IMO. Edited July 10, 2017 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 31 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said: The only thing Dom Thomas has ever done in a Motherwell shirt is skin Jim Goodwin. And that was about 3 years ago. That was very funny though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 eta. he also comes across a complete dobber on twitter, so there is that. Aye,there is this as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 6 hours ago, Gianfranco said: I wonder what Kevin MacDonald and Kenny Wright are up to these days. I dunno about nowadays but Kenny Wright was driving taxis five years ago. He picked me up in town and drove me back to Blackwood after a night out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 3 hours ago, MJC said: I dunno about nowadays but Kenny Wright was driving taxis five years ago. He picked me up in town and drove me back to Blackwood after a night out. Any chance he also defeats troll cabals? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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