Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Oh and since you mentioned them Jake Hastie is 20 on his next birthday and has 53 minutes first team experience while Ross MacLean is 21 and he has just over 300 minutes.

And that's just as equally as wrong with the whole philosophy of the club at the moment as the situation regarding Dom Thomas.

That's Ross MacLean who missed three quarters of last season with a broken toe and a dislocated shoulder that required surgery? Having also had a serious injury the season prior? Seems a bit harsh to be criticising the club for not fielding an injured player tbh.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I know it's to be expected from the Sun, but this is absolute gutter rag journalism. Describing Jacob Blyth as a "footie ace" is wholly inaccurate, borderline slanderous.

[Ya Bezzer!]

18 hours ago, capt_oats said:

That's Ross MacLean who missed three quarters of last season with a broken toe and a dislocated shoulder that required surgery? Having also had a serious injury the season prior? Seems a bit harsh to be criticising the club for not fielding an injured player tbh.

I'm aware he's been injured but he's not been been out injured for 3 seasons, we need to get players into the team at much younger ages, much more frequently. It's no good giving players a sub appearance here, a sub appearance there when they are already at the latter stages of their teens or even into their 20s.

Think about how relatively successful our youths have been in recent seasons, then think about how many have been brought through to first team level and then think about the performance of the first team.  It does not equate and its not good enough. 

The entire youth component of the team on Saturday in a League Cup tie against Queens Park on Saturday was in the form of Chris Cadden who made his debut 3 years ago.  Nothing came off the bench either.

Right now are both wasting money on awful first team squad players but also on a youth set up that performs well but which we don't use and doesn't seem to be integral to the club - something it absolutely should be.

The proof is in the pudding - we have one first team player that has come out the youth programme in the last 3 seasons. Meanwhile we've burned cash on a list of absolute dreck as long as your arm and trundled about at the bottom of what might well be the worst top league in the history of Scottish football.

 

 

 

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

On 01/07/2017 at 09:29, Ya Bezzer! said:

Drug test then rip that contract up.

Blyth?

Called it weeks ago.

[Londonwell]

7 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I'm aware he's been injured but he's not been been out injured for 3 seasons, we need to get players into the team at much younger ages, much more frequently. It's no good giving players a sub appearance here, a sub appearance there when they are already at the latter stages of their teens or even into their 20s.

Think about how relatively successful our youths have been in recent seasons, then think about how many have been brought through to first team level and then think about the performance of the first team.  It does not equate and its not good enough. 

The entire youth component of the team on Saturday in a League Cup tie against Queens Park on Saturday was in the form of Chris Cadden who made his debut 3 years ago.  Nothing came off the bench either.

Right now are both wasting money on awful first team squad players but also on a youth set up that performs well but which we don't use and doesn't seem to be integral to the club - something it absolutely should be.

The proof is in the pudding - we have one first team player that has come out the youth programme in the last 3 seasons. Meanwhile we've burned cash on a list of absolute dreck as long as your arm and trundled about at the bottom of what might well be the worst top league in the history of Scottish football.

See where your logic unfortunately falls down is that the closest thing to missing out on a decent player from our academy through lack of game time is Steven Lawless, hardly a superstar.

Here's a novel thought; if there's a player in the youth setup good enough for the 1st team he'll get a game sooner or later. There may be an issue in that our recruitment at youth level hasn't been good enough and we therefore haven't seen perhaps the influx of youngsters to the 1st team that you want. Even that I'd challenge though as we've got Cadden as a 1st team regular. Gordon, Maclean and Campbell in and around the 1st team and will clearly be given opportunities this season.

Even Kipre, whilst not coming through our system, is a 20 year old with potential clearly being considered for the 1st team.   

[Ya Bezzer!]

Just now, Londonwell said:

See where your logic unfortunately falls down is that the closest thing to missing out on a decent player from our academy through lack of game time is Steven Lawless, hardly a superstar.

But better than Steve Jones or Omar Daley, players who were brought in and prevented him from coming through our ranks.

However you don't seem to have grasped what I'm saying.  I am talking about developing potential.  There is potential in the youth ranks.  If you don't develop it obviously it it will never fulfill what it could have been. 

The fact that if you don't develop and then that undeveloped potential doesn't emerge as first team material, that is no justification for not developing in the first place. Yet this argument is used all the time when it is plainly illogical and more like a self fulfilling prophecy of failure. 

Footballers who were destined through ability alone, are few and far between.  Maybe they don't even exist at all.  You have to take a youth and develop him, expose him to first team football, give them a real chance, build them up. 

You don't develop them by making them play kiddy football till they are 21 and then showing them the door. 

 

 

[Londonwell]

32 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

But better than Steve Jones or Omar Daley, players who were brought in and prevented him from coming through our ranks.

However you don't seem to have grasped what I'm saying.  I am talking about developing potential.  There is potential in the youth ranks.  If you don't develop it obviously it it will never fulfill what it could have been. 

The fact that if you don't develop and then that undeveloped potential doesn't emerge as first team material, that is no justification for not developing in the first place. Yet this argument is used all the time when it is plainly illogical and more like a self fulfilling prophecy of failure. 

Footballers who were destined through ability alone, are few and far between.  Maybe they don't even exist at all.  You have to take a youth and develop him, expose him to first team football, give them a real chance, build them up. 

You don't develop them by making them play kiddy football till they are 21 and then showing them the door. 

Again if there was actually any evidence of a vast swath of youth players leaving our system and going onto bigger and better things then I'd agree with you, but there's not, so I don't.

Unless you think we are single handily ruining careers of youth footballers who were destined to make it until Motherwell decided they wouldn't give them a game. Of corse we're not, don't be so fucking ridiculous. 

Edited July 17, 2017 by Londonwell

[Swello]

23 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

But better than Steve Jones or Omar Daley, players who were brought in and prevented him from coming through our ranks.

However you don't seem to have grasped what I'm saying.  I am talking about developing potential.  There is potential in the youth ranks.  If you don't develop it obviously it it will never fulfill what it could have been. 

The fact that if you don't develop and then that undeveloped potential doesn't emerge as first team material, that is no justification for not developing in the first place. Yet this argument is used all the time when it is plainly illogical and more like a self fulfilling prophecy of failure. 

Footballers who were destined through ability alone, are few and far between.  Maybe they don't even exist at all.  You have to take a youth and develop him, expose him to first team football, give them a real chance, build them up. 

You don't develop them by making them play kiddy football till they are 21 and then showing them the door. 

This sort of (falsely) assumes that the responsibility to develop lies solely or mostly with the club as opposed to the player themselves. If a player took the personal responsibility to (for example) do extra gym work to get himself physically ready for the step up and showed the management at the time that he was putting that level of commitment into it - of course, that sort of player will get his chance and be in a better shape to compete at 1st team level. On the other hand, if a player, regardless of how talented he is is not progressing in the same way, even if it is within his own power to do so, then does he automatically deserve the same "chance"? 

At any club, a very small percentage of players make it not only to the first team, but actually establish themselves there and progress and it's no co-incedence that the players recently from the 20's that have "made it" - Cadden, Erwin and Hall - were clearly physically equipped for it. You can have all the potential in the world but if you can simply be brushed aside by any first team opposition player, no amount of "exposure to first team football" will make a difference.

[capt_oats]

There's yer Craig Clay joined Leyton Orient. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/?p=63346

 

[mjw]

Everyone at Motherwell FC would like to thank Craig for his twelve months in Scotland and wish him every success in his future career

I'd go along with that.

[Swello]

Right decision for everyone. He was a stop gap player that actually played a lot due to Mchugh and lucas being unavailable so much but he's unlikely to see any action this season. Best of luck to him.

[Londonwell]

Never rated him. Good to get some more off the wage bill.

Good luck to the lad.

[Ya Bezzer!]

Keep scoring them off the list.

Jacob Blyth next.

[Mitch]

Be easier to just hire a hitman to take him out.

[Desp]

Take him out, you say?

[capt_oats]

I'm not even joking. Blyth would be as well chucking the fitba', getting on board with his bird's agent and fully embracing the reality TV life.

he's absolute dugmeat as a footballer so it seems like a pretty positive career move tbh.

[Mr Hahn]

1 minute ago, capt_oats said:

I'm not even joking. Blyth would be as well chucking the fitba', getting on board with his bird's agent and fully embracing the reality TV life.

he's absolute dugmeat as a footballer so it seems like a pretty positive career move tbh.

This. He fits the bill perfectly being a cocky shit bag who I suspect would put on a superb hard man act when surrounded by body guards.

I mind when he came on for us against Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the second half of the season and I'd wager at least half the support didn't realise he was still at the club. A total waste of resources and one has to wonder wtf McGhee saw in him to warrant a 2 year contract.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I was an ardent McGhee apologist but in retrospect it's hard to not look at last season as one man's descent into madness, all beginning with that 2 year deal for Blyth.

[capt_oats]

I was an ardent McGhee apologist but in retrospect it's hard to not look at last season as one man's descent into madness, all beginning with that 2 year deal for Blyth.

2 year with an additional year option. Let's get it right...

[Ron Aldo]

Quite disappointed that Clay has gone. Won't imagine he would have been on big money and could have made a decent squad player. For all his faults, I thought he always gave 100%.