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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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4 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

The fact every day has him linked with Championship sides who, let's be honest, wont be signing a youngster on the back of a good month, probably suggests a busy agent.

Agree in principle but given Leeds have already (apparently) paid us 6 figures for a 16 year old who's never played a first team game and they also paid us £500k for Erwin off the back of a good 2nd half of a season means you can't 100% rule it out or write it off as "agent" hype.

Same with Brighton and Ben Hall: £230k for a boy who didn't even play 20 games for us. That's before you get to Academy players like Robbie Leitch who signed for Burnley and Tom Leighton who ended up at Watford before they were anywhere near our first team.

The difference is that this seems to be Hastie's (reasonable) take: "I know that some players have gone down south young and it hasn’t worked out, so being here just now is the best place for me.”.

Which is nice.

It'd be quite the volte-face given this was Hastie's position at the start of the week:

Quote

“I’m still only 19. I’ve still a lot to learn about the game and here’s the best place to do it.

“I think Motherwell’s the best place for me. I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and keep playing well.

“I came all the way up since I was nine with David [Turnbull]. I just feel that playing together is even better right at the top. “I’m over the moon, I’m happy. You can’t beat it.”

Every interview he's done recently (BBC, Evening Times)  has pointed to him signing up. In fact he said himself that he was "hopeful" of signing "in the next couple of weeks". 

Just get it done Burrows.

Edit: There they are...(according to the voiceover Hastie "should soon follow" Turnbull in signing a long term deal).

 

Edited by capt_oats
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On McHugh looking like he's picked up yet another concussion/head knock - is there any precedent for an outfield player wearing head protection like Peter Cech does? It would probably make heading the ball weird, but he must be a big concern as things stand... 

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Just now, Swello said:

On McHugh looking like he's picked up yet another concussion/head knock - is there any precedent for an outfield player wearing head protection like Peter Cech does? It would probably make heading the ball weird, but he must be a big concern as things stand... 

Big Cristian Chivu did after he essentially had a sunroof in his skull.

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I was out most of yesterday, so didn't follow any of the game at the time.  What was the script with Curtis Main being out of the squad?  Late injury or something else?

Also, for those at the game, how did Scott do?  Other than detach a few craniums in the home end, of course.

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2 minutes ago, Desp said:

Also, for those at the game, how did Scott do?  Other than detach a few craniums in the home end, of course.

Impossible to judge, really. Looked like a boy playing against men at times, but he's unlikely to have a harder test than against a team as big/as good as Celtic.

Richard Tait on a million year contract, is my real takeway from yesterday.

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That's three serious head injuries he's suffered in less than three years (two of which have been in what, the last six months?)

At what point do Motherwell as a club, and Carl McHugh as a person, take a step back and think about his long-term health?  That was sickening to watch yesterday.  It's really getting a bit worrying for him now. 

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1 hour ago, Desp said:

I was out most of yesterday, so didn't follow any of the game at the time.  What was the script with Curtis Main being out of the squad?  Late injury or something else?

 

Apparently had a bit of a ding dong with someone. Then I saw it tweeted he was "injured"

3 minutes ago, Desp said:

That's three serious head injuries he's suffered in less than three years (two of which have been in what, the last six months?)

At what point do Motherwell as a club, and Carl McHugh as a person, take a step back and think about his long-term health?  That was sickening to watch yesterday.  It's really getting a bit worrying for him now. 

Saw a quote attributed to Robbo saying the last thing McHugh said to him was "I can't do this any more". Not sure if that was genuine.

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14 minutes ago, Al B said:

Mentioned this on the "other place" earlier, but I gather it's actually been a worry of his.

I might be remembering wrong - but I think he said in interviews at the time that he had mental health problems (or it at least badly affected his mental health) during the long layoff in his first season. In any case, unless there is a way to give him some protection from this, I think everyone would be right to be concerned as there could be a cumulative effect from all of this and he has had a few minor head knocks in addition to the "big" ones...

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5 hours ago, Desp said:

I was out most of yesterday, so didn't follow any of the game at the time.  What was the script with Curtis Main being out of the squad?  Late injury or something else?

Depends on who you believe. 

What it did show though, is the lack of depth we have for that role. An 18 year old laddie making his first start at Celtic Park was deemed preferable to the two senior strikers Robinson had on the bench. We know Sammon's gone come the end of the season and would be away already if we could have offloaded him in January. McCormack looks to be a bust. The fact Sammon came in from the cold to leapfrog Johnson in the pecking order really does beg the question if he even has a future here either- if we're not going to chuck him on in either of the last two games when we were looking for goal, when are we ever going to use him?

For all the pelters he get's due to his lack of goals on social media, I actually think Main's been very good of late in terms of leading the line and being the focal point that Robinson was looking for post Ross County. Reading his comments about a new contract during the week though, it came across(to me anyway) like he knows full well he's not going to get a new one. Might be wrong, I initially thought he'd be bumped in January, however his relationship with Robinson seems to be a strange(strained?) one and I'm not sure it'll extend beyond the end of this season.

I hope/imagine Scott will get a few more chances between now and the end of the season in less trying circumstances to show what he's about, you just have to hope the furore over this incident doesn't effect him too much going forward-look at the effect the aftermath of the semi final had on Bowman last season. Must be some shock to the system to be an 18 year old virtual nobody one day, to have yourself being labelled a disgrace all over the media the next.

Edited by Casagolda
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1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

Depends on who you believe. 

What it did show though, is the lack of depth we have for that role. An 18 year old laddie making his first start at Celtic Park was deemed preferable to the two senior strikers Robinson had on the bench. We know Sammon's gone come the end of the season and would be away already if we could have offloaded him in January. McCormack looks to be a bust. The fact Sammon came in from the cold to leapfrog Johnson in the pecking order really does beg the question if he even has a future here either- if we're not going to chuck him on in either of the last two games when we were looking for goal, when are we ever going to use him?

For all the pelters he get's due to his lack of goals on social media, I actually think Main's been very good of late in terms of leading the line and being the focal point that Robinson was looking for post Ross County. Reading his comments about a new contract during the week though, it came across (to me anyway) like he knows full well he's not going to get a new one. Might be wrong, I initially thought he'd be bumped in January, however his relationship with Robinson seems to be a strange(strained?) one and I'm not sure it'll extend beyond the end of this season.

I hope/imagine Scott will get a few more chances between now and the end of the season in less trying circumstances to show what he's about, you just have to hope the furore over this incident doesn't effect him too much going forward-look at the effect the aftermath of the semi final had on Bowman last season. Must be some shock to the system to be an 18 year old virtual nobody one day, to have yourself being labelled a disgrace all over the media the next.

I think that's an entirely fair point. The fact that Johnson dropped out in the first half of the season even when he was chipping in with goals but his reaction to that was essentially that he was a goalscorer and sort of dismissed the idea that he needed to work on his all round game put a question mark over him quite early on IMO.

What I would say is that both Scott and Sammon are a better fit to play the lone striker role. Johnson's performance in the County game killed that option dead. So unless we revert to a shape with 2 strikers (which seems unlikely given the 433 is largely working well) and we didn't even switch to a back 3 against Celtic at Parkhead, which if we were going to alter our tactics for any match it'd surely have been that one.

Since there's every chance we're looking at a bottom 6 finish then I don't see why we'd change from the 433 now. Which pretty much means Johnson's seeing out the rest of the season on the bench.

 Clearly Robinson's lucked out with the 6 league wins on the bounce and the form of Hastie, Turnbull and Campbell in so much as it allows him to throw Scott in without any real risk and also push the #YoungMotherwell narrative. It may just have been me but I didn't even blink when I saw Scott was starting on Saturday.

Fully agree with the comments about Main, I think he's been absolutely fine as the #9 in the 433 but it's difficult not to think that he wouldn't be a first choice for the role and I'm guessing he probably knows that as well.

Anyway, that's #youngMotherwell in the Reserve League Cup final lads...

 

Edited by capt_oats
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