Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I love both the 20/21 and the 21/22 editions of Tony Watt. 

I could have seen the 20/21 version - a hard working, deep lying forward, who helps the team immensely, is creative and scores a goal here and there - staying at Motherwell and being a favourite for years.

However - the 21/22 version - a striker, still with the same work-rate and attitude, but being the top scorer in the league as things stand, is a bit beyond us.

Fair play to him, I'm under no illusions that Motherwell isn't the pinnacle of an ambitious players' career. If he was 21 or 22, there would be an argument for staying here for a bit longer to get an even better move, but at nearly 28, you really wouldn't blame the guy for going to the highest bidder.

[well fan for life]

Free lunch?! Sign me up. 

[dezz]

I've resigned myself to the fact Watt will be away at the end of the season but as others have said, you can't really blame him. At 28 years old he's probably got one decent contract left in him, and if a Championship club want to chuck him £15k-£20k a week on a 2 or 3 year deal he'd be daft not to take it. Stick it out down there for 2 seasons and then head back up the road where he'll have no problem getting another deal from anyone in the top flight outside the OF.

If he was a few years older I could maybe see him putting happiness over finances for the last couple of years of his career given he's probably made a decent wedge over the years, but at 28 he should in theory be the prime of his career and I imagine he'd still want to test himself at a higher level. 

Good luck to the guy if he does go - I imagine the last few years have worked out miles better than either Motherwell or Tony Watt could have hoped for. 

[thisGRAEME]

14 minutes ago, dezz said:

Stick it out down there for 2 seasons and then head back up the road where he'll have no problem getting another deal from anyone in the top flight outside the OF.

Sign the contract, take 6 months off, essentially, get a loan back up the road to us for the remaining 30 months of the contract.

Everybody wins.

[Ron Aldo]

Surely we just need to give Tony a new contract, loan him out to a Championship team in January and sell him for £5 million in the summer?

[Swello]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Scott Fox, PJ Morrison, Ricki Lamie, Bevis Mugabi, Darragh O'Connor, Nathan McGinley, Liam Grimshaw, Barry Maguire, Mark O'Hara, Robbie Crawford, Liam Donnelly, Justin Amaluzor, Tony Watt.

The fact that eye is drawn towards Lamie & Mugabe in that list would come as a very big surprise to the 2020 version of me.

[Gallus Numpty]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I fucking hate London. I'd still take the 50k though

Pretty much this. It's not like it's for the rest of your life, as a footballer chances are you'll be off somewhere else after a year anyway.

[dezz]

Maybe we could get Newcastle to buy him in January for £5m then loan him back to us. Win win for everyone, except maybe Newcastle but I'm sure they won't mind. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I think I would keep Lamie and Mugabi. We know Ojala and Solholm are here next season and both are prone to a niggle or two, so for me it makes sense to keep those two as your backup, when they've proven they can come in to the team and do a job.

With Grimshaw, O'Hara, Maguire, Crawford and Donnelly all out of contract there's almost an opportunity for a fresh slate in midfield. I don't think Crawford or Grimshaw are good enough to play in our midfield. O'Hara and Maguire the jury is out on. I always seem to be left wanting more with both of them but I wonder if I'm being too ambitious thinking we would easily be able to get better alternatives. Unless we see a return to fitness and form for Donnelly between now and the end of the season, it's probably the right time to part company there too.

[welldaft]

19 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I think I would keep Lamie and Mugabi. We know Ojala and Solholm are here next season and both are prone to a niggle or two, so for me it makes sense to keep those two as your backup, when they've proven they can come in to the team and do a job.

With Grimshaw, O'Hara, Maguire, Crawford and Donnelly all out of contract there's almost an opportunity for a fresh slate in midfield. I don't think Crawford or Grimshaw are good enough to play in our midfield. O'Hara and Maguire the jury is out on. I always seem to be left wanting more with both of them but I wonder if I'm being too ambitious thinking we would easily be able to get better alternatives. Unless we see a return to fitness and form for Donnelly between now and the end of the season, it's probably the right time to part company there too.

Pretty much this. Maybe keep Maguire also as he has performed well in his last few outings.

TW obviously, but I tend to agree with the comments above which were along the lines that 21/22 TW is a different proposition and attraction from 20/21 TW. If he keeps up his scoring ratio and performances then chances are he will be offski. Would love him to stay but accept he will have significantly better offers. As long as he heads down south and not Aberdeen (who will bid for sure). Then he comes back when he is 30 and plays another 2-3 seasons for us. 

I like the prediction table that Capt posted. Not seen that before. Has us finishing 4th . Mind you only a couple of points separating ourselves, Utd, Hibs and Aberdeen . Going to be close for sure. Us taking 7 out of 9 points from these teams should give us the confidence to believe. 

Just get Saturday out of the way with minimal damage to GD and try and target 8 or 9 points from remaining games prior to the split. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Surely Watt could get a gig in La Liga off his reputation and past exploits? Reckon he'd get a cracking nickname over there.

Edited December 6, 2021 by YassinMoutaouakil

[well fan for life]

3 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Some good, some bad, some shrug if they left in that pile to be honest. Watt aside, there's no-one that you look at there and go "f**k how are we going to cope without..."

That said; Just sign Bevis. Easy.

I said it on the Hibs thread but I'm looking at that list thinking "Christ we better get Lamie & Mugabi signed up". 12 months ago I'd have been delighted if they were getting emptied. What a turnaround. 

[Swello]

3 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I fucking hate London. I'd still take the 50k though

50k isn't worth having permanent black snotters and putting up with the liquid chalk that passes for tap water.

[Archie McSquackle]

There's plenty of clubs that aren't in London. There's an absolute stack in that M6 corridor just for starters. This hypothetical £50k would go a lot further there also.

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I think I would keep Lamie and Mugabi. We know Ojala and Solholm are here next season and both are prone to a niggle or two, so for me it makes sense to keep those two as your backup, when they've proven they can come in to the team and do a job.

With Grimshaw, O'Hara, Maguire, Crawford and Donnelly all out of contract there's almost an opportunity for a fresh slate in midfield. I don't think Crawford or Grimshaw are good enough to play in our midfield. O'Hara and Maguire the jury is out on. I always seem to be left wanting more with both of them but I wonder if I'm being too ambitious thinking we would easily be able to get better alternatives. Unless we see a return to fitness and form for Donnelly between now and the end of the season, it's probably the right time to part company there too.

I think that's kind of what interests me about the way things stand at the moment.

There's a question of how much of a clean slate Alexander wants and how much the options he's inherited from Robinson fit with how he wants to move forward. Mugabi and Lamie being signed up again as cover makes 100% sense especially since Bevis is multi-tasking at right back now.

Midfield is where it's interesting with us having signed Tierney as well that gives us 9 bodies (if you class Grimshaw as a midfielder and omit Parker) with 3 or 4 of them having missed chunks of the season with injury and 5 are out of contract come summer (Grimshaw, Maguire, O'Hara, Crawford and Donnelly).

O'Hara's kind of a good example in that he's played more than I thought he had this season but we've kind of tweaked how we play while he's been out the team. Alexander alluded to the change in approach after the United game and it was a comment that a few of us picked up on and while it's still early days it feels like we're aspiring to something that's a bit more of a middle ground between Murderball and something a bit more palatable.

O'Hara's still completed 90 mins in 8 of our league games though, which was a surprise. Then again, there's a part of me that wouldn't be entirely surprised to see him end up at Morecambe with Robinson or something tbh.:

I suppose what I'm getting at is, how many of those games that O'Hara played were because Alexander rates him and how many were because he was one of our only midfield options? (And I mean no shade on O'Hara with that).

Edited December 6, 2021 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

Parker's never going to play a game for us before getting emptied. Already looking forward to the next comment on him from Alexander as he departs. "He's managed to put his boots on the right feet and he goes with our best wishes".

Crawford & Grimshaw aren't good enough to play in our midfield. Grimshaw is probably passable as a squad player to chuck on at full back in a pinch but cannot be relied on to start. We had about 8 months of Crawford last season to see how much he can contribute and it's no much. 

We all want Donnelly to be available but he's permacrocked which is a shame. At points he's looked like a very, very good player but we can't rely on him.

Maguire is better than Grimshaw & Crawford, probably on par with O'Hara ability wise. 

I'm hopeful that the Irish lad offers us some creativity in there and we can get a more cohesive midfield. Slattery is a great find for this level and Sean Goss* has turned out to be an assist machine after a shite start. 

_{*Said through gritted teeth.} 

 

 

[Swello]

11 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I think that's kind of what interests me about the way things stand at the moment.

There's a question of how much of a clean slate Alexander wants and how much the options he's inherited from Robinson fit with how he wants to move forward. Mugabi and Lamie being signed up again as cover makes 100% sense especially since Bevis is multi-tasking at right back now.

Midfield is where it's interesting with us having signed Tierney as well that gives us 9 bodies (if you class Grimshaw as a midfielder and omit Parker) with 3 or 4 of them having missed chunks of the season with injury and 5 are out of contract come summer (Grimshaw, Maguire, O'Hara, Crawford and Donnelly).

O'Hara's kind of a good example in that he's played more than I thought he had this season but we've kind of tweaked how we play while he's been out the team. Alexander alluded to the change in approach after the United game and it was a comment that a few of us picked up on and while it's still early days it feels like we're aspiring to something that's a bit more of a middle ground between Murderball and something a bit more palatable.

O'Hara's still completed 90 mins in 8 of our league games though, which was a surprise. Then again, there's a part of me that wouldn't be entirely surprised to see him end up at Morecambe with Robinson or something tbh.:

I suppose what I'm getting at is, how many of those games that O'Hara played were because Alexander rates him and how many were because he was one of our only midfield options? (And I mean no shade on O'Hara with that).

O'Hara's main problem is that (presumably) the slot he would take in our team would be the one that Goss is now in possession of. It's also not a coincidence that our style of play and our form have got better since Goss came in and has been effective - so as things stand, O'Hara is a bench option.

Based on what I saw from Cornelius at Easter Rd, I'd happily have him up the pecking order as the "next" midfielder and if that were the case - some of the others are looking like luxuries to have in the squad. 

[Onthefringes]

5 hours ago, superward said:

Yep, and Tony defintley has had discussions about a contract extension. It happened prior to his deal being arranged to go down south in August. Not sure if the discussions have been picked up since that fell through but the club aren't just sitting on their hands forgetting he's out of contract.

Seen a few of late. I’d question validity of those comments. 

[Doctor Manhattan]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

50k isn't worth having permanent black snotters and putting up with the liquid chalk that passes for tap water.

The beer is mainly lukewarm, flat piss too.

1 hour ago, Archie McSquackle said:

There's plenty of clubs that aren't in London. There's an absolute stack in that M6 corridor just for starters. This hypothetical £50k would go a lot further there also.

It would buy a beer fridge. 

['WellDel]

1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

Parker's never going to play a game for us before getting emptied. Already looking forward to the next comment on him from Alexander as he departs. "He's managed to put his boots on the right feet and he goes with our best wishes".

 

_{*Said through gritted teeth.} 

 

 

The whole Mich'el Parker as a footballer thing just seems totally bizarre. No matter what stat sites you look on (unless there's any I've overlooked), the sole appearance listed for him is for West Ham in a 3-1 defeat to Exeter in the Football League Trophy.

At the age of 23, that's surely a sign that he's, well, not very good. No record of him even on loan at non league level or anything.

Considering he's never as much as made the bench he's definitely been the puntiest of punts. Fair play to the guy for being able to make a (undoubtedly modest) wage without actually doing anything. Up there amongst our weirdest/most pointless signings for sure.