Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[eliphas]

2 hours ago, Desp said:

Fair play to Max if this one goes through.  Will be great for him as opposed to going to some EPL or EFL Academy.  

A lot of the blame should be at Alexander's door as well.  He fell out with SOD, wanted him gone and instead of giving a younger player a chance, decided to bring in Paul McGinn to make it very clear to O'Donnell he wasn't going to play.  When SOD refused to budge, the easy option was to fire out Max on loan again. 

I think Max has a lot of potential but he's probably at the same stage in his career as Jake Hastie was when he had that purple patch with us. Just off the back of a couple of decent(ish) loan spells in the lower leagues, then comes back and does quite well in the first team and all of a sudden, there's interest galore.  It's a cheap and easy punt for any big club to take, so Max will need to be very careful and ensure he makes the right choice in the summer.  Fast forward a few years and he could easily be playing for Hartlepool Reserves like oor good pal Jake.

Ach these are the risks you take as a young player I guess. 

Rationally, it's probably a bit early but I think if I was him and genuinely had Bologna chapping the door I'd be off like a shot. 

But if it was a move to another club closer by just for a bump in wages not guaranteed playing every week vs playing every week for us I'd think I'd opt for us for a couple of years. 

Hopefully Kettlewell can have a positive word in his ear, he's playing him again and has form for developing youth players. 

Looks like it will be too little too late though.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Luke92 said:

If true, how many is that we've lost on compensation now?

How far back do you want to go?

• Lee Erwin (to Leeds)
• Ben Hall (to Brighton)
• Robbie Leitch (to Burnley)
• Jake Hastie (to Rangers)
• Chris Cadden (to Columbus Crew)
• Robbie Hemfrey (to Stoke)
• Allan Campbell (to Luton)
• Bailey Rice (to Rangers - although that's cheating a bit because he hadn't actually signed pro-terms)

The likes of McAlear and McKinstry were sold while the were under contract albeit McAlear had apparently said straight up he wouldn't be signing a new deal when his current one ended and had expressed his intention to sign for Norwich anyway.

I mean, you only have to look at the number of our formerly "highly rated" youngsters now kicking a baw for the podcast team in the Lowland League to see that it's pretty fine margins when it comes to getting these decisions right.

We chucked long term deals at DT23 and Luke Watt and it kind of feels like our strategy when it comes to Academy players has been informed by us having been burned with those.

Still waiting to cash in on that Dom Thomas sell on.

We tied Allan Campbell down to a 4 year deal when he was 19 (the same age as Johnston is now). Lennon Miller is on a 3 year deal.

For me there are probably a number of factors at play with Johnston, some within our control and others not.

He's 19 now and we know he signed his first pro deal in 2020 which was the Covid season so there was no Reserves football being played. We've loaned him out to help his development and as others have mentioned he did OK - much like Hastie before him.

The fact that we ended up bouncing him out on loan again this season essentially because the manager fell out with SOD and signed his replacement, leaving us with 2 international full backs, is kind of where I have the problem.

From the outside looking in Johnston's someone that we've never really seemed to have a plan for and for me @Casagolda's point about a lack of leadership rings true for me.

I've no doubt that we've been discussing a new deal for a while. IIRC Hammell was saying at the AGM that he was "very confident" that it'd get done but given the way things have gone for him I don't blame him or his Mr 20% for choosing to keep their options open.

Given the way Hickey and Ferguson's career developed over there there's not even the argument that he probably won't get a chance either.

Honestly, if this deal comes off then absolutely fair fucks to him.

Edited February 28, 2023 by capt_oats

[ropy]

I’ve only just realised that Polworth was on the pitch on Saturday, I never noticed him, apparently he took the corner for their goal.  I didn’t even hear any booing.  The forgotten man?

[wellinwigan]

2 minutes ago, ropy said:

I’ve only just realised that Polworth was on the pitch on Saturday, I never noticed him, apparently he took the corner for their goal.  I didn’t even hear any booing.  The forgotten man?

I noticed him on sportscene and roundly booed him from the comfort of my living room. 

[Swello]

3 minutes ago, ropy said:

I’ve only just realised that Polworth was on the pitch on Saturday, I never noticed him, apparently he took the corner for their goal.  I didn’t even hear any booing.  The forgotten man?

I can't forget that goal he scored at Fir Park recently - still raging about that game even if we've had our own back since. 

[capt_oats]

[ropy]

4 minutes ago, wellinwigan said:

I noticed him on sportscene and roundly booed him from the comfort of my living room. 

Job well done

[ropy]

3 minutes ago, Swello said:

I can't forget that goal he scored at Fir Park recently - still raging about that game even if we've had our own back since. 

I managed to miss that one as I was away for Christmas - late equalisers can be good as well as bad.

[Antiochas III]

35 minutes ago, ropy said:

I’ve only just realised that Polworth was on the pitch on Saturday, I never noticed him, apparently he took the corner for their goal.  I didn’t even hear any booing.  The forgotten man?

Wasn't he booked along with Casey for squaring up with each other.  Not much else stood out with him... 

 

And tbf, Killie fans did enough booing for both teams.  Give St Mirren fans a good challenge that lot.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Antiochas III

[rowsdower]

Yeah, Casey gave Polworth an Irish curse back breaker and they both got booked. That was when I noticed he was there.

[Richie]

4 hours ago, rowsdower said:

It's more than possible that regardless of what has happened the last season or two, or what we have offered him, that he just doesn't want to sign a contract with us.

Aye, can't force players to sign contracts.

Hig agent wi be right in his ear as well.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Richie

[Kapowzer]

9 hours ago, steelmen said:

IF we take the club and Flow's statements as truthful

IF is rightly in capitals.

Here's my take and if it turns out to be wrong, I'll buy you all a pint.

• Longtime admirer Cormack approaches Flao during the game in late October and takes it beyond a jokey "when you coming to Aberdeen?". Tells him to give it serious thought.
• Contacts him afterwards and formalises an offer, T&C's.
• Flao spends the World Cup break considering the viability and if it is the right move and convincing the Mrs as let's be honest, it's not commutable. So family upheaval.
• Approaches McMahon and advises him. Either we can't match Aberdeen's offer or Flao just wants a change. 3 months notice from late November which is standard for senior positions is actioned.
• Club start looking on the downlow, they can formalise anything until Flao publicly resigns.
• Flao concerned with how it will go down suggests they announce in the New Year but after the AGM which they move forward to avoid any awkward questions.
• The wait until a new successor is found thing is so he doesn't look like he's leaving a sinking ship or leaving us in the lurch .... remember for him, how he's viewed is paramount.
• Cormack is both impatient and paying a premium for Flao's services. Annoyed at the perceived dallying by us, takes the initiative and makes his start date public.
• Club yet again surprised that our family/community vibe doesn't really add anything to the volume or quality of applicants.

He's gone, fair play, can't ask more from him than you'd want yourself in your own career path. However questions have to be asked about his involvement in a transfer window and new manager search at the same time as his new employer was in the same markets (admittedly with a higher budget). If anything commercial or partnership wise he was involved with us turn up at Pittodrie I'd be pretty annoyed.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Kapowzer

[Kapowzer]

7 hours ago, eliphas said:

Big miss from the club and football dept in particular he wasn't signed up.

A casualty of having Alexander in charge.

To a degree but Hammy didn't have to let him go out either and could have certainly used him. Putting him out on loan with a year left is madness when he was so highly thought of. I mean Maguire has been lurking about the first team for 3 years since returning from QotS, use that as your datum.

Let's not overlook both our two previous managers had the personnel in the building to allow a back 5 as we've been playing successfully under Kettlewell. Alexander flirted with it at the season end and when McGinn was secured many of us thought it was a natural progression/evolution.

But we went with the square peg, round hole thing. If Hammy had not been so dogmatic to his 4-1-2-3 then Max could/would have been involved all season and with 10 odd games under his belt at Xmas and the promise of more, you'd think his signature would be easier to get than at AGM time when Hammy was surprisingly confident.

While not ideal, the thought of an extra centre half in McGinn to make a Sol sandwich with Lamie would have had a degree or merit when we were shipping soft goals.

 

Me at the idea of a "Sol Sandwich"  ......

Edited February 28, 2023 by Kapowzer

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Charlton fans seem to absolutely despise Penney 

[rowsdower]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Charlton fans seem to absolutely despise Penney 

Ha, just checked twitter. Overall, I liked him, but he did have some stinkers in his last few games for us. Maybe his dislike of being in Scotland wasn't the only reason for him playing shite. 

On another note, am I being crazy optimistic if I'm expecting the club to reply to an email? 

[Swello]

37 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

On another note, am I being crazy optimistic if I'm expecting the club to reply to an email?

Depends if it's of the type instructing the manager to "have them practice throw-ins at training" or not. 

[rowsdower]

17 minutes ago, Swello said:

Depends if it's of the type instructing the manager to "have them practice throw-ins at training" or not. 

I handwrite those. This was a question about hospitality. 

[Doctor Manhattan]

18 minutes ago, Swello said:

Depends if it's of the type instructing the manager to "have them practice throw-ins at training" or not. 

I thought the throw-ins were actually pretty good on Saturday.

[eliphas]

7 hours ago, rowsdower said:

I handwrite those. This was a question about hospitality. 

I'd give them a phone. I just emailed about hospitality post split actually and got a reply. Email could have went into spam or something. 

[Gianfranco]

Robbie Hemfrey getting sold to Stoke completely passed me by. I’ve honestly never heard of the guy. He’s at Rotherham now.

Max Johnston is so much more athletic than our recent full backs. I’m not surprised a lot of teams are looking at him. It reminds me of Robinson signing forward players with attributes you couldn’t teach but to be fair to Max he seems a decent enough defender anyway.