Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Did we ever figure out what happened with Efford's extension in the summer?

This is something I was thinking about as well after reading the Kettlewell stuff earlier.

He was announced on a 2 year deal and the copy explicitly says he signed until summer 2023 then similar to SOD it turns out there's been an extra year added but not announced.

I could understand if there was an extension clause in the deal but Efford didn't kick a baw for us after 8th October so it's difficult to see it being an appearances trigger and you'd think if we'd been doing our sound guy routine and getting him fit again after a long term injury it wouldn't have been on 'top earner' terms.

1 hour ago, MurrayWell said:

That's fair enough mate, tongue was in my cheek with the uppercrust and Parker comments, get he wouldn't have been on much at all. I suppose my main issue is more around the reported high amounts of money we're paying for folk who don't bring anything to the squad, Efford being the most recent example. Ojala and Johansen were also two I'd have in that category of being on a fair wedge but just not proving to be a good return on investment, see also Riku Danzaki and some of the new contracts we've dished out. 

Completely get that every signing at our level is a risk and not everything will work out, but we do seem to have been pretty consistent at giving healthy contracts to absolute duds of late. Of course there have been some decent signings in that time too though. Hopefully with the recent gutting, which I would argue shows recruitment hasn't been good, we've cleared the decks and are in a much better place. 

Aye, I think it's absolutely fair to say that it seems like we've been overpaying. To me that's slightly different to the recruitment being bad - to me it's more the case we've just not been very efficient in what we've been doing and the point about value is also completely fair.

In the case of the likes of Ojala and Sol - both made sense but didn't really work out as planned and in Sol's case we moved him on after a year for an undisclosed fee and the big man is starting every week for Odd in the Eliteserien (they're sitting mid-table in 8th at the moment). You'd hope we'd have come out of that one having at least broken even - no harm, no foul.

In terms of the recent gutting we've seen I think it really chimes with Kettlewell's point that we were simply running with too many players which is something that I think we've all identified through various manager be it Robinson, Alexander or Hammell.

Both Robinson and Alexander preached about wanting to run with smaller squads (in fairness Grezza inherited one with about 35 first team players) but we kept finding ourselves in situations where we were having to pile on numbers - Robinson always seemed to need that one extra "forward who can play anywhere across the front 3" and Hammell's trolley dash in January being the latest example and the board have always made it work.

SK seems to have been the first manager that's actually understood the assignment and got to grips with it.

Edited September 14, 2023 by capt_oats

[Handsome_Devil]

43 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

SK seems to have been the first manager that's actually understood the assignment and got to grips with it.

With that in mind, you wonder if a contract extension is in the offing.

It's perhaps not a given how we got burned with Alexander. But as it stands, we already look ok for survival which is when thoughts turn to next season...

As much as the jury is out on SK's signings, steadying the ship this year is a triumph...and then he'll know he has a summer window ahead when he's not just putting out fires in the budget.

[ropy]

10 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

. But as it stands, we already look ok for survival which is when thoughts turn to next season...

 

10 points?

[ropy]

15 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

With that in mind, you wonder if a contract extension is in the offing.

It's perhaps not a given how we got burned with Alexander. But as it stands, we already look ok for survival which is when thoughts turn to next season...

As much as the jury is out on SK's signings, steadying the ship this year is a triumph...and then he'll know he has a summer window ahead when he's not just putting out fires in the budget.

No issues with a contract extension- make him feel wanted 

[ropy]

Our kick-off time for our home match against Celtic later this month has been brought forward.  

Originally kicking off at 3pm, the match will now start at the slightly earlier time of 12.30pm on Saturday 30 September.

i will be on holiday, I’m guessing a stream will be available.

Edited September 14, 2023 by ropy

[Swello]

Damn - can't make that game now (although if I do have to miss a home game, I'd choose an OF one obviously). 

['WellDel]

39 minutes ago, ropy said:

Our kick-off time for our home match against Celtic later this month has been brought forward.  

Originally kicking off at 3pm, the match will now start at the slightly earlier time of 12.30pm on Saturday 30 September.

i will be on holiday, I’m guessing a stream will be available.

As far as I could see that was a blank weekend in Sky's fixtures and I don't see that changed anywhere, so why the move? Someone else maybe picked it up to be announced shortly, or just to suit Celtic's European schedule?

Either way, whenever either them or Rangers are involved you'll usually find plenty of streaming options. 

[capt_oats]

6 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

As far as I could see that was a blank weekend in Sky's fixtures and I don't see that changed anywhere, so why the move? Someone else maybe picked it up to be announced shortly, or just to suit Celtic's European schedule?

Either way, whenever either them or Rangers are involved you'll usually find plenty of streaming options. 

It’s apparently to allow us to sell it as a PPV game.

[Handsome_Devil]

1 hour ago, ropy said:

10 points?

I'll rephrase then to 'others look absolutely horseshit so we should be no worse than 10th'

[capt_oats]

[well fan for life]

So Kelly's broken and McGinn's suspended?

Only one man can lead us through.

[ropy]

SOD in the back 3 and Toby on the bench covering the 5 positions at the back.  A handful of 16 year olds on the bench too.  If Dunne can control himself we may see this game out.

[Allroy for Prez]

No update on Butcher? Is he going to be even longer than the others?

[capt_oats]

McFadden talking about Robinson on Open Goal. Quite a lot going on between the lines here...

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Called him a "hammerthrowing c**t" for anyone who can't be arsed watching.

[capt_oats]

1 minute ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Called him a "hammerthrowing c**t" for anyone who can't be arsed watching.

Genuinely LOL'd when he said that.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, Allroy for Prez said:

No update on Butcher? Is he going to be even longer than the others?

I heard at one point, can't remember where, that October was mooted.

I think if that's realistic, we'd already have seen a "back on the grass " post from the club.

[Allroy for Prez]

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I heard at one point, can't remember where, that October was mooted.

I think if that's realistic, we'd already have seen a "back on the grass " post from the club.

That’s what I was thinking, and we haven’t, which leads me to fear it will be much longer unfortunately. 

[eliphas]

13 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I heard at one point, can't remember where, that October was mooted.

I think if that's realistic, we'd already have seen a "back on the grass " post from the club.

Aye, I think I thought that too but I don't actually see anything when I look back

Noticed Blaney running in one of the pics so I guess that's a positive. 

[Handsome_Devil]

13 hours ago, Allroy for Prez said:

That’s what I was thinking, and we haven’t, which leads me to fear it will be much longer unfortunately. 

There were different suggestions of the timeframe, the version I heard (shortly after it happened) was November.