Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[CoF]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

On today's episode of "Things I wouldn't Have Believed If I Hadn't Seen It":

Toby is taller than Bevis and the same height as Bair and Wilkinson.

Was just about to post the same thing.

He's also the same height as Tommy Cooper, Billy Corgan and Malcolm X. 

[eliphas]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

On today's episode of "Things I wouldn't Have Believed If I Hadn't Seen It":

Toby is taller than Bevis and the same height as Bair and Wilkinson.

He's a really quite a big and strong looking lad. Stood beside him in M&S at the tills once. Socks and sliders combo he had on though was a shocker.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

17 minutes ago, CoF said:

Was just about to post the same thing.

He's also the same height as Tommy Cooper, Billy Corgan and Malcolm X. 

Corgan is really good at basketball apparently. 

[Mr. Brightside]

Ketts at the Stirling Uni game, are we gonna sign Joe Bevan off the back of one performance?

[joewarkfanclub]

10 hours ago, capt_oats said:

It feels like we're kind of caught between 2 stools at the moment.

Kettlewell's been in charge for 25 games and we've only failed to score in 3 of them. Twice against St Mirren this season and yesterday against Rangers at Ibrox. The last 2 games is the first time we've failed to score B2B under Kettlewell.

We've obviously pivoted from the 3412 to this 3421 because of all the injuries which is getting us a foothold in games and giving us (effectively) 4 central midfielders on the park which has plus points and when you look at our performances you'd say that it's broadly working but there are also some (obvious) drawbacks.

Big CareBair is, ironically given the echo chamber doubling down @Casagolda mentions, doing the stuff he was brought to the club to do. He's acting as a foil - I'd be surprised if there was ever any expectation that a) he'd play as much as he had or b) that we'd get many goals out him.

I'd imagine we'll stick with the 4 CMs against Celtic at the weekend but after that given we had Shaw and Wilkinson come off the bench yesterday I guess the decision is whether we drop one (Paton?) to get a 2nd striker on the park from the start.

Id be shocked and stunned to see any of the midfield dropped this week given how well they have played as a unit.

For me the only position that is up for grabs is up front.

I agree Theo has done everything that has been asked of him and it would be harsh to drop him. But the harsh reality is the only thing missing from the last 2 performances is goals. That being the case there has to be a strong argument for Ollie Shaw to start. 

I do think there is every chance though that SK goes same again with a quiet word in Theo's ear about what he needs to do to retain his place.

The only other position I think could be up for question right now is SODs. With Spencer coming over to his natural position and Gent coming into left back.

However, again, I think this would be harsh and I dont see it happening.

 

[Neil86]

12 hours ago, Mr. Brightside said:

Ketts at the Stirling Uni game, are we gonna sign Joe Bevan off the back of one performance?

what's the story with Joe Bevan, seeing his name of all over twitter, commentators raving about him?

[well fan for life]

10 minutes ago, Neil86 said:

what's the story with Joe Bevan, seeing his name of all over twitter, commentators raving about him?

It's probably because he scored this tap in. 

 

[Mr. Brightside]

Beyond that absolute sitter, he was very impressive, if not quite raw looking. Direct, fast and powerful, something which might be helpful for us up front.

[Neil86]

Seen some Rangers fans talking about Lennon Miller, and I fully expect the Celtic fans to be the same come saturday dinner time.

"sign him in January and loan him back for 6 months"

"he comes from a good family"

hopefully there is a queue of Italian teams with 4m ready to spend.

[Gianfranco]

If Miller keeps progressing the way he has been then I think we’ve got to be looking for circa Turnbull sums of money.

It’s quite annoying that Slattery and Spittal are out of contract at the end of the season. We’ll just need to enjoy this midfield whilst it lasts.

[thisGRAEME]

5 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

If Miller keeps progressing the way he has been then I think we’ve got to be looking for circa Turnbull sums of money.

It’s quite annoying that Slattery and Spittal are out of contract at the end of the season. We’ll just need to enjoy this midfield whilst it lasts.

Would be surprised if Spittal moved on tbh. Unlikely to move up the tree here in Scotland, could move down to someone like St. Mirren/Dundee for cash, but I'd quietly assume he'll re-sign.

Slattery no chance, but fair play to him, he's timed that run of actually being good perfectly.

Plus when we get the Miller money we can bring Ally Gorrin back, problem solved.

Edited September 26, 2023 by thisGRAEME

[ropy]

1 minute ago, thisGRAEME said:

Would be surprised if Spittal moved on tbh. Unlikely to move up the tree here in Scotland, could move down to someone like St. Mirren/Dundee for cash, but I'd quietly assume he'll re-sign.

Slattery no chance, but fair play to him, he's timed that run of actually being good perfectly.

Plus when we get the Miller money we can bring Ally Gorrin back, problem solved.

Has Slattery not hung around long enough to have a local burd who will want to stay close to her mammy making Lanarkshire the place to be for the next couple of years? 

[KirkySuperSub]

21 minutes ago, ropy said:

Has Slattery not hung around long enough to have a local burd who will want to stay close to her mammy making Lanarkshire the place to be for the next couple of years? 

Like Van Veen?

[YassinMoutaouakil]

It's because Police Scotland keep targeting him for being English and making more money than them

[capt_oats]

I'd imagine Slattery was sold the pitch of "come up here we'll give you a platform and won't stand in the way of a decent move". I'd be surprised if he had any designs on staying longer than the duration of his contract.

Which is fair enough tbh - depending on where things stand in January it wouldn't be a huge surprise if we look to cash in on him Moult-style assuming his form keeps trending as it has. I'm pretty sure he'll be a known quantity down there given his CV.

Agree with others that Spittal feels like someone who might stick around given his circumstances (he wanted to move back to the central belt after County, he's got a wean on the way, his form has been excellent pretty much since he arrived).

Kettlewell was in the press a while ago effectively saying that he wanted to sit down with Kelly and discuss a new deal.

I'd wondered if the fact that he's spoken about Kelly might mean that we'd be looking at contract extensions as the next item on the agenda in a broader sense now that the squad has been trimmed as it has. Clearly whether or not the players sign up is a different story but given how vocal he was re: protecting our assets in the wake of the Johnston affair it seems like the sort of thing he's aware of and would want sorted.

Given the way he seems to have got the squad back on an even keel post-Grezza/Hammell you'd hope that the board would do him a turn.

Fwiw, here's who's OOC:

GK: Kelly, Oxborough, Connelly
DF: O'Donnell, Mugabi, McGinn, Lamie, McGinn, McGinley, Wilson, Campbell, Butcher, Souaré
MF: Maguire, Spittal, Slattery
FW: Obika, Mahon, Ferrie

Here's who's contracted:

GK: N/A
DF: Casey, Blaney
MF: Paton, Zdravkovski, Miller, Tierney
FW: Bair, Wilkinson

Edited September 26, 2023 by capt_oats

[Londonwell]

Assuming that Lennon Miller is still on a relatively low wage as a young player, we've really got to give him a bump up and stick an extra year or 2 on that contract. Likelihood is he'll be away next year or the following January anyway so I don't see why he wouldn't want to earn more in the short term and in turn we protect the maximum value of a player with a lot of potential.

[Desp]

It would be absolutely brilliant if the contracts of fitba players worked the way folk on football message boards think they do.

[thisGRAEME]

23 minutes ago, Desp said:

It would be absolutely brilliant if the contracts of fitba players worked the way folk on football message boards think they do.

I mean if someone offers you a contract you're obliged to sign it, right?

[Ron Aldo]

57 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

I mean if someone offers you a contract you're obliged to sign it, right?

Surely by now players know that if they don't sign it, the gun comes out. 

Just ask Declan. 

[well again]

Celtic are clearly worried about Saturday as they have appointed their pal  Collum as the ref .