Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Handsome_Devil]

His BBC quotes - if fair - have mutualled in the morning stamped all over them.

[ropy]

The focus will rightly be on the manager but how come our players can’t pass to each other.  County strung 40 passes together after their third goal, we seldom managed more than 3.

Even when the right pass is identified it is slow and anticipated and therefore intercepted.

[ropy]

On 04/11/2023 at 22:46, ropy said:

Just saw Ross Laidlaw making some saves on the telly, would he see us as a step up?

I would still take him.

[Quatermass]

Just had a look at Hammell’s run, and unless I’m mistaken it was 11 in the league without a win. Seemed a very long time due to the World Cup break. We had a win against Arbroath in the Cup during this.

Kettlewell has a run of 12 under him. That has stretched over three months and two international breaks. If he is in charge on Saturday then something else is going on. Very bad finances, management etc.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Quatermass

[camer0n_mcd]

15 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

His BBC quotes - if fair - have mutualled in the morning stamped all over them.

Sounds like a guy that's accepted defeat 

[AdamMFC]

It looks like it could be a serious injury for Casey, he was stretchered off after everyone else had went down the tunnel.

[thisGRAEME]

It's not looking good Bruv.

[welldaft]

Hopefully they will ban plastic pitches in the top flight next season . 

[CoF]

Paul Heckingbottom sacked at Sheffield today.... along with Stuart McCall. 

I did wonder if McCall is now beyond our budget, and I know he had money to spend last time round, but fucking hell it would be a relief to see him back. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

It's unhealthy that if we do part ways that we will be looking at our fifth permanent manager in four seasons. It also slightly concerns me that with every manager we turnover quickly, the position becomes less attractive to the type of manager that could actually break the cycle. 

That said, now that the bags are under his eyes the way that they were with Hammell, 12 games without a win and Wilkinson playing centre mid being the type of selection that would have made the Raith game, we've reached the point where him still being in charge has no benefit to the players, the fans or even him.

Nothing personal against him, he obviously wanted it to work as much as all of us did. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

3 minutes ago, CoF said:

Paul Heckingbottom sacked at Sheffield today.... along with Stuart McCall. 

I did wonder if McCall is now beyond our budget, and I know he had money to spend last time round, but fucking hell it would be a relief to see him back. 

Would it?

The last time he inherited Randolph, Hateley, Hammell, Craigan, Hutchinson, Reynolds (albeit for a month), Jennings, Lasley, Humphrey, Murphy and Sutton. 

We can only dream of that standard of player nowadays.

[Alanos]

Give him one last go on Sat.

Heres the team I’d play

Mugabi

O’Donnell, Wilkinson, Bear, Shaw, Spittal

Slattery, Davor, Gent

Mika, Obika

[Quatermass]

8 minutes ago, CoF said:

Paul Heckingbottom sacked at Sheffield today.... along with Stuart McCall. 

I did wonder if McCall is now beyond our budget, and I know he had money to spend last time round, but fucking hell it would be a relief to see him back. 

Always left a bad taste in my mouth with the Rangers appointment/playoff not long after we parted company. However, it all worked out for us I suppose. If we could get a sniff of the fitba and form we had in his early years, I’d take your hand off with it. He would be stunned at the quality he would be working with though.

[ropy]

Good to see Davor get a bit of game time. He looked keen and energetic but a bit lightweight, he seemed to find his man with a pass.  Would play him again.

[ropy]

I headed off as the players made their way over to receive the abuse. I don’t like that stuff.

[btb]

From the outside - are we saying Kettlewell got lucky with Van Veen hitting a hot streak around the time of his appointment?

[camer0n_mcd]

1 minute ago, btb said:

From the outside - are we saying Kettlewell got lucky with Van Veen hitting a hot streak around the time of his appointment?

That's definitely a factor but Van Veen wasn't the only one playing well in that team. Furlong and Johnson have been massive misses this season 

[All Well and Good]

What a shambles tonight. Don’t know what SK was trying with that team selection. 
When did Wilkinson become a midfield option? We had Davor and Butcher starting in the bench. 
 

Also looking bad for Casey with that injury at the end. Seems a bit daft of him going full in at that stage in the game. Wonder how long he’ll be out?
 

Looks like we’ll be short defensively for Saturday. Butcher and Mugabe also injured?
 

[capt_oats]

I mean, he only has 6 months or whatever of his deal to run so it's not like binning him should be a problem.

What is a problem is that I don't trust the judgement of anyone who's likely to be involved in the process of finding a replacement.

Either way, he should absolutely be toast now - that's the sort of result and general omnishambles that there's no coming back from.

On 05/02/2023 at 16:13, capt_oats said:

I'd be surprised if he didn't get next week but out of curiosity I had a look at the runs preceding recent managers leaving and respective league positions:

Alexander (sacked/mutual consent  - 29th July 2022) (N/A previous season 5th) - 3 wins in 18 league games
Robinson (resigned - 31st December 2020) (10th) - 0 wins in 8 league games
McGhee (sacked - 28th February 2017) (10th) - 2 wins in 13 league games
Baraclough (sacked 23rd September 2015) (9th) - 2 wins in 8 league games
McCall (resigned - 2nd November 2014) (10th) - 2 wins in 12 league games

I mean, Hammell is currently 11th with 1 win in 15 and no prior track record to fall back on.

That...doesn't look good?

As for replacements I've posted before but we've generally had a profile of candidate that's worked out for us in the past...I'll just re-up the post from when we lost the run of ourselves and just thought "f**k it" and gave Hammell the job:

On 02/05/2022 at 12:07, capt_oats said:

Give or take you can generally profile what we look for: 40-50, some experience - likely with 1 or 2 jobs behind them plus coaching, we generally don't make appointments who have managed at other Scottish clubs and I'm pretty sure you have to go back as far as Davies for a former (or current) player.

Of our recent managers Brown and McGhee are really the only ones who don't fit that description in terms of age and experience, although we seemed to go through a phase in the 90s - 00s of giving folk their first management jobs. Understandably we haven't done that since Malpas.

Also AFAIK McGhee's the only manager we've had to have 2 stints in the job.

Since McLean;

(94-98): McLeish -35, Previous club managed; n/a
(98): Kampman - 43, Previous clubs; Reipas (?), MyPa47 (?)
(98-01): Davies - 34, previous club; n/a
(01-02): Black - 39, previous club; n/a
(02-06): Butcher -43, previous clubs; Coventry (33.33%), Sunderland (30.23%)
(06-07): Malpas -43, previous clubs; n/a
(07-09): McGhee - 50, previous clubs; Reading (43.2%), Leicester (31.4%), Wolves (40.9%), Millwall (46.0%), Brighton (28.8%)
(09): Gannon - 40, previous clubs; Dundalk (36.1%), Stockport (43.4%)
(09-10): Brown - 69, previous clubs; Clyde (33.17%), Scotland u21s (43.18%), Scotland (45.07%), Preston (33.96%) 
(10-14): McCall - 46, previous club; Bradford (34.6% win)
(14-15): Baraclough - 44, previous clubs; Scunthorpe (23.5%), Sligo (55.0%) 
(15-17): McGhee - 58, previous clubs; Reading (43.2%), Leicester (31.4%), Wolves (40.9%), Millwall (46.0%), Brighton (28.8%), Motherwell (39.8%), Aberdeen (27.4%), Bristol Rovers (26.7%)
(17-20): Robinson - 42, previous club; Oldham (21.2%)
(21-present): Alexander - 49, previous clubs; Fleetwood (38.6%), Scunthorpe (46.9%), Salford (48.2%)

[fat_tony]

Bring back Jim Gannon. Finally the rest of the league has caught up with his style of football. Visionary.