Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Swello]

46 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Or are we once again chucking the kitchen sink at it in January, before cutting our cloth again in the summer? There's got to be a better way.

If I thought it was a January window signings kind of deal that would "save" us - I would be feeling more comfortable than I do. I'm not convinced that chucking a few players in to the current mess would make much difference TBH. 

[Handsome_Devil]

51 minutes ago, Al B said:

I'm really just adding this post in as a sort of bookmark for myself, but I just have a feeling there's a turnaround on the way. I think Kettlewell will still be the manager come the end of the season, and I think we'll be comfortably mid-table.

There'll be a queue of 'charity' bet offers flooding your inbox this evening!

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

I'm really just adding this post in as a sort of bookmark for myself, but I just have a feeling there's a turnaround on the way. I think Kettlewell will still be the manager come the end of the season, and I think we'll be comfortably mid-table.

I actually agree with this tbh.

[well fan for life]

If it helps I'm not attending this weekend and I haven't seen us win yet this season. Bought my season ticket, missed a couple of games while I was on holiday at the end of summer.

Is this my fault?

[welldaft]

Excellent post @crazylegsjoe.

When you have 26 players leave the building and replace them with 9, then it would have been more surprising to see us in the top half of the table winning more than we are losing. I think the start to the season gave us all some false hope that would be the outcome.

That is why I think the Board will give him as much time as they can before pulling the plug. It would hypocritical in the extreme to expect miracles when you have substantially cut back the playing budget from previous seasons. As I have said in previous posts we only need half a dozen injuries / suspensions to struggle to put out an experienced 11 on the pitch. That is bare bones territory. 

If we lose the next 4 games inc Livi then enough would be enough probably even for the current Board. But pick up 4 or more points and I think they give him the window and beyond to turn things around. Which again I hope he manages to do.

“The scenario where we finish 10th every season” is more likely than not regardless of who the Manager is. If you have the 9th or 10th smallest budget then logic dictates that is where you will end up more often than not. Unless you sign incredibly well and you get top 6 or incredibly poorly and our run in the top flight comes to an end. 

 

 

[Stevie Kirk]

51 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

If it helps I'm not attending this weekend and I haven't seen us win yet this season. Bought my season ticket, missed a couple of games while I was on holiday at the end of summer.

Is this my fault?

Yes 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

2 hours ago, Swello said:

If I thought it was a January window signings kind of deal that would "save" us - I would be feeling more comfortable than I do. I'm not convinced that chucking a few players in to the current mess would make much difference TBH. 

I get what you mean. I would agree that if we were to chuck like-for-like players in to this shape and style, then it would probably make little difference. However, if we were able to sign players who enabled us to change shape and style, that might be different.

I can think of three examples (2014/15, 2020/21 and 2022/23) where we were struggling in December, done a lot of business in January and ultimately thrived, or in the case of the play-off season at least survived. However, all three of those coincided with new managers getting their first window, so I'm not sure how much you pin on the manager.

The board obviously have to weigh up whether the financial burden of investing in the team in January is better or worse than the financial burden of being relegated. The former has alway seemed to win in the past.

We've cut our cloth so much this year that perhaps we are just taking our chances that the very possible scenario where there are two teams worse than us in our current state plays out.

[Marinello]

Re SK and the debate over his future. 

Add to the mix that as SK has already indicated that he has been speaking to one or two possible January recruits , this raises the likelihood that these 2 wouldn't likely join if SK's future was in question.

With this in mind , secondly our already depleted small squad and the rapidly diminishing time a new guy would have to use the transfer window , I feel that unless we sink like a stone in the next 4 games SK will be around until the end of January.

BUT if the Alloa cup tie goes the same way as Albion Rovers some years back........!!

[rowsdower]

11 minutes ago, Marinello said:

BUT if the Alloa cup tie goes the same way as Albion Rovers some years back........!!

We'll finish second?

[D-Fens Foster]

If the next 3 games are LLL I don’t think Kettlewell can survive that. Paisley on Saturday is absolutely massive.
We come away with a loss then we can probably forget about the blue cheek and Aberdeen away.

Its a big IF but if we lose the next 3 then hopefully any new gaffer would get the “bounce” against Livi. 

The game that made me love being a Well fan was big Van der Gaag against Dunfermline. I feel like we are heading to that sort of season ending again

[Gianfranco]

It would hilarious if it’s this sorry lot that are the team to finally beat Rangers.

[ropy]

5 hours ago, Al B said:

I'm really just adding this post in as a sort of bookmark for myself, but I just have a feeling there's a turnaround on the way. I think Kettlewell will still be the manager come the end of the season, and I think we'll be comfortably mid-table.

I genuinely thought the turnaround was going to be last mid week, I travelled in hope.  It was drained from me after minute 1.

I was wondering how many games in the ‘run’ have we not had any sort of a performance from the team, the Old Firm games and the St Mirren one were all ‘good’, the come back games showed some sort of effort, Liningston was poor when down to 10 men and Dingwall was dismal.

The thing is we could have 3 reasonable performances coming up and could quite reasonably see three defeats.

We just need a win.

[MurrayWell]

There's Simo about to take the Riga FC job, according to Twitter chat. 

Shame we won't get the annual wasting of everyone's time interviewing him if our job does end up coming up. 

[camer0n_mcd]

Simo Valakari about to get the Riga job. Could be the first time in history that he's not linked to the Motherwell job 

[capt_oats]

Posted it earlier in the thread but this is Simo's managerial record.

[MurrayWell]

2 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Posted it earlier in the thread but this is Simo's managerial record.

I've no strong feelings about him becoming our boss or not BTW. Just won't be the same if our job comes up and the board don't go through the whole process only to KB him. 

Seems to be doing no bad for himself anyway. 

['WellDel]

Simo is just set to be a perennial 'what if' in terms of managing us, a fact I think I'm quite glad about. Loved him as a player, and would hate it when the inevitable day came that it fell apart in his reign and I would have to call him a useless cvnt and demand his sacking...

[Handsome_Devil]

If we'd binned kettlewell when I wanted, Simo would have been my first pick from the known crowd...a shame.

[D-Fens Foster]

16 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

Simo is just set to be a perennial 'what if' in terms of managing us, a fact I think I'm quite glad about. Loved him as a player, and would hate it when the inevitable day came that it fell apart in his reign and I would have to call him a useless cvnt and demand his sacking...

Van der Gaag ? Did he not get the heavy knock back for Baraclough ? Big Mitch n Mickey Weir management duo ?

[Handsome_Devil]

3 minutes ago, D-Fens Foster said:

Van der Gaag ? Did he not get the heavy knock back for Baraclough ? Big Mitch n Mickey Weir management duo ?

I love there's an alternative universe where Big Mitch is coaching semi-pro back home rather than being Billy Big Baws at Man Utd because we sacked him one year for being 10th with 23 points from 26 games.