wellboy1991 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 minute ago, well fan for life said: I've got absolutely zero belief that this squad of huddies would beat anybody in a play off. Absolutely the case. Especially when you think we will be up potentially against Raith who pumped us last year or a Watt/Moult forward line. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blink182 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, Swello said: I feel sorry for whoever is hunting for some good news so that the club can officially announce Mika's departure. Acceptable replacement ready. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 26/12/2023 at 13:17, ropy said: Mere speculation but I wonder if Wilkinson reckons that things haven’t worked out the way he wanted to and has a move back down south lined up. Kettlewell has proved adept at moving players on. Is that why he hasn’t even featured off the bench the past 2 games? This would create space in the squad for another striker, why not a promising U23 from, say, Spurs. Mere speculation. Revisiting my speculative post which predicted Wilkinson’s demise so why not push for this Spurs starlet (if they have one)? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 10 minutes ago, wellboy1991 said: I think the miracle is that Livi are utterly dug meat and we should finish ahead of them. However that isn’t of course a given. I've just written similar in a WhatsApp chat with 'Well fans. We are by far the biggest team not to be relegated in my lifetime, when the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Dundee, Dundee United, Kilmarnock etc have had multiple visits to the lower league, I get that. However, the number of times we hit halfway point in a season and are having the "we're doomed and going down" chat, compared to the number of times we've been relegated, or even in danger come the end of the season, is signficantly different. This year I won't deny that our budget and our squad make it one of the more grim occurences of the chat, but I also don't think we've had the chat whilst eight points clear from the bottom. In essence, Livingston need to win three games that we lose, as well as equaling our points tally in the rest of the games. Livingston have won twice in 21 games, I really don't see 3 in the next 17 games coming easily. Also add in the fact that Livingston have an even lower budget than us, if it was Kilmarnock, or Ross County sitting in their position, you'd be wary of them chucking money at in January to survive - but we know Livi won't be able to do that. With that in mind, 11th is probably the lowest we could finish, which don't get me wrong is a distinct possibility. At that point, we would still be playing a team who would be playing another four or six games on to the end of their season, who would have to beat us over two legs. We're all looking at our team at the moment through a lens of being without Slattery, Biereth and Spencer from our regular XI from the start of the season. I'm not suggesting we will be able to replace the quality of those three, but come the end of the window, or I reckon even by next Saturday, we will have some form of reinforcements available. It won't be that long until Casey (hopefully in better form) and Miller are back available to us too. Where my immediate concern lies is for Saturday. I think back to our recent shocks - against Albion Rovers we fielded a team devoid of creativity and against Sligo we had Mugabi at centre half against a team who were happy for us to have the ball. On Saturday, we will have both. I look at the players available to us this weekend and do see a potential banana skin in there. Especially when the likelihood is that our bench will have McGinley, Maguire and several 17 year olds in it. My concern is that say we do go out and Kettlewell has "lower league cup shock" to add as a blot to his copybook already featuring "1 win in 15 games", that things will get particularly toxic in the stands. I don't think Ketts ever foresaw going in to Saturday's game knowing that Slattery and Mika were finished with us for the season. Regardless of result on Saturday, we really need to get behind him afterwards. If we've not sacked him until this point, for everyone's sake it is crucial that we back him in the final ten days of the transfer window. It would be too short-sighted otherwise. I don't think I'll be attending many enjoyable football matches between now and the end of the season, but I do still think the odds are ever so slightly in our favour to stay up. Which if your primary concern is us being a Premiership side next season, then that's good, but if you have aspirations of being entertained on a Saturday afternoon, it's not so good. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 3 hours ago, Desp said: I don't fear relegation. Thats because youve never seen your team relegated. The 2nd tier is generally brutal. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellboy1991 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Just on a slightly positive note. We have had a right back on trial this week who played against EK. German who is currently plying his trade in Norway. Tobias is his first name. Only one I can see is a Tobias Pachonik. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoF Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 15 hours ago, AnderooMFC said: My maw's an Arsenal fan but if they take Mika off us I might give serious consideration to smashing her Arsenal gnome 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil86 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Few reports of KVV to hearts, unsure how reliable any of them are. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 I’m not sure what Kettlewell is saying ‘scotches’ anything but this is mildly interesting given it was (I think) BAnderson who reported we’d been granted permission to speak to him but the club also straight up denied the Connor Smith link when Burns asked. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie McSquackle Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 That Hearts trackie top nearly saw my lunch come back up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 2 hours ago, Swello said: I feel sorry for whoever is hunting for some good news so that the club can officially announce Mika's departure. They got desperate 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 9 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said: They got desperate I don't blame them. I've seen cheerier atmospheres at a wake. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) Fwiw, here are the quotes from Kettlewell in that Record piece: Quote When asked what he could say about rumours linking the club to Halliday, Kettlewell said: “I can’t tell you anything. I believe we’ve been linked with every single player going. “What I can tell you is that we’ve spoken to a host of players, a host of agents, a host of clubs, to try and see if we can help the situation that we sit in, to try and build the squad, and bring good players to the club, and guys who are going to add value to what we currently have. “I’m not going to name-check anybody, I’m not going to go into specific players, I can assure you.” He said: “I didn’t take any time off over this period, I’ve been working tirelessly, along with the recruitment team and the staff, to try and see if we can do what we feel is right for this club. “There have been conversations, some successful, in terms of some of them are still spinning and some of them are still trundling along – and several that aren’t. “There are several that other clubs in this division can blow us out of the water with, so we have to take our medicine on that. “That’s no different from what it was for me in the summer – there are plenty of knock-backs and disappointments in there – but I do hope that we’re in a decent position with a couple of players. “I would love to think that over the next few days we can get some of them over the line, try and give us that little boost that we need, and that help to the rest of the players that we have here just now.” When asked if he is confident of getting his targets in place before the end of January, Kettlewell said: “I hope so, but I keep going back to it – this is all money related. “I think everybody does plead poverty, but we were working within a strict guideline of what we can and can’t do, and we’re trying to spin that out over several positions for us. “It would be really easy, for what we’ve got, to try and shunt it into one position and get one really good player in, but that’s not what we’re trying to do. “I’m trying to cover several positions here, I’m trying to spin it out, spread it out quite a bit, so that has a major impact on what you do.” Link I wonder which club(s) "blew us out the water". Tbh, if there's a positive here I guess that while he's talking about us working under "strict" guidelines in seasons gone past we've been in the position where we've found ourselves not only needing to improve what we had/have but also (thinking back to some of the Robinson seasons) having an bloated squad because the manager at the time had overseen us signing dugmeat. Where we are just now, whilst not ideal, we actually have room in the squad to bring bodies in - it's unlikely to be the case that we'll be in the position of having 35 bodies or whatever as we were when Alexander took over from Robinson. Edited January 18 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allroy for Prez Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 I think if a player is recalled due to an injury crisis to actually play for the parent team that’s one thing but to be loaned out to someone else is shite patter. We obviously didn’t insert a “shite patter” clause. Which is just typical of us! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 7 minutes ago, capt_oats said: I wonder which club(s) "blew us out the water". I assumed Dundee with Main for this one...but we might never have been after him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 31 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said: That Hearts trackie top nearly saw my lunch come back up. I actually really like that. Change the badge to a Motherwell one and I'd be all over that* *When it's in the sale for £20 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 9 minutes ago, Swello said: I assumed Dundee with Main for this one...but we might never have been after him. Aye that was the assumption I made not least because looking through @RandomGuy.'s January transfers thread it's difficult to identify anyone other than Main that we might have had an interest in - we're not competing with Celtic and Rangers. None of Aberdeen, Hibs or Killie have signed anyone which leaves Dundee, Hearts, Livi, County, St Johnstone or St Mirren and, respectfully, it's slim pickings when you look at the players they've brought in. Tbh, I still find it a bit weird that we'd have thought that Main would actually have been *that* interested in coming back here given he wasn't exactly a beloved player. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowsdower Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, wellboy1991 said: Just on a slightly positive note. We have had a right back on trial this week who played against EK. German who is currently plying his trade in Norway. Tobias is his first name. Only one I can see is a Tobias Pachonik. Gorgie Gent is following him on insta, and he's following Davor and Gent, so he made some friends during the trial. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 4 minutes ago, rowsdower said: Gorgie Gent is following him on insta, and he's following Davor and Gent, so he made some friends during the trial. Wait...is that our Robert Maaskant? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellboy1991 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 10 minutes ago, rowsdower said: Gorgie Gent is following him on insta, and he's following Davor and Gent, so he made some friends during the trial. Ah must be him then. Big strong looking lad?. I don’t have Insta or FB but seem a decent way of doing some investigation works lol. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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