Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[RandomGuy.]

Tbf this...

... kind of sounds like it was forced upon you as part of a loan agreement made in the Summer more than through choice, to me.

[well fan for life]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

Tbf this...

... kind of sounds like it was forced upon you as part of a loan agreement made in the Summer more than through choice, to me.

Somewhere between this and us accepting that Obika will never be fit in his life probably makes sense. Vale showed more about him in this brief spell than Shaw has done entirely.

[MP_MFC]

9 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Tbf this...

... kind of sounds like it was forced upon you as part of a loan agreement made in the Summer more than through choice, to me.

My understanding is it's quite the opposite, we terminated the loan and offered to take him back on much reduced terms given his impact in the first half of the season, was then up to Barnsley if they wanted to pay him the full whack or take *something* for him as he couldn't go elsewhere.

[Handsome_Devil]

4 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:

My understanding is it's quite the opposite, we terminated the loan and offered to take him back on much reduced terms given his impact in the first half of the season, was then up to Barnsley if they wanted to pay him the full whack or take *something* for him as he couldn't go elsewhere.

That was certainly the whisper early in the window though the phrase regarding an appeal on the Barnsley site is curious. Do they mean we wanted him and there was an appeal to circumvent the deadline somehow or did they appeal that his injury we may or may have used to cancel the loan wasn't serious enough to justify it?

['WellDel]

If Shaw is ineligible to go elsewhere and Barnsley have basically sent him back up almost free gratis, I can see Kettlewell's thinking in having an extra body to make up the numbers in training and bounce games. Would not expect to see him take the field again though unless Bair and Vale's legs fall off.

[MurrayWell]

The "appeal" thing is all to do with Barnsley submitting a form to the FA before the deadline to allow a bit more time to get the deal finished. 

We are certainly spinning it that he was only back down for treatment, don't think that was the case. The loan was originally cancelled and we are paying less this time from what I heard. 

Edit: just checked and the original statement said the loan was terminated. This new story doesn't specify that it's a new loan deal but I think that's the case. 

Edited February 8 by MurrayWell

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I'm sort of fine with it. The last two games have brightened the mood around the place but I still think failing to bring in a striker on deadline day was a bit of a minor disaster. This at least gives us something other than Vale and the Bair.

[Handsome_Devil]

12 minutes ago, MurrayWell said:

The "appeal" thing is all to do with Barnsley submitting a form to the FA before the deadline to allow a bit more time to get the deal finished. 

That's a relief. I think.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Decanter is still at Barnsley, top scorer in League One. Fair play to him.

[Archie McSquackle]

Says a lot for the quality available in the out of contract market. 

[thisGRAEME]

Mad how people were more upset about a player who doesn't play for Motherwell getting booed than people actively rooting against an actual Motherwell player, but there we are.

[Wellin]

12 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Mad how people were more upset about a player who doesn't play for Motherwell getting booed than people actively rooting against an actual Motherwell player, but there we are.

I agree. Some players have been given a very hard time particular on Facebook and Twitter. Kettlewell too. Of course folk are entitled to their opinions, just think it's been very toxic lately. 

Edited February 8 by Wellin

[thisGRAEME]

5 minutes ago, Wellin said:

 Of course folk are entitled to their opinions

Now that's where you're wrong.

[rowsdower]

Oli Shaw has become a meme. He's nowhere near as bad as some like to make out, and he's at about the level a backup striker at motherwell is going to be.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

When I heard murmurs of this at the game on Tuesday, I thought it was nonsense. I've never heard of this happening before.

I will qualify this with saying that I don't think Shaw was good for us prior to the break, but I certainly don't think this is the disaster some make it out to be, especially on a lesser wage.

I don't think the fans' opinion of him would be as low, if we didn't have such a chaotic use of strikers in general in the first half of the season. There were points where he was one of four strikers being brought on as a sub in a game. When we were playing someone up beside Mika, all four of the other guys got a shot at it and there was never any chance for momentum or consistency.

Many were shouting on us to sign just any striker when the window closed. We've done that and people are still unhappy.

[Busta Nut]

12 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Oli Shaw has become a meme. He's nowhere near as bad as some like to make out, and he's at about the level a backup striker at motherwell is going to be.

I massively disagree based on the first half of the season. 

[MurrayWell]

Shaw is pretty pish at fitba, but we've had plenty of folk over the years who are pretty pish at fitba.

We are light up top, he's not going to be a first pick I wouldn't expect. Would I have re-signed him? Probably not. But I'd expect the agreement was that we were trying to get someone else (Eg KvV) but if we failed to do so we'd take him back on reduced terms. So we are where we are. 

Also, I can't imagine many players,  unattached or otherwise, are going to be jumping through hoops to become our third or fourth choice striker. 

[Quatermass]

5 hours ago, capt_oats said:

It'd need to be a win against Aberdeen as the rearranged Dundee v St Johnstone game is over the weekend so it depends on that result.

The draw puts us on 26 points. Dundee win they go to 29 points, draw 27. St Johnstone win they go on to 27.

The difference in narrative of the respective seasons is quite funny though. The general consensus seems to be that Dundee are having a "good" season while we're erm...very much not.

As it stands there's a point difference between the two teams with us having (marginally) scored more goals and conceded fewer.

Cheers. Had no idea that match was taking place at the weekend. Thought there had been a full wipeout due to the Scottish Cup. We’ll just need to win then!

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, MurrayWell said:

The "appeal" thing is all to do with Barnsley submitting a form to the FA before the deadline to allow a bit more time to get the deal finished. 

We are certainly spinning it that he was only back down for treatment, don't think that was the case. The loan was originally cancelled and we are paying less this time from what I heard. 

Edit: just checked and the original statement said the loan was terminated. This new story doesn't specify that it's a new loan deal but I think that's the case. 

Aye. I mean, fair play to the club for trying to spin this and given the circumstances...fine but don't kid a kidder. 

3 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm sort of fine with it. The last two games have brightened the mood around the place but I still think failing to bring in a striker on deadline day was a bit of a minor disaster. This at least gives us something other than Vale and the Bair.

Yeah, I had posted after the window shut saying that regardless of what happened going forward it was still a failure and I kind of stand by that.

We cleared the decks but presumably missed *all* our targets - given we've brought back an apparently still injured player whose loan we terminated less than a month ago.

Like I don't think folk need to be looking for their pound of flesh or anything (the Nick Daws thread on Steelmen is a riot - shoutout the boy who can't "farthom" (sic) why people think results last season were worse. Spoiler: it's because results last season were worse.) but there probably needs to be some sort of accountability as far as process goes; were we unrealistic in our targets, did we leave things too late, was it financial etc?

Edited February 8 by capt_oats

[Busta Nut]

I don't want Oli Shaw above Jack Vale in the pecking order. 
Based on 10 minutes v 4 months