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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

One of my early channel five memories is seeing Mikko Kaven playing for Valerenga (I think) against Chelsea, shortly after he left us. 

I also remember shortly afterwards the Liverpool v Barcelona UEFA cup semi being delayed by 15 minutes to accommodate the longer "who shot Phil Mitchell" episode of EastEnders. 

European football used to be great back then. Both the UEFA cup and the Cup Winners' Cup had their USPs and winning the cup held more importance back then. Watching a game in September or October where the teams were going for it was class, compared to now where we have the Champions League and two lesser versions of it.

Have to say, none of my early channel 5 memories involve football.👠

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1 hour ago, eliphas said:

Have to say, none of my early channel 5 memories involve football.👠

Channel 4 on a Sunday was the best. 

Gazzetta Football Italia during the day followed by an Emmanuelle movie or a Gerard Depardiue ‘special’ at night. 

The good old days.

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12 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

The CWC was fantastic and it was a shame the CL killed it. Actually I said somewhere here recently there were virtually no positive changes since the passback rule but the introduction of the conference league was indeed a brilliant move to recreate that a bit.

love the Conference league man. It breaks my heart that had it been around just a wee bit earlier we'd have been in group stage football at a canter.

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12 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

The CWC was fantastic and it was a shame the CL killed it. Actually I said somewhere here recently there were virtually no positive changes since the passback rule but the introduction of the conference league was indeed a brilliant move to recreate that a bit.

image.jpeg.22463b5af1c567c483c1c9c0339c8616.jpeg

This was a decent read on the topic of the CWC.  

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15 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

love the Conference league man. It breaks my heart that had it been around just a wee bit earlier we'd have been in group stage football at a canter.

So do I. In a way it's ridiculous to say it's because it's not about money because pretty much everything UEFA does comes down to money one way or another.. but there's certainly the impression that folk in it are just thrilled to be competing against peers for something worth winning having effectively been priced out of other competitions. Which is extraordinary when you consider who tends to reach the last four here.

It's also curious to wonder just how far UEFA will go in developing European football for everyone. Does it lose its appeal if it's default and not a prize? Probably a bit...but if you keep diluting the domestic leagues to promote European competitions, you're going to have to provide some kind of alternative for the rest.

Certainly if we were involved in some kind of regional competition - whether a knockout or group format - for teams with less than 10,000 fans I'd find it absolutely fascinating, though I dunno if others would. But perhaps that's just what 40 years of playing interchangeable St Mirren, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock etc four times a year does to you.

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With Ebiye signing, by my count, of the players who'll have kicked a baw in the first team that gives us 10 contracted for next season, 15 OOC with 5 loans expiring plus Ricki Lamie's PCA to Dundee confirmed.

2024:
Kelly, Oxborough; O'Donnell, Mugabi, McGinn, Wilson, Elliot, Butcher; Maguire, Spittal, Slattery, Wells; Obika, Nicholson, Ferrie

2025:
Casey, Blaney; Halliday, Paton, Zdravkovski, Tierney; Bair, Ebiye, L. Ross

2026:
Miller

Loans expiring:
Gent, Devine, Montgomery, Shaw, Vale

Pre-contract:
Lamie (to Dundee)

Based on how we're setting up at the moment this is how it looks:

lineup.png.ec751417b9d1667b7c720a5981ca0203.png

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19 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

So do I. In a way it's ridiculous to say it's because it's not about money because pretty much everything UEFA does comes down to money one way or another.. but there's certainly the impression that folk in it are just thrilled to be competing against peers for something worth winning having effectively been priced out of other competitions. Which is extraordinary when you consider who tends to reach the last four here.

It's also curious to wonder just how far UEFA will go in developing European football for everyone. Does it lose its appeal if it's default and not a prize? Probably a bit...but if you keep diluting the domestic leagues to promote European competitions, you're going to have to provide some kind of alternative for the rest.

Certainly if we were involved in some kind of regional competition - whether a knockout or group format - for teams with less than 10,000 fans I'd find it absolutely fascinating, though I dunno if others would. But perhaps that's just what 40 years of playing interchangeable St Mirren, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock etc four times a year does to you.

I would argue that for teams of our size, a competition that - on a good year - you could conceivably compete and achieve group stage football is a far bigger prize than the dull procession of losses against teams from a different level that we experienced in a lot of our qualifications.

Losing to Odense in the EL Playoff will always be one the very sorest losses for me because it was two teams from the same planet football-wise, getting pumped by Panathinaikos, not so much.

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16 minutes ago, Swello said:

I would argue that for teams of our size, a competition that - on a good year - you could conceivably compete and achieve group stage football is a far bigger prize than the dull procession of losses against teams from a different level that we experienced in a lot of our qualifications.

Losing to Odense in the EL Playoff will always be one the very sorest losses for me because it was two teams from the same planet football-wise, getting pumped by Panathinaikos, not so much.

I shudder at the chances we missed at Fir Park

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4 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

2024:
Kelly, Oxborough; O'Donnell, Mugabi, McGinn, Wilson, Elliot, Butcher; Maguire, Spittal, Slattery, Wells; Obika, Nicholson, Ferrie

2025:
Casey, Blaney; Halliday, Paton, Zdravkovski, Tierney; Bair, Ebiye, L. Ross

2026:
Miller

Loans expiring:
Gent, Devine, Montgomery, Shaw, Vale

I'd expect us to retain the ones highlighted. As much as I'd love to keep Spittal, canny see it.

Any of the loanees not called "Shaw" similarly welcome to stay.

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3 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

I'd expect us to retain the ones highlighted. As much as I'd love to keep Spittal, canny see it.

Any of the loanees not called "Shaw" similarly welcome to stay.

Aye.

I dunno, maybe I'm reading a bit too much into things but I thought it was interesting that we seemed to lean heavily into the SOD, McGinn, Mugabi (and Kelly) of it all in the content posted on the socials after Saturday.

I suppose I should have caveated that earlier post by saying that our recent 'unreliable narrator' approach to contracts and expiries should probably be factored into this sort of thing.

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22 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I suppose I should have caveated that earlier post by saying that our recent 'unreliable narrator' approach to contracts and expiries should probably be factored into this sort of thing.

Turns out Liam Kelly received a 3 year extension as Goalkeeper and CEO.

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30 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

I'd expect us to retain the ones highlighted. As much as I'd love to keep Spittal, canny see it.

Any of the loanees not called "Shaw" similarly welcome to stay.

Spittal's one man goal of the season contest has definitely put any hopes of a new contract with us to bed. I'll be sad to see him go because he's a joy to watch when he's on his game. 

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4 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Chris Cadden returned from injury on Saturday, he came off of the bench to get 6 minutes.

Cheers for sharing, I missed that.

I’ll get my voodoo doll out and insert another needle.

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