Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Blink182]

3 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Saw a Galaxy Brain take on Twitter earlier along the lines of "we should have offered him Lawless' wage on top of what he's already on."

While it's cute that folk seem to think Lawless didn't get a pay off to f**k off (f**k Off Money, if you will) so that wage is just there for us to play with even then the idea that combining the two wages would make a dent in terms of Watt's potential earning if he has Championship offers on the table is genuinely fucking wild.

Some of Motherwell Twitter genuinely have no fucking comprehension of the sort of money at that level eh?

Anyway, here's the full press conference from earlier. "He's one of a number of players that are out of contract who we have offered contracts to."

Here are our OOC players for 2022 (as it stands):
Mich'el Parker (January), Jordan Roberts (January - loan ends)

Scott Fox, PJ Morrison, Ricki Lamie, Bevis Mugabi, Darragh O'Connor, Nathan McGinley, Liam Grimshaw, Barry Maguire, Mark O'Hara, Robbie Crawford, Liam Donnelly, Justin Amaluzor, Tony Watt.

Curious to know who the others are that we've put offers to. There are a few that you'd assume would be locks to get offers, others it's kind of difficult to tell one way or another at the moment.

Its funny how we can be sitting 5th in the table yet I wouldn't be upset to see the entire list not sign a new deal with the exception of Bevis probably, and knowing the Tony is already likely to go. 

[ropy]

6 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Saw a Galaxy Brain take on Twitter earlier along the lines of "we should have offered him Lawless' wage on top of what he's already on."

While it's cute that folk seem to think Lawless didn't get a pay off to f**k off (f**k Off Money, if you will) so that wage is just there for us to play with even then the idea that combining the two wages would make a dent in terms of Watt's potential earning if he has Championship offers on the table is genuinely fucking wild.

Some of Motherwell Twitter genuinely have no fucking comprehension of the sort of money at that level eh?

Anyway, here's the full press conference from earlier. "He's one of a number of players that are out of contract who we have offered contracts to."

Here are our OOC players for 2022 (as it stands):
Mich'el Parker (January), Jordan Roberts (January - loan ends)

Scott Fox, PJ Morrison, Ricki Lamie, Bevis Mugabi, Darragh O'Connor, Nathan McGinley, Liam Grimshaw, Barry Maguire, Mark O'Hara, Robbie Crawford, Liam Donnelly, Justin Amaluzor, Tony Watt.

Curious to know who the others are that we've put offers to. There are a few that you'd assume would be locks to get offers, others it's kind of difficult to tell one way or another at the moment.

2 or 3 to be retained to ensure we have a squad for the League Cup/European qualifiers.  2 or 3 others will prove their worth before the end of the season but in reality it will depend how advanced we are in ‘new’ recruitment because if we can bring in better players most of the above can go.

[Al B]

I'd love to keep Bev, and (proving Covid isn't the weirdest thing to happen this year) I'd definitely be hanging on to Lamie. I think O'Connor definitely has something about him if he can get over his injury, I'd look forward to seeing how he develops. Donnelly is purely an injury call...I really like him but if he's never fit, then...

I will probably have an aneurysm if we offer Grimmy a new contract. I don't have twitter or insta so I don't have the benefit of a players persona notching them up a few points. I can only go on the football and he's shite.

Tony, well...he's Tony. Please stay, even though you wont.

[well fan for life]

52 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Saw a Galaxy Brain take on Twitter earlier along the lines of "we should have offered him Lawless' wage on top of what he's already on."

I'm going to assume this would work out as about an extra £4.50 a week.

[Phillips455]

To those who don't like our current t away kit, the club have just launched the "away" Goalkeeper kit

 

Looks like a really good away top to me. Do t know of Kelly will ever wear it but I like it.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Phillips455
because I can't spell things correctly.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Always a strange time when contracts are coming to an end. Guys you want to keep, guys you hope are binned. Thinking about how shite it is posting that you hope someone loses their job.

I think for someone like Tony Watt that is going to leave the club in the summer the best thing for everyone is to continue supporting him and hope he keeps up his form. Last thing we want is another big Dec scenario because guys chucking it is always frustrating.  And if you keep playing until you leave you can always come back.

 

[ropy]

1 hour ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Always a strange time when contracts are coming to an end. Guys you want to keep, guys you hope are binned. Thinking about how shite it is posting that you hope someone loses their job.

I think for someone like Tony Watt that is going to leave the club in the summer the best thing for everyone is to continue supporting him and hope he keeps up his form. Last thing we want is another big Dec scenario because guys chucking it is always frustrating.  And if you keep playing until you leave you can always come back.

 

The gun’s in his hands 

[Swello]

The turnover of players is now so high, it's difficult for supporters to care about them moving on compared to the past - but I will be sad to see Watt moving on as he's been exemplary since he came in - I hope that there is enough motivation for him to keep his performances going because if he followed his big mate from the Aberdeen reserves, that would be a bit depressing. 

[capt_oats]

It was a fairly general comment Alexander made in his press conference but in saying:

Quote

"We know where we need to improve the squad so we're quite in our thought process going into this period and January windows always throw up different issues and players coming and going. So it's nothing different really from any other window."

I half-wondered whether we were open to the idea of flipping Watt for cash money in the same way we did with Moult.

Thinking back to last January we apparently kb'd "substantial" offers for Campbell from Millwall on account of the whole "being literally bottom of the league and wanting to keep him around to help fix that" thing.

At the moment circumstances seem a bit different.

I mean, the implication from Alexander is that there's the potential for other players to move on but I guess Watt feels like our main "asset".

In fact, it turns out there's a load of extra quotes from that press conference including a fuller bit of chat about Tony and a mention of the Irish winger we were linked with a while back:

Quote

He said: “We made an offer to Tony maybe 10 days ago and his representatives turned that down. The ball’s in their court.

“We are quite comfortable with it. We understand there’s always going to be players that come to the club that leave.

“We have explained to Tony we want to keep him. His representative did not want to carry on with the negotiations for the time being so when someone says that what can you do? It’s pretty much clear.

“I didn’t turn into a manager and forget what it’s like to be a player. I understand every individual has the right to make their own decisions and choices.

“I told them as long as I see players training and competing as normal then they will always be available for selection.

“Tony is under contract until the end of the season. We are under no pressure to raise funds.

“But in January and the summer you just don’t know what’s round the corner so you have to be ready to act or react. We always keep an eye on recruitment all the way through between the windows.

“We will adapt to whatever comes but we are under no pressure to sell any players and we would like to keep this squad as complete as we can.”

Free agent winger Doyle, who hit 13 goals for Drogheda in the season just ended, is one potential recruit.

Alexander was coy on the 23-year-old but said: “We have had a few players we’ve looked at over there.

“There’s a group of players we feel could possibly come and improve us or we could help them get to the next stage in their career.

“He would have been one of those names that has been spoken about. We will just see how January progresses with that market.”

Link

Absolutely none of that feels controversial tbh.

Edited December 18, 2021 by capt_oats

[Desp]

I dunno why, but I'd be amazed if someone came in and offered cash for Watt in January. Certainly an amount that would interest us enough to sell. 

I don't think there'll be an issue with Watt performing for the rest of the season. The better be does between now and the end of the season, the better club and contract he'll be able to get. On top of that, I'm sure he's got half an eye on getting into the Scotland squad again. Staying up and around the top end of the goalscoring charts will help him do that. 

[thisGRAEME]

3 hours ago, Desp said:

I dunno why, but I'd be amazed if someone came in and offered cash for Watt in January. Certainly an amount that would interest us enough to sell. 

I don't think there'll be an issue with Watt performing for the rest of the season. The better be does between now and the end of the season, the better club and contract he'll be able to get. On top of that, I'm sure he's got half an eye on getting into the Scotland squad again. Staying up and around the top end of the goalscoring charts will help him do that. 

Fully agree with this.

With the form he's in the profit/loss in money and footballing terms has to be pretty well balanced from our perspective, so it'd have to be a chunky payment.

There's no chance he doesn't look at Nisbet's spot in the squad and doesn't view it as there for the taking.

[Richie]

Tommy Wright claxon

[capt_oats]

3 minutes ago, Richie said:

Tommy Wright klaxon

"Utterly inexplicable."

Edited December 18, 2021 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

That article's aged like milk, eh.

[capt_oats]

9 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

That article's aged like milk, eh.

Like, I get that the article is what it is. It's a puff piece written by a pal of Wright's who's pretty salty about him being overlooked for a bunch of jobs. Fair enough.

It's the written equivalent of the Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes GIF though.

In all seriousness while I get that #Grezzaball isn't for everyone having seen the rebuild that Alexander (and Burrows) have set about, given the increase in backroom staff and expansion of our scope when it comes to recruitment I genuinely can't even begin to get my head round the idea of what a Tommy Wright Motherwell would actually have looked like.

Edited December 18, 2021 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

6 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Like, I get that the article is what it is. It's a puff piece written by a pal of Wright's who's pretty salty about him being overlooked for a bunch of jobs. Fair enough.

It's the written equivalent of the Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes GIF though.

In all seriousness while I get that #Grezzaball isn't for everyone having seen the rebuild that Alexander (and Burrows) have set about, given the increase in backroom staff and expansion of our scope when it comes to recruitment I genuinely can't even begin to get my head round the idea of what a Tommy Wright Motherwell would actually have looked like.

Murderball is good when it works. Great, even. When it doesn't work it's awful. 

I suppose the proof in the pudding is that Wright's taken an already struggling Kilmarnock and seen a steady decline from there. His roll of the dice last season was to go all in on Big Weird Kyle.

[Doctor Manhattan]

I know football can be cruel, but this seems particularly harsh somehow...

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Get the Eric Nicolson article.

[ropy]

16 minutes ago, Doctor Manhattan said:

I know football can be cruel, but this seems particularly harsh somehow...

One of the more obscure lines in his contract 

[fat_tony]

One of the more obscure lines in his contract