Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

I assume we keep a hold of Watt to bring him on at 87 minutes against. Morton to ensure he is cup tied.

[Kapowzer]

8 hours ago, rambunctious said:

I see we've taken a turn away from the paneer chat and straight onto BEEF!

No Beef, a reference to a bit of good natured repartee a few weeks back, I understand it is called a "callback".

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Has anyone (Capt Oats) mocked up a calendar year league table yet? There's one on Transfermarkt but IIRC they don't count post-split games.

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Has anyone (Capt Oats) mocked up a calendar year league table yet? There's one on Transfermarkt but IIRC they don't count post-split games.

I hadn't, but since you mention it, I think this is how it looks (I've just taken the Transfermarkt calendar table and added the post-split tables).

Hopefully this is accurate, I'm sure the media team will knock together a more aesthetically pleasing version at some point. They did in 2019 when we had the 3rd best form IIRC (assuming the below is correct).

1. Rangers P 37 W 29 D 7 L 1 Pts 94
2. Celtic P 40 W 23 D 10 L 7 Pts 79
3. Motherwell P 39 P 17 D 8 L 14 Pts 59
4. Hibs P 37 W 16 D 8 L 13  Pts 56
5. Aberdeen P 39 W 12 D 9 L 18 Pts 45 
6. Dundee United P 37 W 11 D 11 L 15 Pts 44
7. St Mirren P 40 W 8 D 19 L 13 Pts 43
8. Livingston P 39 W 10 D 11 L 18 Pts 41
9. St Johnstone P 37 W 10 D 11 L 16 Pts 41
10. Ross County P 37 W 11 D 8 L 18 Pts 41
11. Hearts P 20 W 10 D 6 L 4 Pts 36
12. Dundee P 20 W 4 D 4 L 12 Pts 16
13. Kilmarnock P 18 W 4 D 4 L 10 Pts 16
14. Hamilton P 18 W 3 D 6 L 9 Pts 15

Poor St Mirren...just missing out on the Top 6 again.

Obvs we benefit from playing Bottom 6 sides post-split unlike Hibs and Aberdeen but still...some job Alexander's done given we were literally bottom of the league and had just been scudded 3-0 by Accies when he took the job in January.

Edited December 27, 2021 by capt_oats

[RandomGuy.]

3 hours ago, capt_oats said:

I hadn't, but since you mention it, I think this is how it looks (I've just taken the Transfermarkt calendar table and added the post-split tables).

Hopefully this is accurate, I'm sure the media team will knock together a more aesthetically pleasing version at some point. They did in 2019 when we had the 3rd best form IIRC (assuming the below is correct).

1. Rangers P 37 W 29 D 7 L 1 Pts 94
2. Celtic P 40 W 23 D 10 L 7 Pts 79
3. Motherwell P 39 P 17 D 8 L 14 Pts 59
4. Hibs P 37 W 16 D 8 L 13  Pts 56
5. Aberdeen P 39 W 12 D 9 L 18 Pts 45 
6. Dundee United P 37 W 11 D 11 L 15 Pts 44
7. St Mirren P 40 W 8 D 19 L 13 Pts 43
8. Livingston P 39 W 10 D 11 L 18 Pts 41
9. St Johnstone P 37 W 10 D 11 L 16 Pts 41
10. Ross County P 37 W 11 D 8 L 18 Pts 41
11. Hearts P 20 W 10 D 6 L 4 Pts 36
12. Dundee P 20 W 4 D 4 L 12 Pts 16
13. Kilmarnock P 18 W 4 D 4 L 10 Pts 16
14. Hamilton P 18 W 3 D 6 L 9 Pts 15

Poor St Mirren...just missing out on the Top 6 again.

Obvs we benefit from playing Bottom 6 sides post-split unlike Hibs and Aberdeen but still...some job Alexander's done given we were literally bottom of the league and had just been scudded 3-0 by Accies when he took the job in January.

Hearts fans in tears because they've played less game than others and youve not used PPG...

[Yorky]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Hearts fans in tears because they've played less game than others and youve not used PPG...

We need to be careful, they may extend the boycott of away games, we can’t afford to lose the maroon pound.

[ropy]

Only seen the highlights but it is the second goal I am impressed with, a stretch of the neck and place it in the corner where the keeper can’t get it.  What was the combined distance of the movement from the keeper at the two goals, six inches?

Edited December 27, 2021 by ropy

[Blink182]

Great result and excellent to see Van Veen hitting a double.

Would have liked to have been there in person but didn't win in the ballot.

Football fans are mental. Imagine having a 6+ tweet conversation with our CEO saying the ballot was rigged by the staff but I'm not naming names. How Alan Burrows remains so professional, offering to let the guy come and see the process etc, is impressive. 

[ropy]

Not bad form, pleasing to see the negative goal difference maintained and you would imagine possession was < 40%

Form: Last 10 matches     GP W D L GF GA GD Pts Opponents PPG 1 Rangers 10 9 1 0 26 6 +20 28 1.16 2 Celtic 10 8 2 0 19 6 +13 26 1.12 3 Motherwell 10 5 2 3 13 14 -1 17 1.55 4 Aberdeen 10 5 1 4 14 11 +3 16 1.38 5 Hearts 10 5 1 4 13 11 +2 16 1.46 6 Ross County 10 4 3 3 17 13 +4 15 1.27 7 Hibernian 10 4 2 4 10 10 0 14 1.17 8 Livingston 10 2 4 4 7 11 -4 10 1.61 9 Dundee FC 10 3 0 7 10 19 -9 9 1.42 10 St. Mirren 10 0 6 4 5 13 -8 6 1.45 11 St. Johnstone 10 1 2 7 5 14 -9 5 1.45 12 Dundee Utd 10 1 2 7 6 17 -11 5 1.44 The Opponents PPG values relate to the average Points Per Game values of all opponents faced by each team in the last 10 games. Those PPG values are based on the seasonal Home PPG of the opponents that have been played away and the seasonal Away PPG of the opponents that have been played at home. So the opponents PPG values are always based on ALL home games or on ALL away games of the opponents during the league season (not just in their last 10 games).

 

[Neil86]

20 minutes ago, Blink182 said:

Great result and excellent to see Van Veen hitting a double.

Would have liked to have been there in person but didn't win in the ballot.

Football fans are mental. Imagine having a 6+ tweet conversation with our CEO saying the ballot was rigged by the staff but I'm not naming names. How Alan Burrows remains so professional, offering to let the guy come and see the process etc, is impressive. 

Just seen this twitter exchange, my god. Fwiw my pal has absolutely no affiliation to the club and got a ticket. Surprised there was only 1500 applicants.

[Desp]

 that was a mental Twitter exchange. I was only at the bam up when I suggested similar on this thread a while back. I'm sure @Busta Nut was as well (probably...)

Get the next ballot on PPV. The club will make a fortune off it! 

[Derry Alli]

#BudgetBergkamp is a brilliant moniker, tbf. 

[Busta Nut]

21 minutes ago, Desp said:

 that was a mental Twitter exchange. I was only at the bam up when I suggested similar on this thread a while back. I'm sure @Busta Nut was as well (probably...)

Get the next ballot on PPV. The club will make a fortune off it! 

I also just saw it. Fuckin mad.

I was but now I am being swayed by Willie'slovechild

[Ron Aldo]

BBC reporting Watt to United is a done deal. I've been out of the loop the last few days so could be wrong, but I'm sure this is the first this has been confirmed as being official? Until now it's just been (strong) rumours.

He might go there and be the Tony Watt of old or he might be the version we've been lucky to have. Either way, I'm sure he'll score against us at the first opportunity.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, Blink182 said:

Football fans are mental. Imagine having a 6+ tweet conversation with our CEO saying the ballot was rigged by the staff but I'm not naming names. How Alan Burrows remains so professional, offering to let the guy come and see the process etc, is impressive. 

Mental. Hope the guy feels embarrassed when he sobered up. Burrows must have the patience of a saint (or he enjoys subtly winding folk up).

[capt_oats]

14 hours ago, Phillips455 said:

Tbf , it's more of How it's been revealed that's annoying. With the Irish guy, we refused to talk about it as he was still playing for his club and we only announced it when their season was over and the Contract had expired.

In fairness, there was that interview Alexander did where he effectively confirmed his signing a fair bit before their season had finished.

It was a very weird bit of chat where he confirmed the signing but also confirmed it wasn't yet done. Schrödinger's signing if you will.

This was in October, their season didn't finish until the end of November:

Quote

“Ross is a player we tried to sign in the summer, even to the end of the window.

“We had an agreement with Bohemians that we would allow him to finish the season over in Ireland.

“It’s been a long one, and it’s still not over the line as he still isn’t here yet.

“But we are delighted that he is coming to join us."

Link

I agree that a lot of the annoyance with the Watt situation is with how it's been handled, presumably by his "people".

I think you can generally mitigate it if the player is in their final months of the contract in that post-January through to May period but the timing of this has made it messy and if the rumour that he had a move south fall down in August then that's a long time to keep things under wraps. The fact that it's escalated as quickly from rumoured interest from Championship clubs to patching us to sign for Dundee United is just plain fucking weird though.

It doesn't help that it's unlikely that United are going to be in a position to offer the sort of money we'd want for him to move in January.

The obvious comparison was Moult moving to Preston and us getting the £500k for our (then) top scorer. Are United chucking £500k our way for the bold Tony? Doubtful.

Either way it was a pretty strong flex from Alexander to just bin him to the bench yesterday and doubly so for big Kev to turn up, ping one in top bins and essentially make it clear that we could happily see out the rest of the season just parking Watt on the bench.

With this, his big pal with a gun to his head and Polworth I'd say Alexander's navigated things pretty well.

[Phillips455]

3 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

In fairness, there was that interview Alexander did where he effectively confirmed his signing a fair bit before their season had finished.

It was a very weird bit of chat where he confirmed the signing but also confirmed it wasn't yet done. Schrödinger's signing if you will.

This was in October, their season didn't finish until the end of November:

I agree that a lot of the annoyance with the Watt situation is with how it's been handled, presumably by his "people".

I think you can generally mitigate it if the player is in their final months of the contract in that post-January through to May period but the timing of this has made it messy and if the rumour that he had a move south fall down in August then that's a long time to keep things under wraps. The fact that it's escalated as quickly from rumoured interest from Championship clubs to patching us to sign for Dundee United is just plain fucking weird though.

It doesn't help that it's unlikely that United are going to be in a position to offer the sort of money we'd want for him to move in January.

The obvious comparison was Moult moving to Preston and us getting the £500k for our (then) top scorer. Are United chucking £500k our way for the bold Tony? Doubtful.

Either way it was a pretty strong flex from Alexander to just bin him to the bench yesterday and doubly so for big Kev to turn up, ping one in top bins and essentially make it clear that we could happily see out the rest of the season just parking Watt on the bench.

With this, his big pal with a gun to his head and Polworth I'd say Alexander's navigated things pretty well.

Hmm, strange. I never even heard of that interview. Must have missed it with the miserable October that we had.

Another point that I'd like to note is that pre contracts with clubs in other leagues are generally fine with me. The main sticking point with Watt, and to a lesser extent Dec, was that the contract was signed to a direct rival in the same league. It really puts both the club and player into an awkward position for the reminder of the contract.

[well fan for life]

I reckon we've seen the last of him in a Motherwell shirt regardless of if he leaves in January or July. Alexander's already got previous at sending folk that don't want to be here to play fives with the youth team.

[Casagolda]

I find it hard to get overly worked up about the pre-contract stuff.

United and Watt have agreed a deal, they’ve used the press to try and force our hand to let him go early. It happens, you’d be naive to think we haven’t done similar to our advantage in the past. 

For Watt to commit so quickly in what will likely be the last big contract of his career(turns 28 in a few days) suggests to me whatever United are offering him must be some package. As much as I wanted him to stay, I’m glad we haven’t tried to match it.

Yesterday was a good win and the fact we done without Watt or Slattery, Lamie, Carroll, Ojala(bar the last 10 mins) shows that we’re a well drilled unit. We’ve constantly had to change the defence and midfield this season but the results/performances for the most part have largely stayed the same. 

It’s definitely a blow to lose Watt, especially half way through the season but nobody’s irreplaceable. A lot folk thought we’d struggle to replace Devante Cole this summer and we’ve not missed him a at all so far this season. 

The common denominator for both was that they had the best spells of their career under Alexander. As such, I don’t have any real worries about us moving forward and trust Alexander to replace Watt with minimal fuss or disruption to the team as a whole. 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Casagolda

[RandomGuy.]

39 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

Alexander's already got previous at sending folk that don't want to be here to play fives with the youth team.

That show around Salford was on the other day and Alexander was involved. Didn't leave any doubt that if he thought you didn't want to play for him then you won't play, no exceptions.