Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Thenorthernlight]

43 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

If he was someone with no affiliation to Motherwell he wouldn't have been given the job in the first place.

Sounds like Stephen Glass when he got the Dons job.

 

[rowsdower]

34 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I mean, I had been advocating the idea that Hammell could have done himself a favour ages ago and taken on additional staff to lean on and handle the coaching. Similar to what we did with Robinson coming back in McGhee's final days.

Going by @wellboy1991's reporting over the weekend that seemed to confirm my suspicions that we might be a fucking shambles in that respect it seems like it might have been a good idea.

That ship seems like it has long since sailed though and tbh it sounds like Hammell doesn't see any issues with him and Kerr as the coaching set up. So that'll be that.

If that report on our training is true, then we are well and truly hosed. 

[capt_oats]

31 minutes ago, Thenorthernlight said:

Sounds like Stephen Glass when he got the Dons job.

Similar but it's actually worse.

At least Glass had 38 games with Atlanta II and 19 games with the actual team. Prior to Hammell's couple of games as interim before he got the job he had zero first team managerial experience and promoted Brian Kerr from his u18s role as his assistant.

Kerr previously had 43 games managing Albion Rovers (who he relegated) and 12 games managing East Kilbride before taking the assistant role with Gary Caldwell at Thistle (sacked in the September of their 2nd season where they were eventually relegated).

In hindsight our season has went as you'd have expected it to.

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, Desp said:

Would take Yogi, tbh. 

I'd rather shite in my hands and clap tbh.

[18May1991]

And yet the Board are doing nothing about it….

Strange as it sounds to say it, we are running out of games, fast. I reckon we need to win 6 to pretty much guarantee safety. How many games has it taken us to win 6 games? 

Quite why the Board aren’t dealing with the massive fucking elephant in the room, I don’t know. It’s just not going to magically improve. 

[rowsdower]

1 minute ago, 18May1991 said:

And yet the Board are doing nothing about it….

Strange as it sounds to say it, we are running out of games, fast. I reckon we need to win 6 to pretty much guarantee safety. How many games has it taken us to win 6 games? 

Quite why the Board aren’t dealing with the massive fucking elephant in the room, I don’t know. It’s just not going to magically improve. 

Dealing with it, and dealing with it the way that you want them to are two different things.

[eliphas]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I mean, I had been advocating the idea that Hammell could have done himself a favour ages ago and taken on additional staff to lean on and handle the coaching. Similar to what we did with Robinson coming back in McGhee's final days.

Going by @wellboy1991's reporting over the weekend that seemed to confirm my suspicions that we might be a fucking shambles in that respect it seems like it might have been a good idea.

That ship seems like it has long since sailed though and tbh it sounds like Hammell doesn't see any issues with him and Kerr as the coaching set up. So that'll be that.

Not the answer anyone is looking for  experience wise but it's valid not to just ignore it I think. 

With Kettlewell in the building we have a manager who managed the Ross C development team to win the championship and then has over 100 games as co-manager and manager of the senior team.  He got sacked with with Ross adrift tbf, but most managers we get will be fairly similar(ish)

When Hammel goes, and he will unless we pump Raith and St Mirren, then get comfy because it will be Kettlewell in the hot seat for a bit anyway I'd wager 

Edited February 6, 2023 by eliphas

[Kapowzer]

7 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

I'd rather shite in my hands and clap tbh.

Yeah, none of the Scottish fitba merry go round are right.

I’d go for a number two in England wanting to go out on his own.

Ideally a disciplinarian but not as mad as a bag o’ monkeys.

[capt_oats]

On 05/02/2023 at 01:03, wellboy1991 said:

I have been contemplating putting this out their due to the usual comments that it would get. But I’m going to risk it anyway and take the hit. 

About 6 months ago, I got a new next door neighbour. Current Well player, from down south. Absolutely lovely guy, just a genuine nice guy. Down to earth and no airs and shits about him.

Have become quite good mates with him and despite my previous attempts he doesn’t usually talk much about the club. Wee bits here and there. Rest of the neighbours are **** and Tim’s so they don’t care who he is . 

However this week he did say a few things. He came home from training the other day and was out with his dog, I asked ‘hard session today’. He laughed and exact words ‘never a hard session mate’. I looked at him and laughed.

He then said basically training it’s  an utter shambles, no one has a clue what the f**k is going on. Basically he has seen better organisation at the juniors or as he put it non league teams.

Utterly amateurish with little emphasis on the graft in the game. He genuinely seemed gutted about it all. Hammell is not respected by the players and seemingly his ego is out of control. Big split amongst the players which has resulted in Burrows being approached bye multiple senior players. Burrows is a rabbit in the headlights and doesn’t have a clue what to do.

Kerr is stuck in the middle and can’t bridge the gap with players and managers. However there is a  big split with Kerr over something that happened with Barry Maguire, no clue what. He didn’t elaborate. 

Sounds pretty far fetched until you watch our team and it all makes sense tbh. We are an utterly divided team from top to bottom. Rudderless off and on the pitch.

Just to follow this up, I'd kind of forgotten a reply from @Nelly78 over on the St Johnstone thread last month...

On 23/01/2023 at 12:26, Nelly78 said:

I've mentioned before that I was told we were in for O'Donnell in the summer, after he fell out with Alexander.

The same person told me that O'Donnell had a argument with Hammell after the Rangers game at Ibrox last month. Supposedly, Hammell had told the team to defend as a narrow back 4, allowing crosses into the box and trying to win the subsequent challenges. After the game, Hammell had a go at them for not closing down the Rangers wide players quickly enough, which O'Donnell pointed out wasn't the tactics they were instructed to play by him. Looks like he's not been in your starting line up since.  

I mean...explains a lot.

[18May1991]

5 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Dealing with it, and dealing with it the way that you want them to are two different things.

I want them to deal with it; quickly, by getting rid of Hammell and Kerr. I take absolutely no pleasure in saying that. I would have loved it to work out; but it just hasn’t. 

We are careering towards relegation and there is still a hope, a chance, it can be avoided: But only if we act quickly. 
 

Different world financially I know: but I see the Leeds board have acted. It may or may not save them, but they’ve at least made the decision.
 

And as plenty of folk have said already; if Hammell wasn’t a club legend he’d have been out on his arse weeks ago. 

[capt_oats]

8 minutes ago, eliphas said:

Not the answer anyone is looking for  experience wise but it's valid not to just ignore it I think. 

With Kettlewell in the building we have a manager who managed the Ross C development team to win the championship and then has over 100 games as co-manager and manager of the senior team.  He got sacked with with Ross adrift tbf, but most managers we get will be fairly similar(ish)

When Hammel goes, and he will unless we pump Raith and St Mirren, then get comfy because it will be Kettlewell in the hot seat for a bit anyway I'd wager 

Genuine question, is Kettlewell actually involved with the first team? The news story that was put out when he got the job seemed quite explicit that his remit was specifically development stuff.

Quote

Stuart Kettlewell is our new lead development coach.

The former Ross County boss, 38, takes up his new post today working specifically with our Development and Under 18s teams.

Link

[eliphas]

He's not formally anything to do with the first team no.

But given his remit is to get players ready for the first team via the u18s and development/reserve squad there is constant dialogue between him and the first team setup. 

Players from the development team end up training with the first team a fair bit too. 

[capt_oats]

5 minutes ago, eliphas said:

He's not formally anything to do with the first team no.

But given his remit is to get players ready for the first team via the u18s and development/reserve squad there is constant dialogue between him and the first team setup. 

Players from the development team end up training with the first team a fair bit too. 

Oh yeah, I get that there would be dialogue but what I'm curious about is whether he's actually out on the grass taking first team sessions with Hammell, Kerr and Alexander.

Edited February 6, 2023 by capt_oats

[Swello]

The development stuff is too important for us to mess about with - that side of things should be about stability and consistency - so leave Kettlewell to get his feet under the table in that job IMO. 

If we do replace Hammell, the main problem is that the type of character  that you want to get a short term bit of stability and some fast results are literally the types that always get trotted out near the words "merry go round". For a longer term point of view, we would look at a different type of candidate and I'm not sure how that can be reconciled unless there is someone around that is happy to keep us up, take a cash bonus in late May (after the cup final) and get back to the golf club.

[ropy]

Alexander had two assistants if we count Keith. It wouldn’t be outrageous to bring in a new voice.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Would Robinson come back as assistant again? 

[ropy]

McLean got as much criticism as and much more abuse than Hammell.  He won the cup.  
 

Just saying, are the board reluctant to sack the potential 2023 cup winning manager.   Does his future lie with our cup run?

Not serious, but he has the St Mirren game unless we lose to Raith so I am going to concentrate on the Cup.

Get the new guys integrated, get them running laps of Dalziel estate, get them passing to the same colour strips, get them taking shots at goal until they stop skying them over the bar, get somebody beside Van Veen if he is going to play.

[ropy]

5 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Would Robinson come back as assistant again? 

If we have £4M in the bank could we not just buy St Mirren?

[21maxwell]

Just noticed another reserve fixture called off tomorrow at our request. 

Surely it would have been perfect to get some of the new guys 45 minutes and at least relatively up to speed for saturday. 

[eliphas]

23 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Oh yeah, I get that there would be dialogue but what I'm curious about is whether he's actually out on the grass taking first team sessions with Hammell, Kerr and Alexander.

Should say here I'm not advocating Kettlewell gets the job or is currently saying he's helping out anymore than a development team coach should (i.e. He takes the dev team primarily not the first team).

But he has some experience, is in the building and was specifically mentioned at the AGM. He's definitely there to be lent on as a minimum and is in and about things to help as a maximum being main point.. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by eliphas