Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[CoF]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Yer boy Sondre has discovered a new, very effective, way of defending it looks like.

 

 

 

Level 10 sportmanship and 5 year olds that don't call you a c**t. Sounds absolutely awful over there. 

[Quatermass]

Nah, maybe I’m a baddy but that’s not for me. His hammy could have waited another twenty seconds for treatment and especially after the keeper has been rounded and the ball slotted intae an empty net. Physio on please and the big sympathy face on.

[Kapowzer]

18 minutes ago, mwellhighland said:

Wonder if James Scott would have done the same

It still raises a wry grin at the thought of the media team using a "bandit" photo of him on all club output for months and months afterwards.

 

Back to the board stuff. They will and repeat it is a purely voluntary role. Can't speak for any of the other clubs existing in our income level but I'd imagine there would be a few more salaried positions with specific remits than we have.

6 hours ago, Swello said:

I would guess underneath everything is a similar thing that we've seen in the past several first team manager recruitments - we're not a particularly attractive proposition.

Sadly I think there is a degree or merit to this. Also the job descriptions you cite were crazy for what where we are and what we were paying and therefore kinda unrealistic. Flao was promoted from within and took his chances and delivered by and large. Maybe our board felt as a supporter he was here for life, I suspect as his stock grew in the wider Scottish football community over the years he realised he was worth a lot more.

That opens up a greater issue I think haunts us from way back. We'll happily piss money up the wall on duds unlikely to ever feature for us and have them lurk 22nd name down in the first team squad but penny pinch in other departments. Rather than adequately resource and recruit into these roles we try to do it on the cheap.

The board conveyed at the AGM again they were looking for means to make up a £750k shortfall per season whither it be a company, benevolent Hollywood actor or suchlike. When its seemingly such an important revenue stream (10% of our total turnover) it was either loaded to or hungry hippo'd by Flao. An already large workload grew and of course, it was overlooked. Apparently we came close to a deal with someone but then Covid happened and it was shelved. Even if you go to the market and recruit a top end PR/marketing professional to source this golden goose and pay them top end market rate, you're still got a massive cash injection. But we didn't.

Alexander was seemingly under resourced last summer but regardless he was batshit who lost a great deal of his dressing room. The board were caught betwixt a rock (let him continue due to attaining European qualification) and a hard place (getting him to f**k for his record since Boxing day and him being batshit). A winnable two legged tie (effectively one if you did the business in the first leg at home) cost us upwards of £500k (£350k for progressing, £200k for transport and accommodation plus a home gate £150-200k and potential TV). I don't envy them their decision making at the time, I think their hope was his record would attract suitors so he could leave with a pat on the back and a forehead swipe from McMahon.

An winnable Scottish cup tie would have seen us progress to Ibrox and half the gate after costs, another +£400k. Hammy got the leeway of his January window and the time associated with it by the board.

Doubling our current efforts to maximise our low hanging fruit when it comes to revenue should be a focus with greater emphasis. These 2/3 games could have made us approximately £1m. While a 38 game season keeps our top flight status and is important, you can afford to go through dips in form (7 points form 51 was it?) in these games because as we've shown you can get on the crest of a wave and put points on the board. Of course, we tend to focus on the £135k a league placing but often overlook being in the top league brings other big revenues such as our share of the TV deal, UEFA solidarity payments, etc.

Progression in cup ties lies with the footballing department but the club's role should be to put the tools in place in terms of money to give them the best chance.

Maybe we need to start looking in comparative terms and that may make the numbers sink home. If a top-end first team starter at our level (non city) is on the £2.5k-£3k a week ish thats £130k-£156k a year. The achievable but lost revenue this year has been £1.7m, thats 11x £3k/pw players. Of course, no guarantee they would all be a success, there's probably 20 players in this league on much less outperforming many +£3k guys. But with a portion of that missed cash available in January and another come the summer it's a very decent starting point to go shopping with. It gives you a lot of options.

[Pettigrew]

1 hour ago, Kapowzer said:

Even if you go to the market and recruit a top end PR/marketing professional to source this golden goose and pay them top end market rate, you're still got a massive cash injection. But we didn't.

Did they not say at the AGM that they were going to do just that in what a month or so?

[Swello]

12 minutes ago, Pettigrew said:

Did they not say at the AGM that they were going to do just that in what a month or so?

Aye - but they got rightly pulled up for the fact they'd said the same 12 months previous, which the Chairman apologised for. The main problem at Fir Park is always going to be the fact there is a lot to do with very few people and I'd imagine running without a CEO has probably hindered everything else..

 

[Kapowzer]

I understood it as the acknowledged they were rehashing the same thing 11 months later and said they were going to make it a thing but can’t recall mention of any recruitment specifically for any role.

Flao said at the 2022 AGM that we were weeks away from signing a deal with the Dalziel Trust. Timescales get lost in the ether.

[ropy]

If we had beaten Raith Rovers would we definitely have been drawn against Rangers? Is that how the draw works?  Was it named teams or numbers?

Regardless it could otherwise have been a winnable tie with a subsequent game against Rangers whether at Ibrox or Hampden.

[capt_oats]

On 17/04/2023 at 10:26, Swello said:

My concern with the CEO is that they let 'Flow write the job description the same way that it was pretty obvious that the previous incumbent wrote the original job description for the head of comms (which made it sound like we were looking for the Director General of the BBC rather than a genuinely good opportunity for someone near the beginning of their career).

Literally no-one from the general pool of qualified people is going to replicate what 'Flow did for the money he was on (or arguably any money because f**k that for a lark) and so I hope we are being realistic about what is possible.

I would guess underneath everything is a similar thing that we've seen in the past several first team manager recruitments - we're not a particularly attractive proposition.

I think this is the key point for me.

Flow was pretty much a unicorn for us in that not only was he highly competent across a range of areas he also had an emotional engagement with the role that meant he was operating beyond a professional capacity. It seems unlikely that we're going to get someone who will replicate that, which in itself puts the club in a bit of a bind because rightly or wrongly he's set expectations for what the role looks like amongst the supporter base.

While the Kettlewell renaissance has meant that a series of (being honest) pretty unexpected results have taken the heat off for the the time being there are still some pretty awkward questions floating around in the background (be it some of the decisions taken this season, the lack of CEO, the lack of comms, that one particular employee....whatever). The fact that there's no longer a firewall to insulate between the fanbase and the board has been increasingly noticeable in the couple of months since Flow fucked off to Pittodrie.

The fact that there's (still) no head of comms probably amplifies that as well.

Like @Handsome_Devil I half wondered whether seeing the void that Burrows has left it might mean we'd consider a restructure of sorts as (I mean, we still may - that could be a close season situation) but either way having one person driving the club in the way Flow did is great until that person is no longer there.

Edited April 18, 2023 by capt_oats

[Kapowzer]

I heard this morning the temporary replacement is already kinda in the building. Let’s see how it transpires.

[Onthefringes]

1 minute ago, Kapowzer said:

I heard this morning the temporary replacement is already kinda in the building. Let’s see how it transpires.

Influential.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I still find the timing of Lasley leaving less than a year before Burrows a bit weird and short-sighted. I'll probably get over it though. 

[capt_oats]

[rowsdower]

Devine is alive 

[Doctor Manhattan]

Not a bad looking team. Assuming they don't lose 6-0 we might as well play them all against Celtic.

No sign of Oxborough, did I miss something?

[Handsome_Devil]

8 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

There's obviously limited stock to be put in reserve results but that's very close to being an outfield 10 we could name in the first team. 

It says a few things but sadly 'look how strong our squad is' isn't one of them!

[capt_oats]

12 minutes ago, Doctor Manhattan said:

No sign of Oxborough, did I miss something?

He didn't play in the last Reserves fixture against Ayr the other week either but has been on the bench for the first team. Who knows? Maybe he's just said he doesn't fancy playing for the Reserves.

Edited April 18, 2023 by capt_oats

[Busta Nut]

5 hours ago, Kapowzer said:

I heard this morning the temporary replacement is already kinda in the building. Let’s see how it transpires.

I am sure all will be fine and weir just over reacting.

[eliphas]

23 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I am sure all will be fine and weir just over reacting.

If the mis-spell is intentional...I saw him on Saturday in the Centenary 

[capt_oats]

13 minutes ago, eliphas said:

If the mis-spell is intentional...I saw him on Saturday in the Centenary 

From the United game on Saturday.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/motherwell-manager-stuart-kettlewell-speaks-with-derek-weir-news-photo/1251842524

[Swello]

2 hours ago, eliphas said:

If the mis-spell is intentional...I saw him on Saturday in the Centenary 

I'd assumed he would have been helping out as he's been around the place for a long time and he was at the AGM (which I don't think he always is, although I might be wrong).