Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Handsome_Devil]

58 minutes ago, welldaft said:

Bit of a mess we have got ourselves into with the squad overall

 

It's one of the consequences of being shit...it's obviously great we found the means to sack two managers and fund an emergency rebuild in January but ultimately it has to be paid for somehow.

I'm certainly not writing this season off by any means but if it turns out we're bottom six but safe(ish) throughout you'd certainly consider it a job well done rather than a chance missed.

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I'm certainly not writing this season off by any means but if it turns out we're bottom six but safe(ish) throughout you'd certainly consider it a job well done rather than a chance missed.

Was thinking this the other day, St. Mirren chucking cash about (for them at least) to finish sixth feels, I dunno, a bit futile? At the moment certainly. 

Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen having a degree of competence/simply outspending folk for better quality really limits teams like ourselves ambition wise.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I know Ketts talks complete shite but given we've offered deals to, at least, Cornelius, Johnston, Goss, Casey- apparently Mandron for some reason- then surely we still have that money to play with, before you take into account trying to move guys on?

Edited July 8, 2023 by YassinMoutaouakil

[rowsdower]

That was my thought, wilkinson is the only additional player we've brought in over those from last season we offered contracts to, and we know max, goss, mandron and casey arent coming back, so there must be scope.

Edited July 8, 2023 by rowsdower

[camer0n_mcd]

36 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Was thinking this the other day, St. Mirren chucking cash about (for them at least) to finish sixth feels, I dunno, a bit futile? At the moment certainly. 

Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen having a degree of competence/simply outspending folk for better quality really limits teams like ourselves ambition wise.

Were St Mirren not just off the back of losing a million quid last year as well or am I making that up? To go and spend 200k on a player who's 27 and never played at a higher level than the Northern Irish premiership is certainly bold 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

9 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I know Ketts talks complete shite but given we've offered deals to, at least, Cornelius, Johnston, Goss, Casey- apparently Mandron for some reason- then surely we still have that money to play with, before you take into account trying to move guys on?

We have a full team of guys who weren't first choice last year coming back. That is where the money is tied up.

Connelly

O'Donnell Mugabi Lamie McGinley

Tierney Maguire  Danzaki

Mahon Shields Efford

 

Is there anyone there you think is good enough to be starting every week? Or even coming on as a sub. Maybe keep O'Donnell, one of the centre halfs and Efford from that lot. And nothing really against Connelly as a 3rd choice keeper.

[capt_oats]

26 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

We have a full team of guys who weren't first choice last year coming back. That is where the money is tied up.

Connelly

O'Donnell Mugabi Lamie McGinley

Tierney Maguire  Danzaki

Mahon Shields Efford

Is there anyone there you think is good enough to be starting every week? Or even coming on as a sub. Maybe keep O'Donnell, one of the centre halfs and Efford from that lot. And nothing really against Connelly as a 3rd choice keeper.

Aye.

4 of those were out on loan (Connelly, Maguire, Shields and Mahon), 2 had injuries that ruled them out for the season (McGinley, Efford) now they're all back and contracted it means we're not exactly liquid.

It's not ideal, there's an argument that this is how people were looking for us to be run in so much as guys who were starters for us are bumped down to the bench as we bring in better quality and that's where we get our depth rather than just signing a shit ton of players every summer.

The problem, I guess, is that we now have a bunch of bench players who are presumably sitting on first team wages as that was their squad status when they signed their deals/extensions and we're probably around our max in terms of squad numbers goes.

Edited July 8, 2023 by capt_oats

[Dosser1886]

3 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I'm certainly not writing this season off by any means but if it turns out we're bottom six but safe(ish) throughout you'd certainly consider it a job well done rather than a chance missed.

Think most seasons start with that level of ambition tbh.

[RandomGuy.]

56 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Were St Mirren not just off the back of losing a million quid last year as well or am I making that up? To go and spend 200k on a player who's 27 and never played at a higher level than the Northern Irish premiership is certainly bold 

Its fairly well known they put the Covid loan money (just over £1.7m) into their first team budget.

[Marinello]

Hearing that in the past week we had 2 new trialists at the club.

I've no idea who they nor whether they featured in the Falkirk friendly.

[FTOF]

12 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Its fairly well known amongst Perth zoomers that they put the Covid loan money (just over £1.7m) into their first team budget.

Only in your tiny mind.

[Antiochas III]

13 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Its fairly well known they put the Covid loan money (just over £1.7m) into their first team budget.

If that's true, let the Government know.  They would surely want to know that they have went back on their deal...  

[RandomGuy.]

18 minutes ago, FTOF said:

Only in your tiny mind.

 Can believe what you want, tbh, but its true.

[welldaft]

16 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

It's one of the consequences of being shit...it's obviously great we found the means to sack two managers and fund an emergency rebuild in January but ultimately it has to be paid for somehow.

I'm certainly not writing this season off by any means but if it turns out we're bottom six but safe(ish) throughout you'd certainly consider it a job well done rather than a chance missed.

100% in terms of would be a job well done. 

There is no way that this current squad is going to be doing much more than trying to avoid relegation. Because this same squad minus Conor Wilkinson, Blaney and the injured Efford and Butcher were actually sitting in joint bottom spot in Feb last year. 

What changed (apart from the Manager obviously) is that Van Veen went on a scoring streak and we tightened up in central defence. But with Butcher injured and Casey away we are pretty much back to square one. 

Maybe Ketts can get more out of a mediocre squad than Hammell. Maybe we will manage to move one or two on. Maybe will manage to bring in 2,3,4 etc 1st team starters. A lot of maybe's. I don’t think I will have looked forward to a transfer window as much as I ever have for the next summer. An opportunity to cleanse the squad entirely

 

[Biscuits]

1 hour ago, Antiochas III said:

If that's true, let the Government know.  They would surely want to know that they have went back on their deal...  

He probably has already 

[Archie McSquackle]

19 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Was thinking this the other day, St. Mirren chucking cash about (for them at least) to finish sixth feels, I dunno, a bit futile? At the moment certainly. 

Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen having a degree of competence/simply outspending folk for better quality really limits teams like ourselves ambition wise.

I certainly can't be arsed trawling through the St. Mirren thread but was it not a bit of an open secret that they were spending more and viewing it as a top six budget? They finished sixth so mission accomplished and they seem to be using it as a springboard but, as you say, it's a risky business when the bigger teams have got themselves in order and realistically sixth is as high as you're likely to manage. At least Dundee United are a basket case.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Archie McSquackle

[capt_oats]

Interesting comments from Ketts about how the club handled (or failed to handle) Johnston.

I mean. Yeah.

The point about missing out on add-ons isn't strictly true given we'd be entitled to solidarity payments or we could presumably negotiate something in the same way we did with Campbell but in a broader sense for all I've been saying we probably only had a short window to get this one sorted everyone involved over the past couple of years should be having a fucking word with themselves.

I could be wrong but reading those comments back it definitely sounds like a dig at Hammell.

Either way. Fucked it lads.

Edited July 9, 2023 by capt_oats

[rowsdower]

Sending someone out loan when they have a year left on their deal is usually reserved for the players you're done with and can't sell, so just trying to ride out their contract.

The fact that we did the exact same thing with Hastie and got burned makes this more infuriating. Now, it turned out Hastie was shite, but thats hindsight.

There's no guarantees, look at maguire, but this is probably the area where we can take more risks, with the worst case being you have a backup player.

[capt_oats]

5 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Sending someone out loan when they have a year left on their deal is usually reserved for the players you're done with and can't sell, so just trying to ride out their contract.

The fact that we did the exact same thing with Hastie and got burned makes this more infuriating. Now, it turned out Hastie was shite, but thats hindsight.

There's no guarantees, look at maguire, but this is probably the area where we can take more risks, with the worst case being you have a backup player.

IIRC the chat was that during his performance at the AGM Hammell sat in front of everyone talking about how he was “confident” Johnson would sign a new deal “because he just wants to play football”.

Absolutely wild misjudgement and naivety on so many levels.

[Swello]

Basically, getting an unlooked for big fee for a big weird Dutchman has saved a lot of blushes and stopped the year of bad decisions from being a fucking disaster.