TPAFKA Jersey 2 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 On 23/03/2024 at 10:16, fat_tony said: I considered mentioning Mandron but other than that wee purple patch earlier in the season I don't think he's really done much. Certainly not a redemption arc on the trajectory of Theo Bair's. Don't think there's much between the two players in terms of performance this season (Bair 11 goals and Mandron 10), but the bit in bold is a bit of weird take. Mandron's goals have been pretty much sporadic throughout the season and if either player has had a "purple patch" it's Bair, having scored 8 of his 11 goals in a one and a half month spell at the start of this year. Anyway, bald men, combs etc etc. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 It's easy for us to say now that Bair has hit a bit of form, that we identified him as a player who we could transform into the player has become. It could be that we did actually sign him as a squad player and he's been given the platform to flourish due to the fact he's remained fit and available for selection when all of our other striking options haven't. The truth is probably somewhere in between. On his worst day this season, I still thought his graft and attitude brought something to the team. It is quite funny to see everyone associated with St. Johnstone Football Club tying themselves in knots at the suggestion his performances last season may have been something to do with them and not only him. As for Mandron, I know last season he perhaps wasn't the most graceful striker we've ever seen, but he did a decent job as foil for KVV. I said in the summer that for availability's sake alone, I would have kept him instead of Obika. Had we done so, we probably wouldn't have needed to sign Oli Shaw either. I wouldn't have expected him to get double figures right enough, so fair play to him. However, I wouldn't say it's strictly comparing apples for apples with his 10 to Bair's 11. I think the League Cup group section can certainly inflate a player's goal return for a season these days, see Elliott Frear for us as an example. Of course, we all use all competitions when it suits our narrative and league only when it suits our narrative, but I think these days the latter is a more accurate marker. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPAFKA Jersey 2 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 32 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said: It's easy for us to say now that Bair has hit a bit of form, that we identified him as a player who we could transform into the player has become. It could be that we did actually sign him as a squad player and he's been given the platform to flourish due to the fact he's remained fit and available for selection when all of our other striking options haven't. The truth is probably somewhere in between. On his worst day this season, I still thought his graft and attitude brought something to the team. It is quite funny to see everyone associated with St. Johnstone Football Club tying themselves in knots at the suggestion his performances last season may have been something to do with them and not only him. As for Mandron, I know last season he perhaps wasn't the most graceful striker we've ever seen, but he did a decent job as foil for KVV. I said in the summer that for availability's sake alone, I would have kept him instead of Obika. Had we done so, we probably wouldn't have needed to sign Oli Shaw either. I wouldn't have expected him to get double figures right enough, so fair play to him. However, I wouldn't say it's strictly comparing apples for apples with his 10 to Bair's 11. I think the League Cup group section can certainly inflate a player's goal return for a season these days, see Elliott Frear for us as an example. Of course, we all use all competitions when it suits our narrative and league only when it suits our narrative, but I think these days the latter is a more accurate marker. Yeah the bit in bold is very fair comment. Mandron scored 3 of his 10 goals in the LC Group stage, but like you say, there’s nothing between the players I don’t think. I doubt you’d find a St. Mirren fan happy to swap Mandron for Bair and I’m sure the opposite would be true of Motherwell fans. My point in my previous post was more about thinking it was odd the poster referred to Mandron having a purple patch (which he hasn’t) when Bair very much has had one. He scored 2 goals in Motherwell’s first 19 games. He then scored 8 goals in 6 consecutive games. Since then he’s scored 1 goal in 5 games. That’s the very definition of a purple patch to me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Looking at the Nothern Ireland team and they've been playing Spencer at LB to accommodate that Bradley boy from Liverpool on the right. Ketts was ahead of his time. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat_tony Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 (edited) On 25/03/2024 at 13:50, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: Don't think there's much between the two players in terms of performance this season (Bair 11 goals and Mandron 10), but the bit in bold is a bit of weird take. Mandron's goals have been pretty much sporadic throughout the season and if either player has had a "purple patch" it's Bair, having scored 8 of his 11 goals in a one and a half month spell at the start of this year. Anyway, bald men, combs etc etc. I'll admit I haven't kept close tabs on Mandron, the "purple patch" comment was very much based on seeing his name on the score sheet regularly early in the season and then just not for a while. The original post was asking about players who have been a total bust at Motherwell and then gone on to be great at another team. Mandron was okay with us, not Oli Shaw levels of shite but neither did he set the heather on fire. St Mirren are getting a similar return (10 goals in 35) out of him as well did (3 goals in 11), so it's nowhere near the Bair redemption arc (1 goal in 38 for Saint Johnstone to 11 in 33 for Well). Edited March 26 by fat_tony 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torfason Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Sturm Graz want to sign Arsenal and Denmark U21s striker Mika Biereth, 21, on a permanent deal following a successful loan spell. (Evening Standard) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 8 hours ago, Torfason said: Sturm Graz want to sign Arsenal and Denmark U21s striker Mika Biereth, 21, on a permanent deal following a successful loan spell. (Evening Standard) Could we not? Thanks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Talking of unobtainable ex's - thought Spencer was excellent for Norn Irn last night... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 31 minutes ago, Swello said: Talking of unobtainable ex's - thought Spencer was excellent for Norn Irn last night... I know Stevie Hammell's cursed amulet is a running bit but in terms of the very specific profile of wing back that we seem to like then between Furlong, Gent, Spencer, Devine, Montgomery (for the very short time we saw him) along with Johnston I guess, we've been doing all right. Again, not to labour the point but it feels like a lot of the grief our recruitment has got is more tied to some folks perception of the HoR and results rather than whether the players are actually any good or not. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedrics Mighty Well Army Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Mika link: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-fc-transfer-news-biereth-2024-b1147708.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casagolda Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 (edited) 3 hours ago, Swello said: Talking of unobtainable ex's - thought Spencer was excellent for Norn Irn last night... Imagine we’d actually got a good few months of him and Gent down either flank, bombing forward and getting some decent service into Mika…. Shame that Kettlewell completely lost the run of himself during that period and we never really got to see it. Had one of the best strikers in the country feeding off scraps most weeks while Gent and Spencer only ever started 4 games together. But aye, I agree with @capt_oatsabove. Despite a presumably reduced budget and having to move on a lot deadwood, I think the recruitment on the whole has actually been pretty good this season. Certainly be interesting to see what Kettlewell gets up to this summer with essentially a clean slate to work from. Edited March 27 by Casagolda 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 (edited) @Casagolda's post above has me thinking about the big 'what ifs' of the season, eg: what if Robinson's hammer throwers didn't break Mika, what if Kettlewell had introduced Gent and Dave to the starting line-up before he ended up having to hail mary them in post County. I don't think it's wide of the mark to say that Biereth was, legitimately, one of the best strikers in the league. I know there's been chat along the lines of he must have ended up with us by mistake but there's a fair amount of credit due for getting him in even if it was a deal that ultimately booted us squarely in the baws. On the recruitment in general here's a very long listicle of our signings since 21/22 when Daws got the gig = 51 in total (I've listed Obika twice for his loan spell which IMO was fine and his permanent which is very much not). I've separated out that initial intake who were signed on the classic Robinson style short term deal and were basically here to fill a jersey vs folk we clearly signed with a serious intention of them contributing to the first team but ended up falling pretty far short. I could be wrong but I'd suggest that a chunk of those Hammell signings were more down to his 'contacts' than our recruitment team. Maybe it's recency bias but I'd say that Kettlewell's actually got more right than wrong regardless of the whole no wins in 15 or whatever it was. It's been a dead horse that I'm inclined to keep flogging but I honestly don't see that list being markedly worse than the signings we were making with Foyle and Robinson...especially if you draw up the incomings during Foyle's final window which included Eddie Nolan, Lawleff, Tyler Magloire, Big Weird Harry Smith (who may actually be a shout for our Theo Bair award given he went on to score 15 in 45 for Leyton Orient the season after his brief loan with us) and Sam Foley. Either way 51 bodies in is a wild number but then you remember all the injuries and loan recalls...and it's still a wild number even allowing for an amount of context: Graham Alexander (7th Jan 21 - 29th July 2022): Connor Shields - bust Justin Amaluzor - ringer Kaiyne Woolery - fine Kevin Van Veen - Liam Kelly - fine Darragh O'Connor - ringer Mich'el Parker - ringer Callum Slattery - fine Juhani Ojala - bust Sean Goss - Sondre Johansen - fine Ross Tierney - I still believe Jordan Roberts - fine Victor Nirennold - ringer but the east stand remembers Joseph Efford - him reportedly being on daft money makes him a bust Robbie Mahon - signed for the unders Liam Shaw (loan) - might have been fine if Alexander hadn't decided he didn't like his face Blair Spittal - Paul McGinn - Josh Morris - LOL - bust Aston Oxborough - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ hard to have an opinion, he was brought in as back-up to Kelly and has sat on the bench. Steven Hammell (29th July 2022 - 11th February 2023): Shane Blaney - fine Mikael Mandron - fine Riku Danzaki - bust Jack Aitchison - meh Dan Casey - up to his injury - fine Callum Butcher - up to his injury - fine Stuart McKinstry (loan) - fine until Kettlewell binned him Matt Penney (loan) - fine Rolando Aarons (loan) - bust Louis Moult (loan) - bust Ollie Crankshaw (loan) - bust James Furlong (loan) - Jonathan Obika (loan) - fine Stuart Kettlewell (11th February - present): Harry Paton - fine Jonathan Obika - bust Conor Wilkinson - fine Pape Souaré - bust Davor Zdravkovski - Thelonius Bair - Callan Elliot - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sam Nicholson - fine Moses Ebiye - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Mika Biereth (loan) - Brodie Spencer (loan) - Oli Shaw (loan) - LOL - bust Georgie Gent (loan) - Adam Montgomery (loan) - could have been Andy Halliday (loan) - fine Jack Vale (loan) - Adam Devine (loan) - [redacted] (loan) - bust Edited March 27 by capt_oats 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowsdower Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Josh Morris - LOL 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MurrayWell Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 40 minutes ago, capt_oats said: Jonathan Obika - bust 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MP_MFC Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Ye cannae call Wilkinson fine. An absolute mega bust and hunted within 6 months tells you the story. Same as Danzaki. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Self-raising Lazarus Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 3 hours ago, MurrayWell said: Should be - Hamstring 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Ive long thought that our two What Ifs were Dunne’s tackle and Miller failing to avoid the Livingston boy. Biereth had literally played 30 minutes at that point, and the loss to Livi started the ‘run’ in a bad way. This whole year could have been different. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 2 hours ago, MP_MFC said: Ye cannae call Wilkinson fine. An absolute mega bust and hunted within 6 months tells you the story. Same as Danzaki. Mega bust is very harsh. I wasn't disappointed to see him go, but he never got a run of starts and scored three very crucial league goals which all won us points. However, I do concede that any good was undone by wearing number 99 and taking corners (badly) despite being 6ft plus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil86 Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 16 hours ago, capt_oats said: I don't think it's wide of the mark to say that Biereth was, legitimately, one of the best strikers in the league. I know there's been chat along the lines of he must have ended up with us by mistake but there's a fair amount of credit due for getting him in even if it was a deal that ultimately booted us squarely in the baws. That was me. And whilst I do firmly believe it was a total fluke we got him, I totally agree that the club are due a lot of credit for making it happen. He looks as though he could go on to have a very very good career at a top level, and it will be one of those where folk are like mind when Biereth was at Motherwell. Like Aaron Mooy at St Mirren, just a lot better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antiochas III Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 13 hours ago, MP_MFC said: Ye cannae call Wilkinson fine. An absolute mega bust and hunted within 6 months tells you the story. Same as Danzaki. Fine as came as a free, and we got compensation for moving him out.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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