Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Vietnam91]

Fair enough but 3 minutes with a goal and then not a sniff, not even another 3 minutes (granted injury time is when we do most of our salvaging rather than seeing games out) but even still.

Oli Shaw played in 10 of the next 11 getting about 20' on average per game and two assists. While we had attacking options on the bench, I'd rather if we used some of those minutes on Luca. He's our player after all.

One of those 10 was St Johnstone away ......

Edited April 9 by Vietnam91

[Stevie Kirk]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Bailey Rice getting his arse handed to him is it?

We cannot be stopped.

Excellent - another shoeing administered. 

[wellboy1991]

42 minutes ago, Stevie Kirk said:

Excellent - another shoeing administered. 

Great to beat them at anything at anytime but it would better if our club told us about it. Give us an idea of team/scorers etc.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, thisGRAEME said:

A reminder that they're 3 (three) points better off than us this season for that loss.

That loss is last seasons, FWIW. So that's what they lost in winning the Championship. 

[capt_oats]

41 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

That loss is last seasons, FWIW. So that's what they lost in winning the Championship. 

True.

Although the reporting has mentioned they're expecting a similar loss next year for this season so @thisGRAEME is just 12 months ahead of the curve.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68768050

[redstarcvedza]

7 hours ago, camer0n_mcd said:

 

Interesting  

Be interesting to see what directors loans are and also what their going concern statement is

[RandomGuy.]

37 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

True.

Although the reporting has mentioned they're expecting a similar loss next year for this season so @thisGRAEME is just 12 months ahead of the curve.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68768050

Wild to think they're, comfortably, the most financially sensible club in Dundee just now too.

[Handsome_Devil]

28 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Wild to think they're, comfortably, the most financially sensible club in Dundee just now too.

It's obviously not an exact comparison but I find the current time kind of reminiscent of the late 90s/early 00s when all manner of clubs were spending money wildly. Back then there was the hope/expectation that the TV money would be never ending and financial reality was ignored. Eventually the whole house came crashing down - and while the absolute wave of administrations didn't happen as predicted, those who avoided our fate still went through some brutal restructuring. 

St Johnstone were one of the few who didn't get involved in that pissing contest but it's worth remembering (unless my memory is playing tricks, you'll know better than me), this wisdom was hardly warmly welcomed by fans, who were instead raging you got relegated and frustrated it took years to return.

Nowadays the numbers are not quite so mental but the basic premise remains the same - tonnes of folk are investing heavily and the path to profit here is, shall we generously say, optimistic on current projections. Is there a belief TV/media rights/sponsorship/European competition will change things dramatically? I think you can definitely argue Scottish football is undervalued but to this extent...hmm.

St Mirren have steadied a lot and but assuming Ogren pushes the boat to ensure survival next season even without replicating earlier madness, you have the big city clubs, both from Dundee and Killie's lad combing to guarantee that someone will be spending a lot of money - that in the majority of cases they clearly don't have  - to finish no higher than eighth. And it's hardly impossible one of the Saints or ourselves have an okay season to squeeze into the bottom of that pile even while being financially dull.

You don't need to be businessman of the year to suggest that this, like 20 odd years ago is unsustainable.

Maybe I'm just overly cautious, no doubt lots of our fans don't remember the previous implosion etc but it still strikes me as mental that people look at our current stable state of affairs and conclude that handing the keys to an investor to join this lunacy is a good idea.

[wellboy1991]

Anyone know what’s happening with wee Allan Campbell. Not even on the bench these days for Millwall. Is he injured? 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Once we're rich we should give Dundee a few pounds to fix the pitch.

[Vietnam91]

16 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Once we're rich we should give Dundee a few pounds to fix the pitch.

I think we could stretch

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, wellboy1991 said:

Anyone know what’s happening with wee Allan Campbell. Not even on the bench these days for Millwall. Is he injured? 

Strikes me as a stick on signing for Aberdeen or Hearts next season. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said:

You don't need to be businessman of the year to suggest that this, like 20 odd years ago is unsustainable.

Maybe I'm just overly cautious, no doubt lots of our fans don't remember the previous implosion etc but it still strikes me as mental that people look at our current stable state of affairs and conclude that handing the keys to an investor to join this lunacy is a good idea.

I agree with this wholeheartedly and to be honest, I'm glad that this wave of spending that appears to be upon us has come at a time where we are trying to tighten the purse strings. 

I'm not saying we'd have gone all out the way other teams have, but if we had Turnbull's £3m arriving freshly in our account, I could've seen us entering a bidding war for KVV on deadline day etc. I'm glad we've gone down the more frugal route. 

On the former strikers returning to the league in January topic, I see KVV, James Scott and Curtis Main have a combined 0 goals between them.

 

[rowsdower]

2 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

On the former strikers returning to the league in January topic, I see KVV, James Scott and Curtis Main have a combined 0 goals between them.

 

Only because they didn't sign for us.

[Handsome_Devil]

6 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

On the former strikers returning to the league in January topic, I see KVV, James Scott and Curtis Main have a combined 0 goals between them.

I can no longer remember the massive list of guys we failed to get but there was more than half a dozen and not one of them makes you think we missed out on much at all. So far, at least.

[capt_oats]

51 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I can no longer remember the massive list of guys we failed to get but there was more than half a dozen and not one of them makes you think we missed out on much at all. So far, at least.

I think I said at the time that not getting a replacement for Biereth through the door in January was a failure regardless of what happened. Which, tbh, I stand by.

I agree that I don’t think we’d have been any better off had we got KVV, Eamonn Brophy, Stevie May, Aidan Keena, the laddie who ended up at Hibs or any of the other names chucked around but while clearly it’s great that big Thelonius has gone on the tear he has, finding ourselves in the position where, by our own admission at the AGM, we were phoning around anyone who would answer at 10pm on deadline day and in some cases being openly laughed at as we scrambled can’t really be chalked up as a W. Otherwise we presumably wouldn’t have been in full blown panic mode trying to get hold of literally anyone before finally bringing back a guy whose loan we’d cancelled a fortnight earlier.

Having said all that, another goal involvement for Jack Vale at the weekend. Some boi.

[capt_oats]

Anyway, on big Theo, just look at him…he’s thriving 

[CoF]

I was away so missed Saturdays game. Great goal aside, how was Ebiye? 

[Swello]

8 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

On the former strikers returning to the league in January topic, I see KVV, James Scott and Curtis Main have a combined 0 goals between them.

All bought just in case we signed them and got 15 goals out of them between Jan-May

59 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Anyway, on big Theo, just look at him…he’s thriving 

With the ridiculous run of strikers over the years, It's got to the point where there must be a Viking burial ground under Fir Park that allows struggling forwards to have one glorious season before retiring with their riches to Valhalla (or a short stint in England before signing for St Mirren as it's otherwise known). This would also helpfully explain why so many ex-players score against us when they come back to Fir Park.

Nick Blackman remains my favourite - non-descript loanee, scores every other week, double figures by Xmas - Aberdeen poach him, goals dry up instantly.

[Handsome_Devil]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I think I said at the time that not getting a replacement for Biereth through the door in January was a failure regardless of what happened. Which, tbh, I stand by.

I agree that I don’t think we’d have been any better off had we got KVV, Eamonn Brophy, Stevie May, Aidan Keena, the laddie who ended up at Hibs or any of the other names chucked around but while clearly it’s great that big Thelonius has gone on the tear he has, finding ourselves in the position where, by our own admission at the AGM, we were phoning around anyone who would answer at 10pm on deadline day and in some cases being openly laughed at as we scrambled can’t really be chalked up as a W. Otherwise we presumably wouldn’t have been in full blown panic mode trying to get hold of literally anyone before finally bringing back a guy whose loan we’d cancelled a fortnight earlier.

Having said all that, another goal involvement for Jack Vale at the weekend. Some boi.

If we'd just styled it out at the AGM we'd be looking like geniuses right now. But yeah, as much as this chunk of decision making has turned out brilliantly, I don't think there's too much credit to be had - circumstances have just clicked to make us look better than we were.

There's also a lesson I hope that is learned which is it's one thing holding off till deadline in summer, in January the risk of doing that is much greater. If we're after a 'nice to have' addition or a player in a soft position to fill (speedy English wing-back etc), sure, wait and take our chances. But if through injury, recalls etc, we have no choice but to fill a key shirt, accept the expense and pay what's needed to get that confirmed in the first half of the month. The last 48 hours, when everyone is desperate and there are only shiters on the market anyway, is a total lottery.