Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Handsome_Devil]

7 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

Aye I'd be staggered if we didn't attempt to sign someone in January but what's the point if they're worse than the current lot. I also totally understand why SK stood by Butcher this season because he was outstanding for 6 months last season. Whatever that injury he got on the Livingston astro was has absolutely seen him off though. He's past finished. 

As much as Biereth not getting injured is an obvious big what if for our season, I think Butcher not being for the glue factory is an even more intriguing scenario.

It's still possible we'd have struggled, just slightly differently...but it's hard to see us being quite as shambolic at the back as we were in the first half of the season.

As for replacing him in January, who knows...we certainly weren't linked with any CBs I remember and if SK felt he could patch up the defence enough and save the money for summer, he was probably proved right. On the other hand, maybe we got knock backs all over the shop like with a forward and just got lucky.

[MurrayWell]

Seen a good number of teams issue their GTF list ahead of the final games. Genuinely canny mind, do we usually wait until the season ends? 

[Handsome_Devil]

5 minutes ago, MurrayWell said:

Seen a good number of teams issue their GTF list ahead of the final games. Genuinely canny mind, do we usually wait until the season ends? 

Yes and sometimes quite a bit beyond!

[camer0n_mcd]

17 minutes ago, MurrayWell said:

Seen a good number of teams issue their GTF list ahead of the final games. Genuinely canny mind, do we usually wait until the season ends? 

Our squad update from last year came out on the 31st of May, the year prior it was the 20th of June.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Quite a few of my early posts on here are passionately giving reasons not to sign Nadir Ciftci permanently. I'm surprised I didn't get bombed out.

[Swello]

2 hours ago, Desp said:

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Someone should put that on a t-shirt... 

Just loved the fact that it could have been written this week and no-one would have noticed.

[capt_oats]

43 minutes ago, MurrayWell said:

Seen a good number of teams issue their GTF list ahead of the final games. Genuinely canny mind, do we usually wait until the season ends? 

25 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Our squad update from last year came out on the 31st of May, the year prior it was the 20th of June.

For a couple of seasons we had the Squad Updates out within a couple of days of the end of the season. In keeping with our comms in general post-Burrows the update last year was a complete shambles in that we actually had to release two as the first one didn't actually clarify anything.

21/22: 20th May 2022 (final game 14th May)
22/23: 31st May 2023 (final game 28th May) and subsequently 14th June 2023 

There's an old post of mine from 2022 that gave the dates of the previous releases, going by the above and these you'd expect something next week:

On 15/05/2022 at 11:12, capt_oats said:

You'd think it would be. On the face of it it feels pretty straightforward.

The majority of the squad is contracted for next season, even the current cohort of Reserves are on deals to 2023 (Johnston, Campbell etc).

The OOC players are;

• Morrison, Lamie, O'Connor, Grimshaw, Nirennold, O'Hara, Donnelly, Amaluzor, Roberts.
• Shaw (loan expires)

O'Connor and Amaluzor were 1 year contracts (DOC's already back in Ireland going by his IG) while Nirennold and Roberts were short-term to the end of the season. Grimshaw's already had his send off from the Bois and O'Hara's PCA has been reported (if not officially confirmed).

The only real question marks there are Lamie given the clause in his PCA and Donnelly (IMO).

Last year and the curtailed Covid season aside they've generally been published within a couple of days of the final game (in the case of 15/16, the next day).

20/21 - 24th May 2021 (final game was 16th May)
19/20 - 31st May 2020 (final game was 7th March in the curtailed season)
18/19 - 21st May 2019 (final game 18th May)
17/18 - 21st May 2018 (final game 19th May)
16/17 - 22nd May 2017 (final game 20th May)
15/16 - 16th May 2016 (final game 15th May)

[Swello]

6 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Quite a few of my early posts on here are passionately giving reasons not to sign Nadir Ciftci permanently. I'm surprised I didn't get bombed out.

Reading that stuff back I discovered that Kieran Kennedy was a thing - and some posters on here seemed to like him. I had literally no memory of him.

[capt_oats]

Related to that post above about Squad Updates. I see that's Jake Carroll signed with Bohs.

Leaves Josh Morris as the only player from last summer without a club (AFAIK).

Edited May 17 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

12 minutes ago, Swello said:

Reading that stuff back I discovered that Kieran Kennedy was a thing - and some posters on here seemed to like him. I had literally no memory of him.

He was good in The Dictator

[Desp]

1 hour ago, Swello said:

Reading that stuff back I discovered that Kieran Kennedy was a thing - and some posters on here seemed to like him. I had literally no memory of him.

My great hope around that time was Louis Laing but that one never quite materialised either, did it?

Kennedy looked ok in spells, but did he not end up with quite a serious illness which pretty much done his professional career?  

[one m in Motherwell]

f**k, that really was a grim time.  Blyth, Clay, Lucas, Taylor, Jules...*shudder*

[thisGRAEME]

16 minutes ago, Desp said:

My great hope around that time was Louis Laing but that one never quite materialised either, did it?

Kennedy looked ok in spells, but did he not end up with quite a serious illness which pretty much done his professional career?  

Laing was a bit of a saddy in the end, wasn't it? Sure I remember there being a thing about him really struggling with his mental health or something?

I quite liked Kennedy. A centre half who blurred the lines between 'brave' and 'foolhardy' from my recollection. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, Swello said:

Reading that stuff back I discovered that Kieran Kennedy was a thing - and some posters on here seemed to like him. I had literally no memory of him.

I remember watching him and Laing against East Fife. I was genuinely a bit gutted we equalised in the last minute and I had to sit through another half an hour of it.

I was critical of McManus at times when he was here - but looking back now, aside from Hutchy in his first season, he didn't have his troubles to seek with his centre-back partner.

I do still stand by my opinions on Nadir, which I think now do look vindicated.

[welldaft]

So Ketts saying in the presser that everyone knows that they have been offered a contract, will be offered a contract and those who won’t be offered a contract. Interesting in that you would think some players would let slip they are moving on. Perhaps they have been told NOT to say anything until after FT on Sunday.

Either way it points to a fairly quick and concise update early next week. 

Also he would like as much business done over the next few weeks. Acknowledging that many players wait until they see what else is on the table etc. to be expected. I guess it means we should see some signing news quite quickly if he gets his way…

Edited May 17 by welldaft

[thisGRAEME]

54 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

 

I do still stand by my opinions on Nadir, which I think now do look vindicated.

Wrong.

[StAndrew7]

1 hour ago, Desp said:

My great hope around that time was Louis Laing but that one never quite materialised either, did it?

Kennedy looked ok in spells, but did he not end up with quite a serious illness which pretty much done his professional career?  

Aye, he was ill whilst with us and basically didn't play his final season, then had similar issues at the next few clubs he was at. Ended up at Wrexham and a few other places, according to his Wiki.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

This isn't a dig at Laing and Kennedy as such, both seemed like committed and slightly unlucky guys who were just out their depth- but christ did we sign some shite back then. That was partially a Baraclough/McGhee thing but if you compare ourselves,Killie, Dundee, St Mirren etc now and then I think the midtable quality has definitely risen across the board.

[Busta Nut]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

Reading that stuff back I discovered that Kieran Kennedy was a thing - and some posters on here seemed to like him. I had literally no memory of him.

 

3 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

He was good in The Dictator

I was gonna say that beard is like suhin out of "4 Lions"

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

5 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

As much as Biereth not getting injured is an obvious big what if for our season, I think Butcher not being for the glue factory is an even more intriguing scenario.

It's still possible we'd have struggled, just slightly differently...but it's hard to see us being quite as shambolic at the back as we were in the first half of the season.

As for replacing him in January, who knows...we certainly weren't linked with any CBs I remember and if SK felt he could patch up the defence enough and save the money for summer, he was probably proved right. On the other hand, maybe we got knock backs all over the shop like with a forward and just got lucky.

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it was sustained in a fairly meaningless game too. I don't know if Butcher had any history on artificial turf, or any bad injuries in the past, but it does seem a bit sliding doors that we could have decided to give Mugabi a game that night and Butcher could not have been finished and we could have had a semi-competent defence this season.

On the topic of "what-ifs" - I wonder how Bair's season would have panned out had Biereth not been recalled. I know he had started to show his true worth in Biereth's final two games, but I wonder if we would have managed to get the best of him whilst at the same time trying to channel our attack through Mika.