Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Handsome_Devil]

6 minutes ago, welldaft said:

He has ants in his pants. But he moved for a longer contract and more money. Like many of us on here would not do that.

We are in a pickle and need someone to link midfield and attack. He does or did that reasonably well. 

If we were looking for a 2 to 3 year contract. No not for me. If we are looking for a season only contract / impact then I say fine. 

Aye, when United signed him it was a good move until you saw the contract length, rumoured wage and added the transfer fee...mental.

Essentially my position would hover from yours to @Busta Nut querying above if he was worth it. Paying all his United wages and adding a year or two on top, definitely not... paying him half of United's wages for a year though... possibly?

 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I think this is Watt's last year of his contract at Dundee Utd. In an ideal world, I'd welcome him on loan where we are paying < 50% of the wages until we sort our shit out with everything / everyone else. I appreciate Dundee Utd may find those terms less than favourable but I wouldn't want to commit much more to him. I do think he could make a difference in the short term though.

[ropy]

His song is the only one my wife ever learned - bring him back for that alone.

[Vietnam91]

17 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I think this is Watt's last year of his contract at Dundee Utd. In an ideal world, I'd welcome him on loan where we are paying < 50% of the wages until we sort our shit out with everything / everyone else. I appreciate Dundee Utd may find those terms less than favourable but I wouldn't want to commit much more to him. I do think he could make a difference in the short term though.

I think in SPFL parlance that's called a 'Halliday'

[camer0n_mcd]

I do wonder if there is any truth to the Tony Watt rumours or is it 'Everton Youth' 2.0. Not a signing that would make much sense to me. 

[capt_oats]

I get that there’s a (sizeable) section of Motherwell fans who feel jilted by Tony Watt but while there’s clearly no guarantee that’d he’d do a similar sort of turn for us as first time round he carried that team on his shoulders and dragged us through games in his POTY season.

Also, for all he may/may not be a Kettlewell “type” of player he wasn’t exactly a player Alexander wanted around yet was still the top scorer in the league at the point United decided to chuck money at both him and us.

I mean, I’m still sceptical this is even a thing but it absolutely makes sense why both parties would be into it (assuming United are willing to eat a significant chunk of his apparently ludicrous wage just to get him out the door).

I mean, they’ve loaned him out to a team in the same league before (St Mirren) so I guess that’s not necessarily an obstacle.

[Well Fan]

Sport science has came on leaps and bounds since 70"s and 80"s etc when players were regularly injected, strapped up etc etc to play on a Saturday. 

But the same fundamentals are still present. 

You are carrying a knock, behind on fitness or not acclimatised to the pace of a new league. You are not training comfortably at 100%. You are 1/2 yard off the pace and stretching into tackles and contacts etc. Guess what, the percentage increase of soft tissue injuries and strains increase dramatically. 

Stama was risked to try get acclimatised for The Cup match imo and has backfired badly. 

As I said previously, questions internally will be being raised. 

The initial excitement of a new season and seeing new players have waned slightly due to the injury crisis and lack of offensive players. Here's hoping shuffling players into unfamiliar positions has no detrimental effect on their development. However, I doubt it as players like Lennon Miller are class. Reminds me of a young Gary McAllister. 

On the topic of Tony Watt.... if he's able to perform at a similar level before his move to Dundee Utd, hell yeah. Welcome back!! 

This guy single handedly took a kicking most weeks dragging a team forward and linking play into forward positions. 

Let's see what develops, but regardless of how we see things, we all support Motherwell FC and wish them the best. 

Keep supporting and get behind the boys in a cracking tie against Kilmarnock on Sunday. 

If its half as good as the 5-4 Kilmarnock thriller at Fir Park (remembered as 70's  Jim O'Rourke match) it will be a cracker. 

Enjoy the match and good luck to SK and the players. 

P. S. Don't over think it/complicate it Stuart and be in the hat for the next round.

 

 

 

[Gianfranco]

I’m finding the injuries chat just as tedious as the investment chat. 
 

On Watt, I’d rather we signed some attacking midfielders than another forward, unless both long names are out long term. 

[Cedrics Mighty Well Army]

@Erik Barmack Come back, please - I need a loan! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226288167719

[eliphas]

Fine with Watt coming back from a non footballing perspective. Football players move on and chase money. He always, mostly, gave us his all. So that's fine. 

Not convinced he's still got it though.

[Gaag97]

44 minutes ago, Cedrics Mighty Well Army said:

@Erik Barmack Come back, please - I need a loan! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226288167719

That should be in a club museum / collection 

[Busta Nut]

The gentleman quoted has deleted all mentions of Motherwell I heard. 

Not looked

[eliphas]

8 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

The gentleman quoted has deleted all mentions of Motherwell I heard. 

Not looked

If it's Barmack you are referring to? Then all still there on Twitter/X certainly. 

Edited August 12 by eliphas

[Handsome_Devil]

9 minutes ago, Gaag97 said:

That should be in a club museum / collection 

I think it was tweeted that it used to be loaned to the club but the owner is now looking to sell (there are another three to come or also available though JM's is the only medal from a player). You would certainly expect the club to have expressed an interest in a purchase, why a deal couldn't be done I've no idea. I suspect we could have a lot of fun debating the philosophical merits of value and worth...but tbh I've no idea if 15k for this is an absolute bargain or daylight robbery

[Busta Nut]

9 minutes ago, eliphas said:

If it's Barmack you are referring to? Then all still there on Twitter/X certainly. 

I must have been misinformed. 

[capt_oats]

2 hours ago, Gianfranco said:

On Watt, I’d rather we signed some attacking midfielders than another forward, unless both long names are out long term. 

I'd guess that Watt would be a replacement for Nicholson.

On that point though, I notice that we've not included Stuparević in any of the statements that have been issued so I take it that's just a regular injury rather than anything 'serious' in the same way Nicholson, Callachan, Paton or Blaney are considered.

Either that or we've simply forgotten about him.

Stamatelopolous is clearly TBC but as it stands the known long term injuries seem to be:

Callachan (hamstring) - "a period of time"
Blaney (medial ligament) - "four to six weeks"
Nicholson (patella) - "several months"
Paton (ankle) - "minimum of 14 weeks"
Slattery (knee) - "November"

That's 1 'forward' (potentially 2), 3 midfielders and a centre back and I'm not really sure Slattery should be part of the conversation given we knew his situation when he extended in the summer.

We're pretty much covered to accommodate Blaney missing so you could make the argument that a forward and an attacking mid are what we'd be after.

Listening to Kettlewell talk about the situation he was saying we'd probably have to be "creative" in terms of bringing "one or two" in. What that actually means IDK, whether he's talking about budget, the profile of player or a combination of both?

Either way, as it stands, the first team squad sits on 25 bodies (including Wilson and Ferrie) so you'd think that we're pretty much maxed out in terms of the numbers we'd be looking to carry.

Edited August 12 by capt_oats

[Allroy for Prez]

I was absolutely f**king RAGING when Watt left for Utd, but he was also excellent for us and we’re desperate so it’s a yes from me provided it’s only a 1 year deal. 

(He also needs to crawl on his knees the length of the East Stand begging for forgiveness first game back,  after that we’re square)

[camer0n_mcd]

FWIW, the way he left doesn't make any difference to me football fan are fickle, myself included. My problem with it is I don't think he's a premiership player anymore, add that with the fact he seems to fall out with managers all the time (including allegedly 3/4 in his time at Dundee United) I think it's a disaster waiting to happen.

[Swello]

17 minutes ago, Allroy for Prez said:

I was absolutely f**king RAGING when Watt left for Utd, but he was also excellent for us and we’re desperate so it’s a yes from me provided it’s only a 1 year deal. 

(He also needs to crawl on his knees the length of the East Stand begging for forgiveness first game back,  after that we’re square)

I was annoyed at Watt at the time as there had been some heavy duty badge kissing going on in the months prior (and despite being old and cynical, I had kind of bought into the whole "he's finally found somewhere to settle down a bit" patter  - but I was probably equally/more frustrated that Utd (who we were competing with for top 6/europe) overspent to take our best forward at that point which hugely weakened us and didn't really do much for them.

Would have him back.

[Londonwell]

Apparently we had a trialist playing for us against Everton. This guy:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawanda_Maswanhise
 

As for Watt, don’t really care how he left before but as others have said the concern would be if he’s still able to make an impact at this level. Given the nature of our situation we may not be able to be too picky though, so it would probably be a thumbs up from me, hoping he comes back with a point to prove.