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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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9 minutes ago, Vietnam91 said:

I wonder if he ever sits down and has an introspective moment and wonders what he could have achieved if he grafted, was more humble and wasn't so lippy ... then five seconds later thinks "f**k it, I've done OK" and actually believe it.

Maybe the enjoyment is more important to him than a bunch of medals...more likely it's just his personality and it'll never change. The more I think about it, the more I believe the 'loves playing at football, no interest in being a footballer' guess.

He is essentially impossible to manage - ne needs an arm round the shoulder to feel valued but not so much he becomes complacent and challenged enough without him taking the huff.

You could well imagine him being brilliant for a season, signed for two more years and then loaned out by January 26.

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Interesting to hear him talk about his wife’s job. I’m sure I’ve said before (either on here or steelmen online) that at our kind of wage you can’t discount players making decisions based on their partners career.  While it’s true football is a short career (and is genuinely different to a lot of other careers in terms of not having much choice in having to move around), but it’s fairly 1950s to think that the footballers career comes first. 

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10 minutes ago, Ceiling Granny said:

Interesting to hear him talk about his wife’s job. I’m sure I’ve said before (either on here or steelmen online) that at our kind of wage you can’t discount players making decisions based on their partners career.  While it’s true football is a short career (and is genuinely different to a lot of other careers in terms of not having much choice in having to move around), but it’s fairly 1950s to think that the footballers career comes first. 

Half a dozen eggs sell for about £1.50 ....

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13 minutes ago, Ceiling Granny said:

Interesting to hear him talk about his wife’s job. I’m sure I’ve said before (either on here or steelmen online) that at our kind of wage you can’t discount players making decisions based on their partners career.  While it’s true football is a short career (and is genuinely different to a lot of other careers in terms of not having much choice in having to move around), but it’s fairly 1950s to think that the footballers career comes first. 

Aye, he basically said he was staying in Scotland due to his wife's situation at that time and United made an offer he couldn't refuse.

Maybe he was very well prepped for his interview there but he came over very honestly and in that situation it's hard to hold much against him really...a winner on Saturday and it'll be like he's never been away!

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1 hour ago, CoF said:

He's such an odd character  - football is full of unlikeable folk who you just know are c***s in real life, but he just doesn't see like one of them. He's not a thug on the pitch, tries to do a wee bit for charity now and then and use his profile to promote good causes. But for some reason there always seems to be some vague and unspecified beef which follows him from club to club. 

I realise that McGarry has kind of touched on this in his mailout just there butI don't know if we're unique in his career in so much as the beef that many fans of his (many) clubs seem to have with him is the idea that he has just ended up downing tools and/or falling out with managers or whatever.

For all he's clearly difficult to manage for the reasons @Handsome_Devil mentions it was the exact opposite with us.

Rather than him downing tools or losing interest he signed a couple of contract extensions, was our clear POTY when he was dragging us through games as Robinson was trying to relegate us and was at his absolute peak when he left - literally the top scorer in the league and playing the best football of his career.

2 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm not sure if this makes me more or less tribal but I'm pretty sure a player could spit on the Motherwell badge and call me a p***k and I'd still happily have them back if I thought they'd improve us. I was raging when Watt left and laughed immensely when he got sent off against us and relegated but I honestly don't think I ever really took it as a perceived slight at Motherwell Football Club rather than a bigger team taking our best player and a footballer moving for a higher wage.

I've booed him everytime he came back to Fir Park and probably called him snake multiple times but I wouldn't say I really believed it, in the same way that if he does well here I'll be saying "Tony Watt ripped the pish out of Dundee United for 2 years for a laugh then came back to Motherwell and started trying again" while knowing that isn't true either.

I think, in hindsight, the amusing thing about it all is that ultimately we actually did alright out the deal.

I know there's been this argument from more Twitter-based United fans that it was worth it because they derailed our season but ultimately for all the wheels undoubtedly came off for Grezza we still finished Top 6 (albeit by the skin of our teeth - which in itself was very funny on account of the Martindale of it all), we still qualified for Europe and United ultimately ended up being relegated the following season (with their relegation confirmed by us).

It's not like it's been 4D chess or whatever on our part but we ended up with a 6 figure fee and apart from the obvious shame and embarrassment of losing one our best players to a team like United the only real impact was we dropped from 4th to 5th while United ended up...relegated with Watt on a long term contract and daft money that they're still paying him.

Edited by capt_oats
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4 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I think, in hindsight, the amusing thing about it all is that ultimately we actually did alright out the deal.

Tbf you didn't even need hindsight.. plenty of us were saying that January it was a good deal and better than giving him a massive deal we'd love to regret...ofc we didn't quite see Alexander not even try to replace him beyond Joel Efford! But I think anyone who could park the rejected rage even a fraction would have been happy with a great 18 months and then 100k cash for a journeyman we were 50-50 on signing to begin with.

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1 hour ago, Vietnam91 said:

I wonder if he ever sits down and has an introspective moment and wonders what he could have achieved if he grafted, was more humble and wasn't so lippy ... then five seconds later thinks "f**k it, I've done OK" and actually believe it.

I'm relatively convinced he done an interview years ago where someone asked him about his "wasted potential", and he virtually admitted he's more than happy with what he's achieved in his career. Sure it was along the lines of he'd rather enjoy himself and try as many different things as possible than hate his job while living and breathing being a footballer 24hrs a day in the same place for years.

I might have imagined it, but I feel like it was after he left Belgium.

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23 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'm relatively convinced he done an interview years ago where someone asked him about his "wasted potential", and he virtually admitted he's more than happy with what he's achieved in his career. Sure it was along the lines of he'd rather enjoy himself and try as many different things as possible than hate his job while living and breathing being a footballer 24hrs a day in the same place for years.

I might have imagined it, but I feel like it was after he left Belgium.

I listened to him doing a podcast during lockdown where this was his chat I’m sure. 

Really can’t remember who’s podcast it was though!

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Does Killie winning tonight maybe actually work in our favour for Sunday?

Obviously some bounce for them tonight which they could take into the game, but I think perhaps(hope) with it 'only' being the League Cup that McInnes might be inclined to risk progression here by shuffling his deck to keep his main men fit for a tilt at making the Conference group stages and the money that comes with it, and maybe giving our own depleted ranks a wee edge. Think it'll be a decent cup tie either way, looking forward to it. 

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3 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

Does Killie winning tonight maybe actually work in our favour for Sunday?

Obviously some bounce for them tonight which they could take into the game, but I think perhaps(hope) with it 'only' being the League Cup that McInnes might be inclined to risk progression here by shuffling his deck to keep his main men fit for a tilt at making the Conference group stages and the money that comes with it, and maybe giving our own depleted ranks a wee edge. Think it'll be a decent cup tie either way, looking forward to it. 

Only thing for certain is it's probably added 400-500 to the away gate.

Since the majority of any introduced subs will come from our academy doubt we'll have a significant playing advantage however they have been buoyed up by tonight. Also, the drubbing they got last week from St Johnstone didn't seem to affect them too much.

If we manage to do something in the midfield to forward line it could be entertaining.

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15 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

Was it ever reported how much Utd paid us for Watt?

There were claims that it was £100k+. IIRC there was mention in the United thread on here that it was as high as £175k.

Having a quick check of the accounts for Year End 31st May 2022 they show 'Gains On Disposal Of Player Registrations' of £974,168 - which isn't particularly helpful as I'm assuming it includes the Development Compensation we received from Luton for Allan Campbell who left in the summer before the season started but after the date of the previous accounts closing.

I guess it's possible that there's an add on received from Celtic for Turnbull as well?

The only other players who were 'transferred' that season were Carson and Watt.

(Amusingly they've also mis-spelled Steven Hammell's name in the Events after the Reporting Date section of the accounts).

Edited by capt_oats
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I still think Watt may have been called up by Scotland if all the hoo-ha round about his transfer from us to Utd hadn’t happened. All the stories at the time made it sound like he was being a p***k. That probably put Clarke off.

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5 hours ago, Al B said:

"Give it time, hopefully they can open me back up wi their arms"

🤣

'mon then Tone, in ye come. It's hard to stay annoyed at that kind of daft.

I just love him man. 

Honestly, just play him at #9, give him some love, he'll be this seasons 10 goal striker and we'll be fine.

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With the form Watt was in, he would have definitely been called up, he was unplayable at times. But there you go. 

Not sure who to go for the WS board, but open to brides if you need a vote

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9 hours ago, Vietnam91 said:

Only thing for certain is it's probably added 400-500 to the away gate.

Might trim a few if they prefer a trip to Copenhagen over Motherwell.

I think given our squad situation Killie are favourites but a bit of mental distraction maybe brings it back closer to 50-50.

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