Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[welldaft]

19 minutes ago, ropy said:

I watched bits of Lennon Miller in the U21 game yesterday, given he still qualifies for the U19s I think he is in the right place for now.  Talk of the full squad is premature.  Let the boy grow at a pace that suits him.  He will make the full squad some day.

Fully agree. It was a disappointing result and performance from Scotland.

Belgium were very good. It was 2-0 but Belgium spurned quite a few chances when we really created very little. Miller was not really able to influence the game at all as Belgium were very adept and quick at closing down all over the park. 

[Allroy for Prez]

Liam Gordon must be watching the Scotland game tonight and wondering how the hell John Soutar is getting a game ahead of him. 
 

I wouldn’t take Soutar for us even in an injury crisis. 

[Swello]

2 hours ago, Allroy for Prez said:

I wouldn’t take Soutar for us even in an injury crisis. 

Let's hope he's fit for the Semi-final....

[Vietnam91]

27 minutes ago, Swello said:

Let's hope he's fit for the Semi-final....

Let's hope Ap Stam has been practicing 35 yard lobs

[Vietnam91]

Erm, so just saw this on the BBC, does Tom owe me a royalty?

[Handsome_Devil]

11 hours ago, Vietnam91 said:

Erm, so just saw this on the BBC, does Tom owe me a royalty?

Would love to hear his reasoning why we'll be better off with investors trying to take money out the club.

I appreciate it's a new era of journalism and I don't expect more from him than a Lennon Miller reference and some stats he may or may not have lifted off the internet but why he volunteers to comment on off field matters he clearly doesn't know about is beyond me.

[Swello]

Stopped reading at "Stuart Kettlewell doesn't have a huge number of players at his disposal"

[Pizzo]

You guys appear to have turned it round this season, didn't see it coming tbh.

Having a competent goalkeeper makes a huge difference in this league. Think we may find that out to our cost again.

 

[MurrayWell]

30 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Would love to hear his reasoning why we'll be better off with investors trying to take money out the club.

I appreciate it's a new era of journalism and I don't expect more from him than a Lennon Miller reference and some stats he may or may not have lifted off the internet but why he volunteers to comment on off field matters he clearly doesn't know about is beyond me.

He has none and will probably have absolutely no desire to research or hear why that investment was a bad idea. 

It's the same way pundits will go on about how the league isn't competitive enough for Celtic and Rangers, every time they get their arses handed to them in Europe, but continue to deliberately miss the point that over the years Celtic and Rangers have created the competition gap. Any time league restructure is mentioned they go "but Sky only pay because they get four Old Firm fixtures" and dismiss any suggestion of radical change, before months later one of their "expert" panel members (usually an ex-OF player who couldn't even name you players from the other teams in the league, unless they've been in the headlines) claims it to be the fault of the other 10 teams that Celtic and Rangers have been hammered in Europe again, which goes unchallenged. 

[CoF]

Tom English has turned into that guy at work who doesn't really watch football but likes to have a conversation with you about it anyway, using only wee snippets he overheard or that other people told him. 

[Handsome_Devil]

40 minutes ago, Pizzo said:

You guys appear to have turned it round this season, didn't see it coming tbh.

Having a competent goalkeeper makes a huge difference in this league. Think we may find that out to our cost again.

 

Neither did we tbf. And ultimately it's still too early to tell, a handful of 50-50s going out way on set pieces isn't quite the proof in the pudding some of the more casual in the media may claim it is.

Agree totally about the keeper, the difference it makes stealing or giving away even a handful of points is absolutely huge when the league is as tight as it is.

[Handsome_Devil]

31 minutes ago, MurrayWell said:

It's the same way pundits will go on about how the league isn't competitive enough for Celtic and Rangers, every time they get their arses handed to them in Europe, but continue to deliberately miss the point that over the years Celtic and Rangers have created the competition gap. 

Tbf the Old Firm are as entitled as anyone else to act in their own interests - they are far from the only ones who do it in Scotland. So as dislikeable as they are, I don't actually blame them for this.

Your point about the media not understanding their interests though is spot on. The OF would rather do well than badly in Europe ofc but fundamentally they don't care - their model exists on competing with each other domestically and as long as they're dominating at home they'll be completely happy. After Dortmund the Guardian published 500 well-written words describing a problem Celtic don't think exists...it's why Aberdeen shitting the bed was such an appalling mistake back in the day and why we (to the joy of the banter merchants on here!) should be becoming best Buddies (not even sorry) with St Mirren in pushing for changes.

[Pizzo]

23 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Neither did we tbf. And ultimately it's still too early to tell, a handful of 50-50s going out way on set pieces isn't quite the proof in the pudding some of the more casual in the media may claim it is.

Agree totally about the keeper, the difference it makes stealing or giving away even a handful of points is absolutely huge when the league is as tight as it is.

I often use the Well as an example when talking about fine margins  when you had a run of good keepers.....Randolph and a few others around the same time. 

Poor keepers got us relegated.

[Vietnam91]

1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said:

After Dortmund the Guardian published 500 well-written words describing a problem Celtic don't think exists...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/02/celtic-humilation-miserable-state-of-scottish-football

Murray pretty much nailed it, very good piece. Odd to see he mentioned Kieran Maguire who was responsible for the incorrect spreadsheet Erik used in his spending plans document. That St Johnstone to Celtic to Dortmund thing is probably what was the seed for the Daily Record hack to write the Squad Assembly Cost article and pilloried on here.

https://forum.pieandbovril.com/topic/292849-squad-assembly-costs/

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, CoF said:

Tom English has turned into that guy at work who doesn't really watch football but likes to have a conversation with you about it anyway, using only wee snippets he overheard or that other people told him. 

This is absolutely spot on.

[Handsome_Devil]

7 minutes ago, Vietnam91 said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/02/celtic-humilation-miserable-state-of-scottish-football

Murray pretty much nailed it, very good piece. 

I don't see the point in articles like that any more tbh. It's not that I inherently disagree (quite the opposite in fact, he lists the supposed problems very well), it just brings absolutely nothing to read the same thing yet again without any viable proposals.

For one Celtic, the main focus, don't see an uncompetitive league as an issue to begin with and two, if from the pov of the rest Stevie Wonder can see the problem, why bother writing about it when you don't even have the pretence of an idea or solution?

[Vietnam91]

8 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I don't see the point in articles like that any more tbh. It's not that I inherently disagree (quite the opposite in fact, he lists the supposed problems very well), it just brings absolutely nothing to read the same thing yet again without any viable proposals.

For one Celtic, the main focus, don't see an uncompetitive league as an issue to begin with and two, if from the pov of the rest Stevie Wonder can see the problem, why bother writing about it when you don't even have the pretence of an idea or solution?

Whenever any viable options are brought to the table vested interests kick in. So I get why nobody offers any solutions as its shouting at the sky.

We have these root and stem reviews of the national game on a 10 year cycle, usually when the national team are bereft of any options. The last one brought about youth academies and how teams applied for status (and central funding).

Before that it was Henry McLeish's plans. Maybe that was the same one and the academies were part of his ideas but it's hard to keep track.

Thing is, most of the time they are 100% sensible however nobody wants to tackle the religious elephant in the geographic common sense room. Plus I wonder if Bailey Rice's da regrets him not having upwards of 25 first team games under his belt.

Off the back of a post I made in the Croatia game thread I looked at the striker options. In our top league you have to go to 18th to find a Scottish striker in Simon Murray with 2 from 7. That's the problem.

Croatia have a population of 3.8m, that would be a good starting point ... we've assessed the Dutch, Portuguese and Nordics systems in the past and done little, so why not get on board another feasibility study and kick the can down the road to the 2030's.

[Gianfranco]

The “Promised new investment” phrase is pissing me off.

 

Are Alan’s the new Colin? 

[eliphas]

Cannot read anything Murray writes anymore. An absolute bell end and balloon of a journalist. 

...so I'll need to trust your judgement on that article @Vietnam91 haha

Edited Sunday at 12:29 by eliphas

[Blink182]

2 hours ago, CoF said:

Tom English has turned into that guy at work who doesn't really watch football but likes to have a conversation with you about it anyway, using only wee snippets he overheard or that other people told him.