Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[dezz]

14 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Hes been called into the NI U21 side, and trained with the senior side.

Scotland havent contacted him at any point, for any level.

I guess he can stay on the list then seeing as he doesn’t have any senior NI caps yet and qualifies for Scotland. I’m pretty sure the Writers YPOTY has to be Scottish unlike the senior player award and the PFA award. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

19 hours ago, Gianfranco said:

I’d have offered Hartley a one year deal over Dunne tbh.

Hopefully Carson has still got it.

To be honest, I get the impression that Dunne's contract offer is at vastly reduced wages and is almost a token gesture. I can't see him signing it.

Had this been a normal end to the season, I would have let Hartley go. I think he was a "decent" player for us, but probably nothing more. He spent far too much time out of the team, be it due to form or injury over three seasons to earn another deal. I did think with the pandemic and perhaps the likelihood he would have signed on for less money, we would have gone for the "better the devil you know" approach and offered him a new deal.

Just praying that Mugabi isn't first choice centre half next season. 

[Antiochas III]

43 minutes ago, dezz said:

Allan Campbell has been nominated for Football Writers Young Player of the Year along with Ali McCann, Lewis Ferguson and Aaron Hickey. 

Well deserved recognition for him and I think he’s in with a good shout if winning it being the heartbeat of the team that finished 3rd  

Not likely but If he wins that it means a Motherwell player has won it back to back.  Has anyone outside Celtic had that?  

[RandomGuy.]

24 minutes ago, ropy said:

Would you pick him out of the four, if not who?

I'm biased as f**k so I would choose McCann.

Honestly haven't seen enough of them to be a fair judge. Never been that impressed by Hickey, who seems to get rave reviews based entirely because hes so young. 

Ferguson and Campbell are probably better players than McCann, but both, from what I've seen, havent stood out for their clubs this season/have had better seasons, while McCann has been our best player quite comfortably.

[ropy]

7 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'm biased as f**k so I would choose McCann.

Honestly haven't seen enough of them to be a fair judge. Never been that impressed by Hickey, who seems to get rave reviews based entirely because hes so young. 

Ferguson and Campbell are probably better players than McCann, but both, from what I've seen, havent stood out for their clubs this season/have had better seasons, while McCann has been our best player quite comfortably.

It’s difficult to ignore our bias, Campbell has scored a bunch of goals this season which was never part of his game before.

Ferguson might get the media love in.

[steelmen]

if i was picking the winners... Shankland, Holt, and Cambell would be who i would choose but there is no chance of that happening. It will end up as Morelos, Lennon and Hickey

[tree house tam]

Hickey is shite every time I see him, so are Hearts tbf. Ali McCann is quality and easily better than the Aberdeen huddy, between him and your boy.

 

Forget ANYTHING Random says, that boy has to have been fed lsd daily in early life.

Edited June 1, 2020 by tree house tam

[Ron Aldo]

I haven't seen enough of Ali Mccann to pass comment on how good he is.

Alan Campbell is an excellent player for us but, strange as this may sound, I still doubt he has what it takes to get to the very top. He reminds me of Keith Lasley in that he's a very decent player for our sort of level but that'll end up being where he spends the majority of his career.

Obviously happy to be proven wrong and the loan move to Newcastle is likely to do him the world of good when it eventually comes around.

[dezz]

The Saudi takeover of Newcastle could be coming at just the right time for us. That £5m will become £50m! 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

My initial thought was McCann over Campbell but I'm not sure if Campbell is maybe unfairly suffering from becoming part of the furniture here rather than bursting onto the scene like McCann has.

Struggle to see any sort of argument against Robinson getting manager of the year though.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

If Hickey played for anyone else in the Bottom 5 he would be about 70th on the shortlist.

[ropy]

9 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

My initial thought was McCann over Campbell but I'm not sure if Campbell is maybe unfairly suffering from becoming part of the furniture here rather than bursting onto the scene like McCann has.

Struggle to see any sort of argument against Robinson getting manager of the year though.

I think Holt has a case if everything is measured relatively but no issues with Robinson lifting it.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

3 hours ago, Antiochas III said:

Not likely but If he wins that it means a Motherwell player has won it back to back.  Has anyone outside Celtic had that?  

I was sure we had won it 1.5 times in a row, with McFadden and Pearson (the season he joined in Celtic in January), but that must have been the SPFA Young Player as when I looked it up Craig Gordon won it in 2003/04.

Hibs have won it three times in a row between 2006/07 to 2008/09 (Brown and Fletcher x2). Riordan won it in 2004/05 so it was four out of five at one point for them.

[Widge]

38 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

My initial thought was McCann over Campbell but I'm not sure if Campbell is maybe unfairly suffering from becoming part of the furniture here rather than bursting onto the scene like McCann has.

Struggle to see any sort of argument against Robinson getting manager of the year though.

I think this is a fair comment. People know what Campbell is all about as as good as he is, he's been at it for a couple of seasons now so it's not exactly making him stand out.

McCann hadn't played a league game for saints before this season and now he's our best player, who has regularly dominated midfields he had no right to and looks to be a terrific prospect capable of going to a much higher level. 

In terms of stats they're very similar players in terms of goals and assists and probably their style too. What probably gives McCann an edge when it comes to the awards is that he is brand new, made a huge impact and it's easy to forget how bad a team he was in for the first half of the season. The fact he's been a stand out in the league in a team that went 10 games without a win at the start is frankly testament to how good he is. 

Should either of them win it, then I've no complaints. If Hickey wins it, then it's a shambles and despite the hard on Aberdeen fans have for Ferguson, he's never shown to me in games that he's better than either McCann or Campbell and his output doesn't match either as well. Plus he's a colossal bellend who's a red card waiting to happen.

 

[Luke92]

Tait and Hartley seem like great guys to have around but there is no question it is time for them to move on. I have no doubts they will pick up a contract elsewhere. Tait in particular could easily do a job for a Hamilton or a St MIrrent. All the best to them!

Gillespie done excellent but again, no surprises there. For me, Carson is the better all-round keeper if he gets back to his best.

I'd be surprised if Long stays. I'm aware this is a typical football fan comment but he looked borderline miserable at times. Perhaps he just liked a moan, I don't know. For some reason I thought we had him signed up for 2 years but obviously not! He is quite a talented boy.

In terms of what we have left, we have the core of a good team. Over the last few years I think we have become quite accustomed to a fair turnover of players so no reason to panic. Robinson has proven he knows how to recruit so I have no reason to doubt him this summer.

In an ideal world, in terms of first team I would say we need..

Centre Back - Ricki Lamie?
Right Back
Wingers - Cani believe we have Seedorf for another year..
Striker

Unfortunately, it really is a unique summer, so I am keeping my expectations low. Investment in the first team budget is probably going to be a lot lower than normal. With that being said, the majority of the market we work in is going to suffering as well. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Out of contract players may need to accept less than they usually would given the current climate. Hopefully this allows some of the young boys to push through into the first team again this season.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Luke92

[capt_oats]

Ricki Lamie leaves Livi you say?

[ATLIS]

30 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Ricki Lamie leaves Livi you say?

You really could do better. He'd be a good option as cover/bench but I really don't rate him.

In saying that, Lawless would be a belter of a signing for you

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I'm not prepared to read the word Lawleff on Steelmen Online about 80 times a week. No thanks.

[Yorky]

1 hour ago, ATLIS said:

You really could do better. He'd be a good option as cover/bench but I really don't rate him.

In saying that, Lawless would be a belter of a signing for you

Have to say I was surprised how well lawless did for you, I thought he was going backwards at Thistle. Personally though I don’t think he would get much game time with us, not quite good enough if we want to keep pushing on.

[capt_oats]

10 minutes ago, Yorky said:

Have to say I was surprised how well lawless did for you, I thought he was going backwards at Thistle. Personally though I don’t think he would get much game time with us, not quite good enough if we want to keep pushing on.

When you look at the wide players Robinson's brought in (or used) - Ariyibi, Hastie, Hylton, Seedorf, Cole, Scott and Aarons I'm not sure Lawless really fits that sort of template.