Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

15 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Having looked it up(what else you going to do on a boring Monday morning at work?) to the best of my knowledge we've made a quite remarkable 26 signings in the last two seasons alone.

Wes Fletcher, Kieran Kennedy, David Clarkson, Louis Laing, Jake Taylor, Joe Chalmers, Theo Robinson, Connor Ripley, Liam Grimshaw, Louis Moult, Craig Samson, James McFadden, Morgaro Gomis, Jacob Blyth, Ben Heneghan, Richard Tait, Lee Lucas, Dean Brill, Carl McHugh, Luka Belic, Craig Clay, Ryan Bowman, Russell Griffiths, Elliot Frear, Stephen Pearson and Zak Jules.

I mean there's a few good uns in there, a few alright ones that 'done a job' but I'd estimate that about half of them for one reason or another, have been total flops.

I know you're always going to get a few duds shopping in the markets we do with the budget we have but it's hard not to look at that list and think our money could have been invested a bit more wisely.

I ended up doing the same over the weekend as well but went a bit further and included Baraclough's deadline day trolley dash as it seemed like the starting point for our transfer "strategy" with us paying a fee for Johnson so you're getting the likes of Tony Straker, Nathan Thomas et al added to the list. There are obviously some "doublers" so to speak like Laing, McFadden, McDonald & Pearson and guys like Oliver Pain and Shea Gordon were signed specifically for the u20s but all in I counted 34 since the January 2015 window and ended up with about 15 or so that you could either class as failures (Jake Taylor, Luka Belic) or at best fairly pointless signings (McFadden, Clarkson). Once you balance out the x2 signings/re-signings the number becomes a bit more palatable but even still the "hit/meh/miss rate" remains about the same.

You could probably argue about the relative individual merits of a handful, take Griffiths for example; he was brought in as a back-up and he's sat on the bench it'd be unfair to judge him on more than that IMO, but I'd say about 50% being deemed total flops is about right; Laing, Kennedy, Clarkson, Robinson, Taylor all released, loaned out while under contract or had their loans at MFC cut short, Belic literally never played a minute on the park. Brill had the double-dunter of being both released and not getting a minute of first team football with his only competition being a goalkeeper who was literally dropping the ball at the feet of opposition forwards. Fletcher & Blyth have both been perma-crocks, Nathan Thomas may have turned into a decent player for Hartlepool but he was dropped like a stone here.

Looking at the list I think the most pertinent questions need to be asked about people who'd fall into the category of Laing & Kennedy ie: players clearly recruited for the first team and paid a first team wage but who ended up being released before the end of their contract as opposed to say a Gomis or Straker who were players who were brought in short term and just weren't very good, or those who have just clearly been a punt ie: Lucas, Belic. If we've brought in players with a view to them improving our first team yet we've ended up paying them off early to get them moved on, and there have been a surprising number of these, then it's a legitimate question to be asking what's up with that.

It's notable that over the period since 2015 we've seen 2 different heads of recruitment; Gary Owers who was there briefly alongside Baraclough and I believe identified the likes of Johnson and Moult while Martin Foyle is the guy who's been there more recently and has been quite frequently name-dropped by both McGhee and more recently Robinson's mentioned him with a view to next season. Foyle actually managed Bowman at Hereford where he was their top scorer that season.

While we're not quite on par with Hartley and Dundee's wild, scattergun approach to recruitment it's clear that our approach definitely needs refining and an honest appraisal of just how successful our recruitment has actually been should be welcomed prior to the summer window.

[Ya Bezzer!]

Hastie, Devlin, Claret, Amber, You, Me, Jacob Blyth's dead gran, anyone but Jacob Blyth is going to be a step up.

The guy is absolute garbage. 

Good shout for the worst footballer/biggest waste of time to ever pull on the jersey in the last 30 years.

[capt_oats]

13 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Hastie, Devlin, Claret, Amber, You, Me, Jacob Blyth's dead gran, anyone but Jacob Blyth is going to be a step up.

The guy is absolute garbage. 

Good shout for the worst footballer/biggest waste of time to ever pull on the jersey in the last 30 years.

It's hard to disagree.

Other than an absolute fluke of a header he struggled to make an impact against a defence made up of actual teenagers who were probably just out of school in a development league game against Thistle the other week.

The YouTube highlights package his agents have put together lasts 1min 21 secs. His agents couldn't even find a minute and a half of vague highlights to showcase their client. You'd have thought that would have been a warning sign.

[Swello]

4 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

 

Good shout for the worst footballer/biggest waste of time to ever pull on the jersey in the last 30 years.

I'm not far from agreeing with that - but that's still a big shout  The difference was that before the transfer window system - the worst haddies were shipped out before they really registered with the supporters. What was that defender that came in under McLeish (Jonsson?) that played 2 games, was stunningly bad, and was punted after a fortnight? Now post-bosman and post-transfer windows - you are effectively stuck with any mistakes for a season or 2 unless you can offload them without a loss.....

The point remains though that while we should take a gamble on a couple of players each year - we need to improve our general good:shite ratio considerably....

[capt_oats]

I'm not far from agreeing with that - but that's still a big shout [emoji4] The difference was that before the transfer window system - the worst haddies were shipped out before they really registered with the supporters. What was that defender that came in under McLeish (Jonsson?) that played 2 games, was stunningly bad, and was punted after a fortnight? Now post-bosman and post-transfer windows - you are effectively stuck with any mistakes for a season or 2 unless you can offload them without a loss.....
The point remains though that while we should take a gamble on a couple of players each year - we need to improve our general good:shite ratio considerably....

There's the boy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnlaugur_Jónsson

[Desp]

Gunni Jonsson. Fucking hell he was brutal. Didn't he give a penalty away in each of his two games?
I was young at the time so my memory may be playing tricks, but wasn't it Jonsson that gave away the penalty against Aberdeen, when a boy from the Cooper ran on and lamped Leighton after Dodds scored the winner?

[Swello]

15 hours ago, Desp said:

Gunni Jonsson. Fucking hell he was brutal. Didn't he give a penalty away in each of his two games?
I was young at the time so my memory may be playing tricks, but wasn't it Jonsson that gave away the penalty against Aberdeen, when a boy from the Cooper ran on and lamped Leighton after Dodds scored the winner?

You're right on both counts I think....

[Ya Bezzer!]

22 hours ago, Desp said:

Gunni Jonsson. Fucking hell he was brutal. Didn't he give a penalty away in each of his two games?
I was young at the time so my memory may be playing tricks, but wasn't it Jonsson that gave away the penalty against Aberdeen, when a boy from the Cooper ran on and lamped Leighton after Dodds scored the winner?

As I remember it Jonsson scored an OG, had a pass back that went straight to an opposition player to score, gave away a penalty and got sent off at McDiarmid but time may have embellished my memories.

I'm still rating him above Blyth because he was at least fit, able to run around and got involved in the game! Ha!

[capt_oats]

Hai...

 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I'm about half a foot shorter than Blyth and I reckon I'd beat him to a header.

[Swello]

45 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Hai...

 

Great finds. If anything sums up the absurdity of that time under McLeish (apart from that strip), it's a genuine legend like Coyne lining up with the likes of gunni Johnsson and John Henry....The manner in which Mclean's last team was dismantled still amazes me all these years later...

[The_Craig]

John fucking Henry.

[Casagolda]

Quote

Motherwell want to sign Gillingham striker Rory Donnelly and hope to secure the 25-year-old when his contract ends this summer. (Daily Express, print edition)

Double figures last season, only 2 goals this season for Gillingham team on the verge of relegation from League One.

No surprises he's Nothern Irish, I imagine we'll get linked to a fair few of them this summer simply due to the Robinson connection. In saying that, the Express is usually prettty decent when it comes to Motherwell.  

[Gianfranco]

I've heard of him at least but the stats aren't great

[capt_oats]

Quite amused to see that BetVictor have a market for "Who will Louis Moult sign for before 3rd September?" with Rangers 3/1 favourites at the moment. 

Fwiw, I'd be surprised if we sold him to another club in Scotland given that the majority of our "sellable assets" over the years have moved away from Scotland. I think you'd need to go back to McDonald to Celtic in 2007 for the last sale to a Scottish club and it's been even longer since we sold a player to Rangers, what with Law having moved under freedom of contract. Obviously that's caveated by the point that it all depends who's willing to pay actual money for him but either way very few of our outgoings (of key players) have been to other Scottish clubs. Quite happy for the club to continue this policy tbqhwu;

Johnson > Oxford Utd (2016), Pearson > Atletico de Kolkata (2016), Anier > Erzgebirge Aue (2014), Ojamaa > Legia Warsaw (2013), Murphy > Sheffield Utd (2013), Reynolds > Sheffield Weds (2011), Clarkson > Bristol City (2009), Quinn > Cardiff City (2009), Porter > Derby (2009), McCormack > Cardiff City (2008).

Even a fair number of those moving out of contract moved south or abroad as well; Hall > Brighton (2016), Erwin > Leeds (2015), Hutchinson > Fulham (2014), Randolph > Birmingham (2013), Humphrey > Preston (2013), Higdon > NEC Nijmegen (2013), Hateley > Tranmere (2013), Jennings > Coventry (2012), Coke > Sheffield Weds (2010), O'Brien > Barnsley (2010)

Edited April 28, 2017 by capt_oats

[capt_oats]

2 hours ago, Casagolda said:

Double figures last season, only 2 goals this season for Gillingham team on the verge of relegation from League One.

No surprises he's Nothern Irish, I imagine we'll get linked to a fair few of them this summer simply due to the Robinson connection. In saying that, the Express is usually prettty decent when it comes to Motherwell.  

 

1 hour ago, Gianfranco said:

I've heard of him at least but the stats aren't great

Sign him up.

 

 

[well fan for life]

Without seeing anything about him, I'll take this opportunity to file under "could do a job".

[capt_oats]

Posted the highlights up in the dev league thread but worth mentioning that was Jamie Semple & Alfie Agyemang scored for the 20s today.

The 3 scorers were 15, 16 & 17 respectively with Turnbull getting the 3rd and the excellently named Cole Starrs got his first run out at 14 years old.

Fine finish from Semple.

[Gianfranco]

Semple and Turnball's goals were fine finishes.

 

Alfie looks promising from those highlights as well.

 

[capt_oats]

Aye, the one Turnbull scored the other week against St Mirren at Fir Park was an absolute outrage.

I don't know whether it's just because it's end of season or whether it's more planned than that but it's good to see Semple getting on the park. Given his involvement with the international side as well I hope we manage to get him properly signed up.

I've only seen Agyeman a couple of times when he's come off the bench but he's got a bit of pace, strength and seems a willing runner. He looks like he might take a wee while to adjust to the step up in terms of the technical side of things though. Still, plenty time for that. He's only 16 and looks well set for the physical side.