Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[steelmen]

 

Edit: I was having a look on the Southend forum to see if there was any mention of Hammell retiring.

 

 

Was there?

[capt_oats]

Not giving them the click by posting the link but...guess who. #welcomenadir #announceciftci

Edited January 8, 2018 by capt_oats

[Busta Nut]

nah

[thisGRAEME]

ALL ABOARD THE TURKISH PISS-BOILER EXPRESS, STOPPING AT TANNADICE, DENS AND IBROX.

TOOT FUCKING TOOT

[Gianfranco]

We’re the team to get the best out of shifty

[capt_oats]

17 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Is this the fat Turkish waiter?

Apparently so. Tbh, it's The Sun so there's a fair chance it's pish. I don't recognise the journalist's name so it's difficult say how credible it is.

Plymouth are desperate to get shot of him, we're after a striker, we were in for him this time last year, chances of us signing a like for like replacement for Moult are nil so 2+2 =... et voila The Sun have a story with zero corroborating quotes. Though curiously they state that Plymouth have cancelled his loan rather than saying they're trying to or something equally vague.

Edit: it's worth mentioning that as far as I can see no one else is running the story. Only The Sun.

Edited January 8, 2018 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

44 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

ALL ABOARD THE TURKISH PISS-BOILER EXPRESS, STOPPING AT TANNADICE, DENS AND IBROX.

TOOT FUCKING TOOT

I'm so into this. 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

32 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Apparently so. Tbh, it's The Sun so there's a fair chance it's pish. I don't recognise the journalist's name so it's difficult say how credible it is.

Plymouth are desperate to get shot of him, we're after a striker, we were in for him this time last year, chances of us signing a like for like replacement for Moult are nil so 2+2 =... et voila The Sun have a story with zero corroborating quotes. Though curiously they state that Plymouth have cancelled his loan rather than saying they're trying to or something equally vague.

Edit: it's worth mentioning that as far as I can see no one else is running the story. Only The Sun.

Could be pish but I think it wouldn't be a bad gamble. He can't be any worse than Fisher.

The usual Motherwell source Scott Mullen is in Dubai. No idea who the sun reporter is either. His name might be as fake as the story.

[Busta Nut]

Sparra, Busta and Jay take a look back on an eventful year for Motherwell and assess the busy festive schedule. Also up for debate was the transfer window, hopes for 2018, the winter break and much more.

 

 

http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2017-18-episode-21/

[Swello]

9 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Not giving them the click by posting the link but...guess who. #welcomenadir #announceciftci

A deal that means your main striker can't play against Celtic doesn't sound like a good idea to me.....

Anyway - quoteless transfer story, so I'll wait  until one of the reliable guys (Devlin/Mullen/McGarry) picks it up....

[dezz]

A deal that means your main striker can't play against Celtic doesn't sound like a good idea to me.....
Anyway - quoteless transfer story, so I'll wait  until one of the reliable guys (Devlin/Mullen/McGarry) picks it up....

This doesn’t bother me too much. We’ll play Celtic once, maybe twice again this season. If Ciftci comes in and scores the goals that help us beat the likes of Accies, Partick, Dundee etc in the 20-odd other games we’ve got left then I’ll not be too bothered if he misses a game against Celtic. They’re not the games that will have the biggest bearing on where we finish this season.

[Casagolda]

If true, I’d happily take a punt on Ciftci tbh.

Aye he’d be a gamble however I can’t help but feel it’d be a gamble worth taking, especially when you look at the collection of misfits I posted at the top of the page.

It's hard to find a quality striker at this level and you’re especially limited in January.  Ciftci’s record at this level is very decent- 37 goals in 97 games for Dundee Utd and Celtic. No doubt his career’s taken a nosedive these last few seasons but I doubt there’s going to better quality available in January within our price range.

[tree house tam]

Nadir is a big fucking haddy.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, tree house tam said:

Nadir is a big fucking haddy.

If I'm being totally honest, this has always been my opinion 

Still - if he came in and followed in a long line of players that were supposedly on the scrap heap but found their form at Fir Park, no-one would be happier than me....

[Kyle]

The Sun are usually spot on when it comes to Saints. He was supposed to be #jewel3 for us in the summer, or so I was lead to believe. Quite happy to have missed out though on the basis of what he's been like at Plymouth.

 

 

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, Casagolda said:

If true, I’d happily take a punt on Ciftci tbh.

Aye he’d be a gamble however I can’t help but feel it’d be a gamble worth taking, especially when you look at the collection of misfits I posted at the top of the page.

It's hard to find a quality striker at this level and you’re especially limited in January.  Ciftci’s record at this level is very decent- 37 goals in 97 games for Dundee Utd and Celtic. No doubt his career’s taken a nosedive these last few seasons but I doubt there’s going to better quality available in January within our price range.

Unsurprisingly, this is also my take. 

He'd be a gamble but no more so than Curtis Main is IMO. In fact, given he's actually got a track record at this level he'd be less of a gamble.

Ciftci's quite possibly a maniac but he's also relatively proven at our level which is more than you can say for the array of jobbers in the English lower leagues who may be thought of as alternatives. Not only that but if you take Ciftci's record at United and Celtic then in a purely numbers sense it compares reasonably well to Moult's with us. Certainly it's as close as we're reasonably likely to expect in the January window. Obviously there's context there, at United he was playing with Armstrong, Gauld and an in form Mackay-Steven and also...Celtic but still.

Premiership:
Ciftci: Games: 80, Goals: 29 Assists: 17, Minutes Played: 5,845, Minutes Per Goal: 201.55
Moult: Games: 84, Goals: 38, Assists: 14, Minutes Played: 6,768, Minutes Per Goal: 178.10
(taken from Transfermarkt)

I'll concede I've been fully on board the Ciftci hype-train since we tried to get him this time last year but realistically I don't see that we're bringing in a striker with a proven track-record in the January window unless he has some sort of baggage. There's no doubt the Celtic move has been a disaster for Ciftci in a footballing sense but of his 12 league games for them I think only 5 have been starts (and he has 4 goals). Christ! Even his loan to Eskisehirspor had him with 4 goals in 883 mins of football (which is still a better rate than either Bowman or Fisher have been for us).

That's me heavily accentuating the positives though.

The problem of course is that he seems like he could be a barely fit, disruptive man-child which doesn't really sit well with Robinson's "great bunch of lads who are full of desire to win football matches for the football club" mantra. The way I see it something has to give with Robinson's signings though.

Fwiw: for all I think that realistically he's as good as we're likely to get in terms of "quality" just now I'm still not 100% convinced there's much in the story beyond The Sun filling up some copy. Was it not them who were linking us to Heneghan based on an instagram photo he put up the other day?

[gannonball]

My take on Ciftci:
There is talent there but I seriously question what motivation he has left. When we had Griffiths and Dembele injured at the start of the season he was nowhere to be seen. Thought it was strange as Rodgers isnt the type to freeze a player out. We found out why when he came on in a friendly against Sunderland and he looked at least a stone over weight. Hes the type of player who needs to be playing regularly too as his touch can go very quickly when not. Because of that in hindsight he was never going to make it at Celtic as he will never be good enough to be considered an automatic starter and not able to be an impact player either.

[harry94]

17 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Unsurprisingly, this is also my take. 

He'd be a gamble but no more so than Curtis Main is IMO. In fact, given he's actually got a track record at this level he'd be less of a gamble.

Ciftci's quite possibly a maniac but he's also relatively proven at our level which is more than you can say for the array of jobbers in the English lower leagues who may be thought of as alternatives. Not only that but if you take Ciftci's record at United and Celtic then in a purely numbers sense it compares reasonably well to Moult's with us. Certainly it's as close as we're reasonably likely to expect in the January window. Obviously there's context there, at United he was playing with Armstrong, Gauld and an in form Mackay-Steven and also...Celtic but still.

Premiership:
Ciftci: Games: 80, Goals: 29 Assists: 17, Minutes Played: 5,845, Minutes Per Goal: 201.55
Moult: Games: 84, Goals: 38, Assists: 14, Minutes Played: 6,768, Minutes Per Goal: 178.10
(taken from Transfermarkt)

I'll concede I've been fully on board the Ciftci hype-train since we tried to get him this time last year but realistically I don't see that we're bringing in a striker with a proven track-record in the January window unless he has some sort of baggage. There's no doubt the Celtic move has been a disaster for Ciftci in a footballing sense but of his 12 league games for them I think only 5 have been starts (and he has 4 goals). Christ! Even his loan to Eskisehirspor had him with 4 goals in 883 mins of football (which is still a better rate than either Bowman or Fisher have been for us).

That's me heavily accentuating the positives though.

The problem of course is that he seems like he could be a barely fit, disruptive man-child which doesn't really sit well with Robinson's "great bunch of lads who are full of desire to win football matches for the football club" mantra. The way I see it something has to give with Robinson's signings though.

Fwiw: for all I think that realistically he's as good as we're likely to get in terms of "quality" just now I'm still not 100% convinced there's much in the story beyond The Sun filling up some copy. Was it not them who were linking us to Heneghan based on an instagram photo he put up the other day?

9

Without having time to check, were a really large proportion of Ciftci's goals at United not penalties? I don't know if that's more so than Moult though.

As a player, I'm not really sure he fits into Robinson's style from what I've seen. He's very much the sort that is quite happy to stand with his hands on his hips and let a game pass him by unless he gets a bit of service. When United lost GMS and Armstrong, I never really thought he was as effective and that was when he was at his very best. Ability is there but if you're not adaptable to some degree, it's hard to fit players in.

[capt_oats]

Haud on, are we away on a training camp?

Just saw Tait's instagram story from earlier and erryone be on a plane.

Additionally that's The Sun running a story claiming Ciftci has just "jetted" in to Tenerife to seal the deal.

Edited January 9, 2018 by capt_oats

[senorsoupe]

I don't wish ill will on any player so I do hope Ciftci does well for you, at least well enough to convince a team to take him permanently in the summer.  For some reason we gave him a 4 year deal so he's still our responsibility until 2019 but is nowhere near Celtic material so seeing him play anywhere but Celtic would please me.