capt_oats
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Posts posted by capt_oats
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26 minutes ago, stu2910 said:
Exactly, facing a further fine if there is a single postponement is a joke. So we could have the best record for avoiding postponements next year with only 1 when others have 2 or 3 and yet we'd be fined for it? Makes sense.
It's not if there's a single postponement - it's triggered if there's a single waterlogged postponement. The DFC statement is quite clear about that.
If you fix your drainage then you're fine. You can postpone games for other reasons if you like.
Genuine question, as I don't know the answer, how many other top flight clubs had a league postponements this season because of waterlogged pitches?
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1 minute ago, Pens_Dark said:
It doesn't but it definitely suggests that. Makes reference to a further breach of SPFL rules - to me that's left to be fairly interpretive.
Either way the size of the fine is an absolute joke if you take in to account Motherwells fine previously. Amazing what a tantrum from Rangers can do...
Clearly there's been a heavy lean from Rangers (and SKY probably) but I have a feeling that the way Nelms has carried himself and the "bullishness" from the club probably hasn't helped.
If you look at the coverage around our situation in 2009 it was specifically pointed out that we took ownership and accountability:
Quote"A spokesperson for the SPL told BBC Scotland: "The Motherwell pitch was investigated by the SPL last season and a sanction was imposed.
"The club were fully co-operative throughout the process and the club and the SPL look forward to moving on from this following the club's extensive work over the summer on their pitch.""
I'd imagine you'll appeal and it'll be reduced but I'd say that Nelms talking about how the pitch would probably have been fine if the kick off had been 3pm (entirely fucking useless for a 12 noon televised game), having to loan pitch covers from another club at the last minute or your man talking about climate change when every other club in the country has been dealing with pishing rain has probably meant everyone involved is taking a "honestly, f**k that guy" stance.
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1 hour ago, Swello said:
Aberdeen being our bogey team is a new thing. Taking points against every team is a rare thing for us I would guess.
A couple of interesting posts from Narey's Toepoker:
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6 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:
I can't really see that standing up in court. The £120k is payable if we have a single postponement due to a waterlogged pitch next season - even if we sort our pitch - that's just laughable.
As for the television costs of £36,429.60, that can get in the bin.
It's no surprise to see we're pursuing legal advice.
Fwiw: the £50k (£45k suspended) we were fined in 2009 comes in at £76,835.40 when adjusted for inflation.
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I went for Bair's dink because it's clearly the best goal there.
Also, when did we start getting stuff sponsored by Volvo?
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44 minutes ago, Alanos said:
According to Transfermarket, most of Raith’s squad is OOC.
Anyone there that would do us a turn?
Turner is on loan from Ross County. James Brown is on loan from St Johnstone. Rudden, Byrne and Ashcroft are on loan from Dundee although Byrne is also OOC at Dens the other two are contracted to 2025.
I mentioned the other day that Ketts signed Keith Watson for County.
Vaguely related, I lifted this from Narey's Toepoker (it's already been pointed out that Wells extended his contract recently) pretty slim pickings if we're being honest:
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55 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:
I've no doubt Kettlewell will see the same as us regarding CBs but that not the same as him picking/being able to afford the guys to fix it. The Livingston rumour is hardly confidence inspiring.
Assuming the Livingston rumour came from a couple of random Tweets from Livi fans saying the player was "apparently at Fir Park" to sign a PCA then until proven otherwise I'm filing it firmly with the oddball rumours that seem to pop up from Dundee that apparently we've *definitely* signed one of their players on a PCA.
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35 minutes ago, eliphas said:
Think that's it in a nutshell for me.
We need to sign a first choice central defender. No easy task. We absolutely cannot sleep walk into thinking all of the defenders have their plus points and deserve new deals/it's better to keep them around as might not get any better.
Loads of nuances about keeping players on much reduced deals etc but ultimately good bye Bev, goodbye Butch - thanks for the good times - we need your wages.
It'll come as a surprise to absolutely no one that we have, by a distance, the worst clean sheet record in the league - 9 (NINE) %
It's actually quite remarkable that we've gone from entirely functional and solid during his initial spell saving us from the massive hole Hammell dug for us to whatever this is...
If he can't coach us to clean sheets with the players he has then you'd hope that he sees this as...well, something we should probably look at.
1 minute ago, bunglebonce said:Morris was our best centre-back since Andrew Davies, but he was terribly injury prone. Donaldson's form imploding in Morris's absence was one of the reasons why Kettlewell was sacked, IMO.
I think in the context of this discussion we're having at the moment we're trying to get a handle on what type of centre back Kettlewell likes. It's a curious quirk that he's now 55 games into his Motherwell managerial career yet hasn't actually signe a centre half and has just stuck with those that he inherited.
I think we've all got an idea of what we think we need but it'd be interesting to get a handle on whether or not Ketts is seeing the same things as us.
With a 9% clean sheet rate you'd hope he does.
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35 minutes ago, rowsdower said:
Has kettlewell signed a defender that can defend (i.e. not a wing back)? I guess Casey kind of counts.
Kettlewell hasn’t actually signed a centre back since he’s been at the club. Casey was a Hammell signing - he just extended his contract.
Mugabi, McGinn, Blaney, Butcher, Casey, O’Donnell (and Lamie I guess) have all been used at CB and all inherited from previous managers.
I’m quite curious to look at his signing history at County and see what his centre back signings looked like.
Turns out I did a list of Kettlewell's signings in an old post in the thread copied and pasted below:
Quote- Iain Vigurs (ICT)
- Josh Mullin (Livingston)
- Jamie Lindsay (Celtic) - undisclosed
- Declan McManus (Dunfermline)
- Harry Paton (Hearts)
- Callum Morris (Dunfermline)
- Keith Watson (St Johnstone)
- Stelios Demitriou (St Mirren)
- Brian Graham (Cheltenham Town)
- Ross Stewart (St Mirren) - undisclosed
- Don Cowie (Hearts)
- Lewis Spence (Dundee)
- Kenny van der Weg (Roeselane)
- Callum Semple (Sheffield United)
- Daniel Armstrong (Raith Rovers)
Total = 15
- Joe Chalmers (ICT)
- Ross Laidlaw (Hibs)
- Blair Spittal (Partick Thistle)
- Nathan Baxter (Chelsea) - loan
- Simon Power (Norwich) - loan
- Jack Ruddy (Wolves)
- Lee Erwin (Tractor)
- Ewan Henderson (Celtic) - loan
- Richard Foster (St Johnstone)
- Jordan Tillson (Exeter City)
- Coll Donaldson (ICT) - undisclosed
- Oli Shaw (Hibs) - undisclosed
Total = 12
- Stephen Kelly (Rangers) - loan
- Connor Randall (Arda Kardzhali)
- Alex Iacovitti (Oldham)
- Regan Charles-Cook (Gillingham)
- Carl Tremarco (ICT)
- Ross Doohan (Celtic) - loan
- Michael O'Connor (Waterford) - undisclosed
- Jermaine Hylton (Motherwell)
- Charlie Lakin (Birmingham City) - loan
- Jason Naismith (Peterborough United)
Total = 10
Callum Morris, Keith Watson, Kenny van der Weg, Callum Semple, Coll Donaldson, Alex Iacovitti...
On the non-defender side, despite having posted that list a year ago, I didn't realise he'd signed Danny Armstrong and Stephen Kelly for County.
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6 minutes ago, Self-raising Lazarus said:
Has it not been confirmed for ages?
Not officially.
From what I can tell Hearts just briefed their client journalists and put the info out there but they’ve never confirmed it themselves.
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31 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:
How do folk feel about Blaney? I still think all our CBs are much of a muchness but it probably makes sense to give him and Casey a run together in the last 5 given they'll presumably be here next season. He definitely "looks" like a footballer and having someone that can score screamers is always a plus.
Can only really echo the other replies in saying he's broadly...fine.
I think @MP_MFC's framing of him in comparison with Ricki Lamie is a sensible way to view it. Is there much of a drop off between the two? Not really. Is there probably a favourable disparity in terms of what we were paying the Bathgate Maldini...probably aye.
I don't necessarily think he's been at the same level as Casey was last season in the 3 alongside McGinn and Butcher but equally I don't think he's really been afforded a run to allow him to bed in to a unit and tbh, It'd be interesting to see what would happen if we were able to drop a defender into the centre of the back 3 who'd elevate the likes of Blaney and Casey.
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11 minutes ago, eliphas said:
Maguire I think wasn't helped by the fact he got stuck into all the promo videos and content with Turnbull, Hastie and Campbell when it was, even back then, quite clear he wasn't on the same level as any of them (Hastie...I know, I know hasn't panned out well).
Robinson, I think, was the one who tried to convert him from defender to midfielder, and I reckon that also probably didn't help his development long term as he kind of got lost a bit position wise. Want good enough really for either position.
Always thought he was a useful squad player to fill a gap, but not much more than that, which is probably why he has managed to hang around. Time for a new start somewhere else though.
IIRC he actually joined the club as a midfielder but was converted to a defender by the time he was turning out for the Dev team.
I think the St Johnstone 1-5 game @well fan for life mentions above was the point at which Robinson bailed on him as a viable centre back which is when they decided to repurpose him as the ML1 Busquets.
I mean, who did it better:
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1 hour ago, thisGRAEME said:
I'll never forget him playing in central midfield and Zidane turning some St. Mirren jobber, and convincing myself he'd be brilliant.
I think this is kind of it with Maguire. You can see why we kept him around to see how it played out.
He's a good size, is technically good, two footed (of course) and is fucking brilliant at bleep tests. He has enough tools that you could buy into but as @crazylegsjoe_mfc says he just seems to lack that something that would let him put a stamp on games that others of his cohort (Turnbull, Campbell, Cadden et al) seemed to have.
People got bent out of shape when we were signing jobbers from the lower leagues in England, I can't really criticise for giving an academy player a run as he's probably one of the fairly rare instances of graduate whose ceiling could simply have been our first team.
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6 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:
No doubt but you could say that about god knows how many things... we've only four home wins and the two since August have been against the bottom two. We just played three midtable sides at home there, scored twice in what is touching five hours (with injury time) and took two points from nine. We've taken only three points from St Johnstone because we've conceded four terrible set pieces.
That list goes on and on but it also needs to be said we've rescued more points this season after 90 minutes than I can ever remember...the margins going the other way could easily have seen us still in deep trouble.
I mean, aye.
Also, if the results against County and Livi are different then the whole timeline of the season changes - butterfly effect and all that.
It is what it is I guess.
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Anyway, taking a look at our points at the split in previous seasons, curiously we're on exactly the same as last season (37):
After 33 games:
23/24 (Kettlewell): 37 pts
22/23 (Hammell/Kettlewell): 37 pts (finished - 7th)
21/22 (Alexander): 40 pts (finished - 5th)
20/21 (Robinson/Alexander): 35 pts (finished - 8th)
19/20 (Robinson) - 30 games: 46 pts (League curtailed - 3rd)
18/19 (Robinson): 43 pts (finished - 8th)
17/18 (Robinson): 38 pts (finished - 7th)
16/17 (McGhee/Robinson): 32 pts (finished - 9th)
15/16 (Baraclough/McGhee): 44 pts (finished - 5th)
14/15 (McCall/Baraclough): 31 pts (finished - 11th)
13/14 (McCall): 60 pts (finished - 2nd)
12/13 (McCall): 54 pts (finished - 2nd)
11/12 (McCall): 55 pts (finished - 3rd)
10/11 (Brown/McCall): 44 pts (finished - 6th)
09/10 (Gannon/Brown): 48 pts (finished 5th)I mean, it's cliche but it's true...it really is fine margins.
In the end, it's been an entirely average season but it's hard not to look at it and think those losses against Livi and County have bit us on the arse a bit.
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52 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:
Was there not a post last month suggesting Montgomery wasn’t far away from playing again?
There was. Here it is.
On 01/03/2024 at 21:08, Marinello said:Returning briefly to the football but I'm hearing Montgomery's return is nearer than we thought. Good news.
I know we announced him as having returned to Celtic but then had to quickly walk that back and clarify that although he was rehabbing with them his loan hadn't been cancelled but I notice he's not included in the injury updates we give through the week.
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5 minutes ago, Radford said:
Theo Bair to score with 4 minutes left on the final day, despite Motherwell already being on the beach, to equalise at Fir Park and send St Johnstone into the play-offs and inevitable defeat.
I for one look forward to Eric Nicolson's write up of that.
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1 hour ago, Swello said:
Great result for the Staggies today - you absolutely love to see it - but it has next to no bearing on the league we're in next season.
We've (very likely) got 2 home games left against Saintees and Livi (who I think have never won at Fir Park in their history) which will surely yield some points and we've got a decent record at taking points at all the away venues. If we can't make a 7 point gap count (+20 odd goal difference advantage) over County with the fixtures we've got left - then we should shut up shop.
Aye, I mean, going by form we're 7th in the last 4, 4th in the last 6, 7th in the last 8, 5th in the last 10 and 5th in the last 12.
It's annoying it's not 'mathematically' sorted but unless our plan is to actively try to lose all our remaining games in some Major League style hi-jinks we're in reasonable enough form and while it's possible we lose all 5 we've only lost 4 in our last 17 (vs Rangers (h), Hearts (a), Celtic (h) and Aberdeen (a)). The Hearts and Celtic games are our only b2b defeats since the start of November.
Long story short; chances are we'll pick up a few points in order to land the plane.
Even in the play-off season we took 5 points post-split (a win vs Killie and draws vs County and Thistle).
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3 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:
For the record, I think Bevis & SOD both get a much harder time than Casey, not just on the forums but our support in general.
Let's be honest the only player who gets a harder time than Bevis & SOD is Kelly.
3 hours ago, MurrayWell said:FWIW I think we'll offer both SOD and McGinn another year. I'd imagine Bevis will be heading for the exit, along with Butcher, Obika, Maguire and Callan Elliott.
There will probably be more exits, given the number of contracts that are up, who knows what will happen with Kelly, I'd expect us to try and keep Slattery.
I think that's probably about right. I don't think there's any doubt both SOD and McGinn will be offered another year, Bevis too probably although I'd imagine given he's 28 he might fancy a change of scene. Whether they choose to stick around is a different question but given the length of time Bevis has been here (outside of Maguire he must be our longest serving first team player?) I just don't see us telling any of the 3 to f**k off - I'd think we'll have a conversation and make an offer but it's a different question as to whether whatever we offer suits.
Same with Kelly. I don't see us just packing his bags given he's a player who isn't only our captain but has been incredibly present, for better or worse. The only games he's missed were the LC games where SK rested him to give big Aston a run out.
Kettlewell and Kelly were on record earlier in the season about having had discussions about a new deal and I'd imagine we'll offer him something as I think we've seen that he goes in cycles of being perfectly fine, good even and going off a cliff.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/motherwell-skipper-liam-kelly-parks-31287997IMO, he's a player who'd probably benefit from a change of scenery but it's tough to see where he'd land that would give him the game time he gets here. He was third or fourth choice at QPR when we picked him up and despite the Scotland call ups I don't think his stock has risen any since then so it's hard to see him trading up or what his options would be likely to be if he's wanting to be guaranteed first choice.
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38 minutes ago, ropy said:
I was watching AVFTT and saw Telfer enjoying his teams league victory. Are we missing a trick, nearly everybody has seen their team win a league since the ‘80s while we plod along in the top league. We should take a dive one year then see the crowds increase for our Championship league winning run.
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This is a giggle.
Our equalizing rate is almost 20% above league average.
https://www.soccerstats.com/team.asp?league=scotland&stats=4-motherwell
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16 minutes ago, rowsdower said:
I think we should probably lose that PCA we have with Halliday. I don't think he's particularly bad, but I feel the money would be better spent elsewhere. The only advantage that I could see with him is to add veteran presence for the weans, and cover us if we extend Slattery
Is Halliday doing his badges?
IMO, given Kettlewell spoke about us being understaffed way back when he got the gig (and we haven't really added to that since) Halliday feels like an absolute stick on to get added to the coaching staff alongside Foster etc while we keep him around as a player.
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10 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:
I think goalkeepers can command bigger fees than central midfielders tbh, especially the type of midfielder McCann was (that sounds like I'm playing him down, which isn't what I mean but I don't know how else to word it).
Clubs are absolutely desperate for match winning goalkeepers.
Not to stick my oar in but I’d think that @PauloPerth’s scenario is probably more likely.
You’re right in saying clubs are desperate for match winning GKs but I think because it’s such a specialised position there are more keepers available. Over the past 13 or 14 years we’ve probably had 3 of the best keepers in the league in Randolph, pre-DVT Carson and Gillespie and got precisely f**k all for them.
The closest we came was the supposed £500k Celtic offered for Carson when Gordon was injured late in a January window.
I think generally speaking there tends to be a surplus of good goalkeepers available on free transfers which drives down the necessity to pay big prices unless you’re talking elite levels.
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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted · Edited by capt_oats
This was 23 months, 12 days ago (feels longer, right?)
Along with the manager and two assistants 9 of the starting XI and 6 of the 7 subs are either no longer at the club or are currently out on loan.