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Luke92

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  1. As we have seen before, social media can create a bit of a false impression... There are a lot of people who don't use it or enter forums like this one. I would imagine people within that demographic make up a fair chunk of the members. One thing I would say is the turn out (albeit to a poll) is dreadful and should be taken into account. Does beg the question, for a poll as important as this one. If folk cba to vote on it, how enthusastic will be there for further contributions etc?
  2. We've seen that movie yesterday so many times against Celtic, the inevitability about it was there for all to see. As infuriating as it was, after the 6th time seeing exactly the same thing I am starting to get a bit numbed to it. My main takeaways are in-line with what we knew about the team already: The drop off in quality to the bench is huge (see striker situation) The majority of the players are mentally weak and struggle to deal with any type of adversity and/or pressure (see multiple examples of us shitting the bed) We can't defend and continue to gift team goals - the manager also can't seem to remedy this problem through coaching as he mentions it repeatedly On the subs, I think most folk crying out for changes were wanting something to be changed to try to get us up the pitch and stop the onslaught which was only going to end in one way. Unfortunately we have noone on the bench who can really do that. The reality of the situation is we end up changing 3 of the 5 defenders prior to them scoring their two goals. To me, there is a question about concentration, I don't think someone coming on for 5 mins can be instantly as tuned in as someone who has been playing for 84 mins. Anyway, same old story on to Livi. If we don't beat Livi there is scope for us to get sucked into the play off situation..
  3. Had some time to read through the various takes on the AGM and some really good posts on here/SO and wanted to add my 2 pence! There has been a huge amount of good information provided by folk working with the WS and otherwise so hats off to everyone! Personally, I think it is vitally important for people on both sides of the spectrum to stay open minded about what the future holds. Folk need to actively listen to what eachother have to say and try not to be entrenched in their own personal opinion. There are clear risks on both sides. There also needs to be an understanding that, whilst folk should educate themselves about the situation, your average fan on Twitter may not have a full grasp on Motherwell's financial accounts. Regardless of whether you are of the mind the fan ownership model is 'working' or not. It seems clear to me that a change or atleast a rejuvenation is a must I am quite keen to understand in more detail about what a new WS strategy would actually look like. I've read through the suggestions from some board members and whilst these all sound fine, they are a bit vague and some of them sound slightly airy-fairy. What I and a lot of other fans want to understand is, with our fan base, how are we are going to increase WS revenue to a significant enough level to compete? A very basic question but i want projections for what this looks like. Appreciate this should come in time but this is why there is a level of scepticism and also a willingness to listen to prospective investors. On the other side, who are these investors, what are their track record and what is their long-term vision? Any investors would require massive scrutiny and as many have mentioned these people aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. I understand why we put out the video to attract investors but we probably have attracted a few sharks who smell the blood in the water. Also I don't really understand what value the WS would have if it only had a minority stake.
  4. On this point, I don't think that is clear to our average supporter. The way the Chairman and interim CEO have communicated this, it feels like it is urgent. It feels like, if we don't do something, we are going to be in trouble. So I don't blame the average fan thinking this. The feeling I get is, the two of them want to rush something along and shoot off.
  5. I always try to talk up our league but is it just me or are 95% of the teams in the league this year utter shite? It's usually tight around parts of the table but at the moment it feels like we are being saved at the moment by the fact the rest of the league is just as bad as we are. If you look at our league positon, on paper we are doing fine, but if you dig into the performances and goals conceded etc its been absolutely rotten. How you can get beat in the way we did on Friday and then go 3-0 up at Aberdeen then make an arse of it. My conclusion is, we are awful at defending and other teams around us are just as bad (Added to the mix, Aberdeens strange lineup in the first 30 mins last night) My overiding feeling is, when the going gets tough or there is any type of adversity these players crumble. I keep thinking back to that Raith game last year and we have over half the team involved that were there that day. I think it's clear what is required On a totally unrelated note off the park, I see Hibs are the latest team to adopt safe standing. I know this was assessed before and if i recall correctly was 'too expensive', so I presume this will be bottom of the list given the current situation. With that being said, given our influence on current fan culture in Scotland (and being fan owned) i have been surprised that we are lagging behind other clubs
  6. When I say 'the fan ownership model is not working' I don't mean that it risks us going out of business or we aren't finacially secure. What I mean is that the current model is not enabling us to financially compete and meet my and many other fans ambitions/expectations Where we are just now is we probably have the 2nd lowest budget in the league. We are regularly being outfought for players by clubs of a lesser/similar size. I think this started with O'Hara and co at St Mirren but it appears to be getting worse and worse. KVV is an emotive subject. Should we be contributing 80% of 10k a week to his wages? No. The point is that it encapsulates the current state of play of and where we are just now. We are behind the majority of clubs in the league in the pecking order for players. Personally I don't think getting another 500/1k fans in the well society is going to get us to the level we need to be financially and so I think the strategy to look a financial beneficiary is the right one. I don't think most fans want us to splurge money on players but the player budget at the moment isn't adequate to meet a lot of fans ambitions. On the striker situation more specifically, it is just a really bad look for all involved. If someone gets injured we are going to completely humped It feels like we are betting on Livi being relegated rather than trying to secure any kind of financial safety ourselves. I really hope we can pull a rabbit out the hat in free transfers because this is a bad look for recruitment and the manager
  7. Can we just not stop playing Paton full stop please? Some of his recent performances have been honking
  8. The Biereth news and that Kettlewell presser has given me some buzz for Saturday. Absolutely grim atm. I suppose we have probably recalled young guys from the lower leagues before, what stings is that they are going to loan him back out. Arsenal can obviously do what they want etc etc but it's a massive kick in the balls. Overall, though I still think the loan market has worked really well for us. I appreciate Kettlewells honesty but the press conference was a bit of a grim listen, kind of hut home how bad the situation is. Scott Fraser looks a decent signing, I'd be surprised if we pulled that off. I would imagine Charlton will want a decent % and he will be on a fair wedge down there I presume. If we could get him and Halliday in it would be a decent start. It feels to me like we are in another situation where we just need to do what we can in the short-term. Pretty much like last year. If we can survive until the summer we can take that as a win, there is going to be a fair exodus of players then I think
  9. I used to have a severe disliking to him because he seems like a complete generic *** ned and the way he came across on the park backed that up. In all honesty, from hearing him on Opengoal/Clyde I don't really mind him as much as I used to. His football knowledge is probably better than most journalists which admittedly isn't that hard. Feel like I've missed something the way people are going on though.. In terms of as a signing, seems good to me, covers CM and full back. I was surprised he didn't get more game time for Hearts. Any time I seen him last year he looked good and has good expererience of the league which should be beneficial. Happy with Montgomery as well, usually looked pretty impressive when I seen him so seems like a no brainer to me. Hopefully we can now fill some of the other positons we are needing. I'd like to see more people in before the St Johnstone game but it will no doubt go to the wire as usual!
  10. Aye, to be honest some of the comments on the post match re Gent were nonsense. Nothing new from Twitter though, most of the stuff on there is best off ignored. I like Gent going forward but I think he is really lacking defensively. He was really ropey in the Rangers game as well. Clearly thats why we have on loan though. Disappointing regarding Spencer, I thought he was decent. HIs form hasn't been as good as when he came into the team but he still has really good pace.
  11. About a month ago I hadn't given up hope with Kettlewell but said we need to find some wins from Dundee, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Fast forward, a month and we got a pumping in Dingwall and three draws. I am still clinging on to the hope that he can turn things around but at this point I will admit I am maybe being a bit misguided. Regardless of what happens now, I don't think the board are going to change anything until the winter break so we just need to see what happens in the next 4 games. IMO we can't continue to be satisfied with draws, we need to pick up atleast 1 win in the next 4 games as a minimum, probably 2. The Livi game is a must win, especially with it being at home. We probably need to pick up something unexpected v Rangers or Aberdeen. With all that being said, Saturday did piss me off a bit. I didn't think we should be booing or anything like that but the way the players/manager were acting was like they got a win rather than a draw. I don't know if it was because of the penalty 'save' but it all seemed a bit celebratory given the chances we missed. I could read it like a book on Saturday, 'conditions were difficult blah blah blah'. The game was there to be won.
  12. The CEO stuff? Start acting like a grown up organisation and complete proper due diligence prior to starting recruitment. Not sure what recruitment firm we used but it sounds like it was a total waste of time. Invest our own time in understanding what we want in a replacement and work out what the best way to achieve that is. The recruitment process appears to have been a rudderless pursuit given the fact Burrows left in January of last year. I really liked Burrows but I find out hard to believe that any effective process would take this long to appoint an effective successor. Also, if you are going to have an interim guy in place make sure he defines a medium term strategy rather than only addressing short-term concerns. I'm sure it wouldn't be anything revolutionary that a sucessor would disagree with. Effectively what we have here is 11 months have passed where there is no clear strategy communciated internally or to fans. WS Comms wise? Create regular updates to all registered fans on a variety of issues/initiatives. The only information I seem to get about the club strategy is on Twitter, AGM's, irregular emails or football forums. Don't really care what medium we use but make it regular, consistent and clear and start to address fan concerns and strategy in a clear way. If we addressed the communication stuff it would be a start, I've had this concern for a couple of years now and nothing has changed. I shall rephrase this for you, in my opinion I do not think the fan ownership is working effectively at our club. If the only focus is remaining in the league and ensuring we have money in the bank then I think we should reassess what our goals are. I hope the new members will make a difference, I am sure a lot of them will have some ideas about some of the stuff I have mentioned.
  13. If we are really being honest with ourselves, Kettlewell's positive run last season took the attention away from the CEO situation far too easily. Fast forward 9 months and we appear to be no further forward with medium to long term strategy. Recent run of form and media coverage has brought this back to the awareness. In my honest opinion, that 'statement' and the whole CEO debacle is amateur hour. I'm not even going to try and make excuses for any of that. For a professional football club of our size I actually think it is quite embarassing. There are non professional institutions that take their roles more seriously than our board seem to. Even if they could not appoint a CEO, the interim man should be trying to lay out a strategy rather than just living in the short-term. A lot of folk don't want to hear anything bad about the fan ownership model but I still do not think it is working. I have a lot of respect for a number of the people involved but communication wise it is still shocking. The fact most folk are hearing about a CEO 'update' via twitter or a fan's forum speaks volumes. Surely one of the aims of the WS should be to create more fluid dialogue with all fans? The way things are operating give me no motivation to invest in fan ownership. I also have no faith that the WS is properly seeking to address the CEO situation or the clear issue with recruitment.
  14. I'm obviously scunnered like everyone else with the current state of play but I've not given up hope with Kettlewell and the majority of the players. I think it's partly because of the league table and the goodwill in the bank from the run at the end of last season. Had the league table been a bit less tight I probably wouldn't be as patient. I think the fact I know the team and players have shown they are capable of more gives me some hope too. Every team goes on bad runs but the way this year and last year has gone I do get the feeling that we have quite a number of 'confidence' type players who are maybe a bit fragile. I think we will (and should) give Kettlewell until the winter break to turn things around but the first three fixtures in December are massive. We need to get some wins on the board against Dundee, Ross County and St Mirren. To me, the recent run seems to be a combination of awful defending, players form dipping and maybe getting found out a wee bit in terms of our tactical system. My main frustration from the last few games has been our inability to make contact at set pieces, i don't know what has happened but we just don't seem to be winning headers. I'm not the biggest Bevis fan in the world but I would be bringing him back in to try to combat that. Between him and Casey there is no way other teams should be dominating in the air to the extent they are. Up front, at the moment it looks like our recruitment is letting us down badly. Biereth aside, we probably have the worst striking options in the league.
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