Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[WellView]

57 minutes ago, Del_Superwell said:

That's certainly possible, however if that is the case then it will be a very lucrative summer for us as it would take fairly big money to part with any of them.

Yes, it would be good to be debt free a couple of years ahead of schedule.  I haven't heard much from the Well Society recently, how's the fundraising going with the Hutchison double money deal?  And how did the share sale go? 

[Casagolda]

14 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Good to see we're all aboard the 'Grimshaw is trash' bus now.

It’s a shame really- cause he’s a nice guy by all accounts who’s genuinely fond of the club, but aye he’s just not very good. 

Like Plummer, he was a signing that made sense at the time but he hasn’t ended up contributing a great deal. We should actually be able to save a fair whack by punting the pair of them this summer along with Demi and Griffiths. 

Straight away there’s 4 players off the wage bill that don’t really need replaced, or could at least be replaced from within the club.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

It’s a shame really- cause he’s a nice guy by all accounts who’s genuinely fond of the club, but aye he’s just not very good. 

Like Plummer, he was a signing that made sense at the time but he hasn’t ended up contributing a great deal. We should actually be able to save a fair whack by punting the pair of them this summer along with Demi and Griffiths. 

Straight away there’s 4 players off the wage bill that don’t really need replaced, or could at least be replaced from within the club.

I can't disagree with that - the only case for the defence is that in the 2-0 win at Pittodrie (which admittedly not many 'Well fans would have seen) - he was outstanding (which would be why he started in the LC final I guess)....

[well fan for life]

16 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Good to see we're all aboard the 'Grimshaw is trash' bus now.

Tbf I reckon he's the best in the team at running in straight lines.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

18 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Good to see we're all aboard the 'Grimshaw is trash' bus now.

It's a weird one. Along with you, I've probably been one of the most ardent passengers on that bus but I reckon I'll still be sad to see him go. If he wants to hang around as a mascot or hype man I'd be fine with that tbh.

[Del_Superwell]

18 hours ago, WellView said:

Yes, it would be good to be debt free a couple of years ahead of schedule.  I haven't heard much from the Well Society recently, how's the fundraising going with the Hutchison double money deal?  And how did the share sale go? 

I'm not sure the exact figures left but I do know that Hutchison has continued the double money for 2018 so that's at least a bonus for this year,  With the share sale I'm unsure on the numbers who took it but one of my friends did purchase shares so hopefully that's provided a reasonable return.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Del_Superwell

[Gianfranco]

Tonight’s #content was reasonably enjoyable. No idea how to link it on my phone.

[capt_oats]

Tonight’s #content was reasonably enjoyable. No idea how to link it on my phone.

[Al B]

Starting to think Nadir Ciftci is some urban legend that fans of other clubs tell their kids about. Either that or we've signed Dave Ciftci by mistake. Regardless, whoever we've ended up with seems some #boi to have around the place.

[forzamorton]

Evening guys, 

I'm currently writing my dissertation and, surprise surprise, it's about football. Could you please spare one minute and complete this survey. Thanks.

 

https://s.surveyplanet.com/SJukevuPf 

[capt_oats]

19 hours ago, Al B said:

Starting to think Nadir Ciftci is some urban legend that fans of other clubs tell their kids about. Either that or we've signed Dave Ciftci by mistake. Regardless, whoever we've ended up with seems some #boi to have around the place.

100%

I've referenced this Vice Sports interview with him a few times and reading the quote below makes the #content that we've seen him involved in over the short time he's been at the club all the more striking:

Quote

"I've been thinking seriously about stopping playing football lately. I've had that before in 2012, after a bad period in Turkey. The money that I would lose, does not interest me at all. That does not affect me. I really prefer to be happy in a flat, than unhappy in a villa. How often do you see that rich people have a hole in their lives?"

Obviously I'm a total Ciftci fanboy so I'm all about him signing permanently but in a practical sense for all Celtic don't give anyone anything for free I do wonder if their best chance of getting any sort of return on him is to play a long game. I think it was Gannonball suggested that it's unlikely that anyone's going to pay a fee for Ciftci and that seems fair; for all he's been good for us and a clear upgrade on what we had he's still a striker with 1 goal in 8 games for us. Add that to his previous 3 loans plus his spell at Celtic and it's difficult to imagine any club being ready to open their wallet.

It all depends on how true to his word Ciftci is, giving up the sort of money he's on at Celtic is a pretty huge life decision matter how minted he may already be. However, if he's willing to reach a mutual settlement with Celtic on the last year of his deal then IMO Celtic's best shot at seeing any sort of money for him would be a similar deal to the ones we struck for Moult, Carson etc.

He's out of contract at the end of next season so if they take a nominal amount for the player just now and get a ridiculous sell on % included in the deal then as it stands that's probably the best option they've got. That way they get a player who is never going to play for them off the wage bill and if he does finally come good at another club they get some sort of money back. The alternative is pretty much him sitting seeing out his deal and bleeding them until he walks for nothing.

Motherwell are the sort of club who have shown they can develop players, he seems happy here and he's the sort of age (26) where if he were to come good then he's almost certainly got another decent move left in him.

Edited February 21, 2018 by capt_oats

[WellView]

5 hours ago, capt_oats said:

100%

I've referenced this Vice Sports interview with him a few times and reading the quote below makes the #content that we've seen him involved in over the short time he's been at the club all the more striking:

Obviously I'm a total Ciftci fanboy so I'm all about him signing permanently but in a practical sense for all Celtic don't give anyone anything for free I do wonder if their best chance of getting any sort of return on him is to play a long game. I think it was Gannonball suggested that it's unlikely that anyone's going to pay a fee for Ciftci and that seems fair; for all he's been good for us and a clear upgrade on what we had he's still a striker with 1 goal in 8 games for us. Add that to his previous 3 loans plus his spell at Celtic and it's difficult to imagine any club being ready to open their wallet.

It all depends on how true to his word Ciftci is, giving up the sort of money he's on at Celtic is a pretty huge life decision matter how minted he may already be. However, if he's willing to reach a mutual settlement with Celtic on the last year of his deal then IMO Celtic's best shot at seeing any sort of money for him would be a similar deal to the ones we struck for Moult, Carson etc.

He's out of contract at the end of next season so if they take a nominal amount for the player just now and get a ridiculous sell on % included in the deal then as it stands that's probably the best option they've got. That way they get a player who is never going to play for them off the wage bill and if he does finally come good at another club they get some sort of money back. The alternative is pretty much him sitting seeing out his deal and bleeding them until he walks for nothing.

Motherwell are the sort of club who have shown they can develop players, he seems happy here and he's the sort of age (26) where if he were to come good then he's almost certainly got another decent move left in him.

Celtic gave us Joe Chalmers free 

[Gianfranco]

I don’t know if he was injured or what but Hendrie was subbed off at half time for the under 20s, which isn’t a good sign. He’s not had a lot of playing time. I wonder if he’s not as good as we’d hoped?

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Gianfranco said:

I don’t know if he was injured or what but Hendrie was subbed off at half time for the under 20s, which isn’t a good sign. He’s not had a lot of playing time. I wonder if he’s not as good as we’d hoped?

As Desp said the other day, I get the impression that Hendrie's really just here to warm the bench. Our first choices for the LWB spot are likely to be Tait or Frear. Even if we were to go to a back 4 chances are it'd be Tait Kipré Aldred Dunne.

Fwiw: I was following the u20s game on Twitter earlier and for all Hendrie, Petravicius, Bowman and Newell started it seemed to be a bit of a shambles. The regular starting XI just seemed to have been disrupted with the first team players dropping down.

We had a centre half playing who was released from Thistle's u20s in January and he only lasted 23 mins. I had asked a pal of mine who covers Thistle's Dev games and about him he wasn't exactly glowing in his review.  They picked him up from Rangers in the summer I think, he played a few games for Thistle and was released in January.

Hendrie going off at HT seemed to be tactical, switching to a 442.

As a plus point Craigan's really positive about Barry Maguire. Seems Robinson was there watching this afternoon. Going by Craigan's comments Maguire was the only one who really did himself any favours.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2018 by capt_oats

[WellView]

This article from the club website about Brian McLaughlin - 

http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2018/02/21/talisman-of-the-champions/ 

What a player - I remember him scoring an outstanding full volley from outside the box during the promotion season.   Playing alongside Alfie Conn, another blast from the past.  It amazes me that we paid £100,000 for Brian in 1979. If we paid that kind of money now we'd have a mass faint among the support. 

[Armand 2]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

We had a centre half playing who was released from Thistle's u20s in January and he only lasted 23 mins. I had asked a pal of mine who covers Thistle's Dev games and about him he wasn't exactly glowing in his review.  They picked him up from Rangers in the summer I think, he played a few games for Thistle and was released in January.

Who would that have been? Can't think who it might be although I've admittedly lost track on the 20s this season.

[capt_oats]

5 minutes ago, Armand 2 said:

Who would that have been? Can't think who it might be although I've admittedly lost track on the 20s this season.

It's this boy, Jason Krones: https://www.transfermarkt.com/jason-krones/profil/spieler/394837

Edited February 21, 2018 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Unfortunate name.

[Casagolda]

13 hours ago, Gianfranco said:

I don’t know if he was injured or what but Hendrie was subbed off at half time for the under 20s, which isn’t a good sign. He’s not had a lot of playing time. I wonder if he’s not as good as we’d hoped?

Might be wrong but I get the impression Robinson and Craigan have Adam Livingstone earmarked for that left wing back slot in the near future. However they don’t feel he’s quite ready yet, hence he’s been sent out on loan for the 2nd half of the season to get some proper experience.

With him away on loan, Plummer out for the season and Hammell retiring we really just needed a body in to cover in the short term. Hendrie wasn’t really playing at Southend anyway and by all accounts was fairly happy to move back home- essentially a cheap short term solution that worked for all parties. 

Edited February 22, 2018 by Casagolda

[capt_oats]

2 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Might be wrong but I get the impression Robinson and Craigan have Adam Livingstone earmarked for that left wing back slot in the near future. However they don’t feel he’s quite ready yet, hence he’s been sent out on loan for the 2nd half of the season to get some proper experience.

With him away on loan, Plummer out for the season and Hammell retiring we really just needed a body in to cover in the short term. Hendrie wasn’t really playing at Southend anyway and by all accounts was fairly happy to move back home- essentially a cheap short term solution that worked for all parties. 

That's pretty much how I see it tbh.

In an optics sense it's unfortunate that Hendrie's been given the #3 shirt but  it really does just feel like it is what it is. Everyone's looking at a "long term" successor to Hammell and missing the fact that he only made 5 starts for us this season and it's the 2017/18 version we're replacing just now.  What's more, Tait was apparently playing through injury in December while both Cadden and Frear have struggled to shake off injuries as well.

With that in mind with Hammell retired, Plummer broken and Livingstone viewed as a longer term option who needs regular competitive games (and an opportunity to make and learn from mistakes that won't cost our first team) we definitely needed cover. Hendrie's got close to 150 first team games to his name he pretty much ticks the box of what we need; a left sided player with decent first team experience who was available, knows the league, the area and is #handsome.

To loop back to the injuries thing, I'd like to think that Boles and Robinson will take a look at things at the end of the season as the number of hamstring injuries we've seen players sidelined with suggest it's a bit more than coincidence. It's clear that Robinson's style of play requires a lot of running and off the top of my head we've had Hammell, Frear, Cadden, Moult, and Campbell all out with hamstring strains this season.

I'm not sure what injury Tait was playing through but if it was a muscle/soft tissue related it's probably worth evaluating as it seems that all our wide players have been out with similar issues over the course of the season.