Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Richie]

6 hours ago, Busta Nut said:

I don't really have preference of who I hate more out of Celtic and Rangers.

I must be some sort of enigma.

 

It probably depends on who has been most detestable that week.

Exactly this.

For stuff like the paranoia/conspiracy/referee strike stuff Celtic would piss you at the time, but then they slipped under the radar a bit during the Rangers meltdown etc .

It fluctuates.

I  guess alot of it comes down to who you've played more recently as well.

 

[Del_Superwell]

23 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

It's just a tone thing really.

In other news...who's our number 34? Doesn't show in either the first team or reserves list (I'm guessing it's one of the new Academy group who have been featuring for the reserves recently).

Wondered that myself earlier then someone told me its the young centre half David Devine.

[MFC97]

23 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

It's just a tone thing really.

In other news...who's our number 34? Doesn't show in either the first team or reserves list (I'm guessing it's one of the new Academy group who have been featuring for the reserves recently).

Think its the young lad Devine that Robbo was hyping up the other week. At the POTY night he also said he has big hopes for the other young defender Yussaf Hussain , think that's his name anyway.

[AndyRoss]

I spoke to Mo Ross for Saturday's programme yesterday,  he's a very impressive guy.

Seems like things are moving in the right direction and he mentioned the marked difference in Jamie Semple in recent months - I also wasn't aware his brother is on our books too.

Avoiding spoiling the Q&A, but he also mentioned the likes of Dean Cornelius and Reece McAlear as lads who he's given more game time to due to their promise (I don't think that is included in the article, as I was a bit heavy in terms of word count).

 

[capt_oats]

7 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

I spoke to Mo Ross for Saturday's programme yesterday,  he's a very impressive guy.

Seems like things are moving in the right direction and he mentioned the marked difference in Jamie Semple in recent months - I also wasn't aware his brother is on our books too.

Avoiding spoiling the Q&A, but he also mentioned the likes of Dean Cornelius and Reece McAlear as lads who he's given more game time to due to their promise (I don't think that is included in the article, as I was a bit heavy in terms of word count).

Very much looking forward to reading this (and the TC interview).

It's been mentioned on here before but there seems to have been a drop off in terms of #content with the reserves. They were running interviews with Craigan post match every week but there's not been a peep from Ross on camera since he got the job. Which is fair enough like but it's a pretty sharp and noticeable change of direction.

Also, given there was the whole "pathway review" when Craigan left I thought they may have done some sort of bit with Ross when he arrived about what the plan was going forward.

It's also notable that he's the only staff addition that we've made (as far as I know) given Craigan stepped down and McManus left for the Celtic Academy. I'm pretty sure we were advertising for a new Head of Academy Sports Science & Medicine after Michael King left for the SFA. 

[nsr]

11 hours ago, capt_oats said:

It's just a tone thing really.

Fair dos. I wondered if there was a particular journalist you were taking the pish out of.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, nsr said:

Fair dos. I wondered if there was a particular journalist you were taking the pish out of.

Ha! Nah, nothing as knowing as that.

[AndyRoss]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Very much looking forward to reading this (and the TC interview).

It's been mentioned on here before but there seems to have been a drop off in terms of #content with the reserves. They were running interviews with Craigan post match every week but there's not been a peep from Ross on camera since he got the job. Which is fair enough like but it's a pretty sharp and noticeable change of direction.

Got the green light for a podcast with him at the end of the season too, which should be very interesting. I've moaned a fair bit about a lack of a pathway in the past, going on what I heard yesterday I can see a clearer structure to what we are trying to do. 

Edited April 25, 2019 by AndyRoss

[Busta Nut]

5 hours ago, AndyRoss said:

 

Seems like things are moving in the right direction and he mentioned the marked difference in Jamie Semple in recent months - I also wasn't aware his brother is on our books too.

 

The one in the ACF according to a daft Accie on another thread??

[AndyRoss]

7 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

The one in the ACF according to a daft Accie on another thread??

The very one!

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, AndyRoss said:

Seems like things are moving in the right direction and he mentioned the marked difference in Jamie Semple in recent months - I also wasn't aware his brother is on our books too.

Aye. Kyle Semple, I noticed Tam McManus mention him on Twitter a while ago.

He's another one who's been around the Scotland age groups.

Pretty sure OTF mentioned this over on Steelmen but the interesting thing about Jamie Semple is that he seems to be getting used as a midfielder rather than a forward.

[Neil86]

Noticed on twitter Braidhurst had a few former pupils back, Jamie Semple and a few others. Anyway, Kyle Connell was one of them who was an ex well player now playing with Blackburn Rovers. 

[Desp]

A four-year deal on at least £5k a week?  Nice work if you can get it, Jake. 

A shame to lose him at this stage as I think he'd have got better playing week-in, week-out (which I don't believe he'll get next season at Rangers) but I'm sure it's difficult to walk away from that kind of money.

Still, let's not see him a Motherwell shirt again this season.  It's of no benefit to us going forward and he'll pull out of every 50-50, and probably 60-40, in case he picks up an injury. 

My guess for Hastie's 2019/20 is two starts (one in each domestic cup) and 10 appearances off the bench. 

[AndyRoss]

29 minutes ago, Desp said:

Still, let's not see him a Motherwell shirt again this season.  It's of no benefit to us going forward and he'll pull out of every 50-50, and probably 60-40, in case he picks up an injury. 

Absolutely and if anyone else has confirmed they won't be staying on they should be treated exactly the same. 

[Busta Nut]

2 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

Absolutely and if anyone else has confirmed they won't be staying on they should be treated exactly the same. 

I would tend to agree.

 

Hastie can go on holiday as far as I am concerned.

[Luke92]

Glad to see an end to the Hastie saga this morning.

The more I think about Alan Burrows statement the other week the more i disagree with it. I can see this compensation figure getting lower and lower as the summer goes on, regardless of what you think of Hastie I think its hard to argue that 250-300k is great money given his potential. Personally,  I'm somewhere in the middle of the 'purple patch/one trick pony' and 'next gareth bale' camps.

Being honest here, I feel like there has been a lot of spin from our fans to pretend Hastie is worse than he actually is solely because it's most likely he will go to Sevco. I think he has the potential to be a good player if not anything really special. I don't really think the money we will get in compensation sounds like it is going to justify our strategy of 'protecting our investment' through these development arrangements. If youth development is our main income driver I am really of the opinion we need to review our strategy to maximise our investment in the youth academy. My suggestion would be we should have atleast a handful of the top prospects tied down to longer term contracts where possible. I don't agree that this is unaffordable, these boys will be willing to accept low wages when on the fringes of the first team. The duds that fall by the way side would be well offset by the fees we would receive for the players who make the grade. Just my opinion though and I know some will point out this is all easy to point out with hindsight.

The last few years we seem to have spent a lot of money on small wage fringe players, Newall and Donnelly two examples. This money adds up.  I would rather this money was spent on renewing  guys who are highly thought of from the youth academy.

With all of the above being said, I genuinely hope Hastie amounts to **** all.  I hope he doesn't play another game for us. Let's not waste time on him and give some of the younger boys an opportunity.  There is a lot of fans that are able to emotionally detach from the situation and wish him good luck on making more money but I don't buy into this at all. Bitter? Aye probably but football is an emotive sport. Overall, I just find the whole thing a slap in the face after we have developed him since he was a wee boy.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Luke92

[Desp]

2 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

Absolutely and if anyone else has confirmed they won't be staying on they should be treated exactly the same. 

Shall we call it the Curtis Main Rule?

[AndyRoss]

Reflecting on Jake Hastie's time in our first team, he played very well for around a month - it's a brilliant feat by his agent to get him a big move on the back of that, though I'm sure some of his goals will have looked smashing in a showreel.

I wasn't at Celtic Park, but aside from a 6/10 performance against Accies and a goal against Aberdeen (in a game where Robinson said he was considering hooking him in the first half) then he's been well off it since the Hearts game in mid February.

Whether it be the speculation messing with his head or the fact he isn't as good as he was in his initial appearances, time will tell.

[Desp]

1 minute ago, Luke92 said:

Being honest here, I feel like there has been a lot of spin from our fans to pretend Hastie is worse than he actually is solely because it's most likely he will go to Sevco. I think he has the potential to be a good player if not anything really special. I don't really the think the money we will get in compensation sounds like it is going to justify our strategy of 'protecting our investment' through these development arrangements. If youth development is our main income driver I am really of the opinion we need to review our strategy to maximise our investment in the youth academy. My suggestion would be we should have atleast a handful of the top prospects tied down to longer term contracts where possible. I don't agree that this is unaffordable, these boys will be willing to accept low wages when on the fringes of the first team. The duds that fall by the way side would be well offset by the fees we would receive for the players who make the grade. Just my opinion though and I know some will point out this is all easy to point out with hindsight.

Re the bit in bold, we've got Turnbull, Campbell, Scott and Maguire all down in longer-term deals.  We've got Livingstone signed up for next year as well.

Nobody could have predicted how Hastie would have fared into the team.  Looked ok at Airdrie, done well at Alloa but that's about it.  He was never billed as the "next big thing". 

With regards to "protecting our investment" we're in line for circa £750k for two players (Hastie & McKinstry) who've played less than 20 games for Motherwell between them.  I think that's a decent return.  Plus, we've got the potential for another half a million from Cadden.  All came through our Academy.

For every Jake Hastie leaving too soon, there'll be a Ross Forbes, Luke Watt or Dom Thomas stinking the place out for a couple of years.  We can't get them all right, but I think we've shown we do better than most. 

[Ron Aldo]

I once saw a picture of Hastie on Twitter and he was wearing white jeans.

For that reason he can get to f**k.