Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[AsimButtHitsASix]

8 minutes ago, Desp said:

Scotland has what, about 20 full time teams? 

There is absolutely no chance of going above a 14 team top flight. Any bigger than that, then if you have one bad season and end up going down, you're dropping to effectively part time level. No chance any top flight team is voting for that. 

14-10-10-10 will get the go-ahead, I assume. 

On the other hand we've seen Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United fall into the Championship and Motherwell and Aberdeen only stayed up because of ground issues with the teams that won the 2nd tier. It would need to be a hell of a shite season for any of those clubs to get relegated from a 16 team league. And as we've seen with some of those clubs it's a lot harder to get back out of this division than it is to fall into it. A larger league would be a buffer against relegation at all for most Premier clubs

[RandomGuy.]

2 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

A larger league would be a buffer against relegation at all for most Premier clubs

Which would be shite.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

2 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Which would be shite.

Possibly but if their worry is about relegation, and not a drab season in mid table, then a smaller league doesn't really make sense

[dezz]

I'm with @Desp on this one. Any more than a 14 team top flight means the Championship would virtually be part time level.

Whilst it would need a disaster of a season for the likes of Motherwell or Killie etc to be relegated in a 16 team league, if there are 2 automatic relegation spots and a play off place it's not out of the question that it could happen, and I just can't see any of the top flight clubs voting for that.

I'm generally in favour of expanding the league as I do find the repetitiveness of playing the same teams a minimum of 3-4 times a year boring but I can't see anything beyond a 14 team top flight working financially for the vast majority of clubs. If reconstruction does go ahead  it'll almost definitely be 14-10-10-10.

On the basis United and ICT come up the above format would still leave you with some reasonably sized Championship clubs in Dundee, Dunfermline, Partick and Ayr as well as Falkirk and Raith Rovers who are decent sized clubs for that level. 

[tree house tam]

3 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

On the other hand we've seen Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United fall into the Championship and Motherwell and Aberdeen only stayed up because of ground issues with the teams that won the 2nd tier. It would need to be a hell of a shite season for any of those clubs to get relegated from a 16 team league. And as we've seen with some of those clubs it's a lot harder to get back out of this division than it is to fall into it. A larger league would be a buffer against relegation at all for most Premier clubs

Folk on about sides going into the championship? They're there on merit, as are the teams in the premiership. f**k changing a league system to suit 2 or 3 clubs fear of relegation. If your pish your pish, just get better lads.

[Archie McSquackle]

So stick with what we have and relegate Hearts?

[capt_oats]

24 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

So stick with what we have and relegate Hearts?

Having read the comments from Dempster about Hibs I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it went.

"We believe the biggest issue facing the game in Scotland is not reconstruction, it’s getting our whole game back up and running." suggests that the Reconstruction "Task Force" have pretty much just been given their colouring books and told to go and keep themselves busy.

Also, reading our update it seems pretty at odds with how Budge is approaching things ie: "temporary reconstruction", "quick fix" etc.

I may be doing her a disservice but I don't think Budge really comes across as the sort of blue sky thinker who's going to come up with the sort of proposal that will "make the game better in the long term".

Edited April 22, 2020 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

19 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Having read the comments from Dempster about Hibs I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it went.

"We believe the biggest issue facing the game in Scotland is not reconstruction, it’s getting our whole game back up and running." suggests that the Reconstruction "Task Force" have pretty much just been given their colouring books and told to go and keep themselves busy.

Also, reading our update it seems pretty at odds with how Budge is approaching things ie: "temporary reconstruction", "quick fix" etc.

I may be doing her a disservice but I don't think Budge really comes across as the sort of blue sky thinker who's going to come up with the sort of proposal that will "make the game better in the long term".

I'm not saying that we shouldn't explore the possibility of reconstruction. But it's not something that should be done in a couple of weeks as a knee jerk reaction to such a serious situation. 

Seeing it being headed up by Hearts & Hamilton really doesn't bode well as one of them ran their club into the ground under Levein resulting in them barely winning a game for 18 months and the other gave all their money to George Agdgdgwngo.

[capt_oats]

2011 Semi-Final against St Johnstone on YouTube tonight.

 

[well fan for life]

Just now, capt_oats said:

2011 Semi-Final against St Johnstone on YouTube tonight.

 

YES PLEASE.

[Gallus Numpty]

Bit of an odd choice, was done and dusted after 15 minutes, never mind half time.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Gallus Numpty

[ropy]

Norn Ireland job available?

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, Gallus Numpty said:

Bit of an odd choice, was done and dusted after 15 minutes, never mind half time.

Fairly certain someone on here mentioned they were on the phone at half time getting a bus booked for the final. 

IIRC the second half was a complete non-event. 

[Casagolda]

2 minutes ago, ropy said:

Norn Ireland job available?

Would obviously be sad to see him go if true but realistically, what more could he really do here? 

Two cup finals, a 3rd place finish and a debt free club. Not a bad return when you consider the state we were in when he took over 3 years ago. 

[ropy]

I would think that record may attract another bigger job down south in the next year (of playing football), if he keeps the standard up the international job will come at some point.

Is the N.I. future looking rosy or is it likely to become a struggle, do they have up and coming players, Donnelly?

[Swello]

Would really like him to stay - aside from him being a very decent manager at our level, the idea of bringing someone in during the current instability is not at all appealing. 

If Norn Iron are really in for him, I can't imagine it'll be a difficult decision for him - and he won't be on huge money at 'Well, so the compensation won't be massive.

[capt_oats]

3rd time a charm...

 

[steelmen]

Hearts should be relegated, they have been honking all season with the exception of a couple of games against sevco. Talk of reconstruction to save them and then put everything back the way it was the season after stinks.

Sure i wouldn’t be happy with us being relegated without playing all the games but these aren’t normal times.

I can support reconstruction if it is done properly and isn’t used as a plaster to help certain teams.

First thing, ditch the split. Not knowing how many home league games your going to have unless everyone finishes where the computer thinks they will is a joke.

Second get us down to playing teams twice. Once home and once away. 4 times a season is boring and needs to go.

Next keep the play offs but ditch the team having a chance to save themselves. it should be promotion play offs only.

I would also like 2-3 teams going down to freshen up the league. 1 down, maybe 2 does nothing to keep it interesting.

For this I think we need 16-18 teams in the top league. Will there be meaningless games for the mid table teams? Sure but these are the games to try out your young players to get them ready for the next season.

TLDR? f**k hearts unless it’s meaningful permanent change with my shopping list.

[Gallus Numpty]

13 minutes ago, steelmen said:

Second get us down to playing teams twice. Once home and once away. 4 times a season is boring and needs to go.

Unfortunately, the TV money seems to depend on it right now. Unless they also set up a diddy Glasgow cup where the gruesome twosome can play each other another twice.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Gallus Numpty

[ropy]

1 hour ago, Swello said:

Would really like him to stay - aside from him being a very decent manager at our level, the idea of bringing someone in during the current instability is not at all appealing. 

If Norn Iron are really in for him, I can't imagine it'll be a difficult decision for him - and he won't be on huge money at 'Well, so the compensation won't be massive.

Let’s get behind Tommy Wright