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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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On Chris Long, I've been one of his biggest critics but there's definitely a player in there when he can be arsed. I wouldn't be against offering him a new deal but give him a deadline to sign it. We can't have another situation where he clearly only signs on because no other offers were on the table and then spends the next 6 months in the huff.

If Long doesn't sign then I'd imagine we'll go for Dolly Menga or some other striker that's played for Livi in the last 5 years.

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I suppose the other thing is that we don't really know what Alexander's long term plan is for how we play. I half suspect that the 4-3-3 sticking around is out of necessity due to the players we have. I'd be interested to see if Long was to stick about were we to play him through the middle next to someone (like Watt, for example). 

This is also taking into account that Cole is probably not going to hang about if he's given the choice. Even though I would absolutely love him to stay another year. 

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6 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

I suppose the other thing is that we don't really know what Alexander's long term plan is for how we play. I half suspect that the 4-3-3 sticking around is out of necessity due to the players we have. I'd be interested to see if Long was to stick about were we to play him through the middle next to someone (like Watt, for example). 

This is also taking into account that Cole is probably not going to hang about if he's given the choice. Even though I would absolutely love him to stay another year. 

It's been mentioned on this thread before but the choice Cole seems to have here is stick with us for another year and a manager who seems to have him scoring at the most prolific rate of his career (I've not checked but looking at his career history it's hard to imagine him having bettered 9 in 15) or hedge his bets and f**k off for another crack at L1.

Spoiler

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I mean, no judgement from me - I'd imagine all things being equal he'd rather be playing his football in England but it feels like even sticking around for another 6 months and replicating the form he's in could open more doors for him. Then again given he also has his clothing line as a side hustle I suppose it's a question of how bothered he is in the grand scheme of things.

Totally agree about it being a kind of unknown how Alexander sees us setting up going forward, we also don't really have a strong idea of what type of player he prefers. I kind of get the feeling that if he's talking about running with a smaller squad then the punts that we saw from Robinson may be out the window. Robinson openly admitted that he looked for younger players with raw attributes ("you can't make someone quicker") and looked to coach them in the other areas - and we'd set aside budget to take a chance on those players.

I could be wrong but from what Alexander has been saying but I'm guessing we'll see fewer Christy Manzingas or attempts to turn Christian Ilic into a right winger. The other thing is Alexander's openly been highlighting the issue of mentality that's been a problem all season (Robinson and Lasley weren't shy in calling it out either) I'm interested to see how he goes about addressing that as well as it's a more intangible quality than being able to say "he's quck" or "he scores goals".

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I suspect so. I am a fully paid up member of the Robinson fan club. He was a fantastic manager all things considered. It just seems like his idea to invest in unknowns maybe came back to bite him on the arse when about 50% of them downed tools and the other 50% turned out to be shite. 

32 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Christy Manzinga

Also I could be like 95 years old, senile as f**k and not remember my own name but I will still absolutely have a laugh at Manzinga's four attempts to clear a ball in that St Mirren game. 

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1 hour ago, Ron Aldo said:

On Chris Long, I've been one of his biggest critics but there's definitely a player in there when he can be arsed. I wouldn't be against offering him a new deal but give him a deadline to sign it. We can't have another situation where he clearly only signs on because no other offers were on the table and then spends the next 6 months in the huff.

If Long doesn't sign then I'd imagine we'll go for Dolly Menga or some other striker that's played for Livi in the last 5 years.

Very unlikely. He wasn't paying tax the entire time he was here as he 'didnt know he had to'. When police came looking for him he was back in Angola on loan for 3 months by then. He turned up to training late at a few of his previous clubs saying he slept in and doesn't own a clock so didn't know what time it was. 

Was still under contract with Livi but just went MIA and out of the blue posted on his Instagram a video of him riding a quad bike through Bordeaux :D I'm not even sure if he's allowed back in the UK unless he pays/has paid the tax.

Robinson, I don't reckon would be a good signing for Motherwell. He's honestly just not that good and unless Motherwell drastically alter the system to play him, I'd take Tony Watt over him. He was never even a starter for us up until his wee purple patch over the winter. He came in for the games against Rangers and Celtic, he's played about 90 games in 5 years which is hardly special. 

Edited by ATLIS
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10 minutes ago, ropy said:

Some personal news : I finished series 9 last night.

I loved the first few series - but then I heard the Catherine Tate was in it at some point, so I pre-emptively stopped watching it after series 4 just in case.

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2 hours ago, well fan for life said:

I suspect so. I am a fully paid up member of the Robinson fan club. He was a fantastic manager all things considered. It just seems like his idea to invest in unknowns maybe came back to bite him on the arse when about 50% of them downed tools and the other 50% turned out to be shite. 

Also I could be like 95 years old, senile as f**k and not remember my own name but I will still absolutely have a laugh at Manzinga's four attempts to clear a ball in that St Mirren game. 

Aye, I think there's a solid argument that pound for pound Robinson was our best manager since McLean. He was here longer than McGhee's first stint and was working on a far reduced budget than McCall in the Dempster era; avoiding relegation, at least 3 rebuilt squads, 2 cup finals, comfortable mid-table and a 3rd* place finish on top of the income from player trading - it's hard to argue against IMO.

Having said that it's pretty clear he had his weaknesses. Alexander turning Cole into a goal machine within days of being in the job probably highlights Robinson's blind spot when it came to getting his forwards scoring goals and leaning on midfielders instead. When the goals from midfield dried up as well it puts his team in a pretty problematic place.

I don't know if it was club policy or not so I'm hesitant to lay it fully at Robinson's door but the tendency to bring in 3 or 4 budget players in the hope that one came good probably came back to bite him/us. I mean we definitely got the benefit of it with guys like Kipré, Ally Gorrin etc but we had to kiss a lot of frogs by the end of it - I'm not entirely sure that in a world without Reserve team games we can really get away with that sort of thing now as all you'll have is a bunch of guys literally not playing football.

Another point re: Alexander's recruitment going forward, I've read a fair bit of chat making the assumption that we'll be focussing on the English Lower Leagues because that's where he's managed most of his career and that's pretty fair logic but given *circumstances* I'm not 100% certain that it'll be any easier a sell to get players up here from England now than it was last summer - unless we're going targeting more guys like Lawleff who are wanting to get back up the road.

Edited by capt_oats
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25 minutes ago, ropy said:

Some personal news : I finished series 9 last night.

It's fucking great init

12 minutes ago, Swello said:

I loved the first few series - but then I heard the Catherine Tate was in it at some point, so I pre-emptively stopped watching it after series 4 just in case.

Mistake there man, I hate the c**t anaw but she was no bad in all honesty.

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:lol:

There's obviously more to it than this and I think Decanter is a great player on his own merits but there's something very funny about Robinson spending 4 years going through about 12 different strike partnerships and still being unable to find a consistent goalscorer among them only for Alexander to immediately rock up and go "eh, have you tried playing a striker through the middle?"

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8 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

:lol:

There's obviously more to it than this and I think Decanter is a great player on his own merits but there's something very funny about Robinson spending 4 years going through about 12 different strike partnerships and still being unable to find a consistent goalscorer among them only for Alexander to immediately rock up and go "eh, have you tried playing a striker through the middle?"

He also played a left back at left back.

Putting players in their natural positions. What a concept.

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2 hours ago, ATLIS said:

Very unlikely. He wasn't paying tax the entire time he was here as he 'didnt know he had to'. When police came looking for him he was back in Angola on loan for 3 months by then. He turned up to training late at a few of his previous clubs saying he slept in and doesn't own a clock so didn't know what time it was. 

Was still under contract with Livi but just went MIA and out of the blue posted on his Instagram a video of him riding a quad bike through Bordeaux :D I'm not even sure if he's allowed back in the UK unless he pays/has paid the tax.

Robinson, I don't reckon would be a good signing for Motherwell. He's honestly just not that good and unless Motherwell drastically alter the system to play him, I'd take Tony Watt over him. He was never even a starter for us up until his wee purple patch over the winter. He came in for the games against Rangers and Celtic, he's played about 90 games in 5 years which is hardly special. 

Do Livi not operate PAYE then?

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