Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Yorky]

1 hour ago, welldaft said:

The other aspect to all of this is that Motherwell FC gave him the environment to flourish to become top goalscorer and to enable him to sign a lucrative contract at one of our nearest rivals in the league. 

I get that Tony Watt is a more than decent player but it did not work out at St J or Hearts hence why he ended up with us. 

So to the point above the badge kissing, the social media presence comes across as a bit of an arse. In my humble opinion I am not sure he is clever enough to even realise or care. Why should he you may argue .

I want him gone in January and hope the clubs can do a deal. But if United are going to p1ss about I would have him train with boys and have him nowhere near the 1st team. We cannot risk him becoming a disruptive influence in a successful season. He is the past and we need to move on.

Also strong argument that United’s need is a whole lot greater than ours. 2nd lowest scorers and falling down the league rapidly. Of course I hope his form falls off a cliff should he move. Had he gone down south as expected then that would be a different matter. 

I think that’s probably not far off, he’s a big kid.

[capt_oats]

33 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I've loved Watt for us and think that, in the form he's been in this half season, he's pretty much the perfect striker for a team at our level. I did find it funny when somebody mentioned the other day that he's scored 2 in his last 8, doesn't take too many more goalless games before you can start questioning how much August-Nov 2021 really was a purple patch, relative to his career.

I think you said it the other day, it's weird how your brain can simultaneously be thinking if he signed up on a deal relative to our budget and how we value him then it'd be magic but equally thinking a 3 year deal on the sort of money United are reported to be paying him plus signing on fee etc relative to his form over his career feels like a massive risk.

I've seen a few posts on the dumber side of Motherwell Twitter from folk who seem genuinely raging, chucking toys everywhere because we're not trying to match United which is absolutely fucking wild.

Edited December 30, 2021 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

On the plus at least we won't have someone banging on about NFTs floating about the club.

[Ron Aldo]

There's very few players we should be pushing the boat out to keep (and I mean ever) and Watt certainly isn't one of them.

We've been good for him and he's been good for us but he's now been playing professionally for 10 years or so and the last few months have been the exception rather than the rule in terms of his form.

He might go to Dundee United and continue that form in which case they'll have made a very good signing. Equally, as others have pointed out, they might get the St Johnstone / Hearts version of Tony Watt. I certainly wouldn't be chucking £5k a week or whatever at him but don't blame him for taking it. We've lost far better players than Watt in recent years and while it'll be disappointing to see him go, I won't be losing any sleep over it.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

I think you said it the other day, it's weird how your brain can simultaneously be thinking if he signed up on a deal relative to our budget and how we value him then it'd be magic but equally thinking a 3 year deal on the sort of money United are reported to be paying him plus signing on fee etc relative to his form over his career feels like a massive risk.

I've seen a few posts on the dumber side of Motherwell Twitter from folk who seem genuinely raging, chucking toys everywhere because we're not trying to match United which is absolutely fucking wild.

Yeah, aside from having a vested interest in hoping it goes poorly for them, I'm genuinely quite interested in seeing how it all works out. At the time, quite a big deal was made about Robinson putting an arm around him and all that, but it wasn't until Alexander had a "chat" with him that he went from "decent" to an actual goalscorer. I don't really know enough about Courts to predict how well he'll be able to manage Watt.

As an aside, I don't rate United's squad particularly highly and, unless they make a few more signings of Watt's calibre, can't see them troubling the top 6 again for a few years, but that's for another thread.

[capt_oats]

[Yorky]

2 hours ago, Ron Aldo said:

There's very few players we should be pushing the boat out to keep (and I mean ever) and Watt certainly isn't one of them.

We've been good for him and he's been good for us but he's now been playing professionally for 10 years or so and the last few months have been the exception rather than the rule in terms of his form.

He might go to Dundee United and continue that form in which case they'll have made a very good signing. Equally, as others have pointed out, they might get the St Johnstone / Hearts version of Tony Watt. I certainly wouldn't be chucking £5k a week or whatever at him but don't blame him for taking it. We've lost far better players than Watt in recent years and while it'll be disappointing to see him go, I won't be losing any sleep over it.

I would agree, he’s had a good few months but he’s never going to be Turnbull levels who was a genuine talent. We seem to have a percentage of supporters who want everyone that’s linked with a move away to be given a club record breaking contract, Hastie played a dozen or so games and the call came out to more or less break the bank. The reality is that over the last few years next to know one has gone on to really hit the hights. I really likes Kipre but he’s never made the premier league, Moult was championship at best, Caddens, Scott, Hastie, Gillespie, the list real does go on and on. Turnbull is a huge exception to the rule when looking at players that have moved on and he’s still not hit the Premier league.

[Neil86]

Speaking of players who have hit the Premier league, I wonder if we would be interested in taking Mckinstry on loan at any point. 

Based on nothing at all other than his affiliation to the club and that he is doing pretty well down there and will probably get papped out on loan to make the next step.

[thisGRAEME]

34 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Ended up getting my hair cut off his dad a few months back and it was absolutely class hearing how buzzing he was for his son about basically every aspect of his football. Some strike.

[ropy]

1 hour ago, thisGRAEME said:

Ended up getting my hair cut off his dad a few months back and it was absolutely class hearing how buzzing he was for his son about basically every aspect of his football. Some strike.

Was that at the start of a half or after conceding a goal?

[Desp]

2 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Ended up getting my hair cut off his dad a few months back and it was absolutely class hearing how buzzing he was for his son about basically every aspect of his football. Some strike.

Did you end up with more hair on yer heid than you started with? 

Seen a few transformations in that gaff... 

[thisGRAEME]

43 minutes ago, ropy said:

Was that at the start of a half or after conceding a goal?

Start of the second half, I think?

8 minutes ago, Desp said:

Did you end up with more hair on yer heid than you started with? 

Seen a few transformations in that gaff... 

Wild stuff. Nah, I'm grimly hanging on to what's left of my hairline before committing entirely to having terrible twitter opinions creeping through my bald head.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

7 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I've loved Watt for us and think that, in the form he's been in this half season, he's pretty much the perfect striker for a team at our level. I did find it funny when somebody mentioned the other day that he's scored 2 in his last 8, doesn't take too many more goalless games before you can start questioning how much August-Nov 2021 really was a purple patch, relative to his career.

It’s funny if you look at the end of the Hibs game where he was on 9 league goals and KVV was on 4, how much has changed since then.

Losing him seems far less daunting now. I’m not really suggesting we need to find out why Watt has gone three games without a goal, but you do wonder if that’s when the chat with Dundee Utd started.

[Kapowzer]

5 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Ended up getting my hair cut off his dad a few months back and it was absolutely class hearing how buzzing he was for his son about basically every aspect of his football. Some strike.

I know from inside the club, there is a lot of hope around Lennon and if he keeps on the same upward trajectory then he's seen as being in Turnbull territory which would be nice for the 12-18 months we'll get to see him in C&A and the bank balance afterwards. Also not too shabby since Turnbull was touted to be a once in a generation starlet, we've got that down to 5 years.

[capt_oats]

There's yer Steven Lawless "opening up" about his time at Motherwell...

Quote

He said: "I wasn't signed by Stephen Robinson but we were talking. I knew there was interest and then it was Alexander who offered me the deal - but conversations were already there.

"With hindsight it wasn't the best move for me as I had better offers, but I've got history with Motherwell. Looking back, it was the wrong decision.

"I had a similar situation at Burton. I had another offer but picked Burton. They did the same thing as Motherwell - they changed their manager and it was the departing manager that had initiated interest."

"I know they are doing well but Motherwell's style of play didn't suit me at all. I only played three games on the wing this season and I got a goal and an assist.

"Even if I was playing, the style nullified a lot of my attributes. I was quite happy to get myself out and they can spend the wages elsewhere. I'm not the biggest, so getting high balls booted up to me away to Dundee isn't giving me the best chance."

He explained: "I could have stayed. It was me that asked to go. I spoke to Alan Burrows (Motherwell chief executive) as I knew what the situation was. I wasn't going to get minutes.

"I wasn't going to get a chance to prove myself and get a fair crack at it. I felt I should have got a fairer crack. It's the first time that's happened in my career so I went to Alan and we had a conversation.

"He didn't think I would be wanting to go but we came to an agreement. It was a clean break for me. I had to get my head straight and train hard elsewhere."

Link

[Ron Aldo]

So it seems the only decent thing Lawless did in his time here was ask to leave.

p***k.

[Yorky]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

There's yer Steven Lawless "opening up" about his time at Motherwell...

To be fair to him  can’t really argue with what he’s saying, he should have gone somewhere else. He’s also right about the style of play, given his hight long ball punts was never going to work for him. He was a success at Livi because of the way they played. Don’t know the big issue some have with Lawless, even the stick he got for being a Rangers supporter, big deal.

[Archie McSquackle]

That's pretty honest and decent from him. I expected him to be much more critical.

[capt_oats]

The interesting thing about the Lawless interview is really just that he confirms what a lot of us suspected in so much as although Alexander was in place when he signed the contract is was Robinson who had wanted him/put it in motion.

There's nothing else he says that should really come as too much of a surprise. After Roberts signed he'd have been about our 6th choice forward.

At the time a number of people called it as a lazy signing and while you can mitigate it to a degree that we wouldn't have been a massive draw given our league position at the time and also a Pandemic January window is as tough as you can get to recruit - he was really just a terrible fit on every level.

[well fan for life]

It was definitely the system and nothing to do with him not being good enough.