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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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7 hours ago, CoF said:

Out:

Turf 

Slope.

Front row of the John Hunter Stand. 

 

In:

Hybrid pitch.

One meter change in the pitch height at the John Hunter Stand end 

 

 

What will the assailant (who remains at large) make of the changes, will he need to get a longer brolly? Have the club taken his needs into consideration? 

The silence is deafening

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7 hours ago, Swello said:

We've relaid that pitch almost every year recently - it's not like Sailor Hunter once cut it with his personal fucking lawn mower.

I could have fashioned the King of Spain cup on a potters wheel if they had made that clay available.

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The thing with Donnelly is that he probably has a higher ceiling than he's shown this season - he can also ping a ball.

IIRC he's NI's record cap holder for their u21s and he's been called up for the national side before and after his injuries. So to that end he's an actual international player in our squad. The goals in the 19/20 season were definitely a purple patch though.

The rub is that although both Robinson and Alexander have played 433 they ask their midfields to do different things.

Robinson's version with Polworth, Donnelly and Campbell was a bit more fluid with a bit more rotation between players on the park so Donnelly would find himself advanced a bit more and in and around the box, hence the goals.

Alexander's midfield 3 is less so, it needs the player in that role to act more as an anchor or traditional holding mid. That run of games he had in the 3 with O'Hara and Goss didn't get results.

IMO it becomes a question of where he fits in the team/squad as he'll obviously want to be playing to keep involved with the international side of things.

Of all the OOC players he's probably the most 50/50. You can just as easily argue for a value of him sticking around as you can say that after 4 years at the club he could benefit from a fresh start.

Edited by capt_oats
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22 minutes ago, DeadStar said:

Are we levelling the pitch? I know it gets brought up every time we relay it.

Partially. There will still be a slope but less excessive than what the pitch was prior. Its mainly a side affect from getting rid of the old pitch/drainage system.

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30 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Squad update expected this week (at some point).

That would suggest that we are in talks with some OOC players to stay.  Possibly with some in contract players also about moving on....

It may just be Lamie we are waiting on.  But I guess it cannot drag on for too long. 

They can always say the following are leaving the club and that contract offers have been made to Lamie and say Donnelly to remain.  Not overly fussed with the latter either.  No doubt a player there, but far too injury prone and I would like his wages to be used on new blood so to speak. 

Edited by welldaft
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46 minutes ago, welldaft said:

That would suggest that we are in talks with some OOC players to stay. 

Might be wrong but I assumed that contracts end at a specific point relative to the season, which again I assume would be after cup final and play-off dates - so maybe it's tied to that also....

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38 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Donnelly is an absolute stick on for the Buddies surely?

One can hope. 

As has been said already, defensively we were a shambles at times. I'm not really sure I want to go in to next season with the same options at the back and in midfield. This seems like a pretty clean break for Donnelly to leave, I'd be fine with Lamie moving on and then see if we can get a competent back 3 together. 

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31 minutes ago, Swello said:

Might be wrong but I assumed that contracts end at a specific point relative to the season, which again I assume would be after cup final and play-off dates - so maybe it's tied to that also....

Mentioned it the other day but prior to the curtailed Covid season we'd generally published the GTF list within a couple of days of the final game of the season (whether it was league or a cup final).

I guess you could explain last season taking a bit longer on account of a new manager having come in and the size of the squad we had.

On 15/05/2022 at 11:12, capt_oats said:

Last year and the curtailed Covid season aside they've generally been published within a couple of days of the final game (in the case of 15/16, the next day).

20/21 - 24th May 2021 (final game was 16th May)
19/20 - 31st May 2020 (final game was 7th March in the curtailed season)
18/19 - 21st May 2019 (final game 18th May)
17/18 - 21st May 2018 (final game 19th May)
16/17 - 22nd May 2017 (final game 20th May)
15/16 - 16th May 2016 (final game 15th May)

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21 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

As has been said already, defensively we were a shambles at times. I'm not really sure I want to go in to next season with the same options at the back and in midfield. This seems like a pretty clean break for Donnelly to leave, I'd be fine with Lamie moving on and then see if we can get a competent back 3 together. 

Aye. I *think* this is broadly where I am as well.

Like, absolutely nothing against either Donnelly or the Bathgate Maldini but it feels like we don't have as much room for changes that we probably need.

I'd rather he didn't f**k off to St Mirren because it's already at a point where their manifesting as Motherwell B is very weird but I could absolutely see Donnelly moving to a League 1 side in England and being absolutely fine and as I've said before the Ricki Lamie redemption arc feels like it's reached a satisfactory conclusion. I don't think we need another season of it.

Edited by capt_oats
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11 hours ago, CoF said:

Out:

Turf 

Slope.

Front row of the John Hunter Stand. 

 

In:

Hybrid pitch.

One meter change in the pitch height at the John Hunter Stand end

Should it not be one metre change in height in the corner where the DSA are. That would technically be an addition.

Out:

Capacity = what it was -130

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2 hours ago, DeadStar said:

Are we levelling the pitch? I know it gets brought up every time we relay it.


3 ft of the 6ft slope will be gone, is what I read a week or so ago... should make it better for the players.  I can remember it was noticeable when running across the width of the pitch for the Football Aid games all those years ago.

If the front row has been taken out, are they actually removing that for good?  If so, presumably everyone effectively gets shifted up one, in which case what happens to the poor buggers who used to be on the back row... are they standing from now on? 😄

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16 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:



If the front row has been taken out, are they actually removing that for good?  If so, presumably everyone effectively gets shifted up one, in which case what happens to the poor buggers who used to be on the back row... are they standing from now on? 😄

Only Row A affected. Row A will be gone and season ticket holders reallocated to other seats of their choice that are available. 

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1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

One can hope. 

As has been said already, defensively we were a shambles at times. I'm not really sure I want to go in to next season with the same options at the back and in midfield. This seems like a pretty clean break for Donnelly to leave, I'd be fine with Lamie moving on and then see if we can get a competent back 3 together. 

This is where I'm at too.

Lamie has been our best centre-back probably, but he's still started 20 games for a team that shipped 61 goals. He's coming in to his prime years and on the back of his two important goals and recall to the side, his stock is probably high just now, so other teams may be sniffing. I imagine if we kept him, we may end up paying him more than he's actually worth (see Mark O'Hara). 

If we did renew Donnelly's contract, we would go in to the season with Slattery, Cornelius, Goss, Donnelly and Maguire all signed. Other than Slattery, I really don't know what other two I would pick. I would rather we let him go and signed someone who was something a bit different.

That said, improving on them may be easier said than done. Signing a leader at the back and a creative midfielder seem to have been our two biggest challenges under Alexander for me.

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4 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

This is where I'm at too.

Lamie has been our best centre-back probably, but he's still started 20 games for a team that shipped 61 goals. He's coming in to his prime years and on the back of his two important goals and recall to the side, his stock is probably high just now, so other teams may be sniffing. I imagine if we kept him, we may end up paying him more than he's actually worth (see Mark O'Hara). 

If we did renew Donnelly's contract, we would go in to the season with Slattery, Cornelius, Goss, Donnelly and Maguire all signed. Other than Slattery, I really don't know what other two I would pick. I would rather we let him go and signed someone who was something a bit different.

That said, improving on them may be easier said than done. Signing a leader at the back and a creative midfielder seem to have been our two biggest challenges under Alexander for me.

Here are the outfield players who are out of contract/confirmed as leaving/returning to parent club by position:

DF: Lamie, O'Connor, Grimshaw, Nirennold
MF: O'Hara, Shaw, Donnelly
FW: Amaluzor, Roberts (and I guess that there's an argument we never replaced Watt when he left)

Realistically that would have us looking for 2 defenders, 2 midfielders and 2 forwards (IMO) so 9 (10 inc Watt) out with 6 in?

Does that sound about right? Assuming everyone else who is contracted stays that would give us a squad of 25 (including Max Johnston).

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