Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Yorky]

As above good last season and poor this, the paper talk has only made things worse and I think many well fans have just ran out of patience with him. Bit of a joker with a good few mistakes in him mixed with some excellent performances, not a leader. In truth I won’t really miss him, we’ve had far better in the last four or five years. He would certainly, be a solid signing and the Aberdeen support should find him ok as long as they don’t have huge expectations.

[MP_MFC]

I for one hope Declan goes on to join the list of players and staff who left Motherwell to join Aberdeen to great success over the last 20 years...

Derek Adams
Steven Craig
Eric Deloumeaux
Mark Mcghee
Craig Brown
Curtis Main

[Marinello]

1 hour ago, Yorky said:

As above good last season and poor this, the paper talk has only made things worse and I think many well fans have just ran out of patience with him. Bit of a joker with a good few mistakes in him mixed with some excellent performances, not a leader. In truth I won’t really miss him, we’ve had far better in the last four or five years. He would certainly, be a solid signing and the Aberdeen support should find him ok as long as they don’t have huge expectations.

I'm probably in minority as ( paper stuff aside which btw unless I missed it was never confirmed) I feel he did well this season.

It ain't no coincidence ( and CPT Oates alludes to this) that Dec's  return to the team some weeks back has seen our performances improve and contributed to our impressive clean sheet record .

Aberdeen are getting an accomplished player whose strengths lie in his composure, game reading and distribution. 

His main weakness is his lack of pace but his strengths outweigh this.

Wouldn't play him as a Captain though as I don't think he is cut out for this.

[well fan for life]

See if we were in the situation of losing Gallagher for nothing at the end of his first season, I'd be gutted. However after his general form, fucking about with guns to his head and his complete bin fire of a captaincy this season I don't give a f**k. That gif supplied by @capt_oats of him going full Shane Duffy sums up his season. He played a couple of games for Scotland and seemed to decide he was absolutely prime Cannavaro at the back. 

Off you pop, Declan. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Had a look at the statistics with and without him in the team this season.

We have a better points per game total when he hasn't started this season, although a worse goals conceded per game ratio (the fact he missed the pumpings against Accies and St. Johnstone will go a long way to that).

As much as it's been obvious he's contributed massively to our last three clean sheets, we are just as likely to keep a clean sheet with him not playing as we are with him playing.

The same statistics wouldn't have looked very good on him pre-split.

Edited May 4, 2021 by crazylegsjoe_mfc

[capt_oats]

22 minutes ago, Marinello said:

It ain't no coincidence ( and CPT Oates alludes to this) that Dec's  return to the team some weeks back has seen our performances improve and contributed to our impressive clean sheet record .

I don't disagree in terms of his recent form but the cynics among us would probably look at the fact that this return to form has come off the back of him being binned out the starting XI for Scotland and Clarke telling him that if he wants to be involved at the Euros he'd need to be playing (and presumably by extension, playing well).

The counter of course is that by the point he picked up his "injury" we'd won 1 (ONE) of our previous 14 and without him in the side our form actually picked up. We won 4 of our next 9 with one draw without him in the starting line up albeit with 3 complete doings in that run of games to boot.

I'm clearly not as unkind as to put that entirely at his doorstep but I don't think it's in any way a given that we'd have gone to Rugby Park and Easter Road and kept clean sheets with him starting.

[ropy]

Once it is made safe we should get the gun onto eBay so that we make some cash out of the situation.

[well fan for life]

5 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Had a look at the statistics with and without him in the team this season.

We have a better points per game total when he hasn't started this season, although a worse goals conceded per game ratio (the fact he missed the pumpings against Accies and St. Johnstone will go a long way to that).

As much as it's been obvious he's contributed massively to our last three clean sheets, we are just as likely to keep a clean sheet with him not playing as we are with him playing.

The same statistics wouldn't have looked very good on him pre-split.

To summarise: Ricki Lamie is our saviour?

[YassinMoutaouakil]

6 hours ago, AmericanFan said:

haha. I mean, ending up having a St. Mirren fan arguing with a Dundee fan on the Motherwell thread, that has to be worth something, right?

That's every thread on here if given enough time to devolve tbf

[well fan for life]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56982709?fbclid=IwAR06AsCHgA2XLhqNtuh_hvzskJmXxiMApwlTfZdAvlHYVScC_kx-YhJTTqM
 

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

1 hour ago, MP_MFC said:

I for one hope Declan goes on to join the list of players and staff who left Motherwell to join Aberdeen to great success over the last 20 years...

Derek Adams
Steven Craig
Eric Deloumeaux
Mark Mcghee
Craig Brown
Curtis Main


 

Well deserved revenge for Andy Roddie, IMO.

[welldaft]

17 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56982709?fbclid=IwAR06AsCHgA2XLhqNtuh_hvzskJmXxiMApwlTfZdAvlHYVScC_kx-YhJTTqM
 

Mind they won a league cup once. Probably because it is the only cup competitions where a place in Europe is not up for grabs....

Edited May 4, 2021 by welldaft

[ropy]

9 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56982709?fbclid=IwAR06AsCHgA2XLhqNtuh_hvzskJmXxiMApwlTfZdAvlHYVScC_kx-YhJTTqM
 

Which of us works for the SFA?

[Marinello]

33 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I don't disagree in terms of his recent form but the cynics among us would probably look at the fact that this return to form has come off the back of him being binned out the starting XI for Scotland and Clarke telling him that if he wants to be involved at the Euros he'd need to be playing (and presumably by extension, playing well).

The counter of course is that by the point he picked up his "injury" we'd won 1 (ONE) of our previous 14 and without him in the side our form actually picked up. We won 4 of our next 9 with one draw without him in the starting line up albeit with 3 complete doings in that run of games to boot.

I'm clearly not as unkind as to put that entirely at his doorstep but I don't think it's in any way a given that we'd have gone to Rugby Park and Easter Road and kept clean sheets with him starting.

There's a lot in what you say re pre ' injury' Dec stats but in all fairness we all need to remember who he had to nurse through games i.e. the then bombs scare Mugabi and the let's say ' work in progress' Lamie!!

Even a prime time Costacurta or Baresi would have had his work cut out to impress .

[well fan for life]

2 hours ago, MP_MFC said:

I for one hope Declan goes on to join the list of players and staff who left Motherwell to join Aberdeen to great success over the last 20 years...

Derek Adams
Steven Craig
Eric Deloumeaux
Mark Mcghee
Craig Brown
Curtis Main


 

You're forgetting Nick Blackman who was scoring for fun in ML1 before losing all of his ability halfway up the A90.

[welldaft]

1 hour ago, Marinello said:

I'm probably in minority as ( paper stuff aside which btw unless I missed it was never confirmed) I feel he did well this season.

It ain't no coincidence ( and CPT Oates alludes to this) that Dec's  return to the team some weeks back has seen our performances improve and contributed to our impressive clean sheet record .

Aberdeen are getting an accomplished player whose strengths lie in his composure, game reading and distribution. 

His main weakness is his lack of pace but his strengths outweigh this.

Wouldn't play him as a Captain though as I don't think he is cut out for this.

I kinda side more with this POV. 

He was excellent for us last season. Way above what any of us thought we were getting.

The upshot was his International appearances and the fact all the attention probably went to his head. Tbh I get that. We may not like it but if I was a full fledged International player being paid say £1500 a week v an average of £10-20,000 say for all my International team mates I would be thinking I need to get my agent to get me a move. 

Now how he went about it was not great tbh. And if there is any modicum of truth in this sudden mystery injury around the same time. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth for sure. 

But by signing for Aberdeen he will only be same distance away in terms of playing. They will probably be pushing the boat out in terms of marquee signings for the Glass / Brown combo. So would not surprise me if he goes from £1500 a week to circa £5000 a week. 3 year deal = £750k + bonuses. Not bad. 

He was never going to stay with us. Fine. As stated Dec 2019/20 was better than Dec 2020/21. Highly unlikely we will replace him with better but hopefully we can unearth another Aldred and we kick on. Could Lamie be that man

[Swello]

38 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56982709?fbclid=IwAR06AsCHgA2XLhqNtuh_hvzskJmXxiMApwlTfZdAvlHYVScC_kx-YhJTTqM
 

Maybe Ruud Gullit is on the oversight committee 

[Ron Aldo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56982709?fbclid=IwAR06AsCHgA2XLhqNtuh_hvzskJmXxiMApwlTfZdAvlHYVScC_kx-YhJTTqM
 
[emoji23]

Surely bringing thousands of fans to Fir Park about 40 years ago is enough for them to get a licence?

[Guest superward]

2 hours ago, Marinello said:

I'm probably in minority as ( paper stuff aside which btw unless I missed it was never confirmed) I feel he did well this season.

It ain't no coincidence ( and CPT Oates alludes to this) that Dec's  return to the team some weeks back has seen our performances improve and contributed to our impressive clean sheet record .

Aberdeen are getting an accomplished player whose strengths lie in his composure, game reading and distribution. 

His main weakness is his lack of pace but his strengths outweigh this.

Wouldn't play him as a Captain though as I don't think he is cut out for this.

Yep, this is my view too. 

A change of agent certainly hasn't helped the management of the contract situation. He won't be the first player to take up his agents suggestions to leak to the press and he won't be the last...but I'd imagine he won't be letting his agent deal with it like he did this time around. Same agent as Scott Brown btw...so, Aberdeen link makes sense.

On the captaincy - memory serves when Robinson named him captain both he and Dec himself made comments essentially saying he'd have to change some things as to how he usually carries himself to fill the captain role. So it's maybe just not worked out for the best on that front and he's better suited to not being a captain. 

Edited May 4, 2021 by superward

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

As much as he has been a terrible captain, I did agree with the decision last summer to make him captain, mainly due to the absence of leaders elsewhere in the squad at that time. Was a captain being decided now, hypothetically I would definitely go for O'Donnell, Kelly or Watt before him.

However, given I've agreed with the three appointments post-Las and they've all not worked out for one reason or another (McHugh due to the burden, Hartley not being in the team and Gallagher having a big mouth), maybe it is best the next one is an appointment who I don't agree with.

Ideally I'd like us to sign a 30 year old centre half in the summer, who has played 400 league games, who is a consumate pro but at the same time not afraid to put the boot in where required and make him captain, but I may be asking for slightly too much there.