Jump to content

Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


Recommended Posts

17 minutes ago, Swello said:

Now that football is inevitably being noticed by lots of people who don't normally pay much attention - interesting to see the beginnings of a twitter storm about Scotland doing the "taking a stand" thing. When 'Well stopped taking the knee, it was explained well and felt like quite a principled thing to me - and it passed without much comment...

I think it helps when you have the opinion of the likes of Cole, Mugabi, Seedorf and Dunne to explain their experiences and that they think taking a knee has lost it's meaning to an extent. Scotland just went "we're not taking the knee" with pretty much zero explanation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest superward
40 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Surprised me that we'd only officially announced Lamie by this time last year. Felt like we done our business notably early but maybe Covid has skewed my perceptions of last year's off season.

Yeah we completed the signing of Lamie, White and McGinley all in the same week which made it feel like a lot of business done quite early. Lamie had been getting talked about a bit before too which may be the reason it feels earlier too. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of recruitment I had a wee laugh at this article trying to blow smoke up Rangers collective arse (as it seems us and Hibs are getting involved in this transfer speed dating patter as well).

I guess we're a "Euro heavyweight" (as if there was ever any doubt).

1778568664_ScreenShot2021-06-11at14_04_38.thumb.png.962a4d96c703fbec50606acd84d25bf0.png371322791_ScreenShot2021-06-11at14_05_24.thumb.png.d334637e7ae5808b23a922dd21306c19.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably one for the Terrible Journalism thread but that's got us being of the "participant's" (with an apostrophe- sic).

Anyway, Euros start tonight- looking forward to seeing Motherwell players take part in a major international competition for the first time in 27 years (unless anyone can correct me). I'm going on the basis that Michael McGlinchey wasn't our player when playing for NZ.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

Probably one for the Terrible Journalism thread but that's got us being of the "participant's" (with an apostrophe- sic).

Anyway, Euros start tonight- looking forward to seeing Motherwell players take part in a major international competition for the first time in 27 years (unless anyone can correct me). I'm going on the basis that Michael McGlinchey wasn't our player when playing for NZ.

Eliphas Shivute played in the 1998 African Cup of Nations. So 23 years.

He scored a double against Ivory Coast.

Shivute goals at 1:40 and 4:40 into the video.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fairly encouraged after reading the Daws piece there in how they're planning to shake up and modernise the sourcing of new talent. Definitely shifting away from the one man in his Mondeo approach which should have happened long ago, and will hopefully see the end of the daft Robinson style punts on the likes of Seedorf, Manzinga and Petravicius. 

Alexander obviously rates him to bring him in having worked with him before, and some of the clubs he's been at were of similar standing to us, in that they were probably operating on some of the lower budgets in their respective leagues. Seems like a good fit for us in how we plan to develop that side of the business going forward. 

Now we just need to wait on all our targets returning to their clubs after shining in the Euros to make our moves..... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It caught my attention that he's only really had the HOR in his last job at AFC Wimbledon (which he combined with assistant manager) where Beneghan was one of his signings. The rest of the jobs he's had have been coaching roles. I suppose Foyle was similar in so much as he'd managed eg: Port Vale, Hereford and the like he moved into HOR at Northampton in 2015 with Chris Wilder then on to us to replace Gary Owers.

Tbh, I'd always had the impression that Foyle had been known as some known lower league recruitment Svengali but it seems he'd only been in the job at Northampton about a year when he moved to work with us.

I'm not sure what specialist knowledge you need to transition successfully from coaching into recruitment (and then factor in, like Alexander, he's never worked in Scotland before) but it's interesting that the level of club he's been working at (AFC Wimbledon, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, Barnsley and QPR) looks like a step up in the EFL pyramid from the non-league level of Foyle and Owers (no disrespect to either).

Quote

“We are going to adopt a modern approach to recruitment. That involves exploring everything that is possibly available to us to take us forward, be it data analytics or the more traditional scouting methods.

“What we need to have options in every available market. You don’t have to have the biggest budget, but you can be smart with it, while ensuring you’re in the market for the best players possible for our club.

“We will make the right decisions, not rushed decisions, and ensure we get the best players we can.

“Beyond this summer, it is key for Motherwell that there is a recruitment structure put in place that leaves a legacy and way of working well beyond my time at the club.

“That will also be a major part of my role, ensuring the right tools and people are in place for continuity and a way of working for the long-term.”

As soundbites go that seems pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see what it actually means in terms of implementing a strategy though.

In hindsight the turnover and churn of players we've seen is probably unsustainable (regardless of whether it was a club or manager dictated strategy). In principle "working smarter" is probably preferable to having a core of targets then casting a wide net on a range of punts and hoping more come good than not.

Again, not necessarily a criticism on the HOR as such as he'd only have been working on instruction from management but it felt like our recruitment under Robinson had become a bit predictable (a forward who can play anywhere across the front three anyone?) so either way, a fresh set of eyes feels like a good thing on that very basic level.

When you compare how fresh Robinson's first window proper felt in the 17/18 summer and the influx of quick, physical players and the conscious lowering of the age of the squad with last year and erm...Ricki Lamie, Jordan White et al (then even accounting for the 'Rona) there's definitely an argument that things had gone a bit stale in terms of identifying what we needed to kick on as the likes of Lamie and White were pre-contracts all but confirmed before anyone was even talking about shut-downs.

"See you soon brother"...indeed.

I've said it before but I'd be surprised if Foyle was directly responsible for the Scottish based signings he seemed to be taking flak for (eg: Lamie, White etc) given he was/is Stoke based but albeit some ended up putting in passable performances after Robinson resigned, last summer should surely have been a warning to the club/board of what can happen if you get a window wrong.

Edited by capt_oats
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...