Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Swami]

Is there no way we can shoehorn Turnbull, Campbell, Donnelly, Polworth and O’Hara into the same team?

It would be some laugh. 

[18May1991]

10 hours ago, capt_oats said:

So with #TONY signing this is (I think) how things stand in terms of who's currently contracted for next season.

The rumoured pre-contracts/deals:
Jordan White (ICT)
Ricki Lamie (Livingston)
Mark O'Hara (loan made permanent)

Looks fairly strong. Centre back, centre forward and winger(s) the priority. Also back up keeper, of course.

would be very harsh on Polworth to see him sitting in the bench. That’s my only real ‘concern’. 

[Guest superward]

8 hours ago, Swami said:

Is there no way we can shoehorn Turnbull, Campbell, Donnelly, Polworth and O’Hara into the same team?

It would be some laugh. 

Could be without Turnbull and Campbell before we know it. Turnbull has all the headlines but Campbell is out of contract summer 2021, so I would be surprised to see him go in the next few months if we cant get a new deal agreed.

[Casagolda]

13 hours ago, welldaft said:

Long stays which is still a long shot (excuse the pun) and another decent centre back for Gallacher and we would have a strong 1st team. I watched some of Longs goals back and he is probably one of the most gifted / natural finishers I have seen in many a year. He is clearly a talented boy and with a bit more application who knows. Easy to see why he was a huge prospect at Everton at one point. He has a strange attitude no doubt but I expect he may get a better offer down south. 

Always been a big fan of Long, not sure ‘natural finisher’ is a phrase I’d ever use to describe him though..

Terrific pace/movement and he can certainly fair skelp the ball with either foot- which has led to some cracking goals. However I always felt his finishing and decision making in the final third were two things that let him down. 

I know that sounds harsh given he’d scored 11 goals by March but I’d say he’s had a fair bit of good fortune with that. Given the Livi, Dundee and St Johnstone keepers have all literally chucked some fairly tame efforts of his into the back of the net this season. Plus he also had that free kick against Dundee that he hit pretty much just scudded straight at the wall that somehow went in. 

Anyway, good player and one I’d love to keep but he’s clearly patched us. In fact after the Watt announcement, does it not seem like Sunday is set up now for confirming pretty much everyone else is away?

Edited May 30, 2020 by Casagolda

[Yorky]

15 hours ago, capt_oats said:

So with #TONY signing this is (I think) how things stand in terms of who's currently contracted for next season.

The rumoured pre-contracts/deals:
Jordan White (ICT)
Ricki Lamie (Livingston)
Mark O'Hara (loan made permanent)

Up front the main concern for me, not a fan of Seedorf and I don’t see Watt bagging that many goals as much as I like him. Long staying is crucial in my view, if he goes we need another striker ( J White is a bit of a punt) although many we sign are. We are overloaded on midfield but it’s a nice problem to have. But overall we won’t be struggling around the bottom, more than enough quality to see us comfortable.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

Anyway, good player and one I’d love to keep but he’s clearly patched us. In fact after the Watt announcement, does it not seem like Sunday is set up now for confirming pretty much everyone else is away?

I think you're probably right but Watt's contract was up tomorrow (along with Ferguson, Manzinga & Ilic) so that may explain it being done/announced in advance. The others are June expiries which may give a bit of leeway.

24 minutes ago, Yorky said:

Up front the main concern for me, not a fan of Seedorf and I don’t see Watt bagging that many goals as much as I like him. Long staying is crucial in my view, if he goes we need another striker ( J White is a bit of a punt) although many we sign are. We are overloaded on midfield but it’s a nice problem to have. But overall we won’t be struggling around the bottom, more than enough quality to see us comfortable.

I think one of the more interesting aspects of the past couple of seasons under Robinson has been the number of goals from midfield - we've been that used to guys like Porter, Sutton, Higdon and Moult that having a centre forward that others play off rather than a 15+ a season guy still seems problematic.

I'm pretty certain that in the time I've been going to Fir Park (since the late 80s) Turnbull's the first central midfielder we've had to hit double figures, this season it's been Donnelly (granted a number of them have been pens), even Campbell scored more last season than he had in the previous 3 seasons combined.

Tbh, if Watt's sticking around then he's here as our first choice #9 - which is fine by me but I think it all but rules out Long extending given the way we've been talking about budgets. I could be wrong though. I think the wide areas are the most pressing concern.

Also, at the start of the shutdown Robinson did that interview with Craigan for BT where he mentioned we'd been speaking to "another couple of players perhaps that we had last year that we're still looking at...players that we had on loan." I'm (obviously) curious if that's still a thing.

Going back to the PLZ interview, it'll be interesting to see who the six or seven that Robinson sees filling the gaps in the squad:

Quote

“We will try and fulfil the contracts to the younger boys we have offered contracts to, as that is who the club is going to be built around.

“I believe we have six or seven younger boys who are maybe a year away from establishing themselves. Some surprise you, some come quicker, but we have offered contracts to six or seven boys around 18-19 years of age who will be the back-up to the squad.

“I think a lot of clubs will have to run with smaller squads made up of younger players. We have always done that.

“The boys will be the back-up to the 15-16 first-team players that we will be able to run with.”

If Robinson's true to his word and we're binning the "gambles" then IMO, that's a good thing but you'd think it'd probably have a knock on effect in terms of our overall transfer strategy.

Edited May 30, 2020 by capt_oats

[Yorky]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I think you're probably right but Watt's contract was up tomorrow (along with Ferguson, Manzinga & Ilic) so that may explain it being done/announced in advance. The others are June expiries which may give a bit of leeway.

I think one of the more interesting aspects of the past couple of seasons under Robinson has been the number of goals from midfield - we've been that used to guys like Porter, Sutton, Higdon and Moult that having a centre forward that others play off rather than a 15+ a season guy still seems problematic.

I'm pretty certain that in the time I've been going to Fir Park (since the late 80s) Turnbull's the first central midfielder we've had to hit double figures, this season it's been Donnelly (granted a number of them have been pens), even Campbell scored more last season than he had in the previous 3 seasons combined.

Tbh, if Watt's sticking around then he's here as our first choice #9 - which is fine by me but I think it all but rules out Long extending given the way we've been talking about budgets. I could be wrong though. I think the wide areas are the most pressing concern.

Also, at the start of the shutdown Robinson did that interview with Craigan for BT where he mentioned we'd been speaking to "another couple of players perhaps that we had last year that we're still looking at...players that we had on loan." I'm (obviously) curious if that's still a thing.

Going back to the PLZ interview, it'll be interesting to see who the six or seven that Robinson sees filling the gaps in the squad:

If Robinson's true to his word and we're binning the "gambles" then IMO, that's a good thing but you'd think it'd probably have a knock on effect in terms of our overall transfer strategy.

Some very fair points, I would love to see Ariyibi back for sure. We certainly are in a decent position of having midfielders who can chip in with goals, Turnbull and Donnelly alone should score plenty between them.

[Swami]

What about Aarons for the full season? 

[Yorky]

23 minutes ago, Swami said:

What about Aarons for the full season? 

Not convinced personally.

[santheman]

24 minutes ago, Yorky said:

Not convinced personally.

Me neither

Saw him a couple of times playing for the reserves and didn’t really impose himself although good in flashes no real consistency and looked really off the pace most of the time

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I've probably nailed my colours to the mast pretty strongly as someone who's not a big fan of Liam Grimshaw as a footballer- as a person he seems great craic obvs.  I absolutely love Richard Tait and he's been outstanding for the most part but I'm hopeful him leaving means we're bringing in someone to compete with Grimshaw rather than deputise. 

I'm sure Tait will easily get a bottom six side or a decent English move if he wants it.

I'm terrible at timestamping but this assist about 1.35 ish is probably still my enduring memory of Tait.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by YassinMoutaouakil

[capt_oats]

It was a shiter that Aarons was really only getting to some sort of match fitness when the league was called. IIRC he'd barely kicked a ball in about a month and a half before he arrived. He's clearly a good player but he kind of felt like a short term fix IMO, a bit of a "take what we can get" signing with Scott moving late in the day.

I don't think anyone would argue that he was a like for like signing and we saw the impact of that. Not that it's a criticism of Aarons but replacing 2 6ft odd units with 5ft 9 winger that's built like the side of a fiver would need some time to adjust.

Given the way that whole thing worked out I'd have thought we'd maybe be looking at at least one 'forward' in the Cole/Scott mould. I mean Cole's only on a short term deal with Doncaster so is out of contract in a month. We could just look at getting the actual Cole back.

Edited May 30, 2020 by capt_oats

[Ron Aldo]

It seems like Chris Long's face has been tripping him pretty much since he signed. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if he ends up leaving.

[Antiochas III]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

It was a shiter that Aarons was really only getting to some sort of match fitness when the league was called. IIRC he's barely kicked a ball in about a month and a half before he arrived. He's clearly a good player but he kind of felt like a short term fix IMO, a bit of a "take what we can get" signing with Scott moving late in the day.

Aarons against Celtic made Ajer look like a lower league defender.  

Tait has left the club...  

[Marinello]

Re Aarons. Having watched him in the last match at Tynie I was very impressed with him. OK I accept it was Hearts but he was unplayable against them and but for an horrendous tackle on him which the ref somehow missed he would have been through one on one with the goalie.

Suspect it's all academic however as I don't see us being able to bid for him. 

[capt_oats]

2 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm terrible at timestamping but this assist about 1.35 ish is probably still my enduring memory of Tait.

O Captain! My Captain!

[YassinMoutaouakil]

The YassinMoutaoukil Winger Rankings of the Stephen Robinson Era™

1. James Scott

2. Jake Hastie

3. Rolando Aarons

4. Gboly Ariyibi

5. Jermaine Hylton

6.  Chris Cadden

7. Elliot Frear

8. Sherwin Seedorf

9. Christian Ilic

[dezz]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

The YassinMoutaoukil Winger Rankings of the Stephen Robinson Era™

1. James Scott

2. Jake Hastie

3. Rolando Aarons

4. Gboly Ariyibi

5. Jermaine Hylton

6.  Chris Cadden

7. Elliot Frear

8. Sherwin Seedorf

9. Christian Ilic

Swap 3 and 4 and your spot on! Gboly was great fun.

[capt_oats]

Happy anniversary everyone.

To date, the assailant remains at large.

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by capt_oats

[Ron Aldo]

The YassinMoutaoukil Winger Rankings of the Stephen Robinson Era[emoji769]
1. James Scott
2. Jake Hastie
3. Rolando Aarons
4. Gboly Ariyibi
5. Jermaine Hylton
6.  Chris Cadden
7. Elliot Frear
8. Sherwin Seedorf
9. Christian Ilic

I'd go -

1. Gboly Ariyibi
2. James Scott
3. Jermaine Hylton
4. Chris Cadden
5. Jake Hastie
6. Rolando Aarons
7. Elliot Frear
8. Sherwin Seedorf
9. Christian Ilic

Frear and Seedorf played enough times for me to decide they're both pish. 2 of the most lightweight players I've ever seen.

I have no doubt Aarons would have been higher if he'd got a good run in the team. Ilic is last because, well, he's not a winger.