Leaderboard

No need to talk to people like this.

Looking at the three players causing most of the debate. Halliday - Age 33 in a couple of months. We are his tenth senior Club, including loans. A decent player in his day but who hardly featured for Hearts latterly due to injury and was unable to force his way back into the team, prior to joining us on loan. Previously left Rangers following a similar injury record. Failed to impress when he came to us in last years' January window. Apparently we were committed to signing him on a permanent basis as part of that Loan deal. Apart from a decent performance against Clyde he has failed to impress this season and looks even more cumbersome and slow than he did last season. Every tackle he receives seems to cause him injury. As a positive, takes a decent corner. Callachan - At age 30 has played for six clubs plus a couple of loan placements. Suffered a broken leg in January 2020 and more recently an ACL injury which ruled him out for all of last season. Featured briefly against Ross County, suffered a hamstring injury and is once again out for an 'extended period'. Nicholson - Age 29 and broke into the Hearts team at age 18. Averaged around 30 games a season until leaving under freedom of contract for the US. Fairly successful in the States prompting a move to England where he featured for two seasons before suffering a hip injury and subsequently returned to the States. Picked up a serious ankle injury and released by his Club. Joined us last season and, after a quiet start, earned himself a two year contract. Scored excellent goals against Livi. Featured in pre season matches but now injured and out for an 'extended period'. Looking at the history I can just about see a case for signing Nicholson, although a two year deal seems generous given recent injuries. I cannot come up with any sane argument as to why we signed Halliday or Callachan. Both were massive risks, eating up precious funds. And risks which have come back to bite us on the backside. Is anybody seriously surprised at how things have worked out so far? I think that inevitability is what frustrates me most. The knock on effect of signing these three players plus other injuries is that a 17 year old kid is expected to carry the midfield on his young back. No wonder he is struggling and looks knackered. And there is no prospect of things improving soon. How long until Miller will be unavailable through injury or exhaustion? It also looks like we will once again be carrying a bloated squad with a good number injured or not considered good enough to feature. The jury is still out on most of the other new recruits as well as the youth players who stepped up. Early days some will say, but we are up and running and the 'getting the business done early' has hardly reaped rewards. Kettlewell and the recruitment team could certainly not have foreseen injuries to Blaney, Slattery, McGinn and Paton each of whom had enjoyed lengthy spells injury free. But for those other three the buck stops entirely with Kettlewell and his team. I just hope Koutroumbis is not another one with a dubious injury history that will be added to their questionable recruitment policy. I have stood by Kettlewell throughout but the start to this season and the repetition of a speculative recruitment policy is proving me wrong. And that is setting aside performance on the pitch. Match day atmosphere could turn very toxic very soon. The signs are already there.

I genuinely can't believe there are people on here openly suggesting that they believe we only signed injury prone players because there were no other players available to sign due to competition from other teams. The reality, that some seem unwilling to concede or even entertain the possibility, is that we seem to have an issue with our signing policy, and it's not just this window. It can't all be bad luck.

Chef gets the blame now?

Really impressed by the current board again tonight. Great energy and a clear ambition to serve positively. Some patience, understanding and support and they can deliver on what we all hoped the society could and should be. add in a bit more experience from a business point of view and some ambition and energy with new board members next week and watch it grow. exciting times ahead I feel after watching that

I understand Callachan had not played for 18 months due to serious injury. And here we are, he is injured yet again. The first time he takes to the field in earnest. Are we surprised he is injured again? Is it just bad luck? Halliday was injured for much of his later time at Hearts and at Rangers. He did little to provide encouragement in his loan spell with us and looked far from fit. Well off the pace. He needed game time we were told. After a full pre season and regular game time how do you think he is performing and does he look fit to you? Is he just unlucky? Nicholson at least provided some hope during his loan/trial period despite injuries which had sidelined him for a lengthy spell. So I can understand his signing. More bad luck though? My point is about minimising risk when signing players and thus giving a greater chance of success. Giving that bad luck less of a chance. Following Spittal's departure and knowing that Slattery would be absent for several months I think it was reckless to bring in three midfielders each with serious injury concerns and with little or no game time amongst them. Risk was not minimised. And so we are now relying on a 17 year old to save the day. And will likely have to use a good deal of the Bair money to shore things up. Maybe SK has just been unlucky as you suggest (Paton injury being an example). But he has previous with regard to injury punts not working out. I hoped he was learning from previous experiences but the signs so far are hardly encouraging. Setting the midfield aside, there are other new recruits with injury concerns. More bad luck? Genuine question. Can you name me any player with a poor injury record immediately prior to joining us that Kettlewell has turned into a success? I am seriously struggling to come up with one. But several failures spring to mind. Basically, I think SK and Motherwell need to have a close look at the signing strategy. Perhaps the desire to get deals done early doors has been more of a driver than it should have been. And resulted in too many risks being taken.

Pretty much every single player we sign is a gamble on one level or another. They're either unproven at our level, older guys whose best days are behind them and we're hoping to squeeze a couple of seasons out of them or guys who have had injuries that we might not have been able to sign if they didn't have a couple of dents in them. And most clubs our size are doing the same thing (St Mirren signed Dunne and O'Hara from ourselves with their injury records, Dundee United went for Moult). Are other clubs simply being luckier or are their flaws in our training methods or physio/medical approach? That's a separate question.. Even our signings that have worked out in the past have been gambles Moult, Kiprè and Marvin Johnson? All unproven at our level. Aldred? Persona non grata at a shite Bury team. Chris Porter, we were told that we would never keep him fit. Tony Watt? Lazy, wouldn't apply himself. Basically there's no guarantees when we sign any player one way or another.. The only signing I perhaps have an issue with is Callachan. While Halliday (played loads of European games, experienced player to help an inexperienced midfield) and Nicholson (decent pedigree) have records that you could argue justify a gamble on them, I'm not sure you could say the same about Callachan's history...

Exactly this. I can accept we take a punt on somebody like Bair, given his fitness record and the minimal cost first up. It worked out better than anyone on here expected so credit SK and his team for that. By all means find another ' Bair project'. SK has earned that chance. But Halliday, Callachan and Nicholson are nothing like the Bair situation. They are a repeat of the Soure and Obika disasters, except even more costly. Koutroumbis may be similar but hopefully not. So in two seasons he has signed at least five players who had a horrible injury record and contributed almost nothing in their time with the club (so far in the case of the first three). Can anyone come up with any Kettlewell 'injury projects' that have actually worked out?

If we can afford a load of wages on a bunch of risks as well as on the subsequent last-minute signings to replace said risks, I am sure we could afford and attract 1 or 2 players in key positions who aren't the equivalent of retired Blackpool Beach donkeys. Let's not forget that Kettlewell said he'd learned his lesson after Obika-gate. He hasn't. He's taken a punt again on more than one injury prone player and now he's got himself and the club in a deep financial hole of shite.

Indigestion perhaps?

Its having all 3 here at once that's weakening our midfield,throw in the likes of davor and our options in there are dire.we have surrounded our best asset in miller with guys that can't run or tackle,even this early it's plain too see our midfield is a massive problem that is going to get outfought and outrun most weeks.

Never been a fan of Callaghan - mainly because he was at Accies - but these three are all SPL level players that can do a job for mid to bottom half teams like ours. The injuries are unfortunate but I can see why SK signed them and how they would have strengthened our weak midfield.

If Caldwell rates Halliday, Callachan and Nicholson then aye he's a mug.

You're not quite grasping this, are you?

SK knew Spittal was leaving and done nothing about it . Slattery spent most of his time on his backside and was leaving if he hadn’t got injured

There were a couple of late additions, Iona Boyle and Jim Wright

They put out two videos I believe - I think two candidates were added slightly later on - the other video is on the Well Society's twitter page. She was definitely on the list of candidates you can vote for.

Is that to the WS meeting or leaving the job with his P45? Statements like that will get a few on here hopes up 😂

Kettlewell is between a rock and a hard place. Does he sign young, fit as a butchers dog, injury free players or does he go with seasoned pros with experience of playing at SPL level and take a chance with fitness and injury issues Damned if he does damned if he doesn't. If he signed a load of young guys with no experience of the SPL and they turned out to be mince then he would be getting lambasted for not signing experienced pros and vice versa. The market and budget we"re operating in probably means thats our choice. It's a roll of the dice either way and nothing will change unless we get an Infusion of serious cash to let us compete with most of the other SPL clubs. Most seasons we win a watch with players but there will be one when we don't.

I take your point but for me i think the reality is that the players we are signing are first and foremost the ones we can afford, and are willing to come to the Shire to play football. Yes certain players have a longer history of injuries than others but if one of those players is available and affordable and wants to join the club, and SK and the staff think they will improve the team, are we really going to say no thanks we are concerned with your injury record. Using that approach we will sign nobody, Louis Moult would fit that category but he seems to be doing OK at Tannadice, so yes the Injuries are unfortunate but no reason not to sign a player.

Will try to join in the AGM via zoom tonight - as I’m on holiday in Turkey with the family. I’m not convinced with network strength, but hopefully all works ok, but if any questions or you’d like to know my thoughts on anything - please feel free to ask!

I actually think if anyone is wishing to assign blame, then the medical team is just as viable a candidate as the manager, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

I seem to remember Caldwell saying that he trusts Dawes and Kettlewell to figure out who they want and he then sorts the deals thereafter. I think it was mentioned in one of his interviews in May or June. Not entirely sure he has as much input as some would like to think he has, beyond going and executing what the other two want.

You'd like to think the CEO trusts the manager's judgement on signings, because that's the manager's job and the CEO's job is to deal with the mechanics of completing signings along with the CFO/FD, but you could also imagine that the CEO may begin to second-guess the manager's judgement once the club ends up with a significant proportion of its wage budget attributed to crocked signings. In this scenario, it would only be natural for the CEO to raise questions because the pot of cash is limited and being wasteful is not in either of their job descriptions.

Does Caldwell need to personally rate a player's ability before we sign them?

He stopped playing in April in Australia I believe and then he was called up for the national team. He also said in interviews that he was keeping his own fitness up and I believe he took part in the game against Everton. He's not exactly had no minutes coming into this game and part of the reason Kettlewell put him on was surely because of injury to other players - what is the manager supposed to do with so many other players out Other players we have just now have had muscle injuries with a full pre season behind them Also. Do we think the player was forced to play against his will. I highly doubt it

I watched their game today , they are truly woeful. Truth be told Id rather face them when they havent been quite so dreadful. I've seen this script more times than I care to remember. Team with fuck all wins , playing shite , turn up at Fir park and we give the customary assist.

Are people seriously suggesting that whatever happens at training sessions is somehow contributing to players getting injured? Yes we have more than our fair share of injuries right now but these can happen at any time, a player can get out of bed the wrong way and injure himself ffs The amount of players we have out just now is just bad luck nothing more sinister so let's just all move on, nothing to see here.

ANYONE SAVVY ENOUGH TO SEND EMAILS IN ALL CAPS IS SAVVY ENOUGH TO BUY A TICKET ONLINE