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How many managers have left top division clubs in Scotland in the last 20 years for any other reason than failure ? I know there are few exceptions, but in general, managers get fired or 'leave by mutual consent' 95% of the time. When I started going to games regularly, Willie McLean was in charge. he created a team that challenged the old firm regularly in matches, got conned out of a semi final win over the h**s and is largely lauded as the best team never to win a trophy. He was still sacked a couple of years later for a poor results, as have most of our managers since. It's the same for every other club. 90% of managers ultimately fail and get the sack.

This is crucial for me. We can only hope that whatever kept Kaleta out of the starting lineup has been sorted. Whether it was fatigue and the need to manage the minutes of a player who’s only just turned twenty, or perhaps a knock that wasn't serious enough to warrant his complete removal from the squad. Tavares stepped in and gave it his all. He looked decent at times going forward, but he's not a defensive player. At this point, I'm not entirely sure what's going on with Koutroumbis. I thought Halliday looked quite good at the weekend. However, it seems we're only getting around 60 minutes from him these days, so I wouldn't be opposed to Paton starting and then bringing Halliday on for the last 30 minutes or so if necessary. A win here would lift us into fourth place and give us a bit of breathing room before we face Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, and Aberdeen over the next month. I reckon taking four points from the United and Killie matches would put us in a strong position, as there's a good chance we could nick a point or two from the others.

I think the time to judge him will be Feb/March time when all our injured players are hopefully back up to speed and available for selection and we see how any wheeling and dealing in the transfer market pans out.

Hope he's on the way back to Easter Road already.

As I said elsewhere, Kettlewells strike rate on the recruitment side of things is no worse than most of our managers in my lifetime. It just comes down to the pool we can fish in. We need to find players that are willing to play for what we pay AND come to Motherwell. We can try spending a bit more money to get more quality but our competition in that regard then becomes Hearts, Hibs & Aberdeen instead of Dundee, Killie and St Mirren. Given current league positions there is no guarantee that a change of policy is going to be more successful, and it comes attached with a lot more risk. For me Kettlewells balance sheet this season looks like this Good - Kaleta, Gordon, Seddon, Maswanhise Jurys Still out - Koutroumbis, Balmer, Stama, Watt (although I believe both of them will come good) Injured/Not good enough -Callachan, Robinson, Tavares. Koutroumbis not being given a chance in the last few weeks makes it kinda look like he isnt going to be good enough, but much like the decisions to bench Kaleta and Maswanhise, there could be reasons behind the scenes that the club dont want to go public with, so not gonna write him off without having seen him play. Balmer is probably serviceable but he needs to concentrate on his football instead of getting wound up by the opposition and officials. Given we have Paton, Nicholson, SOD, Slattery, McGinn and Vale all to come back by January, I dont see us really doing a lot of business unless we can identify a holding midfielder and/or a physical target man. It should also be noted the SK has been very good at getting players out the door that werent contributing / part of his plans.

I think he said something along the lines of the veterans playing dress up. If that was the case, then its pretty clear lack of understanding/respect. As opposed to his usual blame Burrows, Kettlewell, the new guy, the tea lady etc etc.

My only prediction is that we will see the formation and starting eleven tombola drum being rolled out for this one. And with that, I’ve no idea what to expect in terms of result and performance.

Ctrl C + Ctrl V from P&B: I tend to agree with folk who are a bit fed up with it all, really. There's just a general apathy for me right now. It feels like we'll be fine this season. Granted, after the last couple of years that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Am I happy we got to a semi-final and are in a better league position this December? Of course. Am I happy with the baffling tactical decisions and team selections, poor attacking play, the persistent isolation of a striker (whom we paid six figures for) and making similar defensive mistakes to last season? No. I've really got zero motivation to go to games; there's not a lot of excitement for me there because I know I'm going to be served up the same pish (both on the pitch and off of it). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Neither of those occasions will make me feel happy/delighted/like I enjoyed it, really. Someone reminded me that the Club is a business first and foremost and of course they're correct; but if I were a business and my product was as shite as what we offer on the park at times, I'd be a bit concerned. I don't want Kettlewell to get the sack but I equally don't particularly like him as a manger in his current guise. Yes, he's young, it's his second ever managerial position etc. and that's fine; but you'd expect given his own knowledge of that, he'd be willing to accept his mistakes and failings and learn from them, rather than constantly blaming referees and others for our defeats. Add in to all that his persisting with tactics and players in certain positions that (blatantly at points) just don't work. For such a "humble guy" he can't half go on like someone who's full of himself and his own ability/importance at times. I don't mind someone who's a bit more erudite and expressive (at times it's quite refreshing hearing stuff outside the usual cliches) but there's also the need for brevity (the irony of this point in a post this long is not lost on me), rather than just saying the same thing in four or five different ways. To be slightly more positive; it seems like the penny might be dropping with SK that Stama needs help from someone up top and it appears that it's clicking with Watt and also with Maswanhise before he mysteriously disappeared over the last few games (I wonder if he's come back with a niggle post international duty). With Nicholson, SOD and others returning to the team, there's definitely cause for some optimism moving forward but our run of fixtures until mid-January isn't easy.

What I see in Kettlewell is a 40-year-old manager who will have been a full-time, sole manager for two and a half years by February 2025. He's still relatively new to management, and I’m sure he'd be the first to admit that there's plenty more for him to learn. In his first full season, we finished 9th in the league, reached the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, and made it to the second round of the League Cup. This season, we're currently sitting in the top six and have reached a cup semi-final. These are tangible improvements so far. While it’s difficult to predict where the team will end up by the end of the season, we can use the statistics from the 15 games played up to now, including a full set of fixtures, to create a rough projection of where we might finish and how the team could perform. At the moment, we're averaging 1.467 points per game. If we maintain this pace, we should finish the season with around 56 points in total. For comparison, last season we averaged 1.132 points per game. Teams finishing in 5th or 6th place typically end up with 50–60 points, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that a 56-point season could see us finish in 5th or 6th position. So, in terms of points, we’re looking at an improvement of 0.335 points per game, which translates to 12.73 extra points over the course of the season. This would obviously mean an improvement in our league placing as well. These two figures are closely linked and, by far, the most significant of all. At present, we’re scoring 1.2 goals per game, down from 1.474 last season, with a projection of around 46 goals this season, compared to 56 last season. Our goal-scoring is an area that clearly needs improvement if things continue as they are. It seems we're missing the goals of Theo Bair and Blair Spittal—two players we knew would be difficult to replace, and the stats so far suggest we haven’t quite managed it. There's clearly work to be done there. Defensively, we’re averaging 1.533 goals conceded per game, compared to 1.553 last season. This suggests that our defensive performance is almost unchanged, with only a very slight improvement of less than one goal conceded overall. Taking all of this into account, and using our current form to project the rest of the season, here's where we stand: Improved Points Per Game: On track for a significant improvement of 12.73 points over the season. Decreased Goals Scored: A notable reduction in offensive output (10.4 fewer goals this season). Slightly Better Defence: A minor improvement in goals conceded (a difference of 0.020 fewer goals). On the financial side, Kettlewell has overseen the sales of Van Veen and Theo Bair. While he didn’t sign Van Veen, he was the manager who got the best out of him in the latter part of the season before we sold him for a fairly substantial fee. So, I’d say he’s done quite well in that regard. The Theo Bair situation speaks for itself. To answer your question, I’d say Kettlewell has done a solid job since taking over. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. I'd say this applies across the whole club, which has experienced some disruption, especially with the absence of a CEO, which has no doubt impacted the smooth running of things behind the scenes. As of today, I’d give Kettlewell a solid B-. If the projections outlined above come to fruition and the averages play out as expected, I’d raise that to a B.

Oh well then that will be me telt aff a take yous mustv just been sick of there negative comments all the time personally i quite liked there input it was always as i would say contraversual to say the least but never a dull moment, steelboy will surely be missed for his banter n yoda will be missed …. Well cause heez just yoda but as with everywhere else in life big brother is watching !!!

Before we begin, I’m not fishing, I’m merely trying to understand, other than the obvious points I’m about to make below, what people see in Kettlewell. Other than maintaining our Premiership status, which is the primary goal of his job, I’m intrigued to see if anyone can outline any tangible improvements he’s made to both (a) himself as a manager and (b) the overall team? A couple of obvious points to make to start with would be that his perseverance with Bair led to excellent financial and goal returns, and that he’s not afraid to give youngsters (e.g. Miller & Wilson) a lot of game time. For me, the latter highlights that he’s a decent individual coach, but his in-game management and pre-game decisions indicate to me that’s he’s not a good overall team manager. His decision-making is often baffling and to his and the team’s detriment. It demonstrates a complete inability to learn, be it through stubbornness and/or inexperience and/or plain stupidity. Whilst the former is a positive factor, these are young players that he inherited, and his over reliance on them suggests that he doesn’t trust his own signings and/or is incapable of signing the right type of experienced players to fit whatever his system actually is. There’s a real risk of overloading teenager’s at this level, both physically and mentally, so careful management of them is key. Now that I’ve addressed those obvious points, let’s return to my question above. (a) Improvements to himself as a manager? No. He’s almost two years into the job and continues to make strange decisions, opting to plug square pegs into round holes and often makes panicked wholesale substitutions when it’s too late. He generally struggles to adapt his system when an opposition manager makes in-game changes to counter his tactics. It’s his team now and he’s shown me zero signs of having the ability to develop and improve. It’s the same issues on repeat, and he doesn’t have a Bair to negate his shite this season. We’ll likely have the same Kettlewell next season and the same questions will be asked of him and his decision-making and approach to games. Ad nauseam. (b) Improvements to the overall team? No. We still lurch from crisis to crisis. Failed transfer windows, some predictable injuries, with the odd success, but on the whole poor, leading to more panic buying and a bloated squad. Then repeat. This cycle challenges the limited budget argument excuse and creates a dead weight issue every window. The biggest weakening of the team this season has proven to be his failure to adequately replace Spittal and Bair. His system doesn’t work without those types. A good manager would’ve address these positions as a matter of urgency, but Kettlewell didn’t, and here we are, struggling to score from open play. The big question is: is the team making progress under Kettlewell or are we stagnating? Maintaining the status quo would be fine if it wasn’t so awful to watch and didn’t put us at continual risk of capitulation. Putting the aspiration for regular victories aside, which will never be a weekly occurrence for us, people will begin to take their monies elsewhere if they’re continually gaslit into having to accept awful predictable crap as a substitute for some weekly entertainment and excitement. Kettlewell produces a team which, on the whole, is neither entertaining nor exciting. It’s a team not in transition, but a team that could be relegated very easily should the winds change. In summary, I thought Alexander, for example, was an arrogant twat and was delighted to see him binned, but I never lost interest in following the team. With Kettlewell, however, he’s the first manager in recent memory who’s led me to the position of questioning whether to renew my season ticket and maintain my two WS memberships or not. My view is that we’re merely treading water until he sees to it that the squad and football is reduced on quality year-on-year at the same time as decimating the budget to achieve that, which will lead to an exodus of paying fans. Are we happy with that outlook under Kettlewell? I’m not. It’s crap. Or do others see future prosperity for both Kettlewell and the team? If so, what are you drinking?!

Former 'Well and, wait for it... ...former Celtic, Plymouth Argyle, St Johnstone, CSKA Sofia, Kilmarnock, APOEL, Omonia, Jagiellonia Białystok, Wellington Phoenix, Ironi Kiryat Shmona, Wisła Płock, Dundee, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Queen’s Park player Cillian Sheridan has joined Brechin City.

I would expect DU would be keen to get him off their wage bill. Question is, will Tony see sense and sign for us or revert to previous and end up in the Khazakstan Premier Leage on 10K a week ?

Kaleta for Tavares Paton for Halliday Maswanhise for Watt ( not dropped, he is unavailable as its parent club) COYW

"We won" "Who scored?" "Watt" "I SAID WHO SCORED?" Once you've stopped laughing uncontrollaby, take your pick...

Thanks for your input. Your advocacy is admirable, but that was the unanimous decision. They still have free speech, we just want to see it first.