capt_oats

Separate link for YPOTY you'll find it on this page: http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2018/03/01/vote-for-your-player-of-the-year/

Pretty much. I think there's a difference of something like £90k between 6th and 7th but we'd probably end up playing more away games in the Top 6 so there's a trade off there. I had a stupidly long post about this written yesterday that I decided against posting but the gist of it was largely what you've said. By my count this is how our points have been split up based on team and league position: 17/18 Celtic - XL - 1/6 pts Rangers - LL - 0/6 pts Aberdeen - LW - 3/6 pts Hibs - XLL - 1/9 pts Hearts - WLX - 4/9 pts Killie - WLL - 3/9 pts Total - 12 pts from 15 games (45 points) - 26.6% of available points St Johnstone - LW - 3/6 pts Dundee - WXW - 7/9 pts Hamilton Accies - WL - 3/6 pts Thistle - WLX - 4/9 pts Ross County - WLW - 6/9 pts Total - 23 pts from 13 games (39 points) - 58.9% of available points We've taken marginally over a quarter of points available from teams currently in the top 6 but almost 60% of the available points against sides in the bottom 6. Pretty much we are what we are. A mid-table Premiership side who have been consistently better than 5 sides in the league and who on our day and in the right circumstances can compete with the sides above us (as the cup games against Aberdeen and Rangers proved). So while we've picked up more points from teams in the top 6 this season than we did in 16/17 (see below), it still remains the case that we're likely to have a better chance of picking up wins against sides in the bottom half (stands to reason, right?). 16/17 Celtic - LLL 0/9 Aberdeen - LLL 0/9 Rangers - LLX 1/9 St Johnstone - LXL 1/9 Hearts - LLL 0/9 Thistle - XWL 4/9 Total - 6 points from 18 games (54 points) = 11.1% Ross County - XWWL - 7/12 Kilie - WXWW - 10/12 Dundee - XLLL - 1/12 Accies - WXXW - 8/12 ICT - LWWL - 6/12 Total 32 points from 20 games (60 points) = 53.3% Given a section of our support are almost permanently torn faced and don't really need much of an excuse for a moan then a run of fixtures going into the close season where there are more Ls in the form table than Ws doesn't really seem like it'd do us much good. Don't get me wrong, I think we'd be competitive however a quick recap on Thistle's post-split results last season saw them without a win, while the last time we were top 6 we picked up 2 wins from 5 and saw out the season with a 7-0 scudding at Parkhead, live on TV for the nation's entertainment. I'm totally on board with Robinson saying that Top 6 gives a bit of kudos when it comes to recruitment but again, does it matter that much? I'm all for professional pride and aiming to finish as high up the league as possible but assuming we're clear of the relegation conversation and have no chance of a European place then if we've got a choice of having nothing to play for but more likely to lose vs having nothing to play for and being more likely to win then I'd go FTW tbqh. So in short, I'm pretty much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about Top 6. If we get it then great but if we hit the split well clear of the relegation conversation but in 7th then it's hardly the end of the world IMO.

POTY - Carson YPOTY - Campbell Carson's a pretty easy choice but could easily have gone with Kipré for YPOTY tbf.

Here you go, 11th place over the past 10 seasons: 16/17 - 11th: 35 pts 15/16 - 11th : 36 pts 14/15 - 11th: 36 pts 13/14 - 11th: 35 pts 12/13 - 11th: 41 pts 11/12 - 11th: 33 pts 10/11 - 11th: 33 pts 09/10 - 11th: 33 pts 08/09 - 11th: 37 pts 07/08 - 11th: 40 pts The only real anomalies there are 12/13 and 07/08 which were Dundee's Club 12 season and Gretna's swansong. Remove those as outliers and you're looking at 11th spot being on average 34.75 points so realistically 38 points or above is likely to be guaranteed as finishing above 11th in a normal season.

He's on loan from West Brom u23s.

Most recently at Thistle's u20s. Played a few games with them then released in January. Subbed off after 23 mins this afternoon it seems.

^^^^ This. Played 20 mins for Charlton against Bristol Rovers on the opening day and 67 mins against Exeter in the EFL Cup. https://www.transfermarkt.com/tony-watt/leistungsdaten/spieler/132764/plus/0?saison=2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Charlton_Athletic_F.C._season

He can't sign with anyone until the summer. His contract was cancelled after the window shut and he's already played competitive games with 2 different clubs this season.

Our u20s train with the first team though, no? He can still be a development signing and be involved with the first team squad. The quotes I read from his agent suggested that was preferable as the other trial options he had were age group based ie: West Ham, Charlton, Toronto, Galatassary etc have their dev sides separate to the first team. He'd get a better coaching experience in our set up than he would elsewhere. Other than the fact that he has a profile in India I genuinely don't see what the conspiracy is here or why it's odd. We've brought in a highly rated youth keeper who did well at the u17 World Cup to have a look at. At present, if he were to sign, his competition (age wise) would presumably be Robbie Hemphrey and Peter Morrison. At 19 Morrison is probably heading to the latter stages of the development pathway so there will be a decision to be made on his future at some point in the foreseeable. Ferguson is 21 this year so may well be viewed as Griffiths' successor as 2nd choice 'keeper.

I've not really posted on here much since October last year but I thought I'd chip in here. I 100% agree on the part in bold. There's no real reason why we can't play with "intensity", "desire" etc and still keep hold of the ball and pass it. However the fact that Robinson is highlighting that he feels we need to be better on the ball and improve suggests he's aware of this too. By the same token as everyone's aware we went through December with half a team out injured and 1 win in 12 up to the winter break, we were still in the relegation/play-off conversation last season until the 2nd last game of the season. I can forgive the manager for opting to prioritise results over aesthetically pleasing performances and as such I guess we are where we are. Similarly it's probably worth remembering that this is, to all intents and purposes, Robinson's first proper management job (bar 6 months at an absolute basket case in Oldham where he had 3 weeks of pre-season). It's probably reasonable to say, in my opinion anyway, that he's still learning. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine that there will be games where he'll get things wrong tactically and have to change them. It seems clear to me that his priority this season has been to make us robust and take it from there. Neil McCann has been an advocate of his Dundee side playing "attractive football" with "style": they're currently 2 points off the play-off spot and are 2 points worse off after 25 games than they were last season under Hartley. That may change in upcoming games now that they've shelled out on bringing Steven Caulker in I suppose. Fwiw, we're +8 points on where we were after the same number of games last season having conceded 17 goals fewer. To take comparisons a bit further we've a better GA record (by 3 goals) after 26 games than McCall's 13/14 season though we're 9 goals down on the goals for column in that season. Who knows, had Moult been fit then our goals for column may look a better but then again if your auntie had baws...etc. What Robinson has shown he can do is drill a team and make them hard to beat and competitive. Last season when he inherited the shambles McGhee had left we had a goal difference of -23. In the 12 games under Robinson with the same side we had a goal difference of 0. The 2-0 against St Johnstone on Tuesday was our 12th clean sheet, in all competitions. In context, the last season we finished 2nd under McCall we managed 11 (in all competitions). Of our 12 league losses 8 have been by a single goal. Of the 4 that were more than a single goal we were down to 8 men in one (St Johnstone), dead on our feet in another (Celtic at Parkhead) and well, the less said about the losses to Rangers and Accies the better tbh. I seem to remember back in the days of Baraclough and latterly McGhee people were pining for us to be more like St Johnstone and a Tommy Wright side ie: difficult to beat. Well, here we are. "Eye bleeding", "attritional" call it what you want this is pretty much where St Johnstone were when fans were saying we should be more like them. The difference is of course that there are 5 city sides in the league with vastly increased budgets and resources to recruit. Let's be honest I'm sure Robinson would prefer to be 2 up after 60 mins as well. Who knows, perhaps if he had a budget based on top 6, cup runs and player sales then Mr. Robinson may be able to emulate McCall's heyday. Then again we saw what happened to McCall when that budget was reduced so maybe there's something to be said for horses for courses.

Moot point really as pretty much every training video the club put out on the socials show the u20s training with the senior squad anyway. The clips featuring the goalkeepers have generally been Carson, Griffiths and Morrison (along with Ferguson on occasion).

It's Cameron. https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/completed-transfers-deadline-day-january-2018/?rid=13929

Presented without comment. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2933415/West-Ham-sign-Hamilton-defender-Stephen-Hendrie-clubs-agree-1m-compensation-package.html

Possibly worth pointing out that certain tabloids are running the story that Celtic are in for Bain. Hibs to cancel his loan and to allow Celtic to sign him permanently for a nominal fee. Make of that what you will.

Nae bother.

We can't get a player on loan from them. We already have Ciftci. You can't have more than one over 21 player from a team in the same division.

https://spfl.co.uk/docs/067_324__therulesofthescottishprofessionalfootballleagueasat24july201_1502440056.pdf Section F. Pages 53-59

I thought I recognised the name and it turns out Dundee were linked with him when he was available on a free during the summer. At that point he was also being linked with Blackburn and Wigan before he eventually ended up at Bury. From having a look around the League 1 forums he seems to be very much in the Hartley mould. The gist seems to be that he's limited with the ball at his feet but he's a natural captain and leader. He was player of the year at Accrington Stanley in League 2 and also at Blackpool when they were promoted to League 1 last season. He played with Dunne at Blackpool and Bowman at Carlisle. You'll find some footage of him chucking himself into tackles, winning headers and making blocks here: Also, going by his Instagram he's also an absolute unit. So that's nice.

He left his position as assistant at the same time, per the SFA's announcement. His contract was up at the same time as Strachan's. http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2986&newsCategoryID=6&newsID=17304

He did not. http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/resources/documents/Disciplinary/DisciplinaryTribunalOutcomes/Season2017-18/Thursday%2021%20September%202017.docx.pdf

That one from Davies against Thistle at FP posted earlier in the thread is mine.

^^^ 100% this.

Mutual consent apparently.

David Turnbull called up to the u19s. Quite right too. https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/913089122155290630

He played against Thistle as a trialist.