wellfan

The backslapping circle-jerk of a lads club we all know too well, unfortunately.

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2024/03/20/statement-on-var-decision-against-aberdeen/

And I am sure he has many more words to say than most on here.

It may just be me, but I often find that most of the talent tends to be players who bypass the U19/21 squads and go straight into the A squad. Whereas most players who feature consistently for the U19/21s never seem to develop further or make it into the A squad. I'm not sure how good a job Stark and Gemmill are doing or if they even bother to set their players up to develop into Clarke's system. Probably not. These squads seem like little fiefdoms rather than a proper conveyor belt for the A squad. Perhaps I am wrong, and it's just that we're so devoid of swathes of noticeable talent at the youth level these days, or it's going unnoticed or is being mismanaged.

I'm sure he'll be pleased to have your support.

This we can agree on.

Correct. It's not yours either.

Fair point. February is a strange time to be looking for a new manager. I guess we’ll never know if there were more than 3 candidates unless someone here knows?!

If it takes longer than 30 seconds to identify a clear and obvious error via VAR, then it's not a clear and obvious error and play should continue. It's that simple, but the twats in the video booth are intent on re-refereeing games to justify their stolen wage and fuel their self-important incompetence.

See my above comments. Furthermore, 13 months ago, you could've added Stuart Kettlewell to that list of uninspiring names.

That's completely fine to have that view, but I think it shows the opposite for the reasons I've outlined. We took the cheap and/or easy option. There are also zero guarantees that promoting from within would lead to us doing better, but we still went for that option. I've avoided suggesting or discounting any names on this topic, but my view is that being more ambitious doesn't have to mean seeking a ‘bigger name’, such as Goodwin or Lennon, but that we could've looked beyond our own ranks for someone with more first-team managerial experience, demonstrable tactical nous, and some relative success. For example, a lower league experienced manager who's shown they're capable of stepping up. Instead, we’ve got someone learning on the job, albeit he kept us up last season, but the learning curve has proven costly this season in terms of the lack of cup progression and league position. He has a massive (third) transfer window ahead of him, otherwise, next season will likely be more of the same.

The KVV ship has sailed, unfortunately. And in line with my views on the club having ambition, throwing thousands at KVV would be a bridge too far. We should focus on Theo and Moses, sign another striker, secure another Vale or Biereth to support them, and get the young lads either out on loan (eg. Ferrie) or onto the bench (eg. Ross) if ready after the summer.

He would’ve been a nailed-on starter for me against Aberdeen, but for some reason he wasn't picked. I think he was either carrying a knock and being rested for international duty, or it was another tactical masterclass from the manager.

As I’ve said many times on here in defence of my argument for having ambition and in response to those of cry wolf about what has happened to Dundee United, Gretna, etc., it doesn't have to be a famine-to-feast scenario for us. There's fiscal prudence and there's throwing millions, but there's also an in-between, and it’s that middle ground I would like to see implemented once the Club and Society have sorted out the governance and financial side of things. It's tiresome reading responses from folks who consistently shout ‘But look at club x, y, z’ when someone dares to suggest the Club has a little ambition. I'm accused of being negative about Kettlewell, which is fine, but the negativity towards those who suggest seeking to achieve something better is equally loud. Have some ambition!

My point wasn't that it shouldn't be challenged; it should be. My point was that it'll be everpresent, regardless. In this context, it's also fair to note that it's reasonable for fans to display mistrust for what the club/society chooses to tell them when there are significant things that both have chosen/forgot to communicate to us recently. Furthermore, much like it's accepted that perceived fallacies should be challenged, it's also acceptable to question the narrative the club/society presents to us. There's maybe a more nuanced way to go about the latter, however.

Introducing fallacies will always be a feature of fan forums, whether deliberate or otherwise, particularly in the face of poor comms.

I'm not sure any deliberate lying is happening or is being suggested to have happened. However, given the recent mistakes made and embarrassing failures in basic communications on big issues, you can see why fans will and do speculate on what the hell is and has been going on. Clear and consistent communication is required to build trust between a football club and its supporters, which generally prevents speculation and accusation. I think we could all agree that both the club and society (the latter to a lesser degree now that it has new board members) have been crap at comms for a while now.

Of course, we aim higher, but the budget tends to dictate the final result, barring the exceptions of the past you mentioned. And yes, we do need investment so that our aims can become a consistent reality instead of an occasional exception.

You outline why we require investment, hence my comment regarding speculation.

I've written about this elsewhere. I don't expect much but I expect better than we’ve had recently. At least one cup run every season, plus top 6 and European football maybe twice a decade or so. The market we operate in is shit because we keep aiming low with a shit budget that will never increase unless we speculate and aim to achieve some of the basic targets I mentioned above, which do bring financial reward. I worry that budgeting and aiming for 10th at best every season will only see us go in one direction in the longer term. That's called a managed decline.

He was promoted from within as he currently held a lesser post at the club. I still wouldn't have been pleased with his appointment if hadn't held the lead development coach position, as his managerial record at Ross County wasn't great. Maybe he wasn't the cheap option, and maybe he was, but he was likely the easy option given he was deemed a promotable current employee. It's generally cheaper/easier to recruit from within than undertake an external recruitment exercise. A club generally has to speculate to accumulate, yet it appears to me that the club is scrimping and expecting to accumulate. The scrimping approach may come good next season, but I just don't see anything other than more of the same for as long as we maintain the current regime.

Then we’ll continue to get rookies and journeymen and suffer the mediocrity/failure that brings unless we show some ambition as I suggested above. However, if the club is content to scrape 10th place most seasons, fail to go on domestic cup runs, and tolerate shocking runs of form with the odd random victory, then the conveyor belt of rookies and journeymen is there for them to continually pick from. That's probably not going to keep the masses on side for long though.

It has nothing to do with risking my credibility; I just can't be arsed playing chess with a pigeon on this point. People can and should present their views on a current manager without having to have an alternative suggestion immediately lined up purely to satisfy an inevitable continuing line of questioning. That type of questioning is not debating; it's a deliberately quarrelsome approach to try to disparage the views of others. It suggests that someone's view on a topic is invalid because they don't present the solution alongside their critique. Anyway, I've already contributed to this debate by offering my view that he was the wrong man at the wrong time and for the reasons outlined. However, if others want to suggest potential candidates, thus giving you what you require or else you suggest their views are untrustworthy, they can crack on and present their shortlists.

Cop out?! Come on. My view is that we should've learned the lesson during the Hammell debacle that promoting from within may be the cheap option in the short term but is likely to be more costly in the long term in terms of poor performances and the lost revenue that can lead to, and the potential gardening leave when it goes wrong. I can hold that view without having to name an alternative manager. My alternative was to not promote from within, again, as that was a gamble that had already backfired, and now we have a manager who appears tactically naive and limited in his decision-making. And yes, a known quantity of a manager may also backfire, but they may have also taken us on some cup runs, or into the top six already, or taken us on a run of form opposite to the one we witnessed earlier this season. Some ambition would be good. That's an alternative.

Because they're incompetent and unaccountable fucking morons, protected by higher-paid incompetent and unaccountable fucking morons. The SFA is a self-serving, backslapping lads club, closed to all scrutiny and transparency.