wellfan

This massive squad will quickly eat into the Bair money. It’s not sustainable and can’t happen again next season.

Luke Armstrong joins on loan. Can anyone recall the last time we had a 30-man (not including players out on loan) first team squad?

Amber and Yellow weather warnings in place for wind, snow and ice tomorrow in Perth and surrounding areas. Given that the Central Belt has pretty much shut down today because of a Red weather warning, I wonder what the state of play will be tomorrow morning.

Perhaps he’s been taking Limmy’s advice.

He can quite clearly be heard regularly shouting at officials as well as seen remonstrating with them. This can be heard and seen from the stands and on TV. He’s certainly not been carded several times for telling the officials they looked pretty in their kit.

Butland flapped the ball into his own net again under pressure from Man Utd tonight. The goal rightly stood, unlike the time he did it against us, as the officials in this game aren’t useless SFA twats.

Bailey Rice is about to get 45 mins at Old Trafford. Fair play to Baldemort for bringing him on in such a big game.

I said before that Kettlewell had reached his tipping point with us, and he’s only just gone and lit the torch paper on his departing fireworks. Winning on Saturday would obviously be great, particularly given recent events, but history tells me it will only delay the inevitable.

You’ve echoed my above opinion on his tone here. The man doth protest too much, methinks. Tick-tock.

We definitely need to sign another first team goalkeeper now following recent events. However, if Kettlewell was better at managing his first team keepers, such as giving them both minutes across all competitions (eg. Hegyi this season) or dropping one when underperforming (eg. Kelly last season and Ox this season), you could imagine a scenario where Hegyi may have been more involved and would still be here.

We should not be surprised when he starts with 5 at the back and 2 midfielders against St Johnstone again this weekend.

Transparency matters not a jot here. It won't prevent bad decisions and it won't lead to consequences for those who continually make them. All that the KMI panel and the monthly VAR review does is further wind up fans. Oh look, we were wrong, but f**k you. Sweep sweep.

The way he refers to his style of football that led to that run of 15 games without a win as some sort of achievement to be referenced in the context of this season is ridiculous. He appears to be as stubborn as they come and more worryingly he has started to become a bit patronising towards the fans and their justified views. Unfortunately for me, that sneering tone throughout the article undoes any of the valid points he tries to make. The clock is ticking faster now.

I'd go with a 4-1-3-2. It's slim pickings, but we seriously need to move away from the back 5, put someone in front of the back 4, and try get the middle 3 to feed and support the front 2. If that doesn't work, we've got Slattery and Nicholson to come on at h/t, and maybe Paton too if he's fit. Mair Kaleta/SOD Balmer Casey Blaney/Wilson Davor Sparrow Halliday Andrews Watt Maswanhise

For lack of a better analogy, I think Caldwell was suggesting that the bottom tier is a bit like the Forth Road Bridge. That is, it's not completely knackered or closed permanently, so to increase its longevity we've had to make fans predominantly use the top tier (Queensferry Crossing) unless increased capacity is expected, then both are relied upon. As to your second question, I've no idea, and for your third question, my only suggestion would be that the club could be quietly pursuing legal routes for compensation due to the green twats etc.

Correct. What I did do was refer to Kettlewell as a donkey and exclaimed that he should get to fuck on a fans forum. I didn't perform the act of name-calling him to his face. It's him that gets in peoples faces and shouts like a madman on the touchline. He's been been getting exasperated, leading to him shouting and getting in the face of officials. He's a marked man and should know better by now. I'm sure he's also suggested that the officials get to fuck at times and called them worse than a donkey or a cabbage or whatever. His passion isn't to be faulted. However, as a marked man, he needs to better control and express himself as his card count is getting embarrassing now.

Super Cooper!

He's signed 34 players for Motherwell. There are 36 on the list but Halliday and Vale were both signed twice. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/stuart-kettlewell/spielertransfers/trainer/36838/plus/0/galerie/0?station_id=422489 Some decent, some great, some average, some crap, and some complete flops.

The shitelights: Third smallest budget in the league (yet somehow we can afford to run a 28-man first team squad 🤷) Negative financial implications of being knocked out of the Scottish Cup early (again) Caldwell is giving Kettlewell funds to strengthen the squad (again; and with what budget?!) Bids rejected for Miller (thankfuly) Seats in the bottom deck of the South stand are fucked (with thanks to the greenish boys brigade) In summary, we won’t have our pants pulled down over Miller, but Caldwell is having his pants pulled down by Kettlewell.

No. I don’t even trust him with the funds Caldwell is giving him this window.

It’s exactly what I mean. I’ve also called him a donkey on here on several occasions and described him as having the tactical nous of a cabbage or something similar. On the topic of respect, I’m sure Kettlewell has said worse things to some referees lately, hence him receiving several yellow and red cards.

This forum is exactly the type of place for these discussions to be had by fans. The whole concept of sharing opinions and information on topics of shared interest is the very reason why such fora exist. At the end of the day, this is a ‘fans’ forum, and nobody is forcing the manager or players to read our thoughts. This is not the open terracing where folk often shout unnecessary and viscous crap at people trying to do their jobs, which is a whole different story. So, if robust and colourful debate on the suitability of Kettlewell as manager is too much for some, then that’s not the problem of the forum, it’s your problem.

As others note, and with our supposed budget, we should never be running with a 28-man first team squad or taking 10 gambles.

I think that him drastically changing his starting formation would be tantamount to him admitting he’s been getting it wrong for a while, and I just don’t think he’s got that in him. He has shown, with Bair for example, that he’s got an attitude of needing to be proven right in his decision making. It’s something he constantly reminds us of as he publicly ‘hangs his hat’ on things. However, if he goes 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 at the weekend, I’ll eat my hat.

Kettlewell has been given the budget to run a 28 man first team squad this season, not including those out on loan, so I would suggest that the budget argument can be dismissed as not being a limiting factor this season. Also, there are many injuries, but he still has 19 first team players available to work with. If he can't get a tune out of them, then he's in the wrong job. I did wonder how long it would take for someone to trot out the 'without investment' line. You've also managed to completely contradict yourself in what you've said here. That is, are we being left behind or are we doing well competing with other more financially liberal clubs? It can't be both. The body language of some of the players at the weekend, as well as some of the subsequent rumours about disharmony, would suggest that he's well on the way to losing the dressing room. I think the tipping point has likely already been reached. On the rallying round point; what do you think that massive away support at the weekend was?! We're witnessing the most stubborn of busted flushes take himself and the team down with him. Is hoping for someone with at least some semblance of tactical nous too much to ask for? Who that is is up to the current Board to seek out.