joewarkfanclub

Thats my argument. You could question how competetive we were last night. Certainly first half. Not advocating a team full of youngsters but 1 or 2 eagre to please could be justified, I think.

Thats a shame. Would have liked to have had him on board. Definitely the type of defender we should be going for imho.

Slim pickings as nobody had a great game. Miller and Nicholson were decent but I went for Paton as he improved us second half when he came on and tried to speed the game up a bit.

I think he and Craig Napier are probably the worst 2 Ive seen this season. Edit: Although Collum was absolutely honking in the second half of the last Aberdeen home game.

Is that not an argument for only fielding contracted players next Sunday. That could include a few youngsters eagre to impress? Personally Id love to see Luca Ross get a free hit to see what he can do.

Just getting round to posting as it was a late one getting back to Ayrshire last night. Shoulda probably stayed at home. Game had that end of season feel to it from both teams. Not much in it for the first 30 mins. Hibs had more possession, we created the better chances. Kelly had nothing to do until Boyles 2 efforts. The game changes on the penalty decision and for the life of me I cant understand how the ref can give that. SOD is so close to the player playing the ball and his hand is in an entirely natural position. Its just wrong. Even with the new rules. After that they got their heads up and started causing us more problems. The second and third goals are the kind of thing we have been giving away all season and so disappointing we cant seem to find a way of changing that. We did play some decent football second half. Bringing Paton on for Halliday helped as the game was bypassing him again. He really needs to consider whether he has any top flight football in him next season. Id like to see the Bair goal again. It was a smart finish and I wasnt sure which player was flagged offside or whether they were even active. That might have made a difference with 25 to go, but it wasnt to be. The game petered out after that and we ultimately got what we deserved for not being at it in the first half. Big changes required in the close season. Hope the manager has his list of targets ready to go as we are gonna need fresh faces if we want to improve on this season.

Ketts is the striker whisperer for sure! Just look at KVV! Hopefully we are a million quid to the good and he can get a tune out of Ollie Shaw! 😆😆😆

Why cut out the last line of my post that qualified my comment? I agree, a million pounds for someone that looked like a "sem-pro" player a year ago is good business! 😉

I think that would be the dream scenario. Theo stays another year, develops more, a Championship club come in with a big offer next close season and he moves on to bigger wages in a really strong position to hold down his place and we gain a significant fee. Everyone is happy. Edit: But anything over £1m I would expect us to sell.

A couple of months ago would have done. No chance Im losing half a stone by next Friday though!

You really need to announce these things sooner to allow people a chance to get fit! 😆😆😆

Hope he scores 5 in the next 2 games and the fee goes up to £2.5m! Seriously, more than happy for him to stay but it can only be on extended terms. He likes the manager and the manager has got the best out of him so if he is earning more and consolidating his position next season and continuing to develop he could go for even more money next year. Bottom line is it will be down to Theo and his agent as to where they see his future......

He will be harder to replace in January. If we cant get him to sign an extension we need to take the money. We cant let him go for nothing. If hr signs a new deal, brilliant. Id be just as happy.

Bair is a tricky one. Id rather he signed an extension/improved deal so that we are not scrambling around for another striker that will get us goals next season, and obviously we protect our investment in him. However, he is still far from the finished article and with no guarantees he will repeat the same numbers next year, £1.25m seems an awful lot of money, even if it is only £750k up front. It would keep the wolf from the door for another season. But with Spittal already away, the chance that Miller could also be off it kinda feels that losing him as well would pretty much be a whole new squad next season. Thats a big ask of the manager and the recruitment team. He seems like a good guy to have around and clearly has a relationship with the manager, so who knows? Be nice to get some good PCAs in early once the season has ended to calm everything down!

Both teams to score again is a stick on! Hopefully Hibs wont sack Montgomery just now. Doesnt seem much point with only 2 games to go.

If a manager is under pressure during a 15 game winless run, is it not fair game for him to plead mitigation in terms of budget and request a little more understanding of his situation? I know I certainly wouldnt be lying down meakly and waiting for the bullet! Id be challenging those that set my budget to stand by me after delivering what they asked. In respect of whether this season has been succesful or not, it again depends on whether you wish to make any allowances for those circumstances. I would say keeping us in the league is always the pre-requisite for any Motherwell manager. After that we can start to look up. We are on course for finishing 7th or 8th (9th at worst) which is acceptable in a season when the budget had to be re-structured so drastically on the back of the Alexander/Hammell debacles. As for the cups we navigated the group stages of the league cup fairly comfortably and were rewarded as the seeded team with an away tie to a St Mirren side who have had a relatively good season. That was a game of fine margins so disappointing but not unexpected to lose. The Morton defeat is a sore one as we should have known what to expect and walked right into it and played the game exactly the way Dougie Imrie wanted us to. Definite black mark on our record there. We have played some decent football at times, scored some magnificent goals, handed out a few thrashings and beat Rangers away in the league for the first time in 27 years. We have seen the re-birth of a player in Theo Bair and one of our own come through to claim a regular first team place at the age of 17. Id say all in all, thats not too bad a season. Probably just about pass marks for the manager and the team. It has been incredibly frustrating at times, particularly some of our defending. Many mistakes were made. But there is lots of room for improvement and we have kept faith with a manager who will have learned a helluva lot for the experience. With the re-structuring off the field and the potential for additional investment off it, or at least a re-invigorated Well Society and CEO, Im actually quite excited to see how it all plays out next season.

Didnt see tge game yesterday, so no idea hoe he played, but given the votes, did Spitz forget he has signed a PCA? 😍😍😍

No idea whats going on! Probably dodgy wifi! 😆😆😆

I concur. There were some touting him as the kind of manager we should be looking at when we were on our bad run. He is up there with Tommy Wright in terms of what we should be looking for imho. The game has moved on.

I concur. There were some touting him as the kind of manager we should be looking at when we were on our bad run. He is up there with Tommy Wright in terms of what we should be looking for imho. The game has moved on.

The 10th spot thing is often mis-represented. Its for budgetary purposes only to ensure we dont run into huge debts. That doesnt mean the playing targets wont be higher. Incremental improvements are the stable way to success. The speculate to accumulate route is frought with danger for a club like ours.

If we can we add better in game management and stop the mad substitutions on top of that we can defo make top 6.

Not sure there is much different there to what I was getting at. Kellys performances this season certainly havent been anywhere near as good as they were in his first season, so I agree, over the piece he has been average. Strangely though, as others have said, having Hollis in goals didnt stop us getting top 6. But he had much better defenders in front of him. Regardless. We need better value for money when it comes to recruitment. Given Kelly is on above average money for us Im comfortable with him moving on.

I dont think Kellys performances are necessarily the biggest problem, albeit his weaknesses are mostly agreed. I think generally speaking most folk accept he is pretty much the average standard of keeper we can attract at our level. Sometines we do better, sometimes we do worse. I think the fact that he is widely regarded as our top earner is what hurts him. A lot of us think we can do better for the money we are paying. Or at least not do worse by offering a keeper less.

Quite like that. Like the hoop socks as well. Sorry Grizzly! 🧡❤️🧡