joewarkfanclub

I think Danzakis situation was a little different in that he didnt speak the language, it was a different culture, he got injured and ended up so far out of the picture that its easy to see why he would be demoralised. Add in a change of manager who wants to play a style you dont fit in to, then that has to be tough for any player. Good to see that SK isnt shirking tough decisions though. You dont want to see anyone thrown under the bus, but by the same token we cant afford to be a charity either. Glad a compromise has been reached that allows both parties to move on.

There is the other side of the coin to consider as well. Some of our fans have lost their heads over giving extended contracts to some of our youth players who didnt progress as we would have liked. Maguire is the most obvious example. There have been others. Given Max had only played a couple of first team games before he went to Cove, it could still have been considered a bit of a risk to offer him extended terms good enough to get him to sign. Take Hastie as an example. Went out to Alloa, had a good loan, came back, had a purple patch, left for a development fee and has done nothing since.

Looking forward to this one. Making the journey up mostly because its another League ground to tick off the list, but also the brother in law stays up there so free digs! No excuses here. Our squad may still be threadbare and it is early season, but we still have more resources than them and they havent played any competitive games either. Just win.

Again subtle messaging from SK. He never said we tried to sign him. Im paraphrasing, but he said, "he is the kind of character I love to have in our dressing room, but we werent able to make an offer to Mikel that would encourage him to stay." You can take them to mean the same thing, or you could also interpret it to say, " we only had enough money to sign 1 big guy to lead the line and hold the ball up so we signed Obika".

I think its all just subtle messaging. Some clubs /agents will think we have money to spend off the back of KVV and Max moving on, not to mention the wages we got off the books. We need to try and make it clear why thats not the case so they dont think they can wring more cash out of us for the players we are interested in. Its also not rocket science that if we are signing players we need to move on those surplus to requirement in order to keep our finances on an even keel and get the biggest bang for our buck. So whilst we dont have a lot of money to throw around. Its safe to say there will be players coming in and more going out.....

I can see both sides of the debate. I think there will always be a risk attached to the players we are able to sign. But that being the case we need to be even more careful with the money we do spend. We cant afford to be wasteful with just throwing enough shit at the wall that some sticks. Just look at the last transfer window. No one would argue that we werent in big trouble, but we signed 9 players. Blaney, Butcher, Casey, Furlong, Aitchison, Mandron, Obika, Crankshaw, Danzaki. How many actually contributed in changing the course of our season? Obviously Hammell got emptied just after we signed all these players, so thats a factor. But realistically Aitchison, Crankshaw and Danzaki offered nothing. Obika was injured for most of it and Blaney only played towards the end when Butcher got injured. Its difficult right now because we are still dealing with the damage of having had 3 managers in one season and sorting out all the contractual situations. But we need to be running a smaller squad of better quality suplemented by good youth players to make a significant impact on the league. I still think we can have a good season, but it will be in spite of our current position not because of it.

I dont pretend to understand how these things work, however, there is no way Danzaki is walking away from a 2.5 year deal without a significant pay off. But the club are not going to pay up his contract in full as that would be of no benefit to us whatsoever. Maybe given a years salary to walk away now and find a new club. Unless of course they have gone down the disciplinary route and he has been unable to hit certain benchmarks to prove he was capable of fullfilling his role and he has been paid off? Is that even possible in the football world?

My first Motherwell. Been addicted ever since. What a team.

Aye, I guess a football detox is maybe as important for our mental health as a digital detox! Maybe I need to take golf back up again! 😆😆😆

The older I get the less I worry, and the less I become effected by results. Conversely, the more I care about the club. Its a weird paradox. No idea what that means is going on in my head! 😆

I may regret saying this, but...... Thank christ the fitbas back next weekend!

You may well be right. The only problem with that is none of us knows. Considering we are supposed to be a fan owned club, thats a concern.

My interest in Wimbledon ended last night! 😪

Ah! Cheers for clearing that up. I understand now. We also reportedly still had £4.5m in the bank from player sales. Now, I get that as a fan owned club we cant go pissing that against the wall and we need to be fiscally prudent, especially after the car crash of last season, but I wouldnt have thought we were on our arse just yet?

I guess cause the insurance went into completing work we wouldnt have otherwise done, so wasnt absorbed into the running costs (as the purpose of the loan didnt allow for that) and therefore didnt assist with cashflow?

Fair point. Never thought about poor Aldo! I retract my comment.

Interesting. Who was the new Chief Exec? The boy McGhee? I presume Lennon Miller is a stick on to start the season then? I would be genuinely annoyed if we didnt get £400k plus for KVV. Without knowing the contents of his contract extension, you would have to think his goals are worth a few hundred k in league position alone. Re the 3/4 experienced players. Is that in addition to what we already have? I can see Danzaki, Maguire and possibly Sheilds going out the door, but not too many others surplus to requirements unless we can get others in. Still think we need a LB, CB, MF and possibly a FWD if Sheilds is moved on.

Im curious about this. Without betraying confidences, what are the conditions he was being asked to work under? He didnt get a lot of money to spend when GA got emptied, but the board backed him big time in the January window. With hindsight, way more money was spent than was actually required to rectify the situation.

Get well soon UBH.

The Puma blue kit had Cash Converters as sponsor. The Macron one was blemish free! 😉

2 of the best away kits we have ever had in my humble opinion.....

Looking back, the Paddy Power kit was the white one with horizontal claret and amber bands. The petrol blue was 20/21 and we didnt have a sponsor in place when it went on sale.

He was a very limited footballer. For a big man, he was useless in the air, he wasnt quick and looked like he was running in quicksand. He did however tie up defenders and keep them occupied to allow KVV to do his thing. So far that, I thank him greatly!

This is where we miss UBH. His templates were a great thing during the close season to stimulate some sort of interesting discussion......

I did like the silver one. No idea why I didnt buy one, even in the end of season sale! My only stipulation on away kit is that it must have claret and amber trim of some description. We have had some kits in the past that just looked like training kit or worse. It must have some connection to Motherwell FC.