El Grew

Absolutely right. It’s very likely that applications would only have started to arrive say by Monday and yet the board are at the interview stage already! They’re now on their 3rd go at getting “the right manager” and I just do not trust them one bit to get it right this time round. Of the 3 supposedly on the shortlist the only one I would have been happy with was Jack Ross. However if he has indeed dropped out then I think we have a problem. The other two have absolutely no knowledge or experience of Scottish football whatsoever and indeed one wonders how the board placed them onto the shortlist in the first place!! Maybe they’re going through the same charade as last time when they appointed Stevie Hammell. If that’s the case then I’d expect an announcement quite shortly that Stuart Kettlewell’s been appointed (until the end of the season?).

Daily Rancid reporting that 3 English Championship clubs showing an interest - Preston, Sheffield Utd and Luton Town. Utter bullshit. Somebody has a decent game and this shit-sheet picks 3 English clubs at random to make a story up. The guy is just 19 and in the foothills of what looks like a highly promising career BUT I just hope he shows better sense and judgment than two of our previous “potential stars” Slane and Hastie.

Ego arcum ad superiorem scientiam.

It’s Latin for onwards an upwards.

Looked as though Kettlewell’s objective was not to lose the game. tonight. It was a really turgid football match but a very welcome win and 3 points. Puram et ferent ad sidera.

BBC can’t make up its mind. On one internet page they’ve got Tommy Wright as the favourite and on another it’s John Hughes or James McPake.

I know it’s an old cliche but talk is cheap. IMHO we should be looking at either Malky McKay at Ross County or Ian Murray at Raith Rovers.

FFS GazzyB! Naw, naw and naw. Slattery and Goss should not be allowed near the first team ever again. Would suggest the following in simple for the players to understand 4-4-2 formation: Oxborough Johnston; Casey, Blaney, Furlong McKinstry, Butcher, Tierney, Crankshaw Van Veen, Obika

Totally agree. Under no circumstances must we consider any of these. From this lot, the one that would worry me the most is Stuart Kettlewell. After he was sacked from Ross County in December 2020, nobody showed the slightest interest in him apart from the BBC and then right out of the blue he turns up at FP at the end of last year!

Spot on.

Some of the very best players I’ve seen at FP were from both sides of the OF:- Bobby Watson, Davie Cooper, Bobby Russell, Vic Davidson, Tommy Coyne and Brian McLaughlin. I don’t ever recall any of them shirking it when the faced their old clubs.

Well said Grizzlyg. I’m with you.

🎣🎣🎣

Agreed. I couldn’t care what the manager’s past playing or managerial background is. Any Motherwell supporters for whom that’s a stumbling block should find another team to support.

Appreciate what you’re saying but I don’t think we can afford the time required to get the “right candidate” in for the long haul.

Totally agree Kmcalpin. As you say, get someone in with only one objective - keep us up. Give him a short contract to the end of the season with only one string attached - if he keeps us up, he gets a bonus on top of his salary. Whether he succeeds or not, we are under no obligation to retain him after that and we are then free to begin looking to the longer term.

I sincerely hope not!!

We’re now effectively back to where we were 2 years ago when Robinson resigned as we were in a relegation scrap and the board appointed Alexander who managed to turn things round and keep us up.

Aye, and you’ve cut right to the heart of the problem. I don’t subscribe to the theory (admittedly held by many) that the players “downed tools” on Hammell. Although as the chairman alluded to in his statement of yesterday evening, there were a number of factors that led to Hammell’s demise, I believe that there were essentially two main ones that led to this whole sorry business:- 1. I believe most of the players at the club at present have been trying. But, the simple truth is, that they are just very poor footballers. Anybody who seriously thinks that this rag and bobtail bunch have the capability of “turning it on and off” when it suits them is greatly deluded. 2. Some managers have the skill set required to organise, motivate and squeeze a bit of improvement out of such footballers. However, we had a rookie manager in his first job who patently lacked such a skill set and was incapable of learning and acquiring it. I think when these two factors are put together, it’s not hard to see and understand how we have gotten to where we are. The Board must now try to ensure that whoever they appoint next has the desire and ability to coach, organise and motivate poor quality players and begin rebuilding through gradually improving the quality of players at the club. The last manager we had who was able to do that was Tommy McLean and that is now almost 30 years ago!

Our chairman said: ”Steven Hammell is and forever will be a colossus in Motherwell FC history. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors, his time in charge hasn’t worked out the we all really hoped it would.” Well chairman, would you care to elaborate on exactly what these factors were?

Scott Brown.

Hammell fielded his two new strikers, Obika and Aitchison and left them completely isolated. In the 2nd half he threw on Van Veen and McKinstry - arguably two of our best players but there was no improvement. There was no cohesion, no discernible style of play and no creativity and the only positive is that the other 3 sides around us all lost.

You could’ve even got 21/20 at one point. However I have never ever bet for or against us.

It’s been obvious for quite a while now that Hammell is completely out of his depth. Bringing in 9 players in the last transfer window of the season is just sheer panic. I doubt that any club has ever brought in as many players as that in an entire season! As for those “running” the club, it’s been obvious since they punted Alexander that they too were out of their depth. They should’ve been questioning Hammell as to why he thought it necessary to bring in as many players at this stage of the season, but they just let him plough on. For me, today was the final straw. I thought it was bad against St. Johnstone, and it was but Hammell’s reading and management of today’s game was just embarrassing. Making 6 subs albeit one for an injury, with 20 mins to play, shows just how lost he really is. He made 3 subs after 10 mins of the 2nd half going from 2 up to 1 up when we were 1-0 down and the performance deteriorated as the players didn’t seem to understand what he was trying to do. Thereafter, it just descended into farce and it was obvious, to me anyway, that the team had switched off. Sure all the stats show we are bad; however for me, the true indictment on Hammell is that there’s been absolutely no discernible improvement in the team’s performance under his tenure - not even small incremental ones - and sadly, there is nothing there to suggest that this is going to change. If Hammell can’t see that, perhaps because he’s too close to the coal face, then the board must step in, point this out to him and remove him.

Hammell has used 6 subs and there was more than 20 minutes to play. I can’t ever remember seeing that many subs used outwith extra-time.