Well 4 Europe Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 It's disappointing to see the lads released but that's football. We have a really small budget which will probably be cut again in the summer, we simply can't afford to give contracts to guys like Devlin, Hethrington & Watt if McCall doesn't believe they can contribute to the 1st team. If he wants to try and keep Higdon, or try and lure a decent replacement for him, Law & Randolph etc. then he'll need to trim the squad and every penny will count. I'm sure in an ideal world, McCall would offer some of them a year extension to give them a chance to see if they can force their way into the 1st team but it's simply not financial viable. It was much the same when Lawless left last year. Devlin, Watt & Hethrington will all be in their 20's at the start of next season and if they can't force their way into the team then it will be a waste of time for them as well as the club. They'd be best going out in my opinion and getting 1st team football elsewhere rather than playing in our reserves and occasionally warming the bench or getting the odd cameo. Time will tell if these boys will go on to have good careers elsewhere but McCall obviously doesn't believe they are worth giving a wage to next season in relation to the contribution they'll make to the 1st team. That's the job he's paid to do and we just have to let him get on with it. Not many boys we release go on to make it elsewhere but I hope these boys like the others that will be released get sorted up somewhere next season and get to progress their careers next season. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santheman Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 looks like we're either slashing the wage bill or freeing up money for all these new signings from the English Leagues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 They will all head to Thistle and form a 'Well tribute team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underboyleheating Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 They will all head to Thistle and form a 'Well tribute team. Almost certain, it would give our fixtures against them a bit of an edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montrose Well Fan Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11781/8718873/Interest-mounting-in-Inverness-pair-Shane-Sutherland-and-Chris-Hogg Are we Maybe the Scottish team sending scouts to watch them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Hope not. Sutherland is hugely inconsistent and Hogg is terribly average, and has been out for about a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelvinBragg Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Not saying we're not interested but we wouldn't need to scout them given the number of times they've played against us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 i doubt money is the reason. hetherington had a great game in valencia but struggled in his only spl start and i think we all over rated devlin because he was playing first team football before he signed. it's very disappointing that watt never got a chance. the youth system seems to have dropped off a fair bit. possibly feeling the delayed effect of chris mccart leaving? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siebsbarmyarmy Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 I think the injuries have severely taken their toll on Devlin, disappointing as I personally had high hopes for him!! Hertherington looked a player to me aswell,strong and had a wicked left peg, didn't set the heather alight at a pish Airdrie side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well 4 Europe Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 In fairness, despite the stick our youth policy is getting it's interesting to note that 10 of the 18 man squad that played against Ross County last week had played for our youth team at some point. Stevie Hammell Keith Lasley James McFadden ==================== Shaun Hutchinson Adam Cummins Zaine Francis Angol ======================== Fraser Kerr Stewart Carswell Bob McHugh Ross Stewart Misleading slightly as the first 3 all made their debuts over 10 years ago! Of the other 7, 3 were picked up as teenagers from down South but did play in our youth team and the other 4 have all came right through the youth system with the exception of Kerr who was snapped up by Birmingham when he was 16 and has since been loaned back. I think that's a decent number of youth players even if you take away the elder three, also shows some decent scouting to pluck a good few of the scrapheap from down South. Add in Craig Moore, Lee Erwin who'll be pushing for the 1st team next season(although you'd probably be better asking Noah Dosser as I don't get to see a great deal of the youth team), and I don't think we're doing too bad. As hard as it is, we don't owe these boys a living and only a certain number from each age group will make it. It's up to them to prove they're worth a contract and McCall obviously feels none of the boys released are. It must be hard to tell these young boys they have no future at the club but that's his job and we pay him to make these decisions. I say this each year but I can't think of too many if any players who we've released who've went on to prove us wrong.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 mchugh and carswell are the only two there who are recent products of our youth development (and mchugh made his debut 5 years ago) picking up guys released by bigger clubs like zaine, cummins and hutchy is important but compared to other spl clubs we haven't made much progress developing local kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onthefringes Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 mchugh and carswell are the only two there who are recent products of our youth development (and mchugh made his debut 5 years ago) picking up guys released by bigger clubs like zaine, cummins and hutchy is important but compared to other spl clubs we haven't made much progress developing local kids. I'm sure Hutchy was picked up from boys club football as most are prior to entering our youth system... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaka Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 And McHugh is decidedly average at that,dissappointed we gave him another 2 years tbh. Our youth development is shite really,Carswell is the only player we've had come thro in years. Cummins,ZFA,Hutch were all signed for the 19s and every1 else has been ditched. We seem to regularly have several players in scotland u16/17/19 teams then from 19's they stagnate. Question has to be asked,Why?? I also feel sorry for this years u20 team. No coach till after season started,no pre season,and a squad of mainly 16/17 yo kids playing essentially reserve team football and getting regularly hammered. That's gonna do fuck all to develop a player Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 I'm sure Hutchy was picked up from boys club football as most are prior to entering our youth system... his mum and dad were lucky enough to be sat next to me on a flight to the steaua game. he was at sunderland, released and then had a choice of swansea and us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi-1991 Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 his mum and dad were lucky enough to be sat next to me on a flight to the steaua game. he was at sunderland, released and then had a choice of swansea and us. Lucky them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Sad to hear. We're having a slender run of bringing players through. McCall takes after his old gaffer Walter Smith. Youth will only get a chance if there is no other option. Don't want to harp on about year old news but surely Lawless would have been a better member of our squad than Omar Daley this season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prideoflanarkshire Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Anyone else slightly concerned that we missed out on what seemed to be our first choice goalkeeper replacement. He's away to killie. I am not questioning weithet or not he's good or not just little concerned why he picked killie over us. Can only imagine its money or not having to move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrazMFC96 Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 He was offered a 4 year contact at Killie according to the P&B twitter. Stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prideoflanarkshire Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 If that's the case never worth a 4 year deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 McCall takes after his old gaffer Walter Smith. Youth will only get a chance if there is no other option. Don't want to harp on about year old news but surely Lawless would have been a better member of our squad than Omar Daley this season? This is pish, frankly. We've got a youthful team and even if we do have older players, like lasley, hammell and higdon, why would we drop them this season? Who from the youth teams has ever shown that they've got what it takes after leaving us? Are they setting the heather alight and proving McCall wrong? Lawless might've been an option, but he needed games. How many has Daley had this season? Would he have dislodged Law, Ojamaa or Murphy? Doubtful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 From what I gather Lawless was offered a deal from the proceeds of selling Murphy to Blackpool, and then Murphy declined the move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi-1991 Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 I see via twitter we have signed a young Irish goal keeper. Not for the first team I assume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_P Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 I think sometimes our youth development work gets underplayed. Take the earlier posts about Shaun Hutchinson for example where it almost comes across as if somehow being attached to another senior club previously has devalued our contribution in his development. He came to the club as a midfielder and by virtue of the work done at Motherwell has been transformed into one of the country's most promising central defenders, was mooted to be an injury away from an England U21 call up and had Championship teams bidding for him last summer. Just because he happened to be on the books of Sunderland or whoever earlier in his teens and wasn't Lanarkshire born and bred should not detract from the job done since he came to Motherwell. And it begs the question at what stage do youths become a Motherwell product. Did Lasley for example not have a time in his youth at Kilmarnock? Was McFadden not on the book at Clyde at one stage? Does a kid have to live in the shadow of Fir Park, join at the age of six and go right through into the first team and be sold for a £1m before being considered a "pure" product of your system? For me it doesn't really matter when or how they get to Motherwell, its what happens when we have them with us. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 Best post I've read on here in quite some time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 I think sometimes our youth development work gets underplayed. Take the earlier posts about Shaun Hutchinson for example where it almost comes across as if somehow being attached to another senior club previously has devalued our contribution in his development. He came to the club as a midfielder and by virtue of the work done at Motherwell has been transformed into one of the country's most promising central defenders, was mooted to be an injury away from an England U21 call up and had Championship teams bidding for him last summer. Just because he happened to be on the books of Sunderland or whoever earlier in his teens and wasn't Lanarkshire born and bred should not detract from the job done since he came to Motherwell. And it begs the question at what stage do youths become a Motherwell product. Did Lasley for example not have a time in his youth at Kilmarnock? Was McFadden not on the book at Clyde at one stage? Does a kid have to live in the shadow of Fir Park, join at the age of six and go right through into the first team and be sold for a £1m before being considered a "pure" product of your system? For me it doesn't really matter when or how they get to Motherwell, its what happens when we have them with us. there are obviously different ways of getting players and once there are on the park doing a job it doesn't matter where they came from. lasley and hammell both joined in their late teens and faddy was at hibs for a while i think. i'm just saying that for all the resources we put into coaching boys under the age of 16 it would be good to get some end product from that department. dundee united, killie, hearts, aberdeen and hibs all seem to be doing that better than us at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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