S Robinson Motherwell Manager

[joewarkfanclub]

I really do wish our new manager all the very best and I pray that he can keep us in the top flight this season.

 

However, I feel that he may just have been tasked with the equivalent of trying to roll a snowball up a hill in a heatwave.

 

For me, a couple of things have now crystalised:

.

1. Motherwell FC is no longer an attractive club to manage in the eyes of the football fraternity. Could the new ownership model have something to do with this? For me, yes it does. Our precarious financial position has been well exposed for some time and the wider football community now knows the club is being run on a shoestring. As I've said before, fan ownership is highly laudable, maybe in an ideal world desirable, but as we simply do not have the fanbase to support it, then it was doomed from the outset. A lot of well-intentioned people have chosen this path for the club but I personally believe it will lead to financial oblivion. I fully expect to get pelters from what I'm about to say next but IMHO, we should start immediate discreet enquiries to try and ascertain if there is a business person or group of business persons that would be interested in becoming involved with the club and put us back on a more "traditional" financial model.

 

2. Our lack of finance perhaps explains why Mark McGhee was having to trawl deeper and deeper into the nether regions and hinterlands of English football for players. Who knows, he may have had to be using some sort of barter system involving Irn Bru bottles. I was not a fan of bringing Mark McGhee back to the club but I think the manner of his departure was handled with disgraceful ineptitude as has the manner in which we have gone about getting his replacement. To believe that Stephen Robinson will fare any better than Mark McGhee given the circumstances, for me is just further proof of the naivety of those at the helm of the club, no matter how well-intentioned and passionate they are.☹️

Not sure we had any alternative to fan ownership.

 

John Boyle tried to punt the club for years before taking this route. There were no serious takers or those that came forward were so dubious in character he didnt view them as viable options.

 

The Well Society is the only game in town. We need it to be a success.

 

If that means a downscaled Motherwell operating in the First Division then I'd take that over no Motherwell at all. However, we are entitled to aim higher than that.

[Onthefringes]

I was not keen on getting rid of McGhee right up until the Dundee debacle, then he was a dead man walking.

The main reason for this was that I could not see a good alternative to him.

The names bandied about on here were pure fantasy. Coyle Davies and Stubbs have all managed at Championship or Premier in England and wouldn't come her. Valakari from Finland no thanks-Harry Kampmann anyone?

As we are skint we could only look at someone who was unemployed. That means he has been sacked or is not wanted by others.

We need to get real.

Some on here are calling the club amateurish in the way they have gone about filling the job.

I think they have been very professional. They have taken their time looked around, interviewed five people(without revealing who they were) and decided on who they want. This is exactly how a senior manager post should be filled.

Whether or not it is the correct decision will remain to be seen. But we need to get right behind him and the team.

Oh and here is one to get everyone going. How about he brings in Baraclough as his assistant like he did at Oldham!!!!!

Seriously there should be a vacancy for an experienced coach to come in as we are one down in the coaching staff since McGhee left.

 

Aye? Suspect the truth will out... No cryptic or any fortune cookie chat - the club wanted Coyle, Coyle fancied the challenge then reneged due circumstances outwith our control.

 

I forgave him for a lot because of the penalty at the open air Masonic Lodge, but, he's back to being a soap dodging, bog trotting Airdrie bastard

 

It won't be long to find out if replacing experience with inexperience has worked.

[CoF]

Robinson said this morning McFadden remaining as assistant till at least the summer.

 

I found it quite telling that his response was around McFadden's contract and the identity of the club, as opposed to any qualities he has as an assistant manager.

[Lukemfc1]

Robinson wouldn't have been my first choice due to his lack of experience, however I can understand the board wanting to keep some continuity. I do really like the way he talks and he has done well in the last couple of games so can see both points of view. It is just very risky business given our clubs current league position but it sounds like we didn't have many other experienced options. I also don't agree with some of the criticism of people levelling valid concerns regarding his appointment. On paper he is a relative unknown as a manager.

 

Nonetheless we all need to get behind the new manager and the team starting Saturday. I geniunely believe we have enough quality to get ourselves away from the relegation dogfight. Robinson seems like he knows how to organise a defence, if we can be made hard to beat we certaintly have enough goals up front to move up the table. I think regardless of what happens we really need a clear out of players in the summer. Time for the likes of Hammell, Lasley & McManus to bid fairwell. Some might say 'who will we bring in' but the reality is these guys are earning some of our biggest wages and haven't been producing for some time now.

 

We may moan at times being a Well fan but it is never a dull experience. Bring on the run-in I say

[Ya Bezzer!]

Ian Baraclough coming back as assistant.

 

TRIANGLE OF DOOM

 

 

Robinson

 

 

 

Barraclough Erwin

[El Grew]

El Grew, a well structured argument. I agree with most of it though not all.

 

Just for my own understanding, in what way was the

manner of McGhees departure handled with disgraceful ineptitude as indeed how we have gone about the recruitment of his replacement?

 

I have to agree with Sinjy, I haven't seen anything done by the club or reported by the press as having been done by the club as being shambolic, disgraceful, unprofessional or illegal. I do accept though that there are many who are far more in the know than me.

 

So it's a genuine question.

Gadgey please don't think for one minute that I'm suggesting that there was anything underhand or illegal in the way the club dealt with the managerial situation. I was merely expressing my opinion (for what it's worth) that my impression was that both the sacking of Mark McGhee and the appointment of a new manager was not well managed.

 

Firstly, in my view, the timing of McGhee's dismissal smacked of panic and submission to the noise being made by a very small number of a few younger fans the majority of whom weren't brave enough to show their faces while protesting. The club should have totally ignored this but didn't. I can fully understand them going into panic mode given our financial position and faced with the possibility of a gargantuan drop in revenues which would occur if we were relegated however I still think that being the most experienced person at the club, McGhee should have been left in charge until the end of the season.

 

Secondly, having gone into panic mode and given in to a very small number of protesters by sacking McGhee it quickly became obvious that it was a knee-jerk reaction with no plan in place for a replacement. Having sacked McGhee, it's my view that the obvious thing to do was to ask Robinson to take charge until the end of the season subject to retaining the right to either appoint him permanently or advertise the job. Why go through some sort of pseudo-recruitment-interview charade (needlessly dragging a guy down from Finland in the process) which ends up with Robinson being appointed manager anyway - I thought it was only the public sector that did this sort of thing. The bigger question in all of this, might be, who invited Robinson back to FP and for what purpose - after all McGhee had already appointed McFadden to be his assistant. Or was there a sub-plot going on with the aim of trying to oust McGhee and appoint Robinson as his replacement? Personally I don't think that was the case but it was clumsily dealt with and the logic behind it was not well-explained, if at all. I hope I have answered your questions as to the thinking behind my my previous post albeit only my opinions based on pure conjecture on my part as a fellow FP traveller of long standing.

[Ya Bezzer!]

I really do wish our new manager all the very best and I pray that he can keep us in the top flight this season.

 

However, I feel that he may just have been tasked with the equivalent of trying to roll a snowball up a hill in a heatwave.

 

For me, a couple of things have now crystalised:

.

1. Motherwell FC is no longer an attractive club to manage in the eyes of the football fraternity. Could the new ownership model have something to do with this? For me, yes it does. Our precarious financial position has been well exposed for some time and the wider football community now knows the club is being run on a shoestring. As I've said before, fan ownership is highly laudable, maybe in an ideal world desirable, but as we simply do not have the fanbase to support it, then it was doomed from the outset. A lot of well-intentioned people have chosen this path for the club but I personally believe it will lead to financial oblivion. I fully expect to get pelters from what I'm about to say next but IMHO, we should start immediate discreet enquiries to try and ascertain if there is a business person or group of business persons that would be interested in becoming involved with the club and put us back on a more "traditional" financial model.

 

 

If we live within our means there should be no 'financial oblivion' but it will also mean that our Premiership status will be at risk more often than not and if that is the case it's only a matter of time before we are relegated, if not this season, then probably soon.

 

I've said it before but 30 years of top level football has created a 'big club' mentality among many of our supporters. In reality we have lived a very charmed life but those days are over. Fans expectations need to re-align with where the club is financially.

[Haggischomper]

I think the McGhee sacking was more triggered by the colossal number of goals we were conceding at a critical time in the league, erratic and undisciplined behaviour with regards to match day officials, increasingly bizarre interviews, a seeming lack of influence with the players, and a potentially large upcoming ban at the most crucial moment of the season as a result of his recent undiscipline.

 

Safe to say that this time around it wasn't Just Like Watching Brazil. Blue Brazil, perhaps...

[Catweazles ring piece]

Aye? Suspect the truth will out... No cryptic or any fortune cookie chat - the club wanted Coyle, Coyle fancied the challenge then reneged due circumstances outwith our control.

 

I forgave him for a lot because of the penalty at the open air Masonic Lodge, but, he's back to being a soap dodging, bog trotting Airdrie bastard

 

It won't be long to find out if replacing experience with inexperience has worked.

Pants pulled down and arse slapped.

You couldn't make this up if this is genuine.

 

The way it played out the last few weeks, just didn't make sense to me.

Sounds like Plan A which was the master plan, unraveled at the last minute.

IMO we are going to suffer unless Robinson has more to offer than originally thought.

If we go down as a result, arses need booted.

[underboyleheating]

 

it's only a matter of time before we are relegated, if not this season, then probably soon.

Unavoidable in my opinion. If it can happen to Hibs, Hearts, Dundee United it can happen to any side. I just hope it’s not this season.

[underboyleheating]

It won't be long to find out if replacing experience with inexperience has worked.

Football clubs live and die on the decisions made by the board, managers and the players on the park. However, time will tell if this managerial appointment is the correct one. I wish him good luck, as I suspect he will need it. COYW!

[steelboy]

 

 

2. Our lack of finance perhaps explains why Mark McGhee was having to trawl deeper and deeper into the nether regions and hinterlands of English football for players. Who knows, he may have had to be using some sort of barter system involving Irn Bru bottles.

 

We are the only club in the league outside the Old Firm who are actually paying transfer fees for players.

 

The club in their wisdom have decided to try and outsmart the entire English league system by taking non league players who have already been rejected and then selling them to them. Unsurprisingly this has not been a success.

[fizoxy]

The first guy we did this with was sold for a reasonable fee, has a sell on clause, and is being chased by championship clubs. The second guy we paid for is sure to go in the summer, for money, so can't really say it has failed. As with all clubs, we will never be 100% with our signings, but at least the shite ones have been free.

[Guest]

Firstly, in my view, the timing of McGhee's dismissal smacked of panic and submission to the noise being made by a very small number of a few younger fans the majority of whom weren't brave enough to show their faces while protesting. The club should have totally ignored this but didn't. I can fully understand them going into panic mode given our financial position and faced with the possibility of a gargantuan drop in revenues which would occur if we were relegated however I still think that being the most experienced person at the club, McGhee should have been left in charge until the end of the season.

I've agreed with a lot of what you've said here, El Grew, but I'm not with you on this. I've often defended McGhee, and he has undoubtedly done us a turn in the past. Whether people like him or not, he's either kept us up or had us playing decent stuff.

 

That Dundee game they'd chucked it, though. It's a tale we've seen several times at Fir Park over the past few years, where we've seen whoever our captain is at the time giving it "We're sorry, we've let the manager down.". Throughout McGhee's time with us, even when it was good, he's had the wherewithal to dig out a result when he needs it. He's turned it around before, but this felt very different to me. We'd come away from 6 games conceding 20 goals, taking 3 points. If Dundee had turned up in the second half it could've been even more, really.

 

I see how it comes across as knee-jerk, particularly after the loudspeaker protest, but for me, he'd chucked it after the Rangers cup game.

 

A better question is why we go from relative stability to "we've let the boss down" with such regularity.

 

As an aside, who wants to play "Match the statement to the sacking"?

 

"We just wish him all the best and wish we could have done more for him the season. None of us wanted to see him out the door."

 

"The one big thing is that the results just haven't quite been there. The players and myself as the captain have got to stand up and take responsibility.

 

“That’s where the players, and myself included as the captain, must take responsibility. That’s where the disappointment lies."

[Goggles & Flippers]

A lot of valid points made and I've ran out of "likes" for the day, but as always a lot of shite too.

 

Steelboy, yeah we've dabbled in the transfer market and had a few wins and a few calamities. We didn't pay anything for Randolph (other than very high wages), Mark Reynolds and Jamie Murphy. We failed to achieve any significant revenue for players of their stature. Humphrey walked, Hutchison too but it looks like we'll get something decent for Moult and Marv has already been lucrative with another bit to come in the future.

 

OTF - Interesting about Coyle, would be nice to know what those outside influences beyond our control were, other than we have showers at FP and he'd be expected to wash.

 

El Grew - Don't really know where you're coming from, Graeme put it rather succinctly, McGhee came to us with a track record at our club. That first season he had us playing fantastic football with lean and hungry players. This time it felt like a shadow of then with him trading on his past achievements. He lost whatever fire he had after Rangers in the Scottish Cup. We haemorrhaged goals since, there was nothing there to show me he had the guile to turn things around.

 

Luckily, I think the club recognised that and while it may have been painful to do so, Flow had to deliver the news to the guy who gave him his start in the game.

 

I also don't think Robinson was a fait accomplit, COF has conveyed that the man we wanted was Coyle. It would have been courteous to invite the interim boss to interview for the job. Remember an interview goes both ways, some applicants may decide after a sit down and a chat that it's not for them, rejection isn't the reserve of those interviewing.

 

I think the 14 month contract over a 2 month one say to Robinson, look we're going to give you a bit of support, no the support of a 2 or 3 year deal, but enough that builds a degree of you wanting to pull for us. I think maybe even Robinson himself felt it was him it would be a deal till the summer and re-assess.

[texanwellfan]

I think it is a good appointment.

 

Bearing in mind it is 15th March, anyone new coming in could take a bit of time to get to know the squad - something we're pretty thin on.

 

Also, there have been marked signs of improvement in the games at Kilmarnock and Aberdeen, granted he clearly hasn't turned us into world beaters but he has proven that he has some ideas what he has doing.

 

I accept Oldham have improved since he left BUT with the budget they have he did well to even have them in touch.

 

As for the length of the contract I never really feel appointments to the end of the season work. They either result in short termism or lack of motivation, either create problems. I think we have provided a contract that mitigates both of these risks but allows us a not extortionate get out if he's pish.

 

So here's to you Mr Robinson, keep us up, get us safe and move us forward.

 

Slipped that one for us "old folks" ?

[Stu]

Look, I know no one else cares but can someone please give 'robinson' a capital 'R' in the thread title?

 

EDIT: Thanks, Andy.

[Andy_P]

Amended. It does play funny buggers with capitals when entering a title. Annoying. But now amended.

[Del_Superwell]

McGhee was told by the board after losing 3-0 at home to hearts that he had until the dundee game to turn things round and failing then a change would need to be made, nothing wrong with that, McGhee had lost the plot and was taking us in a downward spiral so it was absolutely the right call to bin him.

[capt_oats]

I'm fairly non-plussed about Robinson tbh. Certainly given the stage of the season we're at he seems less of a risk than hoping Valakari turned up after nearly 20 years away from the club and hit the ground running. Similarly Hughes couldn't even sort out a goalkeeper for Raith the other week and ended up having to play Ryan Stevenson in goals before resorting to publicly slating his players to try and get a reaction after what? 4 games in charge?

 

Onthefringes post earlier about Coyle actually puts the whole thing into some context and in hindsight it makes a lot more sense when framed with that information. Not that it matters much but it's a bit more reassuring knowing that there was a specific plan of action that they've tried to work out and it's not been this weird scenario of waiting a fortnight before eventually appointing the "least worst" option.

 

The club had their #1 target, he was into it but for reasons outwith MFC's control that fell through. Who knows it could be something as simple as he's seen the Norwich, Derby & Forest jobs come up and he's had 2nd thoughts and decided that he may be in with a shout of a better paid gig down there if not at those clubs then as part of a domino effect. That's obviously just speculation on my part but it doesn't seem like such a massive leap that a scenario like that would be improbable. Managers are getting emptied left, right and centre down there at the moment. Average tenure in the Championship is something like 9 months just now.

 

Ultimately that still leaves Motherwell looking to make an appointment, it's not something that could have dragged out much longer and it's difficult not to feel that given the circumstances we find ourselves in there can't have been too many "outstanding" candidates for the job. While he's still got the recent failure at Oldham very clearly on his CV Robinson's at the club, knows the players, has been working with them for the past few weeks. Short term at least he seems a more realistic option than hoping someone comes in from outside and hits the ground running.

 

Like a few on this thread I've been broadly supportive of McGhee but it's doubtful that any manager, maybe Canning excepted, would have been able to keep their job after that run of results and performances. He looked like he was ready to chuck it after the Rangers game and the players looked like they'd chucked it in more than a few since then. There was no way we could realistically have stuck with him after the Dundee game. Poor performances, results, erratic discipline and impending suspension McGhee was utterly toxic by that point.

[Lobey_Dosser]

McGhee was told by the board after losing 3-0 at home to hearts that he had until the dundee game to turn things round and failing then a change would need to be made, nothing wrong with that, McGhee had lost the plot and was taking us in a downward spiral so it was absolutely the right call to bin him.

Interesting and not surprising as he spouted absolute nonsense in the Hearts post match. However you wonder how much support he had, particularly in the aftermath of the Skippy/Ibrox saga. He was in need of a supportive Chairman at that point.

 

Do you know if the return of Robinson was instigated by McGhee or the club?

[steelboy]

 

 

Steelboy, yeah we've dabbled in the transfer market and had a few wins and a few calamities. We didn't pay anything for Randolph (other than very high wages), Mark Reynolds and Jamie Murphy. We failed to achieve any significant revenue for players of their stature. Humphrey walked, Hutchison too but it looks like we'll get something decent for Moult and Marv has already been lucrative with another bit to come in the future.

 

 

Moult will be a great signing whether we sell him or not but when you consider the Marvin fee you have take into account the number of players we've signed recently who have contributed nothing who must have cost a fair amount.

 

The way to make the club financially stable is to build a solid team that can make the top six and progress in the cups. Marvin and Moult fees will mean absolutely nothing if we are relegated.

[Well-Made]

Interesting and not surprising as he spouted absolute nonsense in the Hearts post match. However you wonder how much support he had, particularly in the aftermath of the Skippy/Ibrox saga. He was in need of a supportive Chairman at that point.

 

Do you know if the return of Robinson was instigated by McGhee or the club?

 

Robinson says it was McGhee that wanted him back to help with the coaching, got to take him at his word.

[Goggles & Flippers]

But surely Marvin, McHugh and Moult are the only players in 2 years we have purchased, everyone else has been a free. All three players have something about them and I feel confident they'll move on for a good return. Granted 2 years ago it was down to the Les, new toy, naivety but out of that we got Marvin which I recall Flow saying was potentially one of the most lucrative sales in the clubs history.

 

I'm glad to say all the duds turned out to only be wage thieves. Also happy to see all purchases seem to have been financially astute, the loans and free's are a gamble, but if they were a sure thing final articles then they probably wouldn't be a free transfer.

 

Safe to say we're not the only team in our league who have recruited some bums, Ross County go through 15 a season.

 

Also worth pointing out a current player who has something about him (Ainsworth) has not been utilised and developed by three successive managers. Can't deny he doesn't have ability, his work ethic is questionable but that's down to the manager to address.

 

Even the great Sir Alex got duds at Manchester United and they pretty much had the pick of the worlds leagues with an extensive scout network.

 

Be sure and put your name forward for head of scouting. However as you're the only person with a player potential crystal ball and your added power of hindsight, won't be long until Real Madrid comes knocking.

[steelboy]

They obviously brought Robinson back because it would be negligent to play 5 or 6 games without a qualified coach during McGhee's expected suspension.