Welcome to Motherwell Graham Alexander

[Spiderpig]

4 minutes ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

 

Listening to that interview,  seems the deal was done a few days ago as he has looked at the squad and consulted with SR, so the club obviously knew who they wanted.

[Kmcalpin]

4 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Listening to that interview,  seems the deal was done a few days ago as he has looked at the squad and consulted with SR, so the club obviously knew who they wanted.

I think he'll hit the ground running with regards to the squad; possible departures and requirements for new players. 

[grizzlyg]

I am genuinely optimistic...welcome to the rollercoaster Graham 

[MelvinBragg]

1 hour ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

Depends what the club actually wants. If they want to do a big reveal like they normally do then I suspect that an hour after the news has broken and still nothing official. 

This 'big reveal' stuff is nonsense. Impossible to keep a secret in football with so many fans/journalists after information. How many days before it was official was it common knowledge that Pochetino was the new PSG manager? As long as it doesn't lead to the club getting gazumped on a signing then there's no issue. If social media hits are the goal the content simply has to be good. Peter Hartley signing permanently wasn't a huge exclusive but the club made it work. And given our current predicament, perhaps a big reveal isn't the way to go....

[Welldaft Mk1]

3 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

This 'big reveal' stuff is nonsense. Impossible to keep a secret in football with so many fans/journalists after information. How many days before it was official was it common knowledge that Pochetino was the new PSG manager? As long as it doesn't lead to the club getting gazumped on a signing then there's no issue. If social media hits are the goal the content simply has to be good. Peter Hartley signing permanently wasn't a huge exclusive but the club made it work. And given our current predicament, perhaps a big reveal isn't the way to go....

Not a biggie. 3 points on Saturday is more important. Glad he is onboard. Fingers crossed it works out for both parties..

[star sail]

The interview is very interesting. Makes reference to possible divisions in the dress room but most importantly says that there is no lack of ability in the team.

Talk is cheap but it certainly inspires confidence when the manager is articulate and says all the things a fan would want to hear.

Plenty of reason for real optimism and I would not be surprised if we got a big response from the players on Saturday. 

I was really disappointed to see Robinson go but now the reset button has been pressed I am feeling excited and optimistic again.

The King is dead. Long live the King!!

[GazzyB]

1 hour ago, supermarv said:

From what I’ve been told about him at the club he was a total banger and a part of our downfall ever since he joined the coaching staff. Never covered himself in glory when in the press or public all he spoke about was rangers.

"From what I've been told" is a bit rich from a guy who previously tried to drop snippets of info in the transfer thread and come across as 'in the know' and demanded credit for it, only to publicly out his own source as rumours on Twitter, take the huff, storm off the site swearing to never return again and then slither back on a few months later as if nothing happened.

 

Stop pretending to be something you aren't.

[Al B]

1 hour ago, supermarv said:

Such a well respected coach wouldn’t be managing in Norway or the Faroe Islands.

[ropy]

So does everyone get a clean slate?

Apart from White, Lamie and Chapman?

[grizzlyg]

Impressed with his interview,  now let's all get behind Graham and give him a fair crack at the job managing the team we all love....COYWWW

[fizoxy]

Interesting write up of his tactics. Seems to prefer a 4-4-2.

https://footballbh.net/2020/03/18/salford-201920-team-analysis-tactical-analysis-tactics/

[CoF]

Didn't know the first thing about the guy 2 days ago but absolutely delighted with that. 

[Ya Bezzer!]

Interesting that he's talking about splits and factions in the dressing room.

It's been alluded to before but he's basically confirming it here.

[joewarkfanclub]

More than happy with this appointment. 

Looking forward to seeing how he is going to rebuild/reshape this squad. Players will have to shape up or prepare to ship out.

A nice early win on Saturday would be a bonus!

[supermarv]

8 hours ago, GazzyB said:

"From what I've been told" is a bit rich from a guy who previously tried to drop snippets of info in the transfer thread and come across as 'in the know' and demanded credit for it, only to publicly out his own source as rumours on Twitter, take the huff, storm off the site swearing to never return again and then slither back on a few months later as if nothing happened.

 

Stop pretending to be something you aren't.

I’d always say if it was rumours from twitter, however most transfer things is from a source and usually spot on, always going to be things that are wrong though, that’s the nature of it, so I’m not pretending to be anything.

[Neilwell86]

The worst part about hiring a new manager, or making a new signing for that matter is all the 'welcome to our wee club' patter

[Kmac]

After sleeping on the issue, I'm afraid I'm not jumping on the bandwagon here. 

Rather than having anything personally against Alexander, my concerns stem from a fundamental disagreement in current approach from the board concerning recent strategic running of the club. 

Whilst I understand that argument will be met with a flurry of "look at the money that has come in", I am approaching this from the perspective of a fan, who's main aim is to see the best team on the park, have some success and hopefully move along 1 or 2 players from time to time in order to keep things ticking. 

I don't believe that the appointment of Alexander represents an understanding of either the immediate needs of the playing side of things or indeed shows significant strategic foresight. The vast majority of the mess we find ourselves in stems from recent runnings at the club. Handing out short term contracts to lower league players (often from the English leagues), a lack of investment in senior players and a lack of emergent youth - these factors have all combined to a state where the dressing room is split and we look pretty rudderless.

I also do not believe that the hiring of Alexander, given his full background is in lower league English football, will offer any sort of departure from the above. As I have said before, I am not against bringing in players from south of the border, but that needs to be met primarily with our own youth talent and a group of senior players to steady the ship. We have had no communication from Burrows et. al. as yet, regarding investment on the playing side from the Turnbull/Scott/Mckinstry/Kipre money, rather we are still talking about offloading to bring in (the fact we have a bloated squad lacking ability shouldn't leave us in a financial situation of having to do that, given recent income).  

The matter of fact is that we are in a relegation dogfight, at the time of writing, and our main aim for the season is survival. Alexander has neither worked nor played in Scotland and as has been seen in both management and players previously, the demands and expectations are higher than what many imagine - often catching people by surprise. It's a huge risk bringing in this type of profile at this time. It will unquestionably take him time to adapt and I don't believe we have that luxury. 

From a mentality perspective, I believe it's the wrong approach.  For me, this is not necessarily the move which an established premier league club should be making - I'm afraid it's the kind of appointment I would expect from a club such as St. Mirren or Ross County (no offence).  Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, we haven't been relegated in 34 years, have the 7th/8th largest support in the country and have a supporter engagement and bank balance that the vast majority of clubs in Scotland would envy (That all sounds a wee bit too Sevco, but hopefully you get the point) .

We're taking unnecessary risks and not realising the cliff side that potential relegation and the subsequent disenfranchisement from the society that it would represent or adjusting our strategic approaching to secure success on the park and our long term future. 

[Onthefringes]

Not discounting your theory, out of curiosity - who would you have installed in the role?

[Kmac]

12 minutes ago, Onthefringes said:

Not discounting your theory, out of curiosity - who would you have installed in the role?

I would have perhaps considered a model of senior manager moving to director of football in the summer or installed someone until the end of season. 

[Welldaft Mk1]

8 minutes ago, Onthefringes said:

Not discounting your theory, out of curiosity - who would you have installed in the role?

His theory would be as valid as me saying this is the best appointment we could have made and that we will finish in Europe every year with Alexander at the helm. 

Every appointment carries a risk and the reality is that our ability to attract the best Managers is akin to players. Not going to happen. We can neither afford them and they know will get better or more attractive offers. 

I think it is a good appointment and Alexander had had moderate success at all his clubs. Notably early on in the relationship. 

I would also point out that our player dealing this month will be every bit as important as who we appointed as Manager. We need to try and move out underperforming players and any of our better players that move on with players that are less of a risk. So that would probably mean making cash available for a few good loans until the end of the season until we can regroup and take more time to build for a successful future. Players like  Jordan Jones / Greg Stewart etc. Proven players at our level. 

If he manages to keep us away from relegation this season he will have been deemed a success in my eyes. 

 

[El Grew]

38 minutes ago, Kmac said:

After sleeping on the issue, I'm afraid I'm not jumping on the bandwagon here. 

Rather than having anything personally against Alexander, my concerns stem from a fundamental disagreement in current approach from the board concerning recent strategic running of the club. 

Whilst I understand that argument will be met with a flurry of "look at the money that has come in", I am approaching this from the perspective of a fan, who's main aim is to see the best team on the park, have some success and hopefully move along 1 or 2 players from time to time in order to keep things ticking. 

I don't believe that the appointment of Alexander represents an understanding of either the immediate needs of the playing side of things or indeed shows significant strategic foresight. The vast majority of the mess we find ourselves in stems from recent runnings at the club. Handing out short term contracts to lower league players (often from the English leagues), a lack of investment in senior players and a lack of emergent youth - these factors have all combined to a state where the dressing room is split and we look pretty rudderless.

I also do not believe that the hiring of Alexander, given his full background is in lower league English football, will offer any sort of departure from the above. As I have said before, I am not against bringing in players from south of the border, but that needs to be met primarily with our own youth talent and a group of senior players to steady the ship. We have had no communication from Burrows et. al. as yet, regarding investment on the playing side from the Turnbull/Scott/Mckinstry/Kipre money, rather we are still talking about offloading to bring in (the fact we have a bloated squad lacking ability shouldn't leave us in a financial situation of having to do that, given recent income).  

The matter of fact is that we are in a relegation dogfight, at the time of writing, and our main aim for the season is survival. Alexander has neither worked nor played in Scotland and as has been seen in both management and players previously, the demands and expectations are higher than what many imagine - often catching people by surprise. It's a huge risk bringing in this type of profile at this time. It will unquestionably take him time to adapt and I don't believe we have that luxury. 

From a mentality perspective, I believe it's the wrong approach.  For me, this is not necessarily the move which an established premier league club should be making - I'm afraid it's the kind of appointment I would expect from a club such as St. Mirren or Ross County (no offence).  Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, we haven't been relegated in 34 years, have the 7th/8th largest support in the country and have a supporter engagement and bank balance that the vast majority of clubs in Scotland would envy (That all sounds a wee bit too Sevco, but hopefully you get the point) .

We're taking unnecessary risks and not realising the cliff side that potential relegation and the subsequent disenfranchisement from the society that it would represent or adjusting our strategic approaching to secure success on the park and our long term future. 

Excellent post and very well argued and I must say that I concur.  As I said previously, my preference would have been to appoint Tommy Wright on a short-term contract until the end of the season with an (incentive) bonus built-in for keeping us up.  Assuming that this would succeed, it would allow the club to take more time to consider managerial options going forward.

[santheman]

Don’t disagree with a lot of that but I think Alexander with his knowledge of the English lower leagues will look to  bring in players that he knows can do a specific job for him rather than our model of taking a punt on someone.

Those kind of players might cost a bit more but I’d rather have 2 or 3 solid experienced pros that he’s maybe worked with before and than 4 or 5  Seedorfs picking up a wage with no real return on the park

[Al B]

Tommy Wright would surely (and rightfully) be massively insulted at any short term offer, and tell us to ram it firmly up our backsides.

[Andy_P]

1 hour ago, Kmac said:

After sleeping on the issue, I'm afraid I'm not jumping on the bandwagon here. 

Rather than having anything personally against Alexander, my concerns stem from a fundamental disagreement in current approach from the board concerning recent strategic running of the club. 

Whilst I understand that argument will be met with a flurry of "look at the money that has come in", I am approaching this from the perspective of a fan, who's main aim is to see the best team on the park, have some success and hopefully move along 1 or 2 players from time to time in order to keep things ticking. 

I don't believe that the appointment of Alexander represents an understanding of either the immediate needs of the playing side of things or indeed shows significant strategic foresight. The vast majority of the mess we find ourselves in stems from recent runnings at the club. Handing out short term contracts to lower league players (often from the English leagues), a lack of investment in senior players and a lack of emergent youth - these factors have all combined to a state where the dressing room is split and we look pretty rudderless.

I also do not believe that the hiring of Alexander, given his full background is in lower league English football, will offer any sort of departure from the above. As I have said before, I am not against bringing in players from south of the border, but that needs to be met primarily with our own youth talent and a group of senior players to steady the ship. We have had no communication from Burrows et. al. as yet, regarding investment on the playing side from the Turnbull/Scott/Mckinstry/Kipre money, rather we are still talking about offloading to bring in (the fact we have a bloated squad lacking ability shouldn't leave us in a financial situation of having to do that, given recent income).  

The matter of fact is that we are in a relegation dogfight, at the time of writing, and our main aim for the season is survival. Alexander has neither worked nor played in Scotland and as has been seen in both management and players previously, the demands and expectations are higher than what many imagine - often catching people by surprise. It's a huge risk bringing in this type of profile at this time. It will unquestionably take him time to adapt and I don't believe we have that luxury. 

From a mentality perspective, I believe it's the wrong approach.  For me, this is not necessarily the move which an established premier league club should be making - I'm afraid it's the kind of appointment I would expect from a club such as St. Mirren or Ross County (no offence).  Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, we haven't been relegated in 34 years, have the 7th/8th largest support in the country and have a supporter engagement and bank balance that the vast majority of clubs in Scotland would envy (That all sounds a wee bit too Sevco, but hopefully you get the point) .

We're taking unnecessary risks and not realising the cliff side that potential relegation and the subsequent disenfranchisement from the society that it would represent or adjusting our strategic approaching to secure success on the park and our long term future. 

It's a well made case but much like when we discussed similar the other day, and whilst I'm not a million miles off in terms of hoping to see better on the park, I'm still in disagreement over the current strategy off it. I still think it is pretty clear and not dissimilar from what it has been pretty much from day one.

Broken right down for me  have a scenario where the club finds itself reliant on running as tight a ship as possible allied largely to player trading to get as close to break even as possible or even generate a profit. We will get the odd Cup Final or European run that will distort things but that's largely the challenge they are going to face every year.   Going by what was said at the last AGM they have raised the playing budget and are fully aware if they don't there is an understanding of where that most likely lead. But that doesn't change the fact that the more that is spent on the playing budget the further away from break even they start off.

Also contributing to that challenge of breaking even is Fir Park.  Whether we like it or not the clock is ticking and money is required to be spent on it to ensure its fit for purpose for every new season.  And that isn't just niceities like scoreboards that's stuff like getting licences to open stands or making sure the pitch never again gets to the stage it was at a decade ago.

Then there's training facilities which with each new complex that other clubs open or enter into agreements to use facilities sees us become slightly less attractive and which the club have committed to improve for the development of the players both first team and through the age grades.

It's a bitter pill to swallow perhaps when you don't have investors with deep pockets, or financial institutions willing to lend at attractive rates and your only way of  ensuring the continued running of the club is through that mixture of cutting your cloth and player sales, then the priority will always, always be securing the club's future present, medium term and where appropriate further into the future.  You could even go so far as to make the argument that the board would not be acting in the best interests of the club if their first thought when having a year like 2020 is to disregard their financial responsibilities and go daft and ramp up the budget considerably.   

And bringing all that back to the managerial appointment yesterday, I genuinely don't know anything about his managerial merits, but if the guy has a fair reputation in the positions he has held, has impressed in the interview process, has plenty of experience of managing similar sized clubs and knows the  market you primarily expect to buy and sell to then I can understand why he's been attractive to the board.  But we'll see.

 

[Big Wispy Flossy]

I would recommend a watch class of 92 : full time to understand the conditions Alexander worked under at Salford city. Gary Neville thinking of potential transfer targets and then instantly on the blower to see if they would sign. Also signing players who whilst of good pedigree hadn’t kicked a ball for 12 -18months and expecting instant success.  Neville would have been as well picking the team too.