Welcome to Motherwell Graham Alexander

[Great Balls of Shire]

Dont know that much about Salford but they signed Adam Rooney.  He , supposedly , went to earn better money there than he did at Aberdeen,  so you would assume, it's an ok standard.

I've never seen them play, so that could be bollocks.

[Onthefringes]

42 minutes ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

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. 

I termed my question not to be dismissive of the posters' thoughts despite me not agreeing, simply to gauge who he/she thought was best placed to carry out the role.

For the record, I'm comfortable with the appointment. His first interview aligned with a little research for me. By your own admission, moderate success to further emphasise a proven track record. Perhaps not a point to prove, he sees the post as a challenge.

Wholeheartedly agree on importance of shaping the squad this month.

[Welldaft Mk1]

52 minutes ago, El Grew said:

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.

I would not have been against Tommy Wright but my preference was for Graham Alexander. Given the options reportedly available and listed at the bookies he stood out as a young(ish) Manager with bags of experience most notably as a player but also as a Manager. Only 1 of 3 players ever to play 1000+ senior games. 

Whether this translates to success with Motherwell time will tell. At least our players can listen to what he has to say knowing he had been there, seen it and done etc. 

Where I do disagree is why anyone believes we could have appointed any semi decent Manager on a short terms contract. Given all the background noise we would have still ended up appointing Graham Alexander only he probably would have had another club by then. 

It may well not work out and let’s face it as has been pointed out before. He has a HUGE task to turn what is currently a pigs ear into a silk purse. You could take Guardiola or Mourinho and it may not work. 

You will never have 100% agreement but it is encouraging that from message boards / twitter 90% of Well fans are behind this appointment. I doubt you will ever get better than that. ..

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

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. 

I basically share a lot of the same concerns as you do but most of them are strategic club decisions and less to do with Alexander's appointment.

Given the choices available I think, although the proof will be in the pudding, we've made the right decision.

It's true that Alexander has no experience of the league but he is a pretty experienced manager and I'm one of those people that thinks you should set out your team to play the way you want rather than worrying too much about the opposition especially in a league were there is a dearth of quality.  Of course managers have to make tactical changes and tweaks during a match depending on how things go but I don't really see the need to set up specifically to counter St. Mirren or Livingston.  It should be more about putting together a team that can dictate play to the opposition 60%+ of the time and given that probably 10 out the 12 teams are much of a muchness I don't think that's an impossible task. It just needs small improvements in player and manager performance.

Right now the single biggest issue is bringing the squad together and getting the team and individuals playing to a standard that they are capable of and to instil some belief.  Is the squad good enough? I don't think so but at the same time we are definitely underperforming.  Bring in new blood is also going to crucial as is moving players on.

 

 

[Yorkyred]

23 minutes ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

I would not have been against Tommy Wright but my preference was for Graham Alexander. Given the options reportedly available and listed at the bookies he stood out as a young(ish) Manager with bags of experience most notably as a player but also as a Manager. Only 1 of 3 players ever to play 1000+ senior games. 

Whether this translates to success with Motherwell time will tell. At least our players can listen to what he has to say knowing he had been there, seen it and done etc. 

Where I do disagree is why anyone believes we could have appointed any semi decent Manager on a short terms contract. Given all the background noise we would have still ended up appointing Graham Alexander only he probably would have had another club by then. 

It may well not work out and let’s face it as has been pointed out before. He has a HUGE task to turn what is currently a pigs ear into a silk purse. You could take Guardiola or Mourinho and it may not work. 

You will never have 100% agreement but it is encouraging that from message boards / twitter 90% of Well fans are behind this appointment. I doubt you will ever get better than that. ..

 

We only need to know one thing, does Yodo like him ? If it’s no we’re about to have three years of Alexandra out posts.

[Shaka]

16 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

We only need to know one thing, does Yodo like him ? If it’s no we’re about to have three years of Alexandra out posts.

Alexandra outposts? Was our new Gaffer a Macedonian King?

[David]

2 hours 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. 

A few points, which I've bolded above.

The finances situation is quite simple. We're not going to be spending any of the money brought in from the deals you mention until we have some sort of idea when we're going to see paying fans coming back through the gates.

Right now we're like a family with cash in the bank, but who have had their breadwinners sent home from work on furlough. There's not a hope in hell you dip into those savings unless you really need to. 

As for the appointment itself, I can't agree with it being something I'd expect from a St Mirren or Ross County.

With the exception of Jack Ross and possibly Oran Kearney, St Mirren have been appointing the likes of Jim Goodwin, Alan Stubbs, Alex Rae, and Allan McManus, while Ross County have just appointed the very epitome of a lower league lazy Scottish appointment in Yogi Hughes. 

Graham Alexander has two promotions under his belt, reached a promotion play-off, and a cup final. In just eight years of management. That's not a bad record at all.

He also has a higher win percentage as manager over his career than both Tommy Wright and Stephen Robinson, boasting close to a 50 percent rate at Salford during his nearly two and a half years there.

I honestly don't see anything for any fan to be pessimistic about. Is it a definite that it'll work out? Of course not, but that's the same for any managerial appointment. There's no sure things in this game, especially as this level.

But his credentials are good, and he seems like he's up for the challenge. 

[star sail]

2 hours ago, Kmac said:

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. 

It is interesting to read your thoughts and you have clearly given it some consideration but I think the fact that you have not given a name to OntheFringes question shows the difficulty of finding the type of manager you describe. Let's say we could have Derek McInness from Aberdeen tomorrow. Would that guarantee our survival this season? Would he have 100% support from our fans? Of course it is a mute point. We could not afford McInness even if he was available.

I think your argument falls down on the basis that your start point suggests an unrealistic representation of MFC's position in the footballing world.

Firstly we are only an established SPFL club because of a lot of hardwork, good decision making and a little luck over the last 20-25 years. We have absolutely no birthright to being a top 12 team as the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Dundee Utd and Rangers have proved. The fact that we have maintained our top flight status for so long is something of a miracle. It is a reflection of  historical success rather than a snapshot of present reality. 

Secondly, an experienced manager with a good track record will  be outwith the clubs financial reach. There is a reason why names like Gordon Strachan and Martin O Neill do not get mentioned even in fantastical bookies lists. They would not be tempted to even get out their bed for the money we could offer them.

Thirdly, experienced proven players are priced out of our range by the crazy nature of football transfers these days.  Adam Rooney was mentioned above as a Salford player. I don't think we could afford to pay a months salary for a player like that. Even if we could persuade him, could his arrival guarantee goals?

I have some sympathy with the points you make and would like to agree with much of them . I would love to think that we could tempt more exotic names to the club. However, the truth is as a club we have to constantly think outside the box to survive. That brings risk both with players and managers. I think Graham Alexander is about the best we can do given all these constraints. I think in fact that Alexander may prove to be a good appointment constraints or not.

 

[ropy]

Does a new manager review the captaincy of the club?

[Haggischomper]

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

Absolutely. Complete non-starter of an idea.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Neilwell86]

8 minutes ago, Haggischomper said:

Absolutely. Complete non-starter of an idea.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

To take that one step further, I reckon most managers would tell you where to go, not just Tommy Wright. 

[Haggischomper]

Exactly.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Kmcalpin]

32 minutes ago, ropy said:

Does a new manager review the captaincy of the club?

I would hope so.

[santheman]

Apparently he’s turned down 3 jobs since leaving Salford because he wanted a new challenge,  so to me that shows he’s held in quite high esteem in the English lower leagues at least

[KirkySuperSub]

Got to say, like a lot so far, I couldn't have told you one nugget of information of GA's managerial career this time last week, but having read on here and his initial interview and comments, I'm rather optimistic about his appointment. 

One piece of completely useless and pointless information, but I read on Google earlier that he played in 'Faddy v France' game in Paris all those years ago.

You can do with that knowledge what you like. 

[Lobey_Dosser]

1 hour ago, KirkySuperSub said:

Got to say, like a lot so far, I couldn't have told you one nugget of information of GA's managerial career this time last week, but having read on here and his initial interview and comments, I'm rather optimistic about his appointment. 

One piece of completely useless and pointless information, but I read on Google earlier that he played in 'Faddy v France' game in Paris all those years ago.

You can do with that knowledge what you like. 

He was excellent that night in Paris and he also started the 1-0 at Hampden. A very solid Scotland performer over the years. 

[supermarv]

Seems like Mo Ross is staying as coach then always thought he was an excellent addition and well respected coach, glad he staying 

[Kmcalpin]

Just listened to Graham Alexander's interview. He seems to have a very strong work ethic. Interesting that he referred to underperforming players, as Robbo did  and factions and divisions on the playing side. At least that's what I took out of it, maybe wrongly so. 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, supermarv said:

Seems like Mo Ross is staying as coach then always thought he was an excellent addition and well respected coach, glad he staying 

Where did you pick this up? I think he is a decent coach.

[Shaka]

16 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Where did you pick this up? I think he is a decent coach.

In Alexanders press conference for the St Midden game. Mentioned building his backroom team and as well as his Assistant (Lucketti) he spoke about Mo being a Scotland team mate & Las being highly thought of and looking forwars to working wi them and building 

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, supermarv said:

Seems like Mo Ross is staying as coach then always thought he was an excellent addition and well respected coach, glad he staying 

Is this another exclusive or has your twitter feed just refreshed?

[fizoxy]

Seems there wont be wholesale changes just yet https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55593010

[Welldaft Mk1]

1 minute ago, Shaka said:

In Alexanders press conference for the St Midden game. Mentioned building his backroom team and as well as his Assistant (Lucketti) he spoke about Mo being a Scotland team mate & Las being highly thought of and looking forwars to working wi them and building 

Am I the only one wondering how we can afford 4 1st team coaches exc goalkeeper coach. 

I guess both Mo Ross and Lasley have contracts which would need to be paid off, so probably best they stay to provide an overview of the squad and league but in time that surely has to be reduced as it is a significant overhead. 

[supermarv]

2 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Is this another exclusive or has your twitter feed just refreshed?

If you listened to the managers match preview interview he says how Mo Ross is still involved.

[Shaka]

9 minutes ago, fizoxy said:

Seems there wont be wholesale changes just yet https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55593010

Alexander Out!