Graham Alexander

[Yorkyred]

5 minutes ago, weeyin said:

While it's entertaining extrapolating one January signing to represent every future piece of business a manager is likely to do (and easy to use to support any views you might have, good or bad) it's not exactly a huge sample to form an opinion.

If you'd told the fans in Janaury that we'd be guaranteed league safety in April and in the Cup quarter finals, I think most of us would have taken it.

Once he's reassembled a team for next season we'll have a better idea of where we're headed.

Absolutely, panic signings in January are just that, a punt in the hope it works out and to be fair some did and some did not. He’s going to sign players in the summer and not all of those will work out, it’s always about percentages. Kmcalpin and one or two others are spot on for me regarding developing the youngsters, I would rather see a million spent on that aspect of the club than spending money on transfer fees and higher wages. As a club we will always look a good option for young, promising players if we show we are successful at bringing them through and then on to the bigger clubs, it’s a win win. But as it stands his record since joining us is pretty good.

[CoF]

1 hour ago, Onthefringes said:

Contacts? Brings in players who are a good fit? Like Eddie Nolan? That’s correct, the very same player who has never trained at the club? That’s on GA. You’ll see why some don’t share your confidence...

You'll need to back your point up here with the facts on why, on the day he was signed, it was a bad signing? 

Unless you have some inside knowledge that we intentionally signed someone who we knew was going to be injured for three months, then I'm not sure how you can judge the manager on that? 

[bobbybingo]

1 hour ago, Onthefringes said:

Contacts? Brings in players who are a good fit? Like Eddie Nolan? That’s correct, the very same player who has never trained at the club? That’s on GA. You’ll see why some don’t share your confidence...

That's the only time you're gonnae see the words 'fit' and 'Eddie Nolan' in the same statement.

[Goggles & Flippers]

1 hour ago, KirkySuperSub said:

You surname isnae Polworth by any chance?! :-)

It wasn't OFT's maiden name, but then OTF met a creative midfielder with the world at his feet and joined twitter.

From when he was appointed he had 3 weeks to do deals, not a great amount of time, but the scouting network was in place and names would have been floated. Ultimately he didn't live in a vacuum since he left Salford. He would have had the final say .... and some of those signings were questionable. He doesn't bare all the blame, signing a crock in Foley for example.

The issue for me is we've won a few, but we've won ugly as hell at times (but maybe no worse than what we experienced on the other side in the first half of the season). We've robbed points from Killie and St Mirren. While I'm happy to win under these circumstances on occasion, it makes tough watching if it's the norm.

Yes we are in a cup quarter final, sounds good doesn't it. To get there we humped part timers after receiving a humping of our own in the league and scraped through against a team fighting for Championship survival. As with everything it is all about context.

There are a number of malingerers in the squad and they will go. I expect the team will be fitter than ever before come August. However his stock has risen based on his remit, the place the club was in January and that form table.

While OFT is often harder to decipher than the DaVinci code at times, he's right much more than he's wrong, even if you don't personally like the code or content. And no .....my first name isn't Liam.

[bobbybingo]

1 hour ago, Yorkyred said:

....regarding developing the youngsters, I would rather see a million spent on that aspect of the club than spending money on transfer fees and higher wages. As a club we will always look a good option for young, promising players if we show we are successful at bringing them through and then on to the bigger clubs, it’s a win win. But as it stands his record since joining us is pretty good.

Our problem there is, we might make decent money off them, but playing wise, we'll see very little return. Half a season from Turnbull, less from a decent Hastie. Some are off before they reach the first team, hence the reason I don't even know their names. 

Good business financially, but it'll catch up with us eventually if we don't source and bring in players of a reasonable standard.

[grizzlyg]

2 hours ago, KirkySuperSub said:

You surname isnae Polworth by any chance?! :-)

Or Mrs Polworth!! Lol

[grizzlyg]

GA on sportsound with the 2 numpties Currie and Young

[Spit_It_Out]

I think folk are forgetting what state we were in when Robinson left the sinking fast ship which we were!We were looking so doomed it was unreal dropping fast christ Chapman was our number 1 let that fester.

So all this oh GA this GA that after a few months ffs we could end up we are 3 points from Livingston in 5th we would be in the top 6 more than likely if the board got rid of Robinson sooner more than likely.Yes the signings have been pish but they were bodies brought in sadly I would more interested if they had medicals cause them all seem to have been broken from the off.

Yes the football had been dire but we have been winning and we seem to be at the stage where we are moaning for winning.

Like I said if someone told me we be in a quarter final and safe from play off/bottom spot considering mess we were in I would have said aye okay then.I will judge after transfer window and how season goes but I shall take 1-0 dire victories all day long it it means we are in top 6 and in cup competitions.

[FirParkCornerExile]

21 hours ago, Yorkyred said:

What’s that, 6 wins in all competitions in the last 7, pretty decent in my view. Every area of the team has improved and he’s achieved that with minor changes although Kelly has been massive. I like his enthusiasm during games and on the whole the players seem to have taken on board the change of manager with a few of them certainly improving. His win percentage at previous clubs is high and he’s continuing that with us, yes he’s not perfect but he would be nowhere near us if he was. I think we have plenty to look forward to.

Cant argue with the results but the standard of play would make your eyes bleed , utter pish. I sincerely hope when he builds his own team they play bugger all like the shite we are watching every week.

[santheman]

10 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Cant argue with the results but the standard of play would make your eyes bleed , utter pish. I sincerely hope when he builds his own team they play bugger all like the shite we are watching every week.

It's not just a Motherwell thing.

You could take those bits of the post and copy and and paste it into any other clubs fan forums (with the possible exception of Rangers) because that's exactly what every other teams fans are saying about theirs.

Think we can all agree its been a hard watch but I'm just going to pretend it didn't happen and look forward to all the usual speculation over new signings for next season.

[Andy_P]

What I find quite interesting is the number who were dead set against Tommy Wright coming in because of the awful style of football we would undoubtedly suffer and he we are with justification after justification for a style that is every bit as numbing, if not more so, as anything Wright has served up.

Alexander has achieved his primary aim with a few games to spare. I give him a lot of credit for that, particularly after the losses to Hamilton and St Johnstone that really me worried we were about to fall off a cliff. 

But I don't think it unreasonable to have hopes that the style of play will evolve.  I fear that feeding off scraps, the smash and grab wins and the attempts to kill games by shutting up shop and throwing on defenders won't be sustainable for too long.  And when I think back to some of the flak Robinson received when we were in higher positions in the table for the kind of football played neither do I think some of our support will be accepting of that indefinitely.

Interesting times lie ahead for sure.

 

[CoF]

12 minutes ago, Andy_P said:

What I find quite interesting is the number who were dead set against Tommy Wright coming in because of the awful style of football we would undoubtedly suffer and he we are with justification after justification for a style that is every bit as numbing, if not more so, as anything Wright has served up.

 

Really? I can see one poster in the last few pages and other threads that is happy with this type of football.  Every other poster wants / expects change after the summer recruitment. 

[grizzlyg]

Give him time to get next transfer window    ,  remember the style of football when Robbo first came in,  was brutal but it got results.  

[Andy_P]

15 minutes ago, CoF said:

Really? I can see one poster in the last few pages and other threads that is happy with this type of football.  Every other poster wants / expects change after the summer recruitment. 

Slightly different thing. I didn't say they were happy with the style of play, I said they were justifying the style of play.  I've seen a fair bit of comment across the social media channels I look at where the recurring theme has been that the end justifies the means. 

And that's entirely fair enough with that given what's been at stake and that the necessary points accrued but as I've alluded I think it's quite interesting that despite the strong opposition against Wright we've garnered those points in a very Wright like manner and how that has been accepted by many.

[C&A not the shop]

My issue was that I wasn't sure if Graham Alexander had it in him to put out teams to win like this. When we were looking for a new manager what we need were results. We've got them. Alexander has steadied the ship and stopped us collapsing after a few shocking results. 

 

Also if Nolan was on a pay as you play contract its not that bad a bit of business.*

 

*I've just made up that he's on a pay per play basis for this joke.

[CoF]

43 minutes ago, Andy_P said:

Slightly different thing. I didn't say they were happy with the style of play, I said they were justifying the style of play.  I've seen a fair bit of comment across the social media channels I look at where the recurring theme has been that the end justifies the means. 

And that's entirely fair enough with that given what's been at stake and that the necessary points accrued but as I've alluded I think it's quite interesting that despite the strong opposition against Wright we've garnered those points in a very Wright like manner and how that has been accepted by many.

Ah, fair enough. I think it's fairly easy to explain though - most folk can tolerate it for 5 months if it means survival, however don't want 2/3/4 years of it. 

[Goggles & Flippers]

I don't think GA will be leading us into season 2022/23

[grizzlyg]

3 minutes ago, Goggles & Flippers said:

I don't think GA will be leading us into season 2022/23

Is that because we will win league next year and he will be headhunted by Barca!! Lol

[David]

11 hours ago, Andy_P said:

Slightly different thing. I didn't say they were happy with the style of play, I said they were justifying the style of play.  I've seen a fair bit of comment across the social media channels I look at where the recurring theme has been that the end justifies the means. 

And that's entirely fair enough with that given what's been at stake and that the necessary points accrued but as I've alluded I think it's quite interesting that despite the strong opposition against Wright we've garnered those points in a very Wright like manner and how that has been accepted by many.

Yeah, I think it's justified for the period since he's come in, as we were basically looking to secure safety. There's no attraction in excitingly playing our way to Championship football. 

Once the summer comes, and a lot of the current players are out the door it will give him a chance to bring in his own team, and from that point on I think most of us will begin to judge him on a lot more levels.

[wellsince75]

Jurys out  - time will prove out 

He's led us to safety - tick 
Decent win rate - tick
Brand of footy ?  is this the down to players or mgr 
Ability to flex formation ?  taken series injuries to move away from 4-3-3
Perm Signings. ?  Since coming in his perm signings are S'OD. Carrol. Mugabi. Crawford.  3 from 4 are not names Id want to build my team around.

[Ya Bezzer!]

18 hours ago, Spit_It_Out said:

Yes the football had been dire.

The football across the league is dire.  I watch every game in this league and believe me our games are no better or worse than anyone else's.

Alexander's job was to keep us up and do so working with Robinson's awful legacy - a terrible and uneven squad with few dependable members.

However while I think the standard of football in this country is, well, total rubbish, I do think it's a totally unfair comparison when comparing football watched in attendance and football watched on a computer screen in front of empty stadiums.

Let's be honest.  Pretty much the only good thing about Scottish football is the going-to-the-game, meeting mates, atmosphere, being in the stadium etc.  The standard of football stinks and has done for a long time.  We finished 3rd last season and we were verging on unwatchable.

There has to be MASSIVE change in Scottish football to make the football worthwhile - things much more fundamental right across the game than Motherwell bringing in a new manager.

As for Robinson - seemed like a nice guy but where did it get us? What's that got to do with anything? Alexander maybe doesn't come across as likeable a character but he's won twice as many games in less games this season with, basically, the same players.  

You'd be looking for improvements next season but I think criticising Alexander now, when he came in when he did, in the position we were in, is just ludicrous stuff.

[Spit_It_Out]

Oh i like Alexander and think he is a good fit for us but when on Twitter I see things like he should be sacked its beyond a joke.Sacked for winning and keeping us in the league lol whit?

Folk forget when you are at the bottom you have to fight and grind for results thats what we have been doing it might not be pretty but it worked.

Top 6 easy next season!COYW.

[0Neils40yarder]

Criticism of Alexander at this point in time is utter lunacy...well played Steelmen Online

[Yassin]

You'd have more luck deciphering the Zodiac Killer's letters than some of OTF's scoops

[texanwellfan]

He had one short term task to get done and he has done it. Not pretty but he has done it by picking up points, not so much by other teams doing us a favor so for that he gets pass marks. I think, like most reasonable people, he will be judged by how things go next season.