Stuart Kettlewell discussion thread

[StAndrew7]

9 hours ago, Clackscat said:

Thought he was impressive at AGM tonight, personable and came across as open and honest, even if he uses 3 words when 1 will do!! , and  I can see why players and staff are behind him

Agreed, thought he came across really well and as turgid and as difficult as this season has been at times, you can clearly see from his responses to questions just how much he's working with the team to improve.

His comment re: Bair was particularly interesting. Essentially saying that the level of one-to-one coaching, video analysis and other development opportunities he's had at Motherwell (as well as playing opportunities) are streaks ahead of what he had at St Johnstone.

[MJC]

11 hours ago, steelman1991 said:

Triggered extension after he kept us up apparently 🤷‍♂️

So why the cloak and dagger over it then? Had that been announced last year after he ensured our safety in the top flight then I don’t think there would have been a Motherwell fan out there who would have had a problem with that, but for some reason the club choose to keep it quiet. 

[steelman1991]

4 minutes ago, MJC said:

So why the cloak and dagger over it then? Had that been announced last year after he ensured our safety in the top flight then I don’t think there would have been a Motherwell fan out there who would have had a problem with that, but for some reason the club choose to keep it quiet. 

No idea - paraphrasing from a post over on P&B.

[joewarkfanclub]

14 minutes ago, StAndrew7 said:

Agreed, thought he came across really well and as turgid and as difficult as this season has been at times, you can clearly see from his responses to questions just how much he's working with the team to improve.

His comment re: Bair was particularly interesting. Essentially saying that the level of one-to-one coaching, video analysis and other development opportunities he's had at Motherwell (as well as playing opportunities) are streaks ahead of what he had at St Johnstone.

I think most can see the improvement with Bair. The goal he scores against Aberdeen was the perfect example.

He just wasnt getting in those positions in previous games to take advantage of the quality of ball Gent was putting in.

Clearly work done there and although not the finished article by a long shot, you can see a serviceable striker now.

Id also like to see them work a bit on how to use his physicality. He is a huge man and defenders really shouldnt be getting any change out of him in one to one duels. If he adds that to his game on top of the improved movement we might have a saleable asset.

[joewarkfanclub]

Re the interested investors.

I guess the devil will be in the detail, so until we see that, not much to comment on.

Good to see that there are a number of interested parties though.

Should stop any of them playing hardball with us to get more than we are willing to give away.

[StAndrew7]

1 minute ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I think most can see the improvement with Bair. The goal he scores against Aberdeen was the perfect example.

He just wasnt getting in those positions in previous games to take advantage of the quality of ball Gent was putting in.

Clearly work done there and although not the finished article by a long shot, you can see a serviceable striker now.

Id also like to see them work a bit on how to use his physicality. He is a huge man and defenders really shouldnt be getting any change out of him in one to one duels. If he adds that to his game on top of the improved movement we might have a saleable asset.

That's exactly what Ketts alluded to last night; essentially that if he can continue to develop the other aspects like his physicality etc. we absolutely should be looking at that kind of progression and sale for him. His target is 15 goals this season, Ketts reckons if he can continue on the current path it could be more. I believe him.

[joewarkfanclub]

1 minute ago, StAndrew7 said:

That's exactly what Ketts alluded to last night; essentially that if he can continue to develop the other aspects like his physicality etc. we absolutely should be looking at that kind of progression and sale for him. His target is 15 goals this season, Ketts reckons if he can continue on the current path it could be more. I believe him.

15 goals is certainly achievable at this point 

That in itself would be quite remarkable given the circumstances.

[gilmour]

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Edited February 22 by gilmour

[grizzlyg]

1 year since SK took over

PL 47.......W 18. D 15. L 14

I know folk will disagree but actually that isn't too bad a record.  Yes grounds for improvement required but overall is doing a decent job and I feel learning from his mistakes.  Time will tell obviously but also he seems to have players and staff wanting to play for him which makes such a difference as anyone that saw Ross Co a fortnight ago would confirm.

COYW

[joewarkfanclub]

Just now, gilmour said:

Wait till you all hear the shit show that was last nights AGM. Won’t say here as it will no doubt break soon enough. 

There's already a thread on the AGM which appears quite positive. Can you expand?

[gilmour]

Sorry posted in wrong thread. Will remove 

[MJC]

The club have now put out a statement on social media confirming that Stuart Kettlewell will be here until May 2025. 
 

Firstly from Kettlewell’s point of view that’s all well and good and we need to get behind him and hopefully the board do too.

Secondly though, it raises the issue of poor communication from the club. As I said, why not just announce this last May when he kept us up? His stock with the support was high back then and this news would have been welcomed I think. 

[mio]

Pleased SK is staying, I think he was landed with an almost impossible job following the Alexander/Hammell debacle and has done more than I expected.

i think he’s built a good backroom team as well and i honestly don’t see the hate he’s had is deserved. Ok there’s been a few poor results and poor individual performances and he’s been a bit loyal to players but it’s Motherwell, let’s face it, It will always be the same. We know as supporters what we’ve signed up for.

[StAndrew7]

1 minute ago, MJC said:

The club have now put out a statement on social media confirming that Stuart Kettlewell will be here until May 2025. 
 

Firstly from Kettlewell’s point of view that’s all well and good and we need to get behind him and hopefully the board do too.

Secondly though, it raises the issue of poor communication from the club. As I said, why not just announce this last May when he kept us up? His stock with the support was high back then and this news would have been welcomed I think. 

I think you've hit the nail there; it's just poor communication, which has become the (relative) standard over the last few years. Ever diminishing staff taking up dual roles means details like that, albeit in this case quite a big one, will be missed. From the discussions last night it was a hold up their hands moment and acknowledging it wasn't great and that it would be rectified.

[MJC]

14 minutes ago, StAndrew7 said:

I think you've hit the nail there; it's just poor communication, which has become the (relative) standard over the last few years. Ever diminishing staff taking up dual roles means details like that, albeit in this case quite a big one, will be missed. From the discussions last night it was a hold up their hands moment and acknowledging it wasn't great and that it would be rectified.

Yeah fair enough if they’ve held their hands up and hopefully this doesn’t happen again. Tbh if I was Kettlewell I’d probably a bit pissed off with the way this was communicated, or not communicated as it were.

I’m actually quite pleased that we’ve decided to go for stability here. I still have my doubts over the manager but I definitely don’t want to see us become the type of club that goes through two or three managers every two seasons or so. Kettlewell is our third manager in the last two years alone so if we were to part with him now or had done earlier then we would be well on the way to being that type of club. It would have done us no favours in the long run.

[StAndrew7]

5 minutes ago, MJC said:

Yeah fair enough if they’ve held their hands up and hopefully this doesn’t happen again. Tbh if I was Kettlewell I’d probably a bit pissed off with the way this communicated, or not communicated as it were.

I’m actually quite pleased that we’ve decided to go for stability here. I still have my doubts over the manager but I definitely don’t want to see us become the type of club that goes through two or three managers every two seasons or so. Kettlewell is our third manager in the last two years alone so if we were to part with him now or had done earlier then we would be well on the way to being that type of club. It would have done us no favours in the long run.

That's what both McMahon and Weir said; they want to avoid being a conveyor belt of managers and that they like the ethos that Kettlewell has and understand that he's still a young manager (I think someone pointed out earlier in the thread he's only 39) and is developing as he goes and learning his coaching style. They wanted stability and to give him the opportunity to build and develop a squad into a team he wants - he's spent the majority of his first two transfer windows fixing mistakes; both of his own (which he held his hands up about; some worked out, some didn't etc.) and of others.

There was also a good bit of discussion in the gap we have between the first team and the age of some of our youth prospects. He was saying he made some big calls to let a lot of the older guys (18/19/20) go over the last year or so because he just didn't see them getting out onto the pitch; he pointed out he feels it's his responsibility to guys that age to be honest with them and let them know they're not going to make it whilst they still have time to get into FTE etc. to start away from football.

[wellfan]

Some fans often state that they think the club is being run by a bunch of amateurs, and those views are often rebuked and rightly so, but this significant failure in basic communication (deliberately or otherwise) is evidence enough to demonstrate amateur hour at its finest peak.

[StAndrew7]

1 minute ago, wellfan said:

Some fans often state that they think the club is being run by a bunch of amateurs, and those views are often rebuked and rightly so, but this significant failure in basic communication (deliberately or otherwise) is evidence enough to demonstrate amateur hour at its finest peak.

I genuinely don't think it was deliberate. Are we really saying that our club and its management would willingly mislead its fans over a contract extension that was triggered 9 months ago?

It's a real indication of the, maybe not quite rudderless, but perhaps drifting nature of the leadership right now.

I think had any of the originally interviewed CEOs accepted the job, we (probably) wouldn't be in this situation. It's unfortunate that the potential for investment and everything that comes with that (e.g. bringing in their own CEO and other staff) has managed to align directly with the renewed interview process.

[grizzlyg]

The club made a mistake with the communication, they have now rectified it,  we move on

[wellsince75]

2 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

1 year since SK took over

PL 47.......W 18. D 15. L 14

I know folk will disagree but actually that isn't too bad a record.  Yes grounds for improvement required but overall is doing a decent job and I feel learning from his mistakes.  Time will tell obviously but also he seems to have players and staff wanting to play for him which makes such a difference as anyone that saw Ross Co a fortnight ago would confirm.

COYW

If we were told a year ago that SK would come in and only at worse lose 1/3 of games whilst working with a reduced target I think many would snap the clubs hand off.   The odd part and the difference between us and say StMirren whose league position we'd be delighted with is too many draws. 

Overall he's producing decent enough results. 

Re contract - just give a manager a 12 month rolling contract - seems an obvious solution and one all parties should be happy with. 

[SteelmaninOZ]

1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

The club made a mistake with the communication, they have now rectified it,  we move on

and on and on we go

COYW

[Spit_It_Out]

And folk on here wondering why we have fans commenting that they seem to have nothing but a complete disconnect from the club this just sums it up for me.

It's really not good enough they can apologise all they want but it's embarrassing what we have become.

Makes me wonder what else they are keeping in the biscuit tin!

 

[Kmcalpin]

6 minutes ago, Spit_It_Out said:

And folk on here wondering why we have fans commenting that they seem to have nothing but a complete disconnect from the club this just sums it up for me.

It's really not good enough they can apologise all they want but it's embarrassing what we have become.

Makes me wonder what else they are keeping in the biscuit tin!

I think this debate has run its course, although I do agree with you. If you are a Society member then email your comments to it.

[bobbybingo]

8 minutes ago, Spit_It_Out said:

And folk on here wondering why we have fans commenting that they seem to have nothing but a complete disconnect from the club this just sums it up for me.

It's really not good enough they can apologise all they want but it's embarrassing what we have become.

Makes me wonder what else they are keeping in the biscuit tin!

 

It's also embarrassing that even after they released this statement online, you have fans commenting on why they extended his contract last night. Don't know, don't want to know.

[wellfan]

2 hours ago, StAndrew7 said:

I genuinely don't think it was deliberate. Are we really saying that our club and its management would willingly mislead its fans over a contract extension that was triggered 9 months ago?

It's a real indication of the, maybe not quite rudderless, but perhaps drifting nature of the leadership right now.

I think had any of the originally interviewed CEOs accepted the job, we (probably) wouldn't be in this situation. It's unfortunate that the potential for investment and everything that comes with that (e.g. bringing in their own CEO and other staff) has managed to align directly with the renewed interview process.

I don't think it was deliberate, but this mistake/oversight/whatever epitomises the disconnect felt between some fans and the club. It's not good enough at all. The WS Board was also unsighted, which seems bonkers.

As you indicate, it all feels a bit rudderless and has been for some time, and because of that, it feels like we could be walking into a significant point in time with our pants at our ankles due to not having a permanent CEO in place beforehand.

It may all be okay in the end, but the journey has been a bit of a mess, which may disenfranchise/disengage many fans. For me, I've never felt so much personal disconnect with the club or apathy towards it as I do now, and that's a real shame. We're (currently) a fan-owned club and should expect so much better in terms of the absolute basics.