Stuart Kettlewell discussion thread

[David]

1 hour ago, dennyc said:

So, could anyone else who would be willing or available to come to our Club do any better given the circumstances? I just don't know to be honest but I have my doubts.

This is my worry.

I think the circumstances at the club in general are all wrong. In the past we've been bad, managers haven't worked out and I've always had faith we could bounce back. The club, in general, was well-run and I had faith in those who were tasked with turning things around.

We don't have a full-time CEO, and there are important members of the team that run the club stepping down. 

Any potential manager is going to be taking the above into account. They have to. 

[smiddy]

7 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

Have a good one too bud.   Re Davor, some players can get away with a lack of physique, don't think he can...maybe still getting to grips with it but if he's meant to be doing the dirty part for the other midfielders , I haven't seen it .

and did you see SOD giving him a piece of his mind today cause he played a ball to mr no cnut

[Onthefringes]

1 minute ago, smiddy said:

i thought you ment us   cause weve got enough right backs/ inverted wing backs or what ever there called now, but the fact its livi thats signed him i dont think a rb solves there problem

Na. You done that nip left out for Santa?

[smiddy]

5 minutes ago, Onthefringes said:

Na. You done that nip left out for Santa?

yip

the milk n tunnocks snowball,   cause thats what they eat up in the cold snow where the raindeer come from (snowfeckinballs)

[Tamwell]

I think we’re all agreed that Saturday v Livi is D-day.

I genuinely think that changing manager at this point would be counterproductive, but defeat to Livi would be unacceptable, unthinkable even. For what it’s worth, I think this team has enough to win on Saturday, I can’t see us getting anything at Aberdeen.

Don’t really know what else to say. Merry Christmas when it comes!

[FirParkCornerExile]

1 hour ago, Tamwell said:

I think we’re all agreed that Saturday v Livi is D-day.

I genuinely think that changing manager at this point would be counterproductive, but defeat to Livi would be unacceptable, unthinkable even. For what it’s worth, I think this team has enough to win on Saturday, I can’t see us getting anything at Aberdeen.

Don’t really know what else to say. Merry Christmas when it comes!

No they don't, they will lose to Aberdeen and at best a draw against Livingston. We are utter shite all across the team. 

[Great Balls of Shire]

3 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

No they don't, they will lose to Aberdeen and at best a draw against Livingston. We are utter shite all across the team. 

Merry Christmas anyway chief 

[FirParkCornerExile]

3 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

Merry Christmas anyway chief 

Same to you mate.

[Tamwell]

1 hour ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

No they don't, they will lose to Aberdeen and at best a draw against Livingston. We are utter shite all across the team. 

Let’s see how it goes. I’ve still got a wee bit of hope, not much left though. Happy Christmas mate 

[steelboy]

14 hours ago, bobbybingo said:

 Billy Reid survived 22 games without a win, relegation and failure to come straight back up at Hamilton, so anything's possible.

Accies are like Livi in that the owners are primarily involved in them for non football reasons. Managers that go along for the ride don't need to worry about results.

[bobbybingo]

28 minutes ago, steelboy said:

Accies are like Livi in that the owners are primarily involved in them for non football reasons. Managers that go along for the ride don't need to worry about results.

With the upcoming changes, is there anyone at Fir Park who wants to get into a firing & hiring scenario at this point?

I'm like a broken record right now - unless I know who would take over, I can't say Kettlewell absolutely has to go. But if we lose to Aberdeen and Livi, that changes.

[Yodo]

13 hours ago, smiddy said:

yip

the milk n tunnocks snowball,   cause thats what they eat up in the cold snow where the raindeer come from (snowfeckinballs)

Aye defo lost the plot 

[Kmcalpin]

On the back of yesterday's result I reckon SK's position is safe for now. However, its on the basis of what we do from now on that he'll be judged. He'll be given this window of course and thats huge for us and him.

I think yesterday was mixed bag. Yes, he deserved credit for getting the win and you could say his plan worked a treat, which to some extent it did. However, it wasn't entirely successful.

The defence was shaky again, and although McGinn did add some stability we lacked height and muscle in there, especially against the likes of Livingston. The midfield was all wrong especially in the second half when we elected to sit in deep and let Livingston come at us. With that defence??? Its all very well fielding 3 strikers but they have to play as 3 strikers. I hardly noticed any contribution from Shaw. 

Not quite sure what to make of SK yesterday.  He got us the much needed win but his line up and tactics made it harder than it need to be and a better team would have punished us. We'll see how we fare aginst Hibs.  

[Spiderpig]

1 minute ago, Kmcalpin said:

The midfield was all wrong especially in the second half when we elected to sit in deep and let Livingston come at us. With that defence???

Spot on Dave, I live in hope that someday I'll see a Motherwell manager who will take our midfield seriously and get it sorted, as its been a major problem for years now. We saw yesterday that our defence had no protection and we sat far too deep allowing Livvy to get a sniff at goal they never deserved, how many goals / points lost has this approach cost us in recent seasons.

[wellfan]

Yesterday saved his job, but it was the easiest game of the season as Livi are in a terminal decline worse than ours. I still don't think Kettlewell has the experience or tactical nous we need to improve and progress. My concern is that he’ll now get the January window and likely sign more crocks and duds, leaving us at the end of the season in no better state than we currently find ourselves. If you think long-term and aspire for something better, yesterday very much has the feeling of papering over the cracks for me. Let's hope that this victory isn't akin to Lamie’s goal at Livi which prolonged Alexander’s tenure beyond what it should've been. 

[joewarkfanclub]

12 minutes ago, wellfan said:

Yesterday saved his job, but it was the easiest game of the season as Livi are in a terminal decline worse than ours. I still don't think Kettlewell has the experience or tactical nous we need to improve and progress. My concern is that he’ll now get the January window and likely sign more crocks and duds, leaving us at the end of the season in no better state than we currently find ourselves. If you think long-term and aspire for something better, yesterday very much has the feeling of papering over the cracks for me. Let's hope that this victory isn't akin to Lamie’s goal at Livi which prolonged Alexander’s tenure beyond what it should've been. 

If you are thinking long term, we really need to get our management structure sorted out before we change the manager. Otherwise the change you make now may not be the one the new board/management want.

Yesterday has bought us time. But its gonna be a big 6 months for the club. We need a fully functioning board set up with new Chairman, CEO and hopefully more genuine Well Society input.

Once we have that we should get better decisions made about manager and player recruitment.

[wellfan]

6 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

If you are thinking long term, we really need to get our management structure sorted out before we change the manager. Otherwise the change you make now may not be the one the new board/management want.

Yesterday has bought us time. But its gonna be a big 6 months for the club. We need a fully functioning board set up with new Chairman, CEO and hopefully more genuine Well Society input.

Once we have that we should get better decisions made about manager and player recruitment.

I agree. I said in another post that the new regime at the top will likely not renew Keytlewell’s contract at the end of the season, regardless of how good/bad he does for the rest of the season. He's too inexperienced, and Daws is also useless if you look at his stats compared to those of Foyle. You’d imagine that the new Board/Chair/CEO would likely want to install their own management and recruitment team to align with whatever strategy the club finally works towards. As I also said previously, it feels like we’re very much operating in a holding pattern at the moment, which is to the detriment of our on-field performance and has kept someone in the job long beyond what they deserve. 

[joewarkfanclub]

25 minutes ago, wellfan said:

I agree. I said in another post that the new regime at the top will likely not renew Keytlewell’s contract at the end of the season, regardless of how good/bad he does for the rest of the season. He's too inexperienced, and Daws is also useless if you look at his stats compared to those of Foyle. You’d imagine that the new Board/Chair/CEO would likely want to install their own management and recruitment team to align with whatever strategy the club finally works towards. As I also said previously, it feels like we’re very much operating in a holding pattern at the moment, which is to the detriment of our on-field performance and has kept someone in the job long beyond what they deserve. 

The problem with SK is that no one knows if he is gonna be any good at the management gig as he doesnt have a great deal of experience.

He is making a lot of the mistakes rookie managers make with us because its only his 2nd gig and the first one didnt last that long on his own.

A few folk were touting Ian Murray as a replacement. But he was fired from a few clubs before he got near any kind of success.

SK has had 1 window with us under very challenging financial conditions. Lets see how he gets on in January and the rest of the season.

[dennyc]

Why can we not just give Kettlewell the credit he deserves for yesterday? We even had the sour grapes "the PLAYERS  deserve credit". Clearly a positive for Kettlewell was a step too far for some. Acknowledgement grudgingly given at best. Depressingly I get the sense a few folk even wanted us to lose yesterday, just to justify their assault.  I admit I did have doubts when I saw his team selection but he and the players made it work and proved me wrong. Even with Shaw  contributing next to nothing, the fact he fielded three forwards created the space that Biereth and Bair took advantage of. That set up was down to Kettlewell and in such a critical game he carried the day. Accept it and hope the upturn in results continues.

I don't know if Kettlewell will survive to next season. Nobody does. But to suggest a new Board would not renew his contract under any circumstances is ridiculous. It is quite clear that even if our January signings work out, we have a decent cup run and secure our top league status, Kettlewell's detractors will still shout loudest....until they get to move on to their next target when he eventually goes. We managed an important victory yesterday and head to Easter Road in a more positive mood. I think that is a good thing but sadly it feels like some don't think that way.

 

[wellsince75]

SK for me has potential.  He has less than 100 games in mgt and like any rookie has made mistakes. For example his win record for his c40 games isn't much better than Malpas's tenure but what sets him apart is he's a quick learn.

Previous managers would have persevered with their signings but guys like Wilkinson, Obika aren't getting game time.  Similarly Paton & Slattery getting dropped is a good sign of a manager putting pride aside, learning and moving on. 

The issues go way beyond SK.  Reducing squad size should have equated to bringing in better quality but SK got a poor budget and no youngsters really being ready. (other than Miller at 16/17)

I do think he made a chops of perm signings but if he can move them on and bring in better I'm up for sticking with him until we sort out the other senior roles at the club. 

The club clearly have a plan re new investors, I'd much rather learn about that, make those changes and move forward. 

[joewarkfanclub]

45 minutes ago, dennyc said:

Why can we not just give Kettlewell the credit he deserves for yesterday? We even had the sour grapes "the PLAYERS  deserve credit". Clearly a positive for Kettlewell was a step too far for some. Acknowledgement grudgingly given at best. Depressingly I get the sense a few folk even wanted us to lose yesterday, just to justify their assault.  I admit I did have doubts when I saw his team selection but he and the players made it work and proved me wrong. Even with Shaw  contributing next to nothing, the fact he fielded three forwards created the space that Biereth and Bair took advantage of. That set up was down to Kettlewell and in such a critical game he carried the day. Accept it and hope the upturn in results continues.

I don't know if Kettlewell will survive to next season. Nobody does. But to suggest a new Board would not renew his contract under any circumstances is ridiculous. It is quite clear that even if our January signings work out, we have a decent cup run and secure our top league status, Kettlewell's detractors will still shout loudest....until they get to move on to their next target when he eventually goes. We managed an important victory yesterday and head to Easter Road in a more positive mood. I think that is a good thing but sadly it feels like some don't think that way.

 

I think most are giving him credit for yesterday. Particularly the first half. But, I think its fair enough to point out the second half wasnt great.

There are obviously some that will never be pleased. But they are the same with every Motherwell manager we have had in recent years, and a lot of the players. 

Bottom line is SK isnt going anywhere anytime soon. He and the players found a way to get the big result when he needed one. Now he, and they, need to go and back it up.

[Kmcalpin]

15 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

He and the players found a way to get the big result when he needed one. Now he, and they, need to go and back it up.

Thats it for me. I have serious doubts about SK but he steered the team to a home win yesterday against the poorest team in the league. We made it harder than it needed to be. That said, you can only beat the team in front of you. 

The real test for him is maintaining a good run of form now and doing some decent transfer business this month. 

 

 

[Coatsy]

7 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

On the back of yesterday's result I reckon SK's position is safe for now. However, its on the basis of what we do from now on that he'll be judged. He'll be given this window of course and thats huge for us and him.

I think yesterday was mixed bag. Yes, he deserved credit for getting the win and you could say his plan worked a treat, which to some extent it did. However, it wasn't entirely successful.

The defence was shaky again, and although McGinn did add some stability we lacked height and muscle in there, especially against the likes of Livingston. The midfield was all wrong especially in the second half when we elected to sit in deep and let Livingston come at us. With that defence??? Its all very well fielding 3 strikers but they have to play as 3 strikers. I hardly noticed any contribution from Shaw. 

Not quite sure what to make of SK yesterday.  He got us the much needed win but his line up and tactics made it harder than it need to be and a better team would have punished us. We'll see how we fare aginst Hibs.  

What a load of rubbish nothing bar however and buts this and that wrong well did we win? Yes job done for yesterday. Much harder than it needed be !! i bet Martindale would have taken that

What are you on after the run we have been on 3 points are so welcomed i think by all supporters

Lets just shut the body Quincy and move on his tactics worked, but i hope your application is successful when Kettlewell gets the boot. I look forward to your selections and results

[wellfan]

27 minutes ago, Coatsy said:

What a load of rubbish nothing bar however and buts this and that wrong well did we win? Yes job done for yesterday. Much harder than it needed be !! i bet Martindale would have taken that

What are you on after the run we have been on 3 points are so welcomed i think by all supporters

Lets just shut the body Quincy and move on his tactics worked, but i hope your application is successful when Kettlewell gets the boot. I look forward to your selections and results

One too many Hogmanay sherries? 

[purestate]

When Alexander came in I was so surprised we managed to attract a manager with a pretty decent track record and who also had a credibility as a player to boot.   As it turned out his stubbornness/lack of imagination led to his downfall.  
Contarary to GA, SK has shown a willingness to adapt, learn from his mistakes, and, just as importantly, seems to have the backing of his squad of players.  
I for one not only celebrated the Livi victory for what it is but am glad it gives SK the opportunity to (try and) address deficiencies in the squad and drag us further up the table.  
 

There are plenty of comments about wanting to give our own youth/academy players a chance and opportunity. I’d say the same about giving SK a chance to develop and grow with us.