2023/24 ins & outs discussion

[Ya Bezzer!]

The mood music seems to be 'we spent our money in January'.  

 

[Toxteth O'Grady]

9 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

The mood music seems to be 'we spent our money in January'.  

 

Max Johnston: Motherwell's Stuart Kettlewell rues 'huge loss' of defender

[santheman]

3 hours ago, steelman1991 said:

If that was the case - surely there would have been an official announcement before he took up post (even if he was only in it for a few days).

He came up to the game to see the match day set up and meet the Directors and was caught on camera talking to them.

That apparently all adds up to people assuming he was offered the job whereas no-one really knows if he was offered it or not except the Directors.

[Coatsy]

1 hour ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

Max Johnston: Motherwell's Stuart Kettlewell rues 'huge loss' of defender

This article says it all the club mis managed the Max Johnston affair and were losing the player for a song

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, stv said:

Do we have the budget to make long distance phone calls ?

I'm also available for a Zoom chat

[weeyin]

3 minutes ago, Coatsy said:

This article says it all the club mis managed the Max Johnston affair and were losing the player for a song

The article says "they don't let their young talent out on loan until they have signed new deals and they protect their football club, their investment and time spent with them."

but it doesn't say how you make young players sign new deals. That's where it gets difficult in Scotland, because we can't offer anything close to what's available in England or elsewhere, and the players (and their agents) know that.

 

[santheman]

8 minutes ago, Coatsy said:

This article says it all the club mis managed the Max Johnston affair and were losing the player for a song

You could also look at it from the point of view that we're guaranteed 380k/400k as a development fee plus potential add ons if we do some kind of a deal with Sturm Graz.

Would we have got much more than that as a transfer fee if he had done a Turnbull and signed a new contract. I'm not so sure we would have.

 

[David]

Just now, Throughthelaces said:

Can you tell us where all these out of work chief execs are currently?

On LinkedIn being headhunted for jobs. I'm not saying that I agree with the OP, but I don't think a lack of Chief Executive candidates is the problem. They are out there. It's just that they're not interested in what we're offering.

[MelvinBragg]

27 minutes ago, weeyin said:

The article says "they don't let their young talent out on loan until they have signed new deals and they protect their football club, their investment and time spent with them."

but it doesn't say how you make young players sign new deals. That's where it gets difficult in Scotland, because we can't offer anything close to what's available in England or elsewhere, and the players (and their agents) know that.

 

Indeed. And with that extra money in England, they're also able to gamble on a larger number of youngsters. We need to be more careful. Club gets more right than they get wrong...

[SteelmaninOZ]

Whits Dempster doing now? 🤨

[Kmcalpin]

I'm usually not one to critricise the club, but I feel that something hasn't been right over the past year off the field.  There's a number of unfilled posts (CEO, Communications etc), mistakes have been made eg Hammell's appointment and GA's extension and sacking; Alan Burrows surprise departure; relationship with the fans has deteriorated; and the club has been rudderless. Now the Society may have had a part fo play in all this too. 

Something needs to change off the field.  

[joewarkfanclub]

7 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

I'm usually not one to critricise the club, but I feel that something hasn't been right over the past year off the field.  There's a number of unfilled posts (CEO, Communications etc), mistakes have been made eg Hammell's appointment and GA's extension and sacking; Alan Burrows surprise departure; relationship with the fans has deteriorated; and the club has been rudderless. Now the Society may have had a part fo play in all this too. 

Something needs to change off the field.  

You may well be right. The only problem with that is none of us knows. Considering we are supposed to be a fan owned club, thats a concern.

[FirParkCornerExile]

7 hours ago, Throughthelaces said:

Can you tell us where all these out of work chief execs are currently? We need to make the right appointment I’ve not been happy with every single decision clubs made in recent years but I’d rather we took our time and got the right guy in. By all accounts we offered the job to someone and they knocked it back as they deemed us a less attractive option  than Blackpool. 

and we may have dodged a bullet,  a mates son worked for him and said he was the biggest clueless prick you could ever imagine.

[SteelmaninOZ]

1 minute ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

and we may have dodged a bullet,  a mates son worked for him and said he was the biggest clueless prick you could ever imagine.

Like a few on here 🙄

[David]

Just now, FirParkCornerExile said:

and we may have dodged a bullet,  a mates son worked for him and said he was the biggest clueless prick you could ever imagine.

Makes you ask if the money we're paying this specialist recruitment agency is actually worth it.

[Spiderpig]

11 hours ago, David said:

Makes you ask if the money we're paying this specialist recruitment agency is actually worth it.

Or maybe the job and package on offer is not attractive enough for an experienced CEO, maybe that's how we ended up with Burrows he was already at the club and a nice cheap option.

For me it's the governance of the club that's the problem, run by well meaning amateurs.

[Onthefringes]

11 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Or maybe the job and package on offer is not attractive enough for an experienced CEO, maybe that's how we ended up with Burrows he was already at the club and a nice cheap option.

For me it's the governance of the club that's the problem, run by well meaning amateurs.

The truth will be somewhere in between.

Not sure I share the amateur description given the business acumen of those involved. Although, club AGM gives heavy ‘bowling club committee’ vibes.

[steelman1991]

17 hours ago, santheman said:

He came up to the game to see the match day set up and meet the Directors and was caught on camera talking to them.

That apparently all adds up to people assuming he was offered the job whereas no-one really knows if he was offered it or not except the Directors.

Thought that might be the case.

[Spit_It_Out]

When you take a step back and look at the squad it's so void of quality it's pretty alraming yes we have until end of August but my god it's pretty dire when the season is less than a week away Butcher being out for a bit doesn't help either.

Every aspect apart from the GK and I thinking offt that looks a bit lightweight then SK saying he has to get players out to get players in.

This Danzaki deal has been horror show from the off he will hardly kick a ball under SK but who on earth is going to take him on he is here til 2025!

[weeyin]

If you take a look at the starting line ups of most teams this weekend and then look at them again in September, they will be barely recognisable.

That's what makes the League Cup games (and early Euro games for the chosen few) such a lottery.

Far from ideal, but that's what we're stuck with these days.

 

[wellfan]

I'm not panicking yet, as the window doesn't close until the end of August. However, this threadbare and uninspiring squad has the hallmarks of the weak squad that Alexander took into the start of last season, and we all know how that panned out.

It does, however, seem odd that Kettlewell has said we still need to move on some players to secure the budget for further signings, yet we apparently had the budget to put offers to Johnston, Cornelius, Goss, Casey, and KVV. And we've only signed Wilkinson and Obika and released several others.

The Board needs to enable Kettlewell to clear the decks of rubbish and bolster a few key positions. If not, I fear he will also be forced out the door in 6 months, and Clarky will be handed the job and another blank cheque to save our season. 

In short, it feels like the Board has had a habit of behaving reactively instead of proactively in the recent past, and it seems like that is set to continue, as Kettlewell's bemoaning of the lack of budget would suggest. We may be completely skint, which answers my above questions; however, reactionary solutions, which we've seen a few of recently, are even more expensive than proactive strategies.

Perhaps a hard reset is needed somewhere behind the scenes? 

[David]

Any new manager realistically needs about two-three years to do the job. The players who are on longer term deals when he arrives won't be easy to shift, and it'll take a 2 year cycle or so to flush that all out. 

What won't work is binning the manager every time we go through a tough patch and lose in the League Cup groups or something. If we're invested in Kettlewell's vision we need to be prepared to let him implement it over a few years and get in the players he wants over three or four windows.

[Onthefringes]

12 minutes ago, wellfan said:

I'm not panicking yet, as the window doesn't close until the end of August. However, this threadbare and uninspiring squad has the hallmarks of the weak squad that Alexander took into the start of last season, and we all know how that panned out.

It does, however, seem odd that Kettlewell has said we still need to move on some players to secure the budget for further signings, yet we apparently had the budget to put offers to Johnston, Cornelius, Goss, Casey, and KVV. And we've only signed Wilkinson and Obika and released several others.

The Board needs to enable Kettlewell to clear the decks of rubbish and bolster a few key positions. If not, I fear he will also be forced out the door in 6 months, and Clarky will be handed the job and another blank cheque to save our season. 

In short, it feels like the Board has had a habit of behaving reactively instead of proactively in the recent past, and it seems like that is set to continue, as Kettlewell's bemoaning of the lack of budget would suggest. We may be completely skint, which answers my above questions; however, reactionary solutions, which we've seen a few of recently, are even more expensive than proactive strategies.

Perhaps a hard reset is needed somewhere behind the scenes? 

Odd? If you take the manager’s words too literally, maybe.

The key point being made was we need to move players out before we bring others in which is a different thing to not having money to sign players unless we move players on. Simply, the numbers don’t stack up squad wise.

Leading to your next point, moving the players out is the clearing the decks of rubbish as you put it. Nothing to suggest the board aren’t backing Kettlewell. Too many variables, the process is a slow burner - some just need to suck it up.

Proactive or Reactive decisions by the board are for another debate, I’m not sure Kettlewell was bemoaning anything at all and favour it was a thinly veiled dig at previous management.

[Spit_It_Out]

22 minutes ago, wellfan said:

It does, however, seem odd that Kettlewell has said we still need to move on some players to secure the budget for further signings, yet we apparently had the budget to put offers to Johnston, Cornelius, Goss, Casey, and KVV. And we've only signed Wilkinson and Obika and released several others.

Thats the worrying part when you think about it alot of players have left brought some money on KVV and Max and we still need to get rid of players before we can bring anyone according to the manager.

I wouldn't be shocked a few clubs reading that might put in a bid for Kelly see if we could be tempted to sell.

The glory days of Alan Burrows  keeping in touch with us are sorely missed I feel now.

[David]

Just now, Onthefringes said:

The key point being made was we need to move players out before we bring others in which is a different thing to not having money to sign players unless we move players on. Simply, the numbers don’t stack up squad wise.

100% on the money here.