AllyMax Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 17 minutes ago, GazzyB said: 4 more than what Bair had to be fair! I do get your point, but given he's one of our own and we've all seen him and know he was a decent player for this level I think most would have been okay with Scott. More forgiving than they will be when the next Conor Wilkinson is signed before the end of the window. And there is the heart of the problem 🙂 Since 2019, Wilkinson's scoring record is miles better than Scott's. Strikers are always a gamble. Fletcher/Moult is a great example and there are dozens of others. Sometimes strikers wouk out in certain teams and others just don't and a lot of the time, track record doesn't reflect outcome. You can go back decades with this. Willie Pettigrew had been on the books with Alloa and Hibs I think, couldn't get a look in and then became a goal machine for us. Another mid 70's example, Mike Larnach set the heather on fire for Clydebank, went down south and faild, came back to us and failed again, went back to clydebank and started battering them in for fun again. (sorry, im an old c**t so my recollection of 70's transfers is immense 🙂 ).Tommy McLean signed Ally Graham from Ayr when he was the top goalscorer in the 2nd tier, but did nowt for us and got moved on. Not having a go at you here mate, but when I see posters constantly carp about our clubs faiures in the signing department, it pisses me off, for a multitude of reasons. Most of them probably couldn't organise a Subbuteo team and have no idea about contracts, budgets etc and can't see the bigger picture. You canny just go on 'playmaker' and type in 'top league, proven 25 goal a season striker at under £2K per week, multiple assists welcome'. 🙂 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Fingers crossed Kettlewell can find some strikers who have good goal scoring records, are surplus to requirements at their current club (or even better, don't have a club), and are attracting zero interest from anyone with more money than us to spend - which seems to be any club at or above our level. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzyB Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 20 minutes ago, AllyMax said: And there is the heart of the problem 🙂 Since 2019, Wilkinson's scoring record is miles better than Scott's. Strikers are always a gamble. Fletcher/Moult is a great example and there are dozens of others. Sometimes strikers wouk out in certain teams and others just don't and a lot of the time, track record doesn't reflect outcome. You can go back decades with this. Willie Pettigrew had been on the books with Alloa and Hibs I think, couldn't get a look in and then became a goal machine for us. Another mid 70's example, Mike Larnach set the heather on fire for Clydebank, went down south and faild, came back to us and failed again, went back to clydebank and started battering them in for fun again. (sorry, im an old c**t so my recollection of 70's transfers is immense 🙂 ).Tommy McLean signed Ally Graham from Ayr when he was the top goalscorer in the 2nd tier, but did nowt for us and got moved on. Not having a go at you here mate, but when I see posters constantly carp about our clubs faiures in the signing department, it pisses me off, for a multitude of reasons. Most of them probably couldn't organise a Subbuteo team and have no idea about contracts, budgets etc and can't see the bigger picture. You canny just go on 'playmaker' and type in 'top league, proven 25 goal a season striker at under £2K per week, multiple assists welcome'. 🙂 I'm not saying it's easy and we should be signing bargains all the time who are absolutely class, but on the other hand we shouldn't be getting it so badly wrong in all departments. Wilkinson, bit of a gamble, it hasn't worked out, that's fair. But Obika & Bair shouldn't be here in the first place, let alone Bair on a 2 year deal. As many other posters have said, we have bad transfer windows over and over again recently and we're in a cycle of signing shite that doesn't work out, KVV aside. You cannot deny that Kettlewell's signings have been extremely poor and underwhelming. As for comparing Scott to Wilkinson, it's unfair to point out Wilkinson's recent few years. For the first 6 or 7 years of his career Wilkinson's record was very poor, not better than Scott's. Scott is a young lad still who had a bad injury who we also sold for 7 figures, so there's for sure a player in there. Also a slightly unfair as Scott normally plays wide left forward. I completely agree it's a gamble to sign strikers, especially when we're battling it out with St Mirren etc who are in the same market, I just wish we'd win the bet far more often than we lose it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benson Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 20 minutes ago, bobbybingo said: Fingers crossed Kettlewell can find some strikers who have good goal scoring records, are surplus to requirements at their current club (or even better, don't have a club), and are attracting zero interest from anyone with more money than us to spend - which seems to be any club at or above our level. So we are looking for a player with good goalscoring record,either surplus to requirements or doesn't have Club, that's attracting zero interest from a club that has more money than us,many joints have you had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Irrespective of which strikers we sign, we need them to be fit and hit the ground running. No point in them taking 2 months to get fit/match fit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 12 minutes ago, GazzyB said: I'm not saying it's easy and we should be signing bargains all the time who are absolutely class, but on the other hand we shouldn't be getting it so badly wrong in all departments. Wilkinson, bit of a gamble, it hasn't worked out, that's fair. But Obika & Bair shouldn't be here in the first place, let alone Bair on a 2 year deal. As many other posters have said, we have bad transfer windows over and over again recently and we're in a cycle of signing shite that doesn't work out, KVV aside. You cannot deny that Kettlewell's signings have been extremely poor and underwhelming. As for comparing Scott to Wilkinson, it's unfair to point out Wilkinson's recent few years. For the first 6 or 7 years of his career Wilkinson's record was very poor, not better than Scott's. Scott is a young lad still who had a bad injury who we also sold for 7 figures, so there's for sure a player in there. Also a slightly unfair as Scott normally plays wide left forward. I completely agree it's a gamble to sign strikers, especially when we're battling it out with St Mirren etc who are in the same market, I just wish we'd win the bet far more often than we lose it. If strikers are meant to score goals, why has Bair been a bad signing? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 2 minutes ago, Benson said: So we are looking for a player with good goalscoring record,either surplus to requirements or doesn't have Club, that's attracting zero interest from a club that has more money than us,many joints have you had. None. The folk who expect us to bring in top quality strikers given those restrictions - which I think reflect our current state pretty accurately - might have their heads stuck in a bong, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellgirl Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 7 minutes ago, Benson said: So we are looking for a player with good goalscoring record,either surplus to requirements or doesn't have Club, that's attracting zero interest from a club that has more money than us,many joints have you had. We got Mika on loan and he turned out to be an asset. Why shouldnt we be able to attract a striker given that weve signed other players in the transfer window? I completely get the point you are making but other clubs were after Halliday and we got him. Money isn't always going to be the only consideration that will attract players to Motherwell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 1 minute ago, wellgirl said: We got Mika on loan and he turned out to be an asset. Why shouldnt we be able to attract a striker given that weve signed other players in the transfer window? I completely get the point you are making but other clubs were after Halliday and we got him. Money isn't always going to be the only consideration that will attract players to Motherwell. I think it's me you're really replying to, since those were my points. Yeah, we got Biereth. He was a young guy who hadn't scored many goals at our level, but it worked out great for us. As soon as he proved himself, Arsenal recalled him and sent him off to a higher level. Repeating that success is the trick, and not all of the young players doing the rounds on loan will end up making it. Halliday is far closer to the end of his career than the start and we'll see how it's looking once he's played a few games. If he was a few years younger we wouldn't have got a sniff. Hearts offloaded him to us, then go after Scott Fraser, a player a lot of us fancied when his name came up. That's where we're at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellgirl Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 6 minutes ago, bobbybingo said: I think it's me you're really replying to, since those were my points. Yeah, we got Biereth. He was a young guy who hadn't scored many goals at our level, but it worked out great for us. As soon as he proved himself, Arsenal recalled him and sent him off to a higher level. Repeating that success is the trick, and not all of the young players doing the rounds on loan will end up making it. Halliday is far closer to the end of his career than the start and we'll see how it's looking once he's played a few games. If he was a few years younger we wouldn't have got a sniff. Hearts offloaded him to us, then go after Scott Fraser, a player a lot of us fancied when his name came up. That's where we're at. 6 minutes ago, bobbybingo said: I think it's me you're really replying to, since those were my points. Yeah, we got Biereth. He was a young guy who hadn't scored many goals at our level, but it worked out great for us. As soon as he proved himself, Arsenal recalled him and sent him off to a higher level. Repeating that success is the trick, and not all of the young players doing the rounds on loan will end up making it. Halliday is far closer to the end of his career than the start and we'll see how it's looking once he's played a few games. If he was a few years younger we wouldn't have got a sniff. Hearts offloaded him to us, then go after Scott Fraser, a player a lot of us fancied when his name came up. That's where we're at. I am aware of how tough things are for Motherwell just now given that we don't have as much money to spend as other SPL clubs. Seem to have quoted you twice by accident there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Just now, wellgirl said: I am aware of how tough things are for Motherwell just now given that we don't have as much money to spend as other SPL clubs. I think just about everyone is. That's why some of the complaints about signings don't seem based in reality. I don't believe for a minute the guys we're bringing in are at the top of Kettlewell's shopping list. It's one thing having an eye for a good player, it's another thing entirely having the funds to sign them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onthefringes Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 3 hours ago, santheman said: FWIW someone who is usually spot on with his info told me that we were never in for Main or Scott and it was just paper talk. At last, sanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texanwellfan Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 7 days to go. Tick tock! Tick tock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi-1991 Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Soooo how many of our summer signing do we have left? This is a fucking horrendous look for the recruitment team. Absolute confirmation that the entire summer window was a waste of time, money and could cost us our position in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellgirl Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 2 minutes ago, Yoshi-1991 said: Soooo how many of our summer signing do we have left? This is a fucking horrendous look for the recruitment team. Absolute confirmation that the entire summer window was a waste of time, money and could cost us our position in the league. Don't think Biereth was a waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 10 minutes ago, wellgirl said: Don't think Biereth was a waste of time. Nope, nor was Wilkinson. His record suggested that he was worth the gamble but it didn't work out. We moved him on for cash so not a disaster. Shaw probably wasn't part of the recruitment process and was very much a last-minute signing to cover injuries, which he did, although not as well as we hoped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbybingo Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 29 minutes ago, Yoshi-1991 said: Soooo how many of our summer signing do we have left? This is a fucking horrendous look for the recruitment team. Absolute confirmation that the entire summer window was a waste of time, money and could cost us our position in the league. Four, assuming Obika stays. Zdravkovski, Gent and Bair are doing ok for us. Biereth and Spencer did well enough to be recalled. How does that confirm the entire summer window was a waste of time? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Balls of Shire Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 6 minutes ago, bobbybingo said: Four, assuming Obika stays. Zdravkovski, Gent and Bair are doing ok for us. Biereth and Spencer did well enough to be recalled. How does that confirm the entire summer window was a waste of time? Yep, all doing well, If Nicholson, Halliday and Monty show up well and every chance they could as they have decent pedigree , then it's been a pretty good season for recruitment team considering the restraints...well done ketts and nick daws 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joewarkfanclub Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Jeez guys we have done this one to death. But here goes again. Oli Shaw was a last minute panic buy after Biereth had got injured and we needed someone in sharpish. The management / recruitment team would not have had a huge pool of talent to pick from at that point but needed to get someone in to help out until Biereth was fit again. He has now been moved back to his parent club after 6 months at no loss to Motherwell. How that can in anyway be assessed as a failure or an albatross to hang around Kettlewell / Daws neck beggers belief. Not saying our recruitment couldnt be improved. Of course it could. But please let this one go! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiddy Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 1 hour ago, Great Balls of Shire said: Yep, all doing well, If Nicholson, Halliday and Monty show up well and every chance they could as they have decent pedigree , then it's been a pretty good season for recruitment team considering the restraints...well done ketts and nick daws what a bout ketts going back to his arsenal contact n askin "anymare yung yins want a geme on a sat" cause by feck the last one we got we improved 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grizzlyg Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 I am usually a positive guy but I am genuinely concerned that as it stands we have Bair and Obika up front and thats all. Every other area looking ok but we need 2 strikers or I really fear the worse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellfan Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 If Kettlewell and Daws get this winter window right and address the 'mistakes' of the summer window, I expect we will successfully drag ourselves over the finish line, but only once we get more strikers in the door. Any rumours? I will be pleased and have enjoyed the rollercoaster, but it'll be due to the ridiculous panic mode we've seen before. However, many of the current squad and the January short-term signings will likely be out the door by June, meaning a rebuild will be required to reset for the 2024/25 season. Would you want Kettlewell and Daws in charge of that again? I wouldn't because the current evidence suggests it could lead to January 2025 repeating history. We can't lurch from window to crisis to window to crisis like we've been doing recently. It represents a complete failure to adopt any sensible strategy. Therefore, by summer, I hope we have the promised new CEO and Board, a new and experienced management and recruitment team, and a player development strategy to set us on a different path from what we've had to endure/enjoy recently. But then again, that would lead to a boring forum, so maybe give a 5-year contract to Kettlewell and lifetime immunity to Daws so we can see ourselves successfully progress into the Lowland League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellgirl Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 21 minutes ago, grizzlyg said: I am usually a positive guy but I am genuinely concerned that as it stands we have Bair and Obika up front and thats all. Every other area looking ok but we need 2 strikers or I really fear the worse I would say one would do barring injuries but I'd be amazed if we don't get a forward in before the transfer window closes. I'm sure Kettlewell knows it's priority. Just gutting that Mika got recalled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 23 minutes ago, grizzlyg said: I am usually a positive guy but I am genuinely concerned that as it stands we have Bair and Obika up front and thats all. Every other area looking ok but we need 2 strikers or I really fear the worse Absolutely Grizzly. As it stands Obika is out injured so that only leaves Bair. Given his injury record we can't rely on Obika. If we want to play 2 up front we may need 3 strikers but yes 2 minimum. That should be our priority of course. I'd still like a dominant central defender in the Hartley/Aldred mould though and a pacy RWB but that might be asking too much. To be even more demanding, we need incomers to hit the ground running. A big ask but we have a week to go. Saturday is another matter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texanwellfan Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 I thought one of the signings was a pacy RWB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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