Questioning Our Loyalty

[NEMO]

JUST three months after leading the club into Europe, the knives are out for Motherwell gaffer Mark McGhee.

 

Woeful Well have crashed from third to joint bottom of the SPL in a wretched run that has seen them score one goal and collect just one point in their last seven games.

Last weekend the players were booed off the field as Hamilton Accies inflicted a humiliating derby defeat.

That has led McGhee to question the loyalty of a section of the Fir Park support.

The Well boss turned his back on a megabucks move to Hearts last summer to stay on at Fir Park.

And now, in his hour of need, he's urging the fans who are beginning to turn against him to unite behind him and his players.

McGhee, who leads his side in to a must-win clash with fellow strugglers Caley Thistle tomorrow, stressed: "When I took the job on again, rather than going to Hearts, I didn't think we would cruise back into third place by more points than we did last year.

"I knew the situation. I knew we had lost Ross McCormack and didn't really have any money to spend.

"I took the job on for other reasons and I expect some return from that. (YOURE GETTING PAID FOR IT GET ON WITH IT)

"I could have easily left for a job that was much better paid and carried more prestige.

"Hearts are sitting third in the league and I would be sitting there at least if I was at Tynecastle.

"But I chose a job I knew would be much more difficult for a lot less money.

"I expect loyalty from our fans in return for that. (WORKS BOTH WAYS MARK)

 

"Otherwise, why do it? Why did I not just go to Hearts? I think that's fair.

 

"I showed them loyalty and now the team and myself really need their backing.

 

"Otherwise, the next manager in that position who has that decision to make should just take the money and run."

As well as this weekend's massive match the first anniversary of Phil O'Donnell's death is on Monday. McGhee added: "I hope it won't make it more difficult for the players to focus this weekend.

 

"The anniversary of Phil's death will be a big thing for everyone, but I think the players have mostly come to terms with it and have handled it fairly well.

"You can't underestimate how difficult that has been and how much it has affected some of the players but I think we have it under control now.

"We will not just ignore it and assume everything will be all right.

"We will be vigilant and will be talking to the players, watching them and getting feedback from other members of staff.

 

"One of the players would come to me in the months after Phil's death and mention one of the others wasn't feeling quite right with it all. That was a very big help to me.

 

The Motherwell gaffer won the respect of many for the way he led the club through last season's horrific ordeal.

He carried himself with tremendous dignity as he led his players through the grieving process.

 

And he said: "It didn't become too much for me and it won't. I have a great infrastructure around me, my family, my girlfriend and we have a baby now.

"I've got a very solid network of support, so I am fine and I am here for the players.

"Has it been the most challenging year of my professional life? Yes.

"When I was Millwall manager, Ray Harford, a close friend and a coach, died mid-season.

"I had that to deal with, so I'm not inexperienced in that situation.

 

"A guy as young as Phil and the shocking way it happened was completely different.

"But I had a lot of help from everyone at the club, from the chaplain and many others."

McGhee has not found a replacement for the skipper he lost in tragic circumstances.

Well are in a relegation scrap this season and McGhee added: "Phil's death puts what is happening this season in total

perspective in terms of what's most important. I've seen it before in football, the highs and the lows.

 

"But one of the most important things I said at the time of Phil's death was that, as terrible as the event was, we all reserved the right to go on.

"Phil's death also made me realise that as much as football is my life — and I have been in it since I was 16 — there are greater things out there."

 

Whilst i'm not in the sack him camp he does himself no favours with this pish, he lost out on the Scotland job, and was ready to leave us and got cold feet for the Hearts job at the last minute LOYALTY FUK OFF MARK RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES AND WHILES I WANT TO GIVE YOU TIME I FEEL YOURE READY TO JUMP SHIP AT A MUINUITES NOTICE.

 

 

By the way this was written by Andy Devlin who is a self confessed Motherwell fan and sat in front of me in the cup final hammering by rangers so he can hardly be called anti Motherwell and just out to make a story

[wellgirl]

As I've said, I'm not a fan of McGhee but we've had plenty of things to say about him and whether we like it or not, articles like this are going to appear. There are very few managers who spend a lifetime at one club and McGhee is no different.

[NEMO]

It didnt just appear he gave the story.

[well_nuts]

with shite like this. the sooner he goes the better.

[wellgirl]

You don't think the team deserve our loyalty, is that too much to ask? We've said plenty, now he's saying his piece (to a paper a lot of people wouldn't wipe their arse with). I think this has already been done to death elsewhere, there's not a lot that he's said here that hasn't been said elsewhere already. That's the reason why I don't understand what makes this piece so objectionable, there's very little new in there.

[NEMO]

Personally i feel its the big fuk you v sign that Boyle gave to the fans then denied it.

I support the TEAM and no one else but that's just my opinion. DONT DARE QUESTION OUR LOYALTY WERE THE PAYING PUNTERS.

 

But give him time i think hell pull through for us

[London Irish]

McGhee has questioned the loyalty of the fans at pretty much every club he has been at. Its one of the reasons that I believe that he does divide supporters.

 

He is wrong to question loyalty, just as he was wrong at previous clubs.

 

I agree with the sentiments of your post but would take issue with the above part of it. There is hardly a manager operating at any club that doesn't divide opinion among the fanbase, and to pretend McGhee is exceptional does him a disservice.

 

Go on any fans' website of any club and you will see a fairly sizable minority abusing their manager and the fan base "divided". Now wouldn't it be nice if Motherwell (or Brighton!) were different and the fans there gave their managers time to get through troughs in form, or at least expressed their criticism of the manager in terms that are not either viciously or childishly personal, as is the case of some contributors to this thread.

 

But why should Motherwell stand apart from rather malign developments in fan culture in recent times? It would be a unique and unusual thing if it did so.

 

There of course has always been moaners as long as football has been played, but generally their influence has always been limited by the limited media at their disposal, a stupid chant or comment in a stand lasts a few seconds in people's memories before disappearing into the ether.

 

The internet has changed all that, now abusive comments can live on as permanent monuments to managers and messageboards can be cluttered up with this dross. Add in the phenomenon of the internet attention-seeker who makes comments purely to get a reaction, and the entire culture of fan-manager relationships has changed forever.

 

The outcome will be permanent division among fans, shorter and shorter management terms, managers hounded after just a few bad results and, for me, a degraded experience of being part of a collective movement that HAS to be united or it is nothing.

 

As far as McGhee is concerned, he acheived wonders last season. And this season by November we were third or fourth in the table.

 

Now since then, we've lost games to a handful of bottom 6 clubs that we haven't been used to losing to for about 18 months. That represents a setback but hardly a disaster. If you take the Falkirk result as the beginning of the trough, it still only represents just over a month in the life of this football club. Compared to the near 18 months that McGhee has been working away to make Motherwell a competitive force in this league.

 

So is this the extent of fan patience for some Motherwell fans - over a year of progress versus about 6 weeks of setbacks. Whether you call this disloyal or not, that's a loaded word, but certainly we would be going through 2 or 3 managers a season if these short-sighted fans ever had their way.

 

I'd love to say they won't have their way - but all evidence suggests that the influence and noise levels of the impatient and shortsighted fan is growing everywhere in football.

[wellgirl]

Loyalty is a 2 way thing. I sit in the East Stand and even when things were going well last season you get a section of fans who sit and moan their way through every game, criticising players sometimes even before they have kicked a ball, telling them how they could play better. The fact is, if we were third in the table again, this wouldn't be so much of an issue. Motherwell fans are loyal but they can also be too critical even when the team is winning. Maybe it's time we realised that he isn't going anywhere soon and give him and the team some support over the next few games, because it's going to be a hard run in and the team are going to need all the support they can get.

[Well-Made]

I have merged another thread started on the same topic. This time the post from The Sun.

[Mitch]

Not fully read the posts above but will do tomorrow when sobber.

 

One result against SPL fodder (Worst SPL side????) doesnt make us world beaters. Keep the gutties on the deck!