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The Francis Jeffers Thread


ian8
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you feel strongly about this eh?? we get the jist, so can you no give it a rest, or at least save some for the awful performance that Jeffers is bound to deliver at some point over the next 5 months.

 

I've been a Motherwell supporter for over 40 years, I remember breaking my heart crying when we got relegated in 1968, shedding further tears a wee while later when we sold Dixie to Celtic. I hadn't exactly ran out of tears by the time the dark days of the 1980's hit us but I was old enough to keep them at bay with several pints of heavy.

It's been a hell of a ride with relegations, a Cup win, administration, European football, all interspersed with some great football from some terrific players. It certainly hasn't been dull.

I can tell you this though, in all those years I have never been as depressed about the state of the club as I have been for the past few weeks.

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A genuine question im not picking sides here just asking a question. If Jeffers had signed for say Hibs or Killie would you class that as a good signing or would you be pishing yourself laughing at them? Just interested to know if comments on here both positive & negative are given through claret & amber tinted specs.

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I can tell you this though, in all those years I have never been as depressed about the state of the club as I have been for the past few weeks.

I genuinely can't see what this awful state of affairs is!

 

I think everyone's just on a severe downer after all the relative success... Europe 3 years running n that. And when ye think about it, there's been a shit load off drama. From that 6-6 game, to European tours, big games, the real prospect of big prize money with the group stages and the like.

I think it all came crashing down at that Odense game. From then on it's been pretty average. And that's the problem. The sudden turnaround of us having a lot goin on to us just having a really average situation just seems more depressing than it actually is.

 

Ok, We've got nae money to buy decent players, but we've never been a rich club, and have certainly seen much poorer times.

We're goin through a badish spell on the pitch. - We aint the best, but certainly aint the worst! Nothing new there.

Now we've signed an unconvincing player for 5 months.... Hardly the end of the world!

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I've been a Motherwell supporter for over 40 years, I remember breaking my heart crying when we got relegated in 1968, shedding further tears a wee while later when we sold Dixie to Celtic. I hadn't exactly ran out of tears by the time the dark days of the 1980's hit us but I was old enough to keep them at bay with several pints of heavy.

It's been a hell of a ride with relegations, a Cup win, administration, European football, all interspersed with some great football from some terrific players. It certainly hasn't been dull.

I can tell you this though, in all those years I have never been as depressed about the state of the club as I have been for the past few weeks.

 

I beat ye by ten :rolleyes:

 

I wiz oan that same roller coaster you described..and am still oan it! :huh:

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I've been a Motherwell supporter for over 40 years, I remember breaking my heart crying when we got relegated in 1968, shedding further tears a wee while later when we sold Dixie to Celtic. I hadn't exactly ran out of tears by the time the dark days of the 1980's hit us but I was old enough to keep them at bay with several pints of heavy.

It's been a hell of a ride with relegations, a Cup win, administration, European football, all interspersed with some great football from some terrific players. It certainly hasn't been dull.

I can tell you this though, in all those years I have never been as depressed about the state of the club as I have been for the past few weeks.

 

I understand what you are saying. Having been there myself over the darkest of times and the best of times, this

season came to a shuddering halt when Brown/Knox left so completely out of the blue. I am not sure exactly now when they left, approximately December 10th, 2010 and since then:

 

Saturday, 5 February 2011

Scottish Cup

Stranraer 0 Motherwell 2

 

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Motherwell 0 Kilmarnock 1

 

Sunday, 30 January 2011

Co-operative Insurance Cup

Rangers 1 Motherwell 0

 

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

St Johnstone 1 Motherwell 0

 

Saturday, 22 January 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Motherwell 2 Hibernian 0

 

Saturday, 15 January 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Motherwell 0 Inverness CT 0

 

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Dundee Utd. 2 Motherwell 0

 

Sunday, 9 January 2011

Scottish Cup

Dundee 0 Motherwell 4

 

Saturday, 1 January 2011

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Hamilton 0 Motherwell 0

 

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Celtic 1 Motherwell 0

 

Sunday, 26 December 2010

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Motherwell 1 Rangers 4

 

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Clydesdale Bank Premier League

Motherwell 1 Hearts 2

 

So that's 3 Wins, 2 draws and 7 losses. Not sure what to make of the statistics.

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He's signed for us now so lets give him our backing.

This has to be the situation now. He's a 'Well player, so we should give him as much support as possible.

 

There's always a chance that he can completely turn his shit around and get things moving again.

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So that's 3 Wins, 2 draws and 7 losses. Not sure what to make of the statistics.

2 of those wins were against lower league teams and the other was against Dundee :nod:

 

Like most, I'm wholly underwhelmed about Francis Jeffers but for fuck sake, he was the best we could do and is surely better than no signing at all given the depth of choice up front.

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The club is not in dire straits. Look over the road at Dundee and thank your lucky stars we are not in that mess.

 

The problem with Motherwell and most SPL clubs is that success (a decent run in the league) makes a huge difference to the club. Our average attendance has dropped by 1000 since Brown and Knox left. This has meant really no money even with the sale of Reynolds to bring in players on a fee or on a decent wage.

 

We were always going to have a transitional period when they left and unfortunatley its led to a pretty poor run in the league, but if you break it down. Since McCall has been here:

 

We have faired very well in the cups with some decent performances.

 

Steve Jones looks like a very decent signing.

 

Our defence has held up quite well. A lot of clean sheets.

 

The players seem to respect the manager

 

Not always, but we have played some attractive passing football

 

The problem has been scoring goals. Murphy has gone off the boil and Sutton is not a natural poacher so maybe Jeffers can fill that gap. He might score hee haw, but then again he might score 10 and pull us back into the top six.

 

I am not too worried.

 

For me the main priority for the club is to get Steve Jennings onto an exteded deal. He is the heartbeat of our team.

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Nothing to do with Brown and Knox leaving IMO, crowds have been on a downward spiral for ages. I remember making comment of the crowd at Mark McGhee's first home game against ICT I believe. 4,000 turned up on a lovely day after we won our first opening league game away for yonks, everything should have been rosy at that time but for such a pitiful attendance. I've got a bit of a down on fitba' as a whole, the whole set-up is shite but we aren't in such a bad position really apart from needing a lot more fans in but that's always been the case.

McCall needs bodies in for cover, Jeffers will likely provide that so good luck to him but his signing has coincided with a gloomy outlook overall.

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Nothing to do with Brown and Knox leaving IMO, crowds have been on a downward spiral for ages. I remember making comment of the crowd at Mark McGhee's first home game against ICT I believe. 4,000 turned up on a lovely day after we won our first opening league game away for yonks, everything should have been rosy at that time but for such a pitiful attendance. I've got a bit of a down on fitba' as a whole, the whole set-up is shite but we aren't in such a bad position really apart from needing a lot more fans in but that's always been the case.

McCall needs bodies in for cover, Jeffers will likely provide that so good luck to him but his signing has coincided with a gloomy outlook overall.

 

But you can't deny that our attendance at Fir Park this season has taken a nose dive since they have left. Quite dramatically.

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Article on Jeffers in the Herald today.

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/mo...-away-1.1084149

 

Jeffers content to keep grinding away

RICHARD WILSON

 

9 Feb 2011

 

Whatever Francis Jeffers finds at Fir Park, it will not be enough.

 

His career will forever be reduced to his failure to live up to the £8m transfer fee that took him from Everton to Arsenal when he was 20 years old and considered a player of such sharp scoring instincts that Arsene Wenger found a typically idiosyncratic description.

 

The Fox In The Box, he called Jeffers, but 10 years on the striker has signed for Motherwell on a short-term deal and the same old questions are raised again.

 

Do you have something to prove? Any regrets? What about that Fox In The Box comment? He seems practiced at answering them – Jeffers is only riled when his motivation is later queried –but then he’s been doing it for long enough now. Everton, Arsenal, an England cap and an England goal, but also a loan spell at Rangers, among others, that was empty of any kind of achievement, and a series of injuries that curtailed his ambitions.

 

Jeffers is not without responsibility for the decline of his career: he fell out with Davie Moyes during a loan spell back at Everton and was placed on the transfer list at Sheffield Wednesday after being sent off for headbutting a Port Vale player. So a reputation trails him to Fir Park, and he can say only that what he is looking for is a sense of contentment; somewhere to be valued again.

 

“That’s what happens, that’s what you lads in the press do,” he says of the hype that followed his move to Arsenal. “I was a young lad at Everton, I scored a few goals and it wasn’t me who told Arsenal to pay £8m, I just wanted to further my career. It’s been stop-start since then, but you take the cards you’re dealt. When I come to the end of my career, I’ll look back and probably think it wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. But I can be proud of what I’ve achieved.”

 

Jeffers had offers to move to the Major League in America, but on the last day of the transfer window his agent called to say that Motherwell were interested. The opportunity to remain in the more passionate, more committed environment of the British game appealed, even if his last spell in Scotland was unrewarding.

 

Alex McLeish took Jeffers on loan from Charlton Athletic for five months in 2005, but he made only 14 appearances and did not score any goals. Since first leaving Everton, he has scored only 25 times in British football (his last contract was with Newcastle Jets in Australia, where he was a guest player), and so he seems a talent diminished. He looks plaintive as he talks about his time in the game, as if asking only for a kind of understanding, but also because there is nothing left to rage against.

 

“I don’t think you can look back at the Rangers thing,” he says. “People will say that I struggled, but I didn’t play many games and I wasn’t in the best Rangers side ever. But I enjoyed my time there. They’re the best fans I’ve played for.”

 

He remembers Stuart McCall, his new manager, as a midfielder who scored twice for Everton in the FA Cup final. Growing up as a fan of the Goodison club, Jeffers idolised McCall, among other players, but his relationship with the game now is something hard and uncompromising. It is a way of life, and signing for Motherwell until the end of the season is just another opportunity to keep grinding away.

 

A few goals might take the edge off any judgments that are made of him, and a prolific spell could even lead to a longer-term stay. But mostly Jeffers seems like a man in search of peace, a kind of uncomplicated happiness.

 

“I just want to enjoy my football,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of injuries, a lot of adversity, and people always say: ‘he hasn’t quite lived up to it’. When I come to the end of my career, hopefully I can say, well at least the last four or five years were successful.”

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A genuine question im not picking sides here just asking a question. If Jeffers had signed for say Hibs or Killie would you class that as a good signing or would you be pishing yourself laughing at them? Just interested to know if comments on here both positive & negative are given through claret & amber tinted specs.

 

I don't think it matters what colour the specs are tinted, his record is still awful. I'd be howling with derision at my mates if he signed for their club.

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