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David

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Everything posted by David

  1. Yeah, and I'm more than happy to see that too. As long as we win. But there will come a time when we don't win, and his shabby goal record will come into play because he's a striker. Or supposed to be. Along with the other strikers in the squad. If we can get through the season doing as we are, with our goals mainly coming from our defenders and midfielders, then fair play. I'll be the first to hold my hands up and say that my worries about us signing sub-par strikers were unfounded because we don't need actual strikers. If Paton, Slattery, Casey, and Spittal can all grab 40-odd goals between them, despite only managing to get around twelve collectively last season, then we'll be fine. If the goals from midfield and defence dry up though, then we may find ourselves in a bit of bother.
  2. Well, we have no option but to give him time to prove it 😂 The lad is here now, for two years no less, so we have to hope Kettlewell can succeed where all before him have seemingly failed.
  3. I'm fairly sure that's what St Johnstone fans said about him as well. He'll work hard, cover the ground, and is the kind of guy everyone wants to succeed. But he's a striker who doesn't score goals, which is a problem. I'd rather he was like Van Veen, and had the fans calling him a lazy c*$t but he pops up twice in a game to put the ball in the net.
  4. An amazing result, and so far, the season is shaping up nicely. This could be one of those seasons where one or more of Hearts, Hibs, and Aberdeen underperform, opening the door to the top six or even the top four for ourselves or St Mirren. The manager has continued to do a great job, even if the new signings have yet to make any kind of real impact. The players who are making the difference for us are the same guys who were coming onto a game last season, which is perfectly fine with me. I remain unconvinced about the players we've signed this summer for the most part, especially the likes of Bair, but we can overlook that if the team as a whole is performing.
  5. I must have missed the part where you have to reply to me? Just scroll on by mate. If you don't want to discuss the points I'm making, feel free to move on. It's not hard.
  6. Aye, slagged off by the typical negative Nancy's in our support. I thought both were very solid in their first season. They're exactly the kinds of players we should be signing. That's our level. But, the point I'm making is that the calibre of players we've signed this year is down on previous seasons. And by that, I mean their form and track records before coming here. When we signed McGinn and Spittal, I looked at their previous records and reckoned there was a better-than-average chance of them succeeding here. I'm not saying the same about the guys we've signed so far. There are. But that doesn't negate the point that signing someone with the track record of a Theo Bair to a two-year deal, no less, is a relatively new low for our club. And by "the same old posters," I will assume you don't mean me because I've had no reason to doubt our signings for the most part in recent years. This summer is different. We're signing what can only really be described as losers to this point. Guys who aren't good enough for St Johnstone, and in Obika, we signed a striker who scored one solitary goal for us last season. As I mentioned, in the past, we'd be grabbing guys like Bair and Obika on six-month deals at the tail end of the window or in January to make up the numbers (in Obika, we did exactly that last season). These are now players who look like they'll feature fairly prominently for us this season, and that worries me. Yeah, I get all that. You're acting as if I'm new to this team. I'm not. I've been watching them since the mid 80's. And at absolutely no point have I mentioned buying instant success. That's just stupid. What I'm saying, and what absolutely no one seems to be willing to accept, is that the players we've signed this summer have track records that strongly suggest they'll accomplish the square root of fuck all at Motherwell. We've seen guys like this come through the doors before, and they usually do nothing before leaving quietly after six months to a year. The only difference this year is that they're not here for six months to a year. And they're the best we have on the books, which is as depressing as it gets. I'm usually a "glass half full" guy, but honestly, watching how we're playing at the moment and the unimaginative signings we're making has me worried. It's as simple as that. And I know, everyone else is happy to give these guys until January to show us that they can defy their recent track records (or, in the case of Bair, completely turn his entire professional career on his head), which is fine. I don't think they'll accomplish much, and I'm thoroughly uninspired by our signings so far. That's allowed, I think.
  7. There's no version of David that would ever look at handing someone like Theo Bair a 2 year deal, or signing Obika being a good idea 😂
  8. Look at what I said. I'm talking about the calibre of players they were when they arrived with us. Not how they did at the club.
  9. It's not an assumption, it's based on the quality of the player we've signed at this stage of the season in previous years. Blair Spittal had been an ever-present pretty much at County the season before we signed him, and had scored seven goals as well. Paul McGinn had played consistently in the Scottish top flight for something like 5 years and was regarded as a solid, respected player. Even Kevin Van Veen, who was coming off a relatively poor season goal-return-wise, had shown enough in his career for me to think he could be a useful signing. Would you dispute that those players aren't of a higher quality than what we've signed this summer?
  10. Another thing I find interesting is that until recently, we never really handed players more than a one-year deal when we signed them. A two or three-year deal was a bit of a rarity, and unless I'm mistaken, there was a bit of a big deal made by the club under Alexander that we were shifting to that model for certain players. I welcomed that. If we have a chance to bring in a player who we believe can do a job for us over a period of time and hopefully be sold on, then we should offer a longer deal where possible. We signed Conor Shields on a three-year deal, which may look ridiculous now, but he was touted as a real prospect when he came in. At 24 years old and with 11 goals in the Championship the previous season, he looked worth the gamble. Kaiyne Woolery, Van Veen, Liam Kelly, Slattery, Ojala, Goss, Sol, Tierney, Spittal and Josh Morris were all handed multi-year deals. How many of them were a success? I'd say that all except Ojala, Morris, and possibly Tierney were. We saw those signings above, and the squad was shored up by the likes of Jordan Roberts, Paul McGinn, Stuart McKinstry, Matt Penney, Ollie Crankshaw on short-term deals and loans. But this summer, we've handed multi-year deals to Theo Bair, Wilkinson, and Davor. It may just be me, but those three players look like the type of players we'd have offered short-term deals to in the past. Would anyone have been up in arms if we'd signed any of those players to the end of this season? I wouldn't have. Are we truly that skint that the bit-part squad fillers of a few years ago are now the first-choice, primary transfer targets of today? It's not just the names we're bringing in that have me slightly worried, but the fact we're committing long-term to players like the ones we've signed. I still believe that Theo Bair would have been the most shocked man in the country when his agent rang him up and said Motherwell wanted to offer him not a trial or a six-month deal to prove himself but a two-year deal. Again, I hope to be proved completely wrong and we go on to have a cracking season, but I'm not optimistic. Which is saying something, as I've been a Motherwell fan for a long time and have seen a fair amount of shite pass through the doors at Fir Park over the years. But this squad, so far, is one of the worst I've seen in quite a while I think.
  11. We need quality signings. And I know we can't really afford to bring in players of top quality, but we've signed better than we have this season before.
  12. We can't keep going from season to season with that approach. Things don't go well, we panic and spend a ton of cash we don't really have.
  13. This is a very good point. We always see the same old arguments whenever anyone questions the signing the club makes, which is, "well, could you do any better? Who would you sign?" It's a ridiculous argument, really. I know players need six months in the league to learn the language and all that, but I'm not really feeling any different about Bair, Obika, and Wilkinson than I was when they signed. I was concerned about their career numbers and trajectory to this point, and they're not really doing anything that suggests to me that they're going to change. Again, I hope I'm wrong. I also hope we sign some other players who can do a job for us. As things stand, I'm not particularly optimistic about the current squad or how Kettlewell has us playing.
  14. Didn't Kettlewell talk negatively about Efford in a press conference recently?
  15. I don't think he has. As many have pointed out, he did the same when he played for us. The truth is, he's just not very good.
  16. I'm sure Arsene Wenger said something about that a while back?
  17. Why do fans assume a player who's left a club is automatically going to command similar wages at his next club? Once they leave, as Fletcher has left United, it's basically back to square one. If we're interested, we make our best offer, and if it appeals, they take it. If they get offered more elsewhere, then fair play, but previous salary is no indicator of future salary.
  18. Their results thus far would suggest they're a team enjoying a good run at the very least, and we're meeting them during that run. They always play better at home, but they got a draw at Tynecastle, which is always a good result. McInnes is no mug, so we'll do well to get three points from this game.
  19. Aye, you've wheeled that Wenger story out twice now 😂 While it may very well take a player six months to get up to full speed in a team, if enough of these new players do that, it could result in relegation. Managers don't get six months, so they need their players to do the job. If Kettlewell isn't getting results and our new signings are floundering in six months' time? It won't matter what Wenger said. There will be a strong possibility he'll be gone. So he best hope those players of his can exceed ol' Arsene's expectations.
  20. Wilkinson looks decent enough, as does the young lad from Arsenal. The other two look terrible. A 50% clip isn't bad I guess.
  21. If only his recruitment skills were as good.
  22. It's time to put this "lost 3 out of 21 under Kettlewell" chat to bed. Last season he was parachuted into a squad that wasn't really his, and he did a very good job. What we should be looking at is this season. With his players. We're currently 4 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss under Kettlewell this season. 3 of those wins and 1 of those draws came against lower league opposition in the cup. We're 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss against Premiership opposition.
  23. If we look at the pros and cons, I think the best course of action is to not offer him an extended deal. Pro - If he does well, we can argue for some compensation from any club wanting to take him. It wouldn't be all that much, mind you, considering the type of club that's likely to be interested in someone like Kettlewell. Con - If he doesn't do well, we have to sack him and pay him off, which means spending money we likely don't really have to spare. For me, I'd rather we run the risk of losing him if he does well. I'd rather be sitting in a great position and have him leave for nothing than be in the shit and have to pay him off.
  24. Hmmm... Manager comes in, saves us from relegation, starts off well the following season and is then handed an extended contract. Where have I seen that happen before?
  25. Well, I think I've been quite fair in highlighting the reasoning behind my thinking. It's not like I'm just posting, "he's shite! Terrible signing!" and other such nonsense we see from other forum members. I've given my reasons, and you and others can feel free to disagree, of course. At this stage, it's all just conjecture, as I've said a few times. And at no point have I said the manager doesn't deserve time. But that doesn't mean I need to sit silent and wait until we're at the end of next month before making a comment. I've said that I'm judging the signings on their track records to this point, which is what fans of all clubs all over the world do. It's not something new or unreasonable. I don't particularly like the sound of how the manager wants to set us up, and I'm not overly keen on our signings to this point for the most part. The difference between me and certain other posters is that I will take absolutely zero pleasure in being right about that if it comes to pass. I want the team to succeed, and for Theo Bair to be a resounding success. Why wouldn't I?
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