S Robinson Motherwell Manager

[coop91]

Get the feeling that quite a few on here had there paragraph written and ready to send regardless of who was named as manager. Time to get real with regards to the size of our club and the budget we can offer our manager. For those who are moaning about the appointment. who do you really think a club of our standing can attract as a manager? Robinson deserves our full support. And the club as a whole badly needs it if we are to survive this relegation battle. Get out and get behind them this Saturday. And for the rest of the season. No one here supports 'the well' because of how big and successful we are. But we all still love the club anyway. Don't we?

[StipeIsGod]

Fingers crossed that it goes well but I can't help but feel that it is further cow-towing to the senior players who seem to be all important these days.

 

I'd sooner have seen an impartial brush clear out the deadwood.

[Tweed]

I think it is a good appointment.

 

Bearing in mind it is 15th March, anyone new coming in could take a bit of time to get to know the squad - something we're pretty thin on.

 

Also, there have been marked signs of improvement in the games at Kilmarnock and Aberdeen, granted he clearly hasn't turned us into world beaters but he has proven that he has some ideas what he has doing.

 

I accept Oldham have improved since he left BUT with the budget they have he did well to even have them in touch.

 

As for the length of the contract I never really feel appointments to the end of the season work. They either result in short termism or lack of motivation, either create problems. I think we have provided a contract that mitigates both of these risks but allows us a not extortionate get out if he's pish.

 

So here's to you Mr Robinson, keep us up, get us safe and move us forward.

[fizoxy]

That's what will be interesting, all of the senior players are out of contract in the summer, other than McManus. We're losing:

 

Samson, Hammell, lasley, Lucas, Pearson, ainsworth, skippy, faddy, Jules

 

Realistically the only one who can still do a job is McDonald, but he seems to want to go back to Australia.

 

Then there's the chance that we'll lose moult and cadden.

 

So we're trusting Robinson to do a full rebuild, after keeping us up, so he'll be tested.

[Motherwellfc1991]

I will put money on McManus being appointed assistant manager in the summer at the latest and the Burrows Plan he came up with behind McGhees back will be complete. Stinks of old pals act and jobs for the boys - how can the club and society move forward with underhand appointments like this.

 

I can't believe Robinson was the best candidate for the club out of 50 applicants but then again I can't believe a media apprentice is in the position he's in running a football club.

 

I sincerely hope I am proved wrong but got the feeling we will be watching negative route one football this year and beyond which will ruin guys like Moult and Cadden

[MelvinBragg]

That's what will be interesting, all of the senior players are out of contract in the summer, other than McManus. We're losing:

 

Samson, Hammell, lasley, Lucas, Pearson, ainsworth, skippy, faddy, Jules

 

Realistically the only one who can still do a job is McDonald, but he seems to want to go back to Australia.

 

Then there's the chance that we'll lose moult and cadden.

 

So we're trusting Robinson to do a full rebuild, after keeping us up, so he'll be tested.

Hammell not out of contract this summer. So the left side of our defence will still be old and slowing down next season...

[numpty]

I will put money on McManus being appointed assistant manager in the summer at the latest and the Burrows Plan he came up with behind McGhees back will be complete. Stinks of old pals act and jobs for the boys

I'm confused. Didn't McGhee only get the job because Burrows wanted his old pal back at the club in the first place?

[Gadgey]

I've remained silent throughout the entire 'McGhee out' and 'who's next' debates on here, but having read all the comments, I am genuinely surprised by the degree of absurdity freely on display.

 

In pure stoater terms, there's been some amount o' pish getting slavvered.

 

Good luck Robbo. You're going to need it. You're now in charge of a disjointed squad in a relegation battle that has a support that (if this forum is anything to go by) have little or no clue of where the club truly sits in footballs economic and job market and are in the main, never going to be happy with anything you or the club will do.

 

Robbo, you have a tremendous task ahead and despite my open mind, it would appear you're already fucked !!!

[CMWellfan]

Good luck to Robbo, by fuck he'll need it with some of those players and our club structure.

 

Looking forward to all those stay away fans coming back on Saturday.

 

The club statement confirms that we are ran by committee; a board governed by an exec board and the well society. It appears we've turned the clock back 40 years, which is quite an achievement.

 

For all that CMWellfan can be a bit of a dick, he's right about the structure and those in charge. Amateurish would be an improvement.

There's a "wtf," moment awaiting many members of this forum, not all. There's plenty here that know I'm telling the truth.

 

.............

 

Robinson? It would be an act of self-delusion if anyone thought for one minute he was the best candidate for the job.

 

Who here posted, "sack McGhee, bring back Robinson."

 

No one.

 

But now we have him and he has my support. I like the idea of him being our George Graham - "1-0 to the Motherwell," would be a great new chant. We can't outplay teams like Celtic, so lets choke the bastards to death.

 

Get to it, Steve.

[Goggles & Flippers]

Another question, what's the deal with those who throw up in the taxi? Is it a flat fee to clean up the sick or do you change the amount based other factors?

 

Do you keep wet wipes in the glovebox so the cash goes in the hippy as a wee extra or goes for a full valet and all the collected monies pay for it.

 

If you can clear this up, I'd be grateful to hear back

[ML1]

 

But now we have him and he has my support. I like the idea of him being our George Graham - "1-0 to the Motherwell," would be a great new chant. We can't outplay teams like Celtic, so lets choke the bastards to death.

 

Get to it, Steve.

 

Personally find it crazy that we sacked the only experienced member of the coaching staff that we had - only to put our precarious fate in the hands of the rest of the team who worked under him, maybe there was more to the McGhee sacking than meets the eye.

 

For it to be 1-0 to the Motherwell we would need to have a shot on target which is more than we mustered last weekend.

 

Hope Robbo sent a thank you card to Kris Boyd as had he not missed that penalty then he wouldnt have been near the interviews nevermind the job.

 

Good luck Steve , fingers crossed for you.

[Gadgey]

 

Personally find it crazy that we sacked the only experienced member of the coaching staff that we had - only to put our precarious fate in the hands of the rest of the team who worked under him, maybe there was more to the McGhee sacking than meets the eye.

That's fan power for you.

[Shire Greats]

It just smacks of the cheap option. That may or may not be the case but that's how it looks. If Valakari with a track record of winning trophies as a manager was a poorer candidate than Robinson then Robinson must have given one hell of an interview. Or is Robinson the only candidate willing to work for what we were offering both in terms of salary and resources?

 

Obviously, we all hope he does well but one word has been used several times already about the appointment and it sums it up for me. Uninspiring...

Is cheap necessarily bad? We don't have the money to go splashing around and I am sure the guy wants to prove himself.....good luck Robbo

[underboyleheating]

 

Hope Robbo sent a thank you card to Kris Boyd

He did, along with a meal for two at his favourite restaurant.

[Kmcalpin]

 

For it to be 1-0 to the Motherwell we would need to have a shot on target which is more than we mustered last weekend.

 

Hope Robbo sent a thank you card to Kris Boyd as had he not missed that penalty then he wouldnt have been near the interviews nevermind the job.

 

Must admit they were and still are my concerns.

 

I would have have been a bit, but not a lot happier, last weekend if we'd had 2 or 3 decent efforts on target, but still lost. As for the Killie game you're right but I suppose we could all trawl the season and asked ourselves what if such and such had happened. Still Robinson did manage to beat Killie and the old adage held true its better to be lucky than good.

 

Of course we have to tighten up our defensive game (as opposed to our defence), but in the coming run of home matches we'll need to do more than just defend well, we'll need to score and win.

[Welldaft Mk1]

I see in the papers this morning he had other coaching opportunities / offers at English Premiership clubs.

 

Maybe they know a little more about his abilities than some on this forum.

 

Q the point that a good coach does not necessarily make for a successful Manager.....time will tell on that one

[sinjy]

I was not keen on getting rid of McGhee right up until the Dundee debacle, then he was a dead man walking.

The main reason for this was that I could not see a good alternative to him.

The names bandied about on here were pure fantasy. Coyle Davies and Stubbs have all managed at Championship or Premier in England and wouldn't come her. Valakari from Finland no thanks-Harry Kampmann anyone?

As we are skint we could only look at someone who was unemployed. That means he has been sacked or is not wanted by others.

We need to get real.

Some on here are calling the club amateurish in the way they have gone about filling the job.

I think they have been very professional. They have taken their time looked around, interviewed five people(without revealing who they were) and decided on who they want. This is exactly how a senior manager post should be filled.

Whether or not it is the correct decision will remain to be seen. But we need to get right behind him and the team.

Oh and here is one to get everyone going. How about he brings in Baraclough as his assistant like he did at Oldham!!!!!

Seriously there should be a vacancy for an experienced coach to come in as we are one down in the coaching staff since McGhee left.

[El Grew]

I really do wish our new manager all the very best and I pray that he can keep us in the top flight this season.

 

However, I feel that he may just have been tasked with the equivalent of trying to roll a snowball up a hill in a heatwave.

 

For me, a couple of things have now crystalised:

.

1. Motherwell FC is no longer an attractive club to manage in the eyes of the football fraternity. Could the new ownership model have something to do with this? For me, yes it does. Our precarious financial position has been well exposed for some time and the wider football community now knows the club is being run on a shoestring. As I've said before, fan ownership is highly laudable, maybe in an ideal world desirable, but as we simply do not have the fanbase to support it, then it was doomed from the outset. A lot of well-intentioned people have chosen this path for the club but I personally believe it will lead to financial oblivion. I fully expect to get pelters from what I'm about to say next but IMHO, we should start immediate discreet enquiries to try and ascertain if there is a business person or group of business persons that would be interested in becoming involved with the club and put us back on a more "traditional" financial model.

 

2. Our lack of finance perhaps explains why Mark McGhee was having to trawl deeper and deeper into the nether regions and hinterlands of English football for players. Who knows, he may have had to be using some sort of barter system involving Irn Bru bottles. I was not a fan of bringing Mark McGhee back to the club but I think the manner of his departure was handled with disgraceful ineptitude as has the manner in which we have gone about getting his replacement. To believe that Stephen Robinson will fare any better than Mark McGhee given the circumstances, for me is just further proof of the naivety of those at the helm of the club, no matter how well-intentioned and passionate they are.☹️

[Wallace_MFC]

Ian Baraclough coming back as assistant.

[Gadgey]

El Grew, a well structured argument. I agree with most of it though not all.

 

Just for my own understanding, in what way was the

manner of McGhees departure handled with disgraceful ineptitude as indeed how we have gone about the recruitment of his replacement?

 

I have to agree with Sinjy, I haven't seen anything done by the club or reported by the press as having been done by the club as being shambolic, disgraceful, unprofessional or illegal. I do accept though that there are many who are far more in the know than me.

 

So it's a genuine question.

[Lobey_Dosser]

I really do wish our new manager all the very best and I pray that he can keep us in the top flight this season.

 

However, I feel that he may just have been tasked with the equivalent of trying to roll a snowball up a hill in a heatwave.

 

For me, a couple of things have now crystalised:

.

1. Motherwell FC is no longer an attractive club to manage in the eyes of the football fraternity. Could the new ownership model have something to do with this? For me, yes it does. Our precarious financial position has been well exposed for some time and the wider football community now knows the club is being run on a shoestring. As I've said before, fan ownership is highly laudable, maybe in an ideal world desirable, but as we simply do not have the fanbase to support it, then it was doomed from the outset. A lot of well-intentioned people have chosen this path for the club but I personally believe it will lead to financial oblivion. I fully expect to get pelters from what I'm about to say next but IMHO, we should start immediate discreet enquiries to try and ascertain if there is a business person or group of business persons that would be interested in becoming involved with the club and put us back on a more "traditional" financial model.

 

2. Our lack of finance perhaps explains why Mark McGhee was having to trawl deeper and deeper into the nether regions and hinterlands of English football for players. Who knows, he may have had to be using some sort of barter system involving Irn Bru bottles. I was not a fan of bringing Mark McGhee back to the club but I think the manner of his departure was handled with disgraceful ineptitude as has the manner in which we have gone about getting his replacement. To believe that Stephen Robinson will fare any better than Mark McGhee given the circumstances, for me is just further proof of the naivety of those at the helm of the club, no matter how well-intentioned and passionate they are.☹️

Agree with much of this. A deal for fan ownership was only to be approved ahead of schedule if we had assurances about a sustainable future at our current level.

 

Unfortunately, we look to be downscaling already despite getting favourable terms with debt repayments and much of the support appears to be accepting the downturn in expectations.

[Del_Superwell]

Ian Baraclough coming back as assistant.

Robinson said this morning McFadden remaining as assistant till at least the summer.

[Andy_P]

I think the phrase that COF, I think it was, used further up the thread "open-minded" best sums up my feelings about Robinson's appointment.

 

I saw enough in the Killie and Aberdeen games to be intrigued about what he do in the longer term. I think has been forgotten by some that Robinson has already looked to address some of the many grievances (and many justified I hasten to add) aired about the team in those two games. For example the bold change of tactics at HT at Rugby Park when McGhee was often criticised for a failure to change. I've read claims this appointment has in someway been a deference to our senior pros - yet our captain for example was hooked in the aforementioned game at Kilmarnock and spent last Saturday picking skelfs out his arse for ninety-minutes at Aberdeen. And I think the organization and discipline shown by our defence and midfield, when they've been slated all season for being weak, was encouraging also - unfortunate as it was not to go the full distance (and ironically now suffer claims of a lack of potency whilst our top scorer was sat in the stands).

 

It's not an earth shattering appointment. I can totally appreciate why many feel underwhelmed by it. But in those two games I saw small changes that hint at an appreciation of where failings lie and attempts to address them so yeah open-minded as to what he might be able to achieve.

 

Contract length I'm unsure of. At first glance it doesn't appear to afford the opportunity of a long-term plan to be put in place which I think many had hoped for nor does it appear to demonstrate a total faith in Robinson either. That said many will suggest it is sensible that if it goes horribly wrong the cost of remedying it won't be sufficiently huge if the contract length isn't long-term. All in all it has a hedge-our-bets feel.

 

I personally don't see that the fan ownership would have any great bearing on the attractiveness of the position. The club will run as a business looking to break even and make profit regardless of whether there is a single owner or whether fan owned. There will be board members, chief-execs, secretaries and staff charged with that task whether there's a single owner or whether we're fan owned. The support that the Well Society gives is just that support. The funds they accrue are what £10k-£12k a month. That level of finance taken in was always intended to be there as a lever of help for the club - such as previous loans - but never for the day-to-day running.

[Clackscat]

I think the phrase that COF, I think it was, used further up the thread "open-minded" best sums up my feelings about Robinson's appointment.

 

I saw enough in the Killie and Aberdeen games to be intrigued about what he do in the longer term. I think has been forgotten by some that Robinson has already looked to address some of the many grievances (and many justified I hasten to add) aired about the team in those two games. For example the bold change of tactics at HT at Rugby Park when McGhee was often criticised for a failure to change. I've read claims this appointment has in someway been a deference to our senior pros - yet our captain for example was hooked in the aforementioned game at Kilmarnock and spent last Saturday picking skelfs out his arse for ninety-minutes at Aberdeen. And I think the organization and discipline shown by our defence and midfield, when they've been slated all season for being weak, was encouraging also - unfortunate as it was not to go the full distance (and ironically now suffer claims of a lack of potency whilst our top scorer was sat in the stands).

 

It's not an earth shattering appointment. I can totally appreciate why many feel underwhelmed by it. But in those two games I saw small changes that hint at an appreciation of where failings lie and attempts to address them so yeah open-minded as to what he might be able to achieve.

 

Contract length I'm unsure of. At first glance it doesn't appear to afford the opportunity of a long-term plan to be put in place which I think many had hoped for nor does it appear to demonstrate a total faith in Robinson either. That said many will suggest it is sensible that if it goes horribly wrong the cost of remedying it won't be sufficiently huge if the contract length isn't long-term. All in all it has a hedge-our-bets feel.

 

I personally don't see that the fan ownership would have any great bearing on the attractiveness of the position. The club will run as a business looking to break even and make profit regardless of whether there is a single owner or whether fan owned. There will be board members, chief-execs, secretaries and staff charged with that task whether there's a single owner or whether we're fan owned. The support that the Well Society gives is just that support. The funds they accrue are what £10k-£12k a month. That level of finance taken in was always intended to be there as a lever of help for the club - such as previous loans - but never for the day-to-day running.

Sensible, level headed and informed post. Agree with all of that

 

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[MelvinBragg]

I think any perceived lack of attractiveness of the Motherwell job is not necessarily entirely down to fan ownership or finances.

 

Anyone coming in was going to be tasked with 10 games to keep us in the division with no scope to bring in any new players. Given it's a team that had just shipped a horrendous number of goals in a handful of games, I'd hazard a guess that some managers thought "Do I really want a relegation on my CV?". When McCall and Baraclough left, those coming in had a lot more time and a transfer window to try and turn things around. Dare I say, if McGhee had left two months earlier, would the job have been slightly more attractive?

 

I may be wide of the mark here, but I definitely see the timing of the vacancy as a factor...