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Just read this on a Wigan site. Andy P I assume? Nice touch. https://threeamigoswigan.com/2018/08/06/a-motherwell-fans-view-of-cedric-kipre/ A MOTHERWELL FAN’S VIEW OF CEDRIC KIPRE Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with Cedric Kipre, Ivory Coast, leicester city, Motherwell, PSGAugust 6, 2018 On Friday Wigan Athletic announced the signing of Cedric Kipre from Motherwell on a three-year contract. The fee was not disclosed but reports suggest it could reach £1m including add-ons. The 21-year-old is the third Motherwell player to sign for Latics in the last 20 years following on from Lee McCulloch and Steve McMillan. On signing the 6 ft 3 in tall player Paul Cook commented: “Cedric is a strong, powerful and athletic defender, who we have been monitoring some time. He is at a great age to develop his game after a really good season with Motherwell and I am looking forward to working with him.” Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson opined: “Although it’s with a heavy heart that we lose Cédric, his progress over the last year has been remarkable and it’s little wonder English Championship clubs have been circling. He has the potential to go all the way to the top in my opinion and we very much wish him well in his future career. He will always be welcome back at Fir Park.” Kipre went on to make his Latics debut against Sheffield Wednesday the following day, looking calm and assured at the centre of defence. Cedric Kipre was born in Paris of Ivorian parents and played youth football at Paris St Germain. At the age of 17 he joined Leicester City, playing for their U18 and U21 teams in his first season. He next played for the U23 side but could not break into the senior squad. In September 2015 Kipre went on a month’s loan to Corby Town in the National League North, making an impressive debut against Boston United. Manager Tommy Wright commented “Cedric looked the real deal. He was strong, powerful, very good technically on the ball and he was a breath of fresh air.” Kipre went on to play two more games for the Steelmen. In the summer of 2017 after being released from Leicester Kipre went to Motherwell for a trial, impressing enough to be offered a one-year contract. He became a regular starter for his new club, which had a successful season in finishing in 7th place and reaching the finals of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup. Kipre made 49 appearances for the Steelmen, together with a debut for Ivory Coast U-23 side in March 2018 against Togo. In order to learn more about Kipre’s time at Motherwell we contacted Andrew Patersonof the Steelmen Online site (https://www.steelmenonline.co.uk). Here’s over to Andrew: We knew it would happen. We knew he would go. We just hoped we’d have him with us for a little bit longer. If that reads almost obituary like it kind of feels like it is. Our Cédric. Gone! If only to pastures new thankfully rather than the big fitba pitch in the sky. So what can I can tell you about Cédric? Well, in truth when he lined up on trial in pre-season last summer it was his compatriot Bira Dembele who actually impressed more and there was a tinge of disappointment when he elected to return to France rather than join us. How much truth there was in Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson’s claim some months later that he was always going to sign Cédric I don’t know, but there’s more than one of our support who think back and breathe a sigh of relief that Motherwell couldn’t meet Dembele’s financial demands. It would be fair to say that Kipré’s rise in prominence was rapid. The thought was that he would settle into life in Scotland in Motherwell’s U20 side and perhaps as the season progressed he might breakthrough with the odd appearance here and there. In fact he played more minutes in domestic games in Scotland than any other top flight player. Initially signing on a one year contract it was immediately apparent that the club had to tie him down on a longer deal and just weeks into the 2017’18 season he had signed an extension on better terms. It would be extended again in April 2018. But why? Cédric settled into Scottish football instantly. From the minute he was given his opportunity against Queen’s Park at Hampden in the League Cup he never looked back. His stature meant he wouldn’t be outmuscled by anybody but there is more to his game than just physicality and bodying opponents. He has pace too and applied it occasionally to get himself and his team-mates out of trouble and also when demonstrating his willingness to bring the ball forward whenever an opportunity arose. At just twenty-one there are still flaws in his game of course. He was on occasion susceptible to a losing track of a long aerial ball hit over the top but over the piece it was incredible to think we were watching a player that hadn’t played a single first team game before signing for us. It was more than just his footballing ability that endeared Kipré to the Motherwell support though. We are fortunate that the media team at Fir Park are absolutely terrific in bringing us insights about our team. Over the course of the season we warmed to a young guy who was quiet, unassuming and humble. A boy who could laugh at himself and was never slow in getting involved in team bonding activities. He quickly became a huge fans favourite and it’s sad to think that never again are the Motherwell Bois likely to launch into a rendition of the Kipré, Kipré” war cry. A chant he even sang himself when he featured on “Up the ‘Well” a club song reproduced by local band The Banter Thiefs to mark Motherwell reaching the Scottish Cup Final. Memories? Plenty. It remains a travesty he was red-carded in the League Cup Final against Celtic and his further red-card against the same opposition was equally ridiculous. We’ll remember fondly his single goal for the club against Dundee where the celebrations amongst supporters were going on a good few minutes after the game had re-started. He had threatened to score a few times so when he did everyone was just ecstatic to see him finally do it.

just back from mumsnet.com Just back from mumsnet.com and even they cant believe that a manager who saved his team from relagation in his first two months in charge then got his wee team to two national finals in his first full season . Brought in a 'free'signing and then sold him 12 months later for £1 million has suddenly not got a clue. All arter just one full leauge game. I do dispair. I told them that footballs a funny old game but the fans are sometimes even funnier.

FFS it's a bad game 1 and the pant wetting from the usual suspects is at Tsunami levels, injuries to key players, selling defenders and starting the season away to a very good free scoring team what do people expect. So we are bottom after game 1 if it the same story in January then panic, but for now wring yer knickers out and calm down.

The 3 goals we lost are horrendous. Hartley can have no complaints at all. Taylor Sinclair looked like he had Rickets trying to chase Shaw after being badly positioned. It's hard to put it briefly just how shite we were for Boyle's goal. Johnson looked lively, if a little rusty with his finishing. Main/Sammon/Bowman are almost the same player so one of them alongside Johnson looks to be the way forward. In an ideal world I'd be looking for sustained runs in the team from Bigi and Gorrin to try and take control of the ball in the midfield. It's already a massively important game (I can't use must win already) on Saturday as we have a fairly tough run of league games ahead of us.

Aye, leave it to the better fans Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

And fans who have more than Football Manager on their ZX Spectrum to fall back on realise that there is some middle ground to analyse. But the social media mob has everything pegged as world beaters or shite. No room for nuance.

Think everyone needs to calm down just a wee bit.

This. I'm completely failing to see how Hartley sticking his arm out towards the ball for no reason is harsh. You can't even argue proximity of the shot for this one

I think people on here have the right to bitch. We have some quality ball playing midfielders who when they do get a game show everyone that they can do it but get benched continually for the likes of Rose and Grimshaw. We need a ball winning midfielder in the team but not a whole midfield of them. Hibs pace totally negated the whole defensive midfield setup we had and they just passed the ball around them. When Frear and Bigi came on the difference was clear to everyone with half a brain cell. We were much more positive and actually took the game to hibs a lot more with Johnson's chances the result. Its bloody frustrating when the world can see these type of players improve the balance and creativity of the midfield but we chose not to play them for this god awful punt up the park style of play. I understand sometimes we need to park the bus against teams but when the approach is clearly not working it needs to change quickly not when the game is basically over 3-0 down.

Chris Cadden's maw been voting?

I rocked up at Easter Road at 3pm on Saturday due to jetlag and combining with a visit to the festival shows. Prime fanny ... but glad I am a roaster because that was torture to watch. Seems this season so far has been misfiring apart for that first half where we scored 5.

Looked liked the game was passing him by - narrow diamond midfield set up most likely cause. John McGinn never got a sniff though...

There is a few times the 3-5-2 has been mentioned and said it isn't working. We looked a lot better when we switched to that today. A really weird 4-1-2-1-2 formation to start the game, It didn't work at all. Andy Rose seemed to play LM, I thought he was not too bad but certainly wasn't good. McHugh played the usual holding role and other than a dodgy tackle I thought was ok. Grimshaw was rubbish, I don't think he knew where he was playing. Cadden was utterly brutal, defo didn't know what he was doing. Cadden being brutal seems to go under the radar a fair bit. The midfield was atrocious and really needs addressed, When Bigi came on Hibs backed off basically but he was actually able to put his foot on the ball and make some passes. Elliott Frear also came on at HT and I thought we might get to seem him at LM however we switched to a back three with wingbacks. Sammon and Main were both utterly baws but I don't think it a fair judgement on either of them as battering the baw at them from 70 yards isn't ideal. Johnson looked lively and balls were coming into his feet but tbh he missed three sitters.

A tough first game of the season. With the exception of Livingston, we had the hardest tie of the first weekend. For all the columns of debate being taken up in the press arguing about who will finish second between Rangers and Aberdeen, my money would be on Hibs to finish second this season. Good manager who has assembled a good squad. Away points are going to be hard to come by against any of the city teams this season so I suspect that todays result may be a taster of things to come. My feeling is that we are fighting for sixth and actually if Killie can keep Steve Clarke, and keep Kris Boyd fit for the season, I think they will have sixth sown up. That leaves the rest, 7-12. Robinson has assembled a squad to fight this battle. It will be the games against these teams that will define our season. Sadly for me the difference may be this season that we don't have a squad with quite the same drive and determination as last season. If guys like Main don't buy into the cause (and there are signs already that he may not be) then the spark that gave us the edge over the bottom six last season could vanish. Robinson did an outstanding job last season but I fear that he may be running out of ideas. With one of the smallest budgets in the league it is little wonder that he is resorting to bringing in the type of player that served him well last season but without the intensity that brought success last season I fear that the squad does not have the quality required to match last seasons achievements. I wish him well because he has a touch job ahead of him. Like everybody else I would like our style of play to improve and like everyone else I hope that the quality we need may come from Bigi but I fear that there is a reason why he does not start games that runs deeper than Robinson's preferred style of play. It is the first game of the season but there was enough evidence in the league cup games to suggest that the team is struggling at this moment in time. It can all change ofcourse but I am not sure where the spark is going to come from. I hope that our next signing will be the one that sparks the team into life but with the money that Robinson will have to spend I do not know where that player will come from.

Im not being funny but I dont want Robinson to get a penny of the Kipre cash! Id rather wait till we sack him and spend it on a couple players actually capable of passing a football. Robbo is a 1 trick pony, if he is allowed to sign more players were gonna pish money away on another couple of "robust" cloggers And before anyone starts, Im not saying sack Robbo! But I do think he will be found out this season and we will struggle badly. Id just rather keep our powder dry than spend the little cash we have on another 6 foot clogger to hoof the ball up the park

In a few years time we'll look back at this summer as a massive massive error.

Also, Robinson is not an idiot. First of all, he's quoted yesterday as saying he has a replacement for Kipre lined up and hopes to do a deal soon (which implies the Board released some of the transfer fee) Secondly, he'd be the biggest eejit on the planet if he flapped his gums to the media saying "we've got a ton of spare cash to spend on a new player - who can you sell us?" Even under the new business model, we've always tried to replace players we sell. But just as our starting point for selling players should be "we don't need to sell, so you need to meet our valuation", our starting point for negotiation when buying players should be "we're skint". Pretty standard stuff whether you are wheeling and dealing in the transfer market or buying a car.

I hadn’t read this thread or seen the news of Cedric leaving until having a shufty on here. I’m glad there’s some common sense prevailing as 3 or so pages ago there was some proper slavering getting done. Yes, losing Kipre at this time is a great loss to the team. Yes, he will be difficult to replace but the club recognised that when they started signing him up on better deals. I and anyone else who wasn’t a half wit knew then that Cedric would be gone sooner rather than later. I can only assume that Kmac is young enough to not remember the Boyle “we are going to be Scotlands third force” era? i also assume that those calling for an expansion on player quality are unaware of the financial restrictions imposed upon a fan owned club of our size? Tried and tested costs money we don’t have. Money we can’t generate without trading players at a profit. On the topic of profit. Cedric has been one the best bits of business I have known Motherwell to have. We’ve done everything we promised him and our player/agent marketing machine gets a fresh story sell. However, all this “he’s gonnae be worth £9m this time next hear” is fanciful to say the least. For example, Charlton sold Ezri Konsa to Brentford for £3m this summer. He’s a home grown centre back with footballing ability and pace to burn. He was a member of the England U19&20 wc winning squads and played circa 30 games last season at CB, RB and CDM in league 1 never once looking out of place. The point I’m making is that pound for pound, he’s a better player than Cedric Kipre on all counts at this time and is an Englishman playing in the English leagues. Cedric will do well but will have very tough competition in the division he’s going to.

Even by the point in that video his pace in was in decline. The first two seasons he was here he was a flying machine. 2010 Humphrey would have took an another 20 yards out of Vigurs then booted the ball into the stand.