Dossertillidie2

had a lot of the ball in the middle of the park, feel we are light linking between midfield and up top. without spitall who is away at end of season we struggle to link play all about opinions but i thought halliday was annoymous yesterday, and for all the full backs we have signed i think sod is still hard to replace , thought he did well yesterday along with davor, spittal and bair.

agree with this 100%. Best signing we can make is a Chief exec and a head of football operations. one to oversee the business side of the club and one to oversee the football including contracts/recruitment/academy we need to build our platform from the academy and need a natural link between academy and first team managers we currently have a number of bodies in lower positions where they are not contributing and we remain rudderless at the top end of the club

The one thing Hammell had in abundance was a great judge of character. wanted Dawes/sol/ojala/morris/shields/maguire moved on to make space for new signings the day he came in. Eventually got the majority of those out but dawes held on to damage us again this summer. The guy fancies himself as a coach but landed a nice cushty number working from his home down south thanks to his pal alexander and we are stuck with him. when a guy not long retired can scout furlong, butcher, casey, penney before his own recruitment manager that says it all!

I totally agree the raith game was one of the worst performances I had seen during his short tenure but we played 3 players that day that were literally signed the day before. He wasn’t afforded a real opportunity to play the way he wanted when he was eventually backed on the last day of the window sk has had the last few months of last season and a full summer window to build a team and we are in my opinion worst off squad wise than what hammell inherited from alexander if SK does leave at some point the board have to come out and be transparent with the expectations on the new manager and work to a strategy that works for the long term for the club. There will be ups and downs but if we are open and honest from the start that a mixture of youth and experience with a defined way of playing from academy to first team and a top six finish is our target then perhaps the fans will be a little more patient over the course of the season and not knee jerk decide on the next manager

The most we lost under hammell was 3 games . 3 with an injury ravaged squad. 3 games!!! ok he stuck rigid to a formation that perhaps we didn’t have the personnel for in an attempt to play attractive football. But he lost 3 games in a row kettlewell has had a full summer build and hasn’t won a game in 11 poss 12 by Tues. that’s a rediculous stat

Playing with a strike partner was what saved us. KVV showed under hammell he couldn’t play up top on his own. No coincidence once he had someone in jan to play alongside and we signed two decent CH in butcher and Casey that we were safe Not replacing KVV with a player out the 4/5 he’s signed up front that could even score half what KVV did is going to be our demise

Including Celtic coming up no wins in 10 games, 2 points from 30 his own team from the summer other managers sacked for less and having had far less backing time to get tae and time to empty half the squad in Jan.

Is this not the same every summer? Certainly know for a fact it was the case for hammell when he first came in. What he asked for and wanted (Casey and butcher) was different to what he got. Rolando Aaron’s and a half fit moult

I think you have alluded to unrest in the camp before under Hammell . From where I see it he began the clear out that was badly needed after Alexander. And if telling Sod/morris/Ojala/mugabi/Maguire/fox and sol that they were miles off it and could look for clubs elsewhere then I think few could argue. Natural that when you tell a few home truths to folk they won’t like it! From what I was told by a director, he was given budget which was pulled after his first few successful games and told he could use it if need be in Jan, but then was told in Oct he would have to vastly reduce wage bill. No coincidence that when those convos happened with players around that time that certain players chucked it we make assumptions as fans but when you hear what people are dealing with and working under then it gives a whole new view on a situation i have no doubt ketts right now is being told the same thing and will have to work to do the same or in a more difficult sense clear out some of the players which are failing him now ie Shaw being a Motherwell manager isn’t easy and you need everyone and everything thing at the club aligned. At times like this ketts needs the backing of the board to come out and back him both publicly and financially in Jan. Or we have another rinse and repeat story on our hands again which has every chance will be repeated again a year in Jan with the next manager

I think it depends how you evaluate his impact. He came in and served 7 months and in that time cleared out deadwood like ojala (who was reported to be on a crazy contract by our levels), Morris and got money for sol. Brought in players like Penney/furlong/butcher/Casey/Mckinstry/Mandron/blaney who I’m told were his own signings and not from his head of scouting and played youth like Johnstone/Spiers /dunnachie /miller I was confident with the signings we desperety needed and made he would have kept us up no problem. We just needed to show a bit of faith this time last year. He Showed enough for me in the style of football that was initially played that with a full summer window to implement more youth and more signings of his own, clearing out the likes of mugabi/lamie/sod/shields etc who shouldn’t be near our squad that we would have had an exciting future but we were too impatient my fear is impatience once again will stop kettlewell being able to do the same. Although I do have my doubts about the system he’s playing being adaptable to the players he’s signed in the summer (ie no wingers/width to change to 4-4-2 /4-3-3 in games

See I have never seen it like that because I saw hammell as a guy that inherited Alexander’s team, made 4 signings. Two had returned to their parent clubs injured by Nov and had at one point and I (quote his press conference) 13 first team players out injured he was a guy who desperately needed a window and players which he got eventually but didn’t get the time to spend playing them together. The players he signed that were a big reason for our up turn in fortunes were Casey/blaney and butcher at the back and the likes of Mandron /obika to play alongside van veen it was those same players that kettlewell inherited and got the benefit of. when you look at both managers there starting points were in stark contrast

How was Hammell’s situation different?

We replaced him with kettlewell

KVV needed someone alongside him. Didn’t have that until Mandron/obika came in on jan loved KVV as a player but think we got a spoilt child of an attitude when he played up there on his own with wingers. Just didn’t suit his style IMO

A director past /present and no I’m not going to tell you he / she / they or thems name

A number of the players inc (Wilkinson/Shaw) who were signed this summer were put to the last manager for the last Jan window in mind and were kicked out of touch before he left. Butcher/Casey/furlong ironically weren’t put forward by Dawes. Think that says it all about Mr Dawes absolutely hopeless and paid a king ransom to churn out shite recommendations that unfortunately SK accepted this summer

Hammell had literallly van veen as the only forward to play ok and a rank rotten shields . Kettlewell has 6 strikers to choose from . Hammell had sol and bevis in defence. Kettlewell has blaney/Casey/butcher Hammell had sod and mcginn as full backs. Kettlewell has sod/mcginn/and the 3 he has signed as full backs I know which squad id rather be working with

The guy was in post then quickly left. That’s the thing that’s most worrying

That’s prob accurate. New faces coming in at the last minute is the Motherwell way (saves a months wage at least) 😂

And if the insurance payout didn’t cover our budget as you have put then where did the cash for our “budget” that year then come from?

So you know for sure that the insurance payout = the complete loss of revenue from season ticket holders? there wasn’t an insurance company in the land paying the fully insured cover during covid, despite the supreme courts ruling. And those who did pay out under that ruling took absolutely everything into consideration to dilute funding and payouts inc all over heads/ reduction of overheads as a result of the stadium lying empty and any Government subsidies to which I believe we were a benefactor of including the likes of furlough You take out revenues and don’t replace them then run into the following seasons overheads which have been reset after a period of non trading/including transfer activity then of course your cash flow gets hit that following year and if you don’t build on that with a couple of big wins then the run continues. Any cash reserves we had will most certainly have been hit. Covid and the decisions we made with the likes of the income we did have ( ie turnbull money) have effected where we are now we used turnbull money to plug holes , the cash flow holes I am highlighting

Regardless of the reasons we credited the season tickets it still effects cash flow and regardless of interest rates the loan stands as a significant outgoing each month that we didn’t have 2019/2020 You can’t play down the significance of these

Also just to add remember in jan the outgoings we made along with the sale of Sol. I’m led to believe we worked to a break even against the outgoings in wages to what was contributed to the incomings 3/4 experienced players in amongst the youth is prob best case this season

Don’t want to go into too many specifics but I think the financial constraints we were under last year is clear to see when a new Chief exec last days in post before chucking it and you start seeing folk moving on rapidly (that will continue by the way both in public and quietly) you would be surprised at how little was spent on the 4 initial signings in aug (next to nothing) and in bringing in the ones we did in jan. effectively running with a reduced budget again for this summer and given Van veen went and there’s no money from that says all you need to know about where to level our realistic expectations for this year posts of £400k+ for van veen are wild off the mark from my understanding youth was the desire last summer to build on but youth becomes an absolute necessity this summer as we start to see the repayments of covid loans/pitches and a loss of income when we gave season tickets away following covid. A lack of sales from transfers and extended contracts given at a time or uncertainty in the world is and will play its part now over the course of the next few years hopefully we can strike it lucky with a couple of young players playing a blinder up to Xmas to get some much needed cash in the door in Jan

The financial choices we have made over the last 3yrs are now as I said 3yrs ago are coming to roost. We are in for a very tough 3-5yr period unless we can secure some external investment within this time through investors/player sales the magnitude of the conditions Steven hammell was told to work under will be seen this season and I really feel for SK who has an enormous task on his hands this season huge pressure now on the youth coming to the fore and being a success this season. Anything above the play off will be the aim this year