wellfan

Any update on whether his work permit’s been approved? The first team are back in for pre-season tomorrow, and we should be due a welcome interview with him soon as well.

Stama probably falls into that category too, unfortunately. Based on what we've seen this season, it's hard to imagine him making any real impact over the next 2 years.

Absolutely. Who needs quality when you can have quantity?

That’s the thing. We’ve now got a chance to build a balanced squad and finally play players in their proper positions.

I’ve got no issue with using loanees in principle, but I’ve raised concerns before about relying too heavily on them to build a squad. You’re right that there’s still plenty of time before the window closes, but that doesn’t change the fact that we should be aiming to go into pre-season and the League Cup with a near-complete squad, where feasible.

If we go with a traditional back four next season, I think Wilson would do the job just fine. As for Thompson, he doesn’t offer much going forward or defensively, so I would be disappointed if we gave him another deal.

According to the official website, these are our forward options: Robinson, Stama, Stuparević, Nicholson, Ross, and Maswanhise. Four of them are injured, so reinforcements in attack are urgently needed and ideally before the squad travels to Delden next week. I really hope the new manager has some good contacts.

Today’s update states: “The club remains in dialogue with the remaining players who are out of contract.” Surely that’s only Thompson now? Or am I forgetting anyone else?

The GTF list remains incomplete: https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2025/06/16/player-departures/

Just to be clear, I’m optimistic about the new manager and the season ahead. We just need to get the Miller money in and bring in some quality over the next couple of weeks.

I’d explain the sarcasm in my post, but I didn’t bring my crayons.

No point cramming the squad now. Like clockwork, the recruitment team will be back at it in January, dishing out contracts to anyone with a pulse to paper over the annual injury crisis.

His primary position throughout his career has been CB, and he’s listed as a defender on the club’s official squad page.

If the new manager does opt for a 4-3-3, I wonder if the plan is to move forward with McGhee and Gordon as the first-choice CB pairing, with Koutroumbis or McGinn at RB and Wilson at LB. The latter two certainly aren’t wing-backs, but a traditional back four would likely suit them well. We’ve also got SOD and Balmer for cover. That formation gives us scope to bring in a few more players in the wide and central attacking roles, as well as an obvious replacement for Miller. Maybe that’s Fadinger? Anything else?

Robinson was just an unfortunate case of bad luck. The situation with Nicholson, though, is entirely on the club. He’s a good player when fit, but handing a contract to someone who openly admitted to having dodgy knees was a stupid decision. And then there’s Stuparevic. Is he just shit? Misjudged? Either way, he’s now completely sidelined for the foreseeable future.

According to Wikipedia: Jens Berthel Askou (born 19 August 1982) is a Danish professional football manager and former player. He is currently the Manager of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell. Jens has already settled in well to the Motherwell area after realising Chris Hogg has Jens Berthel Askou pyjamas.

Seems like a decent appointment on paper. Let’s just hope he’s here for the long haul.

Out: Bob Park In: Common sense

With the players due back for preseason in a week, I expect we’ll get some sort of announcement soon.

Okay, fair enough. My point remains that it would be negligent for the Board not to consider the risks of appointing someone in similar circumstances to Wimmer. Whether the potential benefits of such an appointment outweigh the known risks - or whether someone closer to home offers more overall value than another Wimmer - is ultimately for the Board to decide. But if it goes wrong again, the shit will be on their hands.

If you want to keep misrepresenting my point, that’s your choice. But anyone reading what I actually said will see it for what it is. To clarify once more: my view is that the Board might see appointing someone who currently lives in the south of England - or anywhere far away - as a risk. That concern has nothing to do with ethnicity or country of birth. My reference to Wimmer as an unfamiliar foreigner was specifically in the context of him also not living in Scotland. And that’s exactly what he was to me. He was someone unfamiliar who lives far away in Germany. For what it’s worth, I’d be happy with another unfamiliar foreigner, a Scotsman, or anyone else. My only preference is that they live relatively nearby. We don’t want a repeat of Wimmer. It’s obvious that you’re trying to misrepresent my original post above as xenophobic, and I’m not having it.

That’s not what I said or implied, so don’t mischaracterise my point. My point was simply that the Board may now see it as too risky to appoint someone who doesn’t live in Scotland. The issue wasn’t that Wimmer was an unfamiliar foreigner, but rather that he wasn’t based in Scotland, which made it challenging for him to manage both the job and his personal life when issues arose back home.

After the Wimmer debacle, I doubt the Board will take a chance on another unfamiliar foreigner who doesn’t live in Scotland. It may now seem a bit too risky.

Brutal. I like it.

We'll only have ourselves to blame if we go into next season with the majority of the same squad and wonder why we're still crappy.