joewarkfanclub

I think what maybe has become apparent is that, a Head of Recruitment is only as good as the brief he is given. If the manager requests a particular type of player, and a board puts significant financial or other contraints on the identification process, then you are likely to get predictibly poor results......

Kettlewells stubborn attachment to a system that he himself proclaimed he had "never played before" was his downfall. Even if he had wanted to continue with the 5-4-1, he should have signed players to allow him to do that. Or at the very least, when he realised his signings couldnt play 5-4-1, he should have changed it. He gets some kudos for his first 18 months, but the way it unravelled so quickly was entirely on him. Remember he also signed Johnny K and then refused to play him when we were struggling for a right back! I dont normally turn on Motherwell managers and am usually the last shouting for their heads, but the way he manufactured his exit will always be a sore point for me, so any of the good stuff that went before, for me, is tarnished.

Good early decision. Lets us get on with planning an alternative weekend. Hopefully we get a decent draw in the next round as a carrot. Be good to get it played on the 18th, otherwise fixtures might start to pile up, with the Dundee game also still requiring a suitable date. Onwards to Wednesday night and getting it right up The Rainjurs!

Can we not have David Dickinson as referee please. Not suggesting he is corrupt. But would just like to be talking about the game instead of him for a change!

No, Aberdeen FC 😉😉😉

Surely you are not suggesting nefarious actions! 😆😆😆

Was it worse than the one on Fadinger?

None of our youngsters play left back though.....

Aye. If the game was off tonight, I dont see Saturday going ahead unless tge forecast is wrong. Doesnt look like they will be getting any respite.

Certainly takes and squad rotation issues out of the equation. We just go with our strongest team and worry about the Rangers game from the safety of the next round!

I was going with the premise of having a "shit pitch" 😉

Dundee spent money on their pitch close season. Its looked like a bowling green all year. They can hardly be blamed for a weather system coming in off the North Sea for the best part of a week subjecting the entire area to persistent rain and snow. Also, our pitch isnt looking very good right now, despute the efforts we have gone to improve it. Should we also be fined?

Johnny K in full training yesterday from pics shown, so any knock he had was obviously a minor one. Good news going into an important 7 days of football.

Need to win tomorrow night now. Do that and win next Wednesday and we can start to dream.....

There were a lot of players who looked brutal under Kettlewell. A few of them are doing very well under Jens......

I think folk are getting the wrong end of the stick here. I said I was slightly underwhelmed with the window purely because I expected 1 or 2 new bodies in based on what Jens had said in his pressers. Im not disappointed. Far from it. Id much rather we were where we are now than the trolley dash we have become accustomed to over previous seasons. But that doesnt mean you cant be analytic about it and point out where we could have done better. Left back cover is an obvious weakness. I know Koutroumbis and SOD can both play there, but both are currently injury doubts for tomorrow meaning we dont currently have cover for Sparrow or Longelo. Filling that space would have made sense to me.

Only slightly negative because Jens is very meticulous and hinted at getting at least one more in. If we had covered left back it would be a B+ from me. FWIW, Im not convinced Robinson will be straight out the door. Obviously depends if he is able to come back to peak fitness. But he is young enough and his attitude wasnt in question. I think Jens will at least have a look at him or at least test the data. Id like to see what he is like without the ball bouncing around his ears....

Slightly underwhelmed with the window. Obviously delighted we didnt lose any players. But the club were in a real position of strength on that one, with money in the bank and long term contracts all around. Signing a striker is good, and although getting Welsh back is to be welcomed, he is still cup tied and cant play against Celtic, so tinged with frustration. Not signing a left back is disappointing, unless we couldnt get who we wanted or there is maybe a deal still to be announced this morning. Overall, we are stronger coming out of the window than when we went in, with Nicholson and McGhee coming back. Hopefully Watt and RCC not too far behind them. We also managed to get Stuparevic out the door, so Robinson is really the only unanswered question. I think we are in decent shape, but we will have to see how the business our peer clubs have done pans out before we can assess our expectations for the rest of the season. C+

😆😆😆 Maths was never my strong point!

My reading of it is that Celtic just want him off the wage bill and that any fee to Celtic would be to pay up his contract. 16 months at £10k a week would be £160k. That would leave him free to sign a short term deal with us which is basically free money to Welsh. Would he sign that until 2027 with the understanding that we wont stand in his way if a bigger club comes in? Hard to say, but personal circumstances would come into it. Not sure if he has a young family or not?

First 30 minutes we bossed them. If we had scored just one of our chances, in all liklihood, we would have won the game. And thats before we even start on the penalty. Revenge would be very sweet though. Ive heard its a dish best served cold! 😍😍😍

Only 15 hours to go. Fingers crossed for no outgoings. Only incomings!

Its good for us to just keep flying under the radar right now. Just keep winning one game at a time and see where it takes us. It would be an absolute longshot, but I havent been to a game this season where I left thinking the opposition had been better than us, and that includes the semi final.

I keep waiting for this run to come to an end because we have been conditioned by past history into believing these things will never last. However, with every passing week the manager and the players find new ways to win games. The squad rotation is allowing us to keep things fresh and maintain performance levels. Dundee are certainly much improved from earlier in the season, but I think we should still have too much for them. Another solid performance and 3 points would set us up nicely going up to Pittodrie.

My bad! Mutualled! 😆😆😆