joewarkfanclub

Absolutely this ^^^

Aye, but we dont have to like it! 😜😜😜 Hopefully that wont happen though. I dont want any of our guys staying in Scotland when they move on. Im sure they would be much happier in England or abroad! 😜😜😜

I think the club know exactly what type of manager we are looking for and although we wont be able to replicate Jens, the qualities should look a lot like him. Forward thinking coach who likes expansive possession based football, can demonstrate a track record of being able to coach his ideas but also has the appropriate personal qualities to make it happen. The last part is almost as important as the rest. We need someone with a bit of stature, but who also has the emotional intelligence to motivate and manage players and "gets the club". Given all of that, Id expect it will be another young-ish and ambitious coach. If they happen to be Scandinavian, mores the better!

They pay double what anyone outside our league pays. Dems da rools! 😜😜😜

I agree. Maswanhise will be off and Id expect maybe one more, possibly Just if he has a good World Cup, or maybe Watt. But Kyrk was quite clear in his podcast interview that, although we wont stand in players way when it comes to development, we will manage squad turnover strategically and incrementally. The bulk of the squad will still be here come August, and I expect us to strengthen our weak areas, namely centre half, left back and up front.

Gutted to see Jens go. He has left us with some great memories and brought the whole club and community back together. I dont ever remember a time when there was such a feelgood factor around Fir Park, short of the 91 Cup win. Im actually feeling quite optomistic for what lies ahead. Its all been tied up very quickly and efficiently and you would fancy the board are well on the way to identifying who comes next. Id expect the new manager to be in by the time the players come back on the 18th June, and Id anticipate that we will have done a fair bit of business transfer wise by then as well so we have the bulk of the squad in for pre-season and in advanc of the Conference League Qualifiers. As I said earlier. The King is dead. Long live The King! 🧡❤️🧡

Thats more like it! I feel relaxed again! 😍😍😍

Boooh! You and your sensible realism! If the King is indeed dead, all I want to hear is Long Live The King! 😍😍😍

Is it bad that overnight Ive gone from hoping Jens would stay, to just wanting it announced so we can move on? Im going to go and look up the 5 stages of grief! Edit: looks like Ive gone straight from denial to acceptance!

The club are currently only negotiating with Toulouse to allow them to speak to Jens. Always the chance he hears something that sets off alarm bells and decides its not for him. However, if and when he does leave, I 100% expect our next manager to be from outside Scotland. As others have said, lots of countries have numerous teams / managers / coaches that play the way we do now. Id also proffer that Jans would have some input into who might be a suitable replacement.

Im all for this. Its what they do at Parkhead for European games.... We built that stand to milk Celtic & Rangers for revenue. It would be crazy to throw the baby out with the bath water. However, we do need to do something, so the above seems a reasonable and manageable compromise. Would also allow the stewards to focus in the gates without worrying about anyone coming over the wall.

Brilliant news! Hopefully a few more extensions in the pipeline to ward off the vultures!

I could watch that over and over again! What a manager! What a team! 🧡❤️🧡

That feels about right. McGinn probably should be closer to the.pack but probably a victim of his own high standards / consistency.

Watched a bit of that last night after you posted. Got subbed off after about 70mins. Did ok without doing anything spectacular. Thought Udinese struggled against a Cremonese side battling to stay in the league. If that was representative of how they play every week, I think I will stick to Motherwell! Point of note, the ref gave a shocker of a red card for a foul on Vardy but was sent to the monitor and immediately changed his decision and downgraded to a yellow. Quite refreshing!

I guess it all depends on who we draw and the costs attached, but given that the early rounds are regionalised now and we are likely to do pretty well out of the home leg attendance, I would have thought, even if we do get put out at the first time of asking, we should make pretty decent money out of this. Does anyone know what we made out of the League Cup this year as a comparison?

Absolutely. And we could have the financial strength to ensure any investment made was a minority investment and that the fans still retain control of the club and all our assets......

I kinda agree. I thought yesterday was more of a 3 at the back with Sparrow and RCC as wing backs, albeit it was very fluid with RCC ending up out on the left side at stages in the first half. However, I thought Gordo looked very comfortable in that, although it was clear Hibs were quite happy to let him have it and didnt press him too much. His use of the ball was as good as Ive seen it yesterday. Kept it simple for the most part, but some of his long diagonals were excellent. Certainly wouldnt be opposed to him sticking around. I guess it just depends on what other targets are out there and whether Jens thinks they are better suited to what we do.

I think the outlook of the new board (thanks to the the outlook of the Well Society) is more optomistic and forward looking. Probably just a product of being younger, more hopeful and more forward thinking. They talked about easy gains/wins at the start and we have seen some of that this season with our entertaining brand of football increasing attendances and giving the club a wider media exposure. Hopefully we can take the revenue from that and use it wisely to build on what is surely a stronger foundation than they inherited. Many challenges ahead, not least the stadium. But with a new training base in the pipeline and European football on the horizon we must be a more attractive proposition to new players now.

Aye good luck to Sam Nicholson. I did wonder if we would offer him something to stay on. If he could stay fit he definitely had something to offer, even if it was just off the bench. However, the injuries would always be in the thought process, so I guess we have decided to "twist" and move on.

They didnt start out that way though. The were in the Norwegian 2nd tier not that long ago. Not saying we will ever get to those numbers. But you have to start somewhere. Reach for the stars, you might just get the moon.....

Listening to Jens dressing room speech last night, he didnt sound like a guy preparing to move on. Ive thought for a while now he comes across as having a 2 year plan in his head and is committed to it. Clearly, if an offer comes in thats impossible for him to ignore, then things could change very quickly, but I dont think we are there yet. Re players, we know Slattery, Gordon, Balmer, Halliday and possibly Hendry are away. Nicholson, Robinson and Stama are also likely to move on. JT is probably a certainty to move on and I would imagine Eli Just already has many suitors and a good World Cup probably makes it very difficult to hold on to him. Beyond that, the manager and chairman have both said we will manage squad turnover carefully and incrementally, so I wouldn't expect too many other outgoings. Welsh is an interesting one. He still has a year on his Celtic contract to go. Would Celtic let us buy it out? If rumours of his wage are true, £500k is a fairly big fee for us to pay, and he would need to take a pretty big pay cut to sign a new contract with us. Seems a bit of a stretch, but he has clearly loved being part of this team. Would another season long loan be possible? The single biggest thing we could do close season is hold onto the manager. If we can do that, I have every confidence that this is just the start of something. Not the end!

Gordon was excellent but Welsh for me. Absolute Rolls Royce of a centre half. Shoulda had a goal as well. I see Hanley went off injured. Were you watching Stevie Clarke!

Thoroughly professional performance from start to finish. Totally dominated the first half and probably should have been further ahead. No idea what the second goal is chalked off for. Didnt seem to be anything obvious. Walsh totally lost the run of himself for about 20 minutes after that. Terrible tackles on RCC and Just, yet he sends Watt off for what appeared to be a dubious second yellow. The lack of consistency in decision making is horrendous. We did well to see the game out without conceding after that and it finished rather splendidly with cordial celebrations all round! Great season. Great team. Please dont break us up! 🧡❤️🧡

Just over 12k but not as big as Hearts. They did a short walkaround, but it was very subdued due to what was going on in the corner. Not heard anything.