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joewarkfanclub

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Posts posted by joewarkfanclub

  1. I think there are a lot of things going on with Maswanhise at the moment.

    Firstly, he must be really disappointed that he hasnt got his big move over the close season like a number of his team mates. As the leagues top scorer, he probably thought it was a shoe in.

    Thats disappointing for him, but also for us as a club as we havent got top market value for him.

    Secondly, with the turnover of squad, he is no longer the main man up top. We have a number of players putting in top performances and challenging for his position. That will have him feeling the pressure a bit.

    Both those things will have him bursting a gut to prove he is still the main man and worthy of a big move.

    There is no shortage of effort from him. He puts in the hard yards tracking back and is always looking for the ball further forward.

    You can question his decision making (I have) and you can highlight his current poor form (I have) but the player hasnt spat the dummy.

    Now it looks like he is going to be with us until January, I think its time we circle the wagons and put an arm round him and see if we cant help him recover his form.

    He is our asset, and January is last chance saloon for us to make any money out of him. 

    • Like 4
  2. 1 hour ago, wellfan said:

    I hear Stama has gone home. I assume he’s been released, so we’ve not recouped anything on our £250k investment, but at least we’ve not got to cover his wage anymore. Thanks Stuart.

    Im sad it didnt work out for him with us. But its not something Im gonna dwell on.

    The squad is in a good place.

    We move on......

  3. Good performance.

    3 good goals.

    Team looks like they are really enjoying themselves.

    We now look like we have a deep squad and can make like for like substitutions without weakening us.

    Things are shaping up nicely.

    Not sure I get the Maswanhise comments tonight. I have been critical of some of his performances since February. However he worked his socks off tonight working back and continually showed for the run in behind only for the ball to never come. Sure he tried a few things that didnt come off, but he never hid and kept wanting the ball.

    Happy for him to get stick when he deserves it, but Im not sure he did tonight.

    • Like 1
  4. Lots of good performances tonight.

    Moorman and JKL strolled the first half. Jake looked good second half.

    Longelo and Hodge both put in big performances.

    Went for Lowry. His overall play was excellent and topped it with a lovely goal.

    As I said on Sunday, he will be the difference maker this season.

    Special mention for Kanga who showed a bit of what he is about tonight, but also Maswanhise, who worked his socks off both directions and cut a frustrated figure making the run for the diagonal pass that never came.......

  5. 27 minutes ago, dennyc said:

    They could accept the issue and attempt to find a solution to be put in place at season end. No one expects an immediate resolution.

    If you read my post before last, thats pretty much what I suggested.

    Not meaning to diminish the seriousness of the situation or the strength of feeling around it.

  6. 4 minutes ago, 0Neils40yarder said:

    Strong looking team with a very strong looking bench...Olly Whyte ommitted

    Ayr United seem quite confident they are gerring him.

    My mate messaged me today, very excited about it. They have a lot of injuries apparently, so he is likely to go straight into the team.

     

  7. I think the problem is that there isnt really much the club can do about the situation, so there isnt a lot they can really say.

    Thats no excuse, however, for not being more forward facing and owning the problem.

    A little can go a long way.....

  8. The explanation of process behind the changes required is fine, and all well and good.

    However, a simple acceptance that the club are aware of the issues and will work together with season ticket holders to find solutions, should be the minimum response from a fan owned club.

  9. 31 minutes ago, MotherwellFC1886 said:

    We will be lucky to get 1 million for Maswanhise. Chauffeur him to Ibrox if they offer over 7 figures for him

    Id rather keep him and lose him next season for nothing than sell him to Rangers under market value.

    His form may have dropped off, and I have been critical of him, but we have moved on from being soft touches in the transfer market.

    £3m seems about right for the leagues top scorer.

    Add £1m on top if its Rangers & Celtic as they wont pay that.

    • Like 2
  10. 1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

    Heard a rumour Maswanhise off to Villa,  swap deal with Wan-Bissaka! 🤣🤣

    Wan wan-bissaka......there's only wan wan-bissaka 🤪🤪

    I thought for a minute you were trolling me! But I could actually make peace with that move!

    😍😍😍

    🧡❤️🧡 v 💙❤️💙

    • Thanks 1
  11. 51 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

    I hear what you're saying but if we stunt a players progress , they may down tools...faddy / manny dont seem that type to be fair. 

    Don't keep that much of an eye on English game but ive heard villa have sold a whack of players....are they in financial trouble? 

    Nah, but the fairplay regulations seem to be hampering any progress that they are trying to make (whilst Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool etc seem to be able to spend what they like).

    Of the team that won the Europa League they have lost

    Martinez, Digne, Konsa, Tiellmens, Rogers, Watkins.

    That puts our troubles into perspective.

  12. 4 minutes ago, dennyc said:

    I think we would sell to anyone if the right offer came in. That includes from Scotland. If Rangers offered 2 or 3 million for Maswanhise would we really say no? Or 1.5m plus Miovski on loan? 

    I think we would if the offer was right.

    But neither Celtic nor Rangers view our players as being good value for what we are asking.

    If they did, Jens would be Celtic manager, Just would be wearing the hoops and Watt would be turning out for Rangers.

  13. 13 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

    Heard an interesting quote supposedly from Tony Bloom at Hearts, " dont get attached to the players ".

    The model hearts and ourselves are using means players are going to be passing through all the time and if they aren't moving on for good money, they're not good enough. 

    You can't help liking big Manny and Faddy but its the football world we are operating in.

    I guess its good advice.

    But when you have the chairman going public saying we wont sell all our good players at the one time, you kinda hold out hope that we wont lose everyone.

    Losing Ward, Watt, Just & Slattery was tough enough in the one window. If we end up losing Longelo, Fadinger & Maswanhise as well, that will be really hard to take.

    It could be worse, my English team could be Aston Villa, oh wait!

    🫣🫣🫣

    • Haha 1
  14. 37 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

    You've a bit longer to wait buddy. The Scottish Transfer window closes at 5pm on Thursday.

    Yes but I dont expect us to sell to another Scottish club. 

    All the other major european windows shut tonight.

  15. Well, I didnt see that one coming! Not sure we really needed another midfielder, but as others have said, it may signify that Fadinger is outgoing. That would be a hard one to take, but if he does go we will certainly get good money for him given he just signed a contract extension.

    Hopefully it doesnt come to that and we are just going all in for a title push this season! (I am joking).

    Its gonna be a nervy 24 hours (I dont expect us to sell anyone to another Scottish club).

    If we can get through it unscathed, Im really excited about the season ahead and what this team could achieve.

    Re Maswanhise. I kinda agree with others that we should accept any reasonable bid, purely as he is entering the last year of his contract and losing him for nothing next season would be silly.

    It would leave us short on the attacking side though,  so we would still need a replacement in. So we should be careful what we wish for.

    Roll on midnight!

  16. 6 minutes ago, thewelllfan said:

    I can't see us ending the window stronger than we are just now.

    Rangers are interested in Longelo, Fadinger is apparently wanted by Hamburg and Swansea have apparently bid for Maswanhise.

    If any of those moves happen we need to dip back into the transfer market and see who's available.

     

    There is no way Rangers are signing Longelo.

    They have Penrice and the boy Romens will be back at some point.

    AND they would never pay what we are asking for him.

    Someone else might come in for him but it wont be Rangers and Id say unlikely to be Celtic for the same reason.

    Id love to hold onto Manny but we do have Williams  to play there, albeit it would leave us short there again.

    If Maswanhise does go, then I hope its for decent money and we have a replacement lined up.

    Fadinger should be going nowhere this season. He signed a contract extension and integral to everything we do. His form is unlikely to drop off, so we will still be able to cash in on him next season.

    We need to leave Alfred with something to build around in terms of experience/structure etc.

     

  17. 2 hours ago, MelvinBragg said:

    Roma ladies away strip would be better..

    Screenshot_20260827_115812_Instagram.jpg

    Cracking top.

    Personally Id have every Motherwell away top as white with claret & amber trim, but kit manufacturers are never gonna run with that as it would clearly effect sales.

    I already have one of those above  with no sponsor and we have flirted with those colours a couple times since. (Vertical stripes / champagne versions).

    I do take the point with the colour clash though.

    Not sure what we do against Aberdeen / Hearts and Dundee United. Unless we wear the 140th kit?
     

  18. 17 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

    Good post Joe. Of course, things are still to settle down and we're still very much work in progress. AJ has still to mould the players into his system. 

    I'm not privy to all the detailed metrics that our recruitment team uses to identify and source players but I'd be shocked if physicality and experience don't come into the equation somewhere. Surely a keeper's qualities should dovetail with those of the defenders in front of him? Like it or not, and I don't like it, many other teams will test us out at set pieces and crosses and we have to be prepared for such tactics. 

    Years ago, I was castigated on here for wanting bigger, more physical, players in our squad. I had a hard, maybe impossible, task to convince some others that that didn't equal thuggish hammer throwers. Freiburg proved my point. You can be a faster, more skilled but bigger athlete than your opponents.  Usain Bolt was hardly vertically challenged at 6-5 and 15 stones in weight but he was quite fast.  It seems like an oversight in our summer recruitment, which to be fair, seems to have gone well in most other respects.  

    I think the problem is that to get players that can play the way we want to play, but are physically bigger and stronger, you have to pay more money than we can afford.

    We can have good players, or we can have big players. Its a sliding scale with a definite price point.

    Out of interest, I looked at our stats for today on the BBC match report.

    We won 10 aerial duels to St Mirrens 5 and 17 tackles to St Mirrens 20.

    So despite us both thinking we lack physicality, we actually seem to have stacked up ok today.

     

  19. 7 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

    Persistent rumours on the P & B Ayr thread that they want Olly Whyte on loan. IF that is the the case then we'd need to bring in another central midfielder. 

    I think that just stems from Naysmith having him at Stenny last season.

    I may have inadvertently started this rumour with my Ayr United friends a few weeks ago before it was clear that there was a good chance Olly could be a first team player fornus this season.

    If we did let him go, it would be a step upnfor him from last season. But Im no longer certain he needs it, and Im not sure we would let him go now.

    • Like 1
  20. 1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

    I would have taken a draw at 3pm after our Euro exertions and so I'm happy with the result. However, I'm not impressed by the manner of it after having been 2 goals up then losing 3 in a crazy 10 minute spell. That can't all be put down to tiredness. Plenty of positives though like TJ getting back on the scoresheet and our debutant scoring a cracker.  Also a few returning from injury. 

    However, we are short of a fit right back just now and I'm not sure our defence has the height and physicality to cope with rivals. Midfield also seems talented but lightweight. Its a young side we have and we seem to lack leadership and experience. 

    Early days and our season won't really begin until after next weekend, but  a few concerns starting to emerge.  

     

    Im pretty happy with where we are right now.

    But I agree our season wont start properly until we get back to one game a week and the manager has the opportunity to get his ideas across to the players on the training pitch on a daily basis.

    I think thats why it went from so good to so bad, so quickly today.

    We were brilliant, right up to the point we lost our shape and structure, and then we werent.

    Its very fine lines right now, with timing of runs and passes so important to whether we attack from a position of security, or leave ourselves wide open to counter attack. Its something that Jens took a little while to get on top of last season, but when we did, it was impressive.

    I agree about the lack of physicality in the team though. Not sure what we can do about it at this stage, although I think Olly Whyte has a bit of dig about him. Do we trust throwing him in though and who do we leave out?

  21. Would be good to get 3 points here as its a home game against a beatable opponent.

    However, its just another game in the series of games with no real break or preparation in between, asking yet more of our players who have been full on for over a month now.

    Dundee United have been a bit of an enigma in their performances and results so far, but the nature of their win on Saturday must give them confidence, despite being without their manager at the moment.

    Id guess we will see more rotation within the squad and it will depend exactly how that plays out what success we can expect.

    I will settle for us putting in another good performance and standing by our principles. Hopefully we can get our structure correct and minimise the goals against to give us the opporrunity to win it.

    A point would be acceptable. 3 points great.

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