joewarkfanclub

Why cut out the last line of my post that qualified my comment? I agree, a million pounds for someone that looked like a "sem-pro" player a year ago is good business! 😉

I think that would be the dream scenario. Theo stays another year, develops more, a Championship club come in with a big offer next close season and he moves on to bigger wages in a really strong position to hold down his place and we gain a significant fee. Everyone is happy. Edit: But anything over £1m I would expect us to sell.

A couple of months ago would have done. No chance Im losing half a stone by next Friday though!

You really need to announce these things sooner to allow people a chance to get fit! 😆😆😆

Hope he scores 5 in the next 2 games and the fee goes up to £2.5m! Seriously, more than happy for him to stay but it can only be on extended terms. He likes the manager and the manager has got the best out of him so if he is earning more and consolidating his position next season and continuing to develop he could go for even more money next year. Bottom line is it will be down to Theo and his agent as to where they see his future......

He will be harder to replace in January. If we cant get him to sign an extension we need to take the money. We cant let him go for nothing. If hr signs a new deal, brilliant. Id be just as happy.

Bair is a tricky one. Id rather he signed an extension/improved deal so that we are not scrambling around for another striker that will get us goals next season, and obviously we protect our investment in him. However, he is still far from the finished article and with no guarantees he will repeat the same numbers next year, £1.25m seems an awful lot of money, even if it is only £750k up front. It would keep the wolf from the door for another season. But with Spittal already away, the chance that Miller could also be off it kinda feels that losing him as well would pretty much be a whole new squad next season. Thats a big ask of the manager and the recruitment team. He seems like a good guy to have around and clearly has a relationship with the manager, so who knows? Be nice to get some good PCAs in early once the season has ended to calm everything down!

Both teams to score again is a stick on! Hopefully Hibs wont sack Montgomery just now. Doesnt seem much point with only 2 games to go.

If a manager is under pressure during a 15 game winless run, is it not fair game for him to plead mitigation in terms of budget and request a little more understanding of his situation? I know I certainly wouldnt be lying down meakly and waiting for the bullet! Id be challenging those that set my budget to stand by me after delivering what they asked. In respect of whether this season has been succesful or not, it again depends on whether you wish to make any allowances for those circumstances. I would say keeping us in the league is always the pre-requisite for any Motherwell manager. After that we can start to look up. We are on course for finishing 7th or 8th (9th at worst) which is acceptable in a season when the budget had to be re-structured so drastically on the back of the Alexander/Hammell debacles. As for the cups we navigated the group stages of the league cup fairly comfortably and were rewarded as the seeded team with an away tie to a St Mirren side who have had a relatively good season. That was a game of fine margins so disappointing but not unexpected to lose. The Morton defeat is a sore one as we should have known what to expect and walked right into it and played the game exactly the way Dougie Imrie wanted us to. Definite black mark on our record there. We have played some decent football at times, scored some magnificent goals, handed out a few thrashings and beat Rangers away in the league for the first time in 27 years. We have seen the re-birth of a player in Theo Bair and one of our own come through to claim a regular first team place at the age of 17. Id say all in all, thats not too bad a season. Probably just about pass marks for the manager and the team. It has been incredibly frustrating at times, particularly some of our defending. Many mistakes were made. But there is lots of room for improvement and we have kept faith with a manager who will have learned a helluva lot for the experience. With the re-structuring off the field and the potential for additional investment off it, or at least a re-invigorated Well Society and CEO, Im actually quite excited to see how it all plays out next season.

Didnt see tge game yesterday, so no idea hoe he played, but given the votes, did Spitz forget he has signed a PCA? 😍😍😍

No idea whats going on! Probably dodgy wifi! 😆😆😆

I concur. There were some touting him as the kind of manager we should be looking at when we were on our bad run. He is up there with Tommy Wright in terms of what we should be looking for imho. The game has moved on.

I concur. There were some touting him as the kind of manager we should be looking at when we were on our bad run. He is up there with Tommy Wright in terms of what we should be looking for imho. The game has moved on.

The 10th spot thing is often mis-represented. Its for budgetary purposes only to ensure we dont run into huge debts. That doesnt mean the playing targets wont be higher. Incremental improvements are the stable way to success. The speculate to accumulate route is frought with danger for a club like ours.

If we can we add better in game management and stop the mad substitutions on top of that we can defo make top 6.

Not sure there is much different there to what I was getting at. Kellys performances this season certainly havent been anywhere near as good as they were in his first season, so I agree, over the piece he has been average. Strangely though, as others have said, having Hollis in goals didnt stop us getting top 6. But he had much better defenders in front of him. Regardless. We need better value for money when it comes to recruitment. Given Kelly is on above average money for us Im comfortable with him moving on.

I dont think Kellys performances are necessarily the biggest problem, albeit his weaknesses are mostly agreed. I think generally speaking most folk accept he is pretty much the average standard of keeper we can attract at our level. Sometines we do better, sometimes we do worse. I think the fact that he is widely regarded as our top earner is what hurts him. A lot of us think we can do better for the money we are paying. Or at least not do worse by offering a keeper less.

Quite like that. Like the hoop socks as well. Sorry Grizzly! 🧡❤️🧡

Paddy Power were brilliant in that regard. Wasnt that fussed on the home one, but the petrol blue "Sampdoria" number is a classic!

I dont think we should be selling him to Bournemouth for that very reason. And certainly not at a cut price. I have it in my head that he is worth at least what we got for Turnbull. He has 2 years left on his deal. Best to keep him developing in our first team and sell him when the right bid comes in. As it will.

That may well be. But he has a season option so Id like to wait and see. Hearts certainly didnt think he was up to it with them anymore, but I guess it depends what we see his role as. Obika was always a risk with his injury record. Im hoping some of last seasons signings were down to budget and circumstances. We could do without making some of those mistakes again.

Im gonna try and play the ball here and not the man. Your original point may have some validity. Ive never seen Dylan Easton play, so Ive no idea if he will or wont be able to do a job for us next season. However, as you rightly say, no one saw Bair being a success and he has been by quite a margin. However, its your second paragraph that I have to disagree with and it diminishes any value anyone could place on your first point. Davor may be a limited player but he is a grafter and his defensive qualities bring value to the team. As does Paton who is a tidy footballer and we missed him badly when he was injured even if it was just for the purposes of giving others a rest. These are the kinds of players we need in our squad as they let others like Spittal and Miller play their football. I had hoped Halliday would be the same. A good squad player. And admittedly he hasnt really shown anything so far to justify his billing. However, he has been injured and didnt have a proper pre season behind him so hoping he will be better next year. Point is, none if them are poor or hopeless. So maybe the manager knows more about the quality required in the division than you give him credit for?

I agree that factors other than actual performance can come into things when voting for player of the year, but there is no suggestion Spittal has been a bad egg in the dressing room. In fact, as well as being comfortably our best performer over the piece, he has shown leadership qualities when he was quite frankly dragging us through some games, and seems well liked and respected by the other players and management. I dont get any feeling that he wasnt liked by the fans either up to the point the PCA was disclosed and some threw the toys out the pram. Happy to accept that Slatterys goal (best team move) or Bairs dink (outrageuous and unexpected piece of skill) are worthy contenders fo best goal, but POTY should have been a shoe in (imho). Anyway, Feed the Bair. He still has plenty of room to develop as a player, but his goals and performances have been as welcome as they were unexpected!

Spittal not getting any of the fan awards reflects poorly on our support who are clearly more pissed off about him signing a pre contract with Hearts than thankful for the 2 years sterling service he has given us. He has been our player of the season by a distance and capped off by some incredible goals. His free kick against Alloa didnt even make the shortlist. Good to see he got the Players Player of the year and the Coaches. Speaks volumes.

We have only won 9 games this season. But we have drawn 13 and lost 9 by only 1 goal. That tells me we have been competive in the majority of our games this season. That being the case if we had prevented just a handful of the really poor goals we have lost this season we would be much further up the league. Fine margins. Given that SK hasnt been able to coach these mistakes out of the team, I think its inevitible our defence will be overhauled close season. We need different personnel and/or a different system if we want to improve next season. Whether that possible or not on our budget remains to be seen.