El Grew

Ya Bezzer, whilst I support your right to express your opinions on the present state of our football club and the abilities, or lack thereof, of our current players and manager and admire your loyalty no matter how misplaced, I think you are deluded and, judging by remarks made in response by a fair number of posters, you are in a minority of one. For my own sins, I’ve been a diehard fan since 1967 and like countless others I’ve ridden the Motherwell emotional rollercoaster that comes with that and I can honestly say that in all that time, the present squad of players is the worst I’ve ever seen. As for the manager and his football philosophy (for lack of a better adjective or perhaps a piss-poor vocabulary on my part) I think that it can best be described as, well, shite. Like many others, I can no longer work up any enthusiasm for going out to pay to suffer what can only be described as the equivalent of having your balls jammed in a vice whilst your teeth are pulled out one by one, and all without the benefit of anaesthetic. Make no mistake, if this guy is permitted to remain as manager, then at the end of next season, we will be relegated and consigned to the Championship and as other clubs of our ilk have discovered, it is no easy task to get back out. In some of your posts under this topic, you have berated fellow fans for expressing honestly held views with contemptuous ripostes like “When we are on the ball we are hopeless. I know that and Alexander knows that but a lot of our fans haven’t caught on to that yet cos they operate on mollusc level logic.” AND “Its easy to mock when folk display a complete lack of understanding of the whole situation around Motherwell FC.” Now, this seems to imply that you alone possess personal insight into these matters that us lesser mortals lack. If this is the case, then perhaps you could enlighten the rest of us; but if not please accept this in the same spirit as your aforementioned ripostes, and f*ck right off.

You first then!

I can’t argue with that. I wasn’t looking for us to beat Rangers today but when the circumstances presented themselves I did feel the worst we would get would be a draw. However we need to face the stark fact that we very probably have the worst squad of players that’s ever been assembled at Fir Park. It’s packed full of utter dross. Added to that we have a manager in charge of the aforesaid utter dross, whose football philosophy makes me cringe. We are bereft of football ability; we lack cohesiveness as a group; we are uncompetitive and utterly unwatchable. We’ve only taken 9 points from a possible 42 since the turn of the year and that’s relegation form. Thankfully it won’t happen this season but it’s an absolute racing certainty that it’ll be on the cards from the start of next season. We are also starting to lose fans with even some diehards finding it tough to keep going. Radical change is badly needed in our recruitment philosophy as the quality of player being brought in from lower and non-league English and Irish football has been abysmal for some time now. It’s time for the chairman and board to wake up smartly and smell the shite.

Very best wishes to Keith Lasley on his new venture at St.Mirren. He played more than 500 games for us since he arrived when he was 19. One of my favourite ‘modern day’ players, Keith always gave 100% and never let us down. One of the most consistent players we’ve ever had.

Many posters on this forum have been groaning about our style of play - eye-bleeding is one that comes to mind. Now that we’ve scrambled into the top 6 many of those same posters are now trotting out the “ends justify the means” argument. Sorry but that’s hypocrisy. You can’t have it both ways. Eye-bleeding football and a top 6 finish or attractive football and no top 6 finish. Football is supposed to be in the entertainment business and in the current difficult economic climate fans may need to start rationing their attendance at matches. However I would argue that this may be less likely to occur if clubs were more consistent, entertaining and attractive to watch. Quite honestly, Scottish football is as poor as it’s ever been as witness by the number of teams from Hearts down who have unable to show any level of consistency and are producing shitfest football every week and the powers that be are happy enough with this as long as it keeps the big two happy and on side.

Unfuckingbelieveable!! However it should change nothing as far as the manager’s tenure is concerned. He’s still got to go for me. Top 6 finish or not we are simply unwatchable.

Ross County scored from penalty to go into top 6 with Livingston.

Yes, but we are getting neither!

Same old same old.

In 4-4-2 Kelly Mugabi Johanson Lamie O’Donnell Slattery Cornelius Goss Efford Van Veen Tierney

Sad news indeed. Along with John “Goldie” Goldthorp, Kirkie was one of my favourite forwards back in the 1970s. Thoughts and prayers for his family. RIP Kirkie.

Fair play to Alexander and the players yesterday. The game had all the ingredients for another hapless display and probable defeat but for once that script went into the bin. We really played quite well and I think having 3 recognised midfielders who can pass the ball made a huge difference - no howitzer deliveries for the front 3 to deal with. Sure we lost a poor opening goal but the important fact is the players didn’t chuck it. They simply reset and started again and scored 2 goals in a minute to turn the game on its head. The 2nd St. Mirren goal was the result of a misjudgment by Liam Kelly but you can’t pillory him for that as he has kept us in a lot of matches this season with some fantastic goalkeeping displays. But yet again, the players reset themselves and went again and deservedly went in front through young Cornelius. I think St Mirren dominated most of the 2nd half but without causing too many difficulties for us. Van Veen’s lead up play for our 4th goal was fantastic and it was great to see somebody beat players and drive into the heart of their defence causing mayhem in that manner. I thought the side had a balanced look about it yesterday that has been absent for a while. Each of the players seemed to understand their individual role and their role in the collective unit. I think this was down to the midfield 3 where Cornelius being there seemed to give Goss and Slattery the confidence to look forward and link with the front 3 each of whom I thought were very good. Efford’s running, pace and persistence was a constant problem for the St. Mirren back line and they were never able to contain him. Shields too with his willingness to make runs into the inside-right and inside-left channels caused problems for the St Mirren defence who couldn’t seem to work out how to play him. And Van Veen was at times simply unplayable and when he’s in this kind of mood he is a fantastic attacking spearhead. The weaknesses were mainly in defence but then that maybe that’s the first time these 4 have played together in these positions so I’m not going to slaughter them. Same starting 11 next week please.

As I’ve said on here previously, young Dean Cornelius is one of the best midfield prospects we’ve had at FP since Phil O’Donnell. A real old fashioned box to box wing-half. Took his goal so calmly. I just hope he’s on a long-term deal.

Jim Goodwin wants Charles Dunne at Aberdeen?! Surely that must be an April Fools joke!

Say what you like about Stephen O’Donnell but since he arrived at FP he’s been a model professional. He doesn’t moan or bad mouth the club or manager if he gets dropped and always puts 100% in when called on to play. Refreshing in this day and age.

I see Dunfermline beat Partick 4-1 tonight with 3 of our ex-players in their line-up - Stephen Lawless, Liam Polworth & Don Thomas.

I did put a “health warning” on my post about the website in question. Anyway, prior to signing for us, Darragh O’Connor was at Leicester City where he was on £2,400 per week. For an English Premiership side that is chicken-feed.

I don’t know how they get their info or how accurate it is but this website carries details of players’ wages at a number of SPFL clubs including ours. https://salarysport.com/football/scottish-premiership/motherwell/ Our highest earner is reported as being Liam Kelly with £4K per week and our total wage bill as £39,910 per week.

As Hamlet said “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. I fear bad times may lie ahead similar to those which occurred in 2006/07 under Malpas. Having only won 1 of our previous 10 games, we got humped 4-1 away by bottom of the table Dunfermline. The following week we had St. Mirren at home and contrived to toss away a 2-goal lead to lose 3-2. Fortunately, ICT beat Dunfermline to send them down. But it was a close run thing.

You beat me to that.

That’s it in a fucking nutshell. The key phrase is “the manager is responsible”. So let’s mark his report card in the areas you identify. Recruitment: Fail. Brought players that are no better than what he had and brought players on loan and hasn’t played them. Tactics: Fail. Has none. No midfield. Defenders pelting passes forward from deep like cruise missiles. Team Selection: Fail. Doesn’t know his best 11 and as a result there’s no consistency in selection leading to inconsistency of performance and poor results. Shape: Fail. Obsessed with 4-3-3 which is failing miserably - seems determined to stick to this like a lemming going over a cliff. Since beating Livingston 2-1 at FP on Boxing Day we’ve played 11 league games and only got 5 points (5 home: 3 draws; 2 defeats and 6 away: 2 draws; 4 defeats). On that form we’d be bottom of the league as Dundee in the same period got 7 points. We are quite clearly in relegation form.

Club Press Release 10th Jan 2022 Graham Alexander has signed a deal that will keep him at Fir Park until at least 2025. “I’m delighted to sign a new contract here at Motherwell and continue the progress we have all made in the last 12 months. Chris and I have received nothing but great support from everyone connected with the club, which has certainly helped us concentrate on our work. I have a brilliant relationship with the people I work with every day and the environment that we’re allowed to develop here to produce results is particularly rewarding. I also want to thank the chairman and the board for showing the faith in us from day one to be a success in this role. We know we have much more to achieve here. We will strive to work as hard as ever to serve Motherwell in the best way.” Appointed on 7 January 2021 he has presided over transformation of the playing squad. The team’s points tally of 59 in the 2021 calendar year was the third-highest in the top flight, with the club also currently occupying 4th spot. Statistically he ranks near the top of the modern-day Motherwell bosses with a win percentage of 47.8% and a league points per game record of 1.55. He is also the first manager outside of Celtic and Rangers to win 3 Premiership Manager of the Month awards in a calendar year, with only Neil Lennon (4), Steven Gerrard, Alex McLeish, Brendan Rodgers and Gordon Strachan (3) for company. Chairman Jim McMahon said “We have been absolutely delighted with Graham’s contribution since joining the club 12 months ago and we are excited about what he is trying to build with us. He is talented, hard-working, dedicated and fully buys into the multifaceted role at Motherwell. The board will continue to back him to help us achieve our goals both on and off the pitch.” I for one would be glad to be rid of him but given this mutual love-in was only about 3 months ago it’s extremely unlikely we’ll be getting shot of him any time soon!

I felt my eyes watering when I read this!

Aye and not just at football manager level!

It won’t be the first time Hibs have f*cked up with their managerial selection. Prior to being made Hibs manager Sean Maloney had zero experience of being a club manager. Yes, he was assistant coach to Roberto Martinez but there’s a world of difference from being an assistant coach to becoming the manager outright, as we witnessed when Malpas succeeded Butcher.