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That is also true but I think if you look at his overall tenure as Motherwell manager he was probably a success. His recruitment however wasn't great. Players brought in under Kettlewell 22/23 Harry Paton - Was a decent enough player for us served a purpose, Decent signing. 23/24 Summer Window Johnathan Obika - Injured constantly barley played poor signing. Connor Wilkinson - Poor Striker can't remember if we mutualled him or sold him in January but another poor signing. Pape Souare - another guy who barley played another poor signing. Davor Zdravkovski - Was decent in his first season barley played in his second decent enough signing Theo Bair - Signing got a lot of negative reaction but proved us wrong. Ended up being sold for 1.5M and turned out a great signing. Mika Beireth - What a player we only had him 6 months but he was a fantasatic footballer and great signing. Brodie Spencer - Another really good loan signing could play both sides and was a really solid player for us. Decent signing. Oli Shaw - Probably the most frustrating St we have had at Motherwell in recent years his movement was really good but could not finish at all, poor signing. Georgie Gent - Another decent loan signing didn't really play first half of the season but when he got in the team was a really solid player and had excellent delivery from that left side, decent signing January 23/24 Adam Montgommery - Looked decent enough in the 2 games he played but got injured and returned to Celtic before the window closed so I guess it was a poor signing but more due to circumstance. Andy Halliday - Been a really solid player over his time at Motherwell so was a good signing despite his lack of minutes this season. Callan Elliot - Don't think he ever played for us so was a complete waste of money and a poor signing. Sam Nicholson - Really talented player but considering he's been at the club since Jan 24 and made 9 appearances to date has to go down as a poor signing. Jack Vale Loan V1 - Decent signing had a postitive contribution second half of that season. Jill Buyabu - Turned up played 1 game fell out with the manager was sent back to Sheff Utd, Poor signing. Adam Devine - Was really average to be honest got caught ball watching to put Airdrie out the cup last night and never really impressed for us, poor signing. Moses Ebiye - Absolute Chaos caused when he was on the pitch but it never really clicked for him was probably worth the punt for his physical attributes alone tho. Summer 24/25 Zach Robinson - Signed on the back of a decent loan spell at Dundee, was a decent ST for us without really standing out did score the winner against Dundee Utd to get us in to the cup semi final but has been out for a signinificant period of time. Poor signing. Johnny Koutrombis - Wasn't used at all by Kettlewell but has been very good for us under JBA. Decent signing. Kofi Balmer - Had a giant throw in and other than that was quite poor. Poor signing. Tom Sparrow - Thought he was a weird signing at the time but was 1 of our best players last season. Good signing. Fillip Stuperavic - Scored in the league cup group stages fell out with the manager was playing well on loan at Morton but done his ACL. Poor Signing. Ross Callahan - Played about 2 games was perma crocked massive waste of money. Poor signing. Liam Gordon - Been a very solid pro since signing and seems a proper leader when he plays. Decent Signing. Kyristian Hegyi - Think most thought he'd start the season as N1 don't think he made a competitive appearance after the League Cup group stages, Poor Signing. Steve Seddon - I liked him thought he was decent whenever he played but had some troubles with injury. Decent Signing. Marvin Kaleta - Started really well then his form fell of a cliff could probably pass as a decent loan signing. Apostolous Stamatelopolous - The fact we paid a significant fee probably counts against him scored basically 1 in 3 in his games last season but has been poor this season and struggled with injury. Poor signing. Tony Watt - Was decent enough for us had some really good games for us but wasn't in the same form he was during Alexander's reign. Decent Signing. Twanda Maswanhise - What a player he's turned out to be for us. Great signing. Jair Taveres - Wasn't very good was he, Poor signing. Jack Vale V2 - This time he was just crocked the whole time and we really didn't need another St. Poor signing. Jan 24/25 Kai Andrews - Thought he was decent under Wimmer and was a decent loan signing. Archie Mair - Played 1 game broke his hand returned to Norwich. Poor signing. Ellery Balcombe - Another poor goalkeeper who probably cost us top 6 last season. Poor signing. Luke Armstrong - Had a couple of decent games and was something different to our other attackers. Decent signing. Dom Thompson - Came with some decent perdigree having been at Arsenal U21 but wasn;y very good for us. Poor signing Based on that SK made 38 signings during his time as manager : 3 were very good - Biereth, Maswanhise, Bair. 2 were good - Sparrow, Halliday. 12 were decent - Paton, Davor, Spencer, Gent, Vale V1, Koutrombis, Gordon, Seddon, Kaleta, Watt, Andrews, Armstrong 21 were poor - Obika, Wilkinson, Souare, Shaw, Montgommery, Elliot, Nicholson, Buyabu, Devine, Ebiye, Robinson, Balmer, Stuperavic, Callahan, Hegyi, Stama, Taveres, Vale V2, Mair, Balcombe, Thompson I'd say overall it was below average. The majority of his first choice Xi were already at the club and he signed a lot of poor players. Doing this also made me remember just how much shite he signed for us, he's done the same at Killie tbf I'd only really want John-Jules and Kiltie at Motherwell of the guys he signed in the summer.

Tyler Magloire playing for Port Vale when they knocked Sunderland out the cup today.

Can definitely see a number going out. As per my post at the start of the week, we generally make signings on a one in one out basis, with most of this year's outs being injuries, of which we have 9, and 10 if the Vale rumor is true (and add the likes of Slattery and Nicholson on limited minutes due to injuries). Callachan, Watt, Tavares, Vale, Moses seem like candidates to go. Miller potentially for other reasons. Can't see mair hanging around with his broken hand either. Can definitely see a number going out. As per my post at the start of the week, we generally make signings on a one in one out basis, with most of this year's outs being injuries, of which we have 9 (10 if the Vale rumor is true), and add the likes of Slattery, Paton and Nicholson on limited minutes due to injuries. Callachan, Watt, Tavares, Vale, Moses seem like candidates to go. Miller potentially for other reasons. So, out of the 33 we have, 10 aren't available, some for a considerable time. With 9 on the bench you need 20 for a matchday squad, so we're sitting at a surplus of 3 available players. Two of whom are Moses and Koutroumbis. If we want the much mooted squad of 23, then tomorrow we'd have 2 subs and making the rest up with kids. On the strikers, we signed Stuparevic, Robinson and Stama. Two of those are injured and one isn't up to scratch and was sent out on loan (whether that changes next season, who knows). Watt is clearly done, and Moses is a chaos sub at best. Tavares is injured and Vale is suspended and maybe injured too. Before we signed armstrong we had Watt, Moses and JT available. Not giving us any options on the bench. Of the three that have come in, 2 have replaced Stama and Robinson. The third suggests someone is off. Signing Stuparevic, Koutroumbis, Callachan and Tavares all seem like legit mistakes, the first two are just how it goes, the other two are plain dumb. Also, I doubt we're keeping mair with his broken hand. So, out of the 33 we have, 10 aren't available, some for a considerable time. With 9 on the bench you need 20 for a matchday squad, so we're sitting at a surplus of 3. Two of the squad are on limited minutes, and two are Moses and Koutroumbis. If we want the much mooted squad of 23, then tomorrow we'd have 2 first team subs and making the rest up with kids. On the strikers, we signed Stuparevic, Robinson and Stama. Two of those are injured and one isn't up to scratch and was sent out on loan (whether that changes next season, who knows). Watt is clearly done, and Moses is a chaos sub at best. Tavares is injured and Vale is suspended and maybe injured too. Before we signed armstrong we had Watt, Moses and JT available. Not giving us any options on the bench. Of the three that have come in, 2 have replaced Stama and Robinson. The third suggests someone is off. Signing Stuparevic, Koutroumbis, Callachan and Tavares all seem like legit mistakes, the first two are just how it goes, the other two are plain dumb. Balcombe also doesn't look great. If we sign any more forwards by Monday (unless 2 go out), I'd say logic is out of the window, but you can't always sign the players you need in the perfect order. Hopefully a midfielder that isn't a child is one of the remaining signings. Why we don't have any young players that can step up, or why we aren't using them, is it's own discussion.

Ok, here goes. As far as who we've signed, that's up for debate as to who is good and who isn't. As far as filling areas of need, it has been pretty organized and methodical, outside of signing Vale and Tavares when we needed 2 midfielders. All rough working based on the website, but coming into this season we had: GK - Ox (re-signed), Connelly WB - Wilson (kind of), SoD CB - Blaney, McGinn, Casey Mid - Slattery (re-signed, injured), Miller, Nicholson (re-signed), Davor, Halliday, Paton FW - Moses, Bair Youth (that looked like they might get games at the time)- Ferrie, Ross, Wells. None look to be worth worrying about, which is a shame, I'd prefer to have 3 of our own youth products on the bench. So we needed: - a goalie, - 2 WBs, - at least one CB. - at least one midfielder - at least 2 forwards I might be off in the order here, but pre season we signed GK - Hegyi WB - Seddon, Johnny K CB - Balmer, gordon Mid - Callachan, Sparrow FW - Stuparevic, Robinson At the time, we thought maybe one defender too many, but that balmer and Gordon were good gers, then..... Mcginn injured pre-season So logically, as expected. We filled holes in the required positions, and left with a squad of 23 outside of the younger players, so room to add 1 or 2, with bair expected to go, and mcginn injured. Consensus at the time was that callachan was a bad signing, Sparrow was bench fodder, and Robinson was a good call. July 11th - koutroumbis out for months - Down a RWB July 15th - Kaleta joins - Back even on RWB July 16th - Theo Bair sold for actual money - Down a striker July 26th - Harry paton injury (and should have been a pen) - Down a midfielder July 30th - AP signed - back even on strikers Nicholson injury mentioned on August 5th - Down 2 midfielders Callachan injury (big fucking surprise) reported on August 8th - Down 3 midfielders Blaney out 6 weeks on August 8th - Down 2 defenders, but we signed two, so covered. August 13th - Watt came in - ok 5 strikers, maybe that's enough Aug 14th - AP injured for 6 weeks - Down to 4 strikers, uh oh Aug 19th - Maswanhise joined - back to 5 forwards, yay August 29th ish - Tavares and vale joined at the end of the summer window - 7 forwards now, wtf? Aug 20th - Stuparevic sent out on loan - Just the 6 forwards now - still down 3 midfielders 3rd Dec - Robinson out for season - only 5 strikers left 20th Dec-ish - Nicholson back - Down 2 midfielders 30th Dec - mcginn back, yay 31st Dec - Miller injured for months, well baws. - Down 3 midfielders 1st Jan ish - AP out for some time, double baws. - 4 forwards, bare bones 1st Jan ish - where's Jair? - 3 forwards 6th Jan - Slattery back, wooo. - Down 2 midfielders 7th Jan - Kai andrews signed - Down 1 midfielder 11th Jan - Ox injured -Down one keeper 11th Jan - Hegyi recalled by west ham - Down 2 keepers, oh no 11th Jan - Mair signs, Connelly recalled - back to two keepers, for now phew. - 13th Jan - Mcginn injured for months again, fuck - Down a cb Jan sometime - seddon injured for months, again fuck - Down a wb 24th Jan - signed armstrong - 5 forwards, but vale suspended, Moses ill 23rd Jan signed balcombe 23rd Jan - Connelly sent back on loan - back to 2 keepers 23rd Jan - Mair injured - one keeper again 23rd Jan - Connelly temp recalled - 2 keepers again 24th Jan - signed Dom Thompson - back even on WBs So numbers wise, outside of the vale and Tavares signings, we've tended to replace what we've lost, other than midfielders. Stuparevic and Johnny K not being up to scratch hasn't helped. I'd say that if it wasn't for injuries we wouldn't have signed Mair, Balcombe, Kaleta, one of Gordon or Balmer, Andrews, Armstrong, Thompwe'reat least one of Watt/Tavares/JT/vale. If we sign Mcghee then I'd say we're covered numbers-wise. He probably covers CB too. As such, I don't think the signing policy has been chaotic or scatter gun in itself, the fact that we have needed to sign replacements for replacements has meant we really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for incomings. With AP due back, and just signing Armstrong, I wouldn't expect another striker unless someone goes. Saying that, we did have 7 at one point. Moses and Slattery were Ill at the weekend, but could see Moses moving on. Looks like Tavares and Watt will stay unless their parent clubs want to play them. They don't. So the scope for outgoings are Miller and any of those up in the summer on pcas, ie Casey. The only incoming loans we can make have to be u21 due to rules. In conclusion, outside of selling someone, I don't think we need to be online on deadline day. Unless someone else gets injured.

2 goals for Devante Cole for port Vale in the FA Cup today, that's the kind of striker we need right now.

Turnbull back playing 90 for Cardiff. Devante scored for Port Vale in their win, with Ben Heneghan also in the lineup. Declan "gun to his head" Gallagher git sent off for Ross County in another loss for them.

Agree with all that been said. The fact that Vale Watt and Casey are quoted shows it's 1 year old guesswork.

I'm not sure we are waiting on the Miller money. We released/punted plenty of players whose wages should be available now. Mair, Balcombe, Seddon, Casey, Blaney, Kaleta, Thompson, Davor, Paton, Callachan, Andrews, Ebiye, Watt, Plange, Dickson, Armstrong, Vale and Tavares have all gone (and maybe some I have missed). So by my calculation we have punted 18 and brought in 6 (plus Sule on loan). That should leave us a few pennies for new players.

I watched it on sky sports there, awful game. Whoever tells you the game down there has better quality need a reality check. Turnbull came on for 30mins and looked the best player on the park. Also Ben Heneghan playing with port vale. …. Looked like he was dragging a cart behind him all game.

We certainly seem to suffer an inordinate amount of serious injuries to loan players: Biereth, Eseosa, Mair, Montgomery, Kaletea, and Vale in the past couple of years. That does seem very unusual. Some or all of these absences will be genuine but I just wonder if some of them are due to other reasons, which the clubs and player won't want publicised eg. homesickness, behaviour, failure to settle?

I still think we probably still need another 4 Another Cm, Cb, Bu Gk, and a winger are needed if we want to stake a claim for top 6. Callahan, Koutrombis, Ebiye, Davor all need sold/loaned out. Taveres needs sent back to his parent club as does Mair who's broke his finger and out for 6/8 weeks. We have Robinson and Mcginn out for the season so that's us down to 31 that can be available for selection anyway. Seddon, Miller, Stam all out for at least another 1-2 months Ox out for 3 months. Current crop available for selection Gk- Balcombe, Connoly Cb- Balmer, Gordon, Casey, Blaney, SOD Rwb- Kaleta, SOD, Koutrombis Lwb- Wilson. Thompson Cm- Halliday, Andrews, Paton, Sparrow, Slattery, Nicholson, Davor Fwds- Dickson, Plange, TJ, Watt, Ebiye, Armstrong, Vale (Once suspension finishes) Those 24 to pick from currently w Vale to add back in. That to me looks weak and forward heavy. Top 6 would be huge for cost off-setting as would getting into Europe. Majority being loans is also ideal as it means we can actually squad build from scratch next season and aren't stuck with players the new manager doesn't want long-term.

I don't know about that. Certainly we do miss Bair - no argument about that though. Stama has the makings of an excellent striker as does Vale. However they're not being used correctly. Neither is a big physical target man although that's how they're being asked to play. I felt very sorry for Vale today having to compete in the air with 2 6-4 centre backs. Hung out to dry. They both need to play off a big target man but that's not how we set up. Given SK's preferred style of play with one striker I just can't understand why he didn't sign a big target man in the summer. A mega mistake on his part.

I was reasonably pleased with the result, if not the performance and would have happily taken a draw at 3pm. My expectations were modest and the script for the game could have been written 2 weeks ago. Results elsewhere made it a pretty satisfying afternoon. On paper, the team line up looked reasonable, with the exception of the defence. I’m not a fan of playing McGinn and O’Donnell in a 3 man defence and I really thought we’d ditched that failed experiment. If Blaney can’t displace a 32 year old wing back in central defence then the chances are that he’s heading out the door. That line up lacked physicality, height and leadership. We started off brightly enough but after the initial 10 minutes, struggled to compete against a physical, energetic and well organised St Mirren. Fortunately, for all their aggression and endeavour, they proved pretty toothless. ( I hope the BBC doesn’t read this). The defence, from start to finish, was disorganised and allowed Saints too much time and space in and around our box. As expected, they caused us problems in the air. Although we created a few chances early on, it was no surprise when they opened the scoring with the obligatory gift; again schoolboy defending. Saints then shaded the first half. At times, it looked as though they had 14 players on the pitch. I felt sorry for Bair and Vale. The service to Theo was poor and he was often left isolated. Vale was played far too deep – just not his type of game. Bair and Vale just couldn’t link up. That tactic was a clear mistake and should have been changed early doors when it became clear it just wouldn’t work. Maybe one reason too why Spittal was anonymous? A clear case of managerial overthinking? Captain Hindsight here - at the break I’d have introduced Mugabi for either O’Donnell or Devine, Miller for Halliday and Nicholson for the anonymous Spittal. To be fair Saints had done their homework on him and snuffed him out. After the break we did improve and shaded the second half. I was glad to see us break our scoring duck against St Mirren. The Nicholson for Bair substitution had me baffled. Why take off a striker and introduce a midfielder when we had Moses on the bench and we were chasing goals? In the main, I thought our substitutions were too late in the coming and somewhat conservative. Its not as if those on the field were playing well. Still, we just deserved the draw. Our performance was error strewn and we looked downright rusty. I absolve Bair and Vale from criticism for the above reasons. Spittal didn’t play badly he just didn’t play at all. Georgie Gent was my sole and clear contender for MOTM. He caused Saints problems on the left flank all day with his surging runs.

Agreed. You need a good mix of strikers. From the little I've seen Stuparevic seems quite nippy but not particularly physical or tricky. A poor man's Jack Vale?? That said we haven't seen much of him to really assess his style.

We lost 3-0 there last December, in an appalling game. Fine lines as you say though, and we've won quite a few games narrowly. I think whats upsetting many folk is SK's overly cautious tactics and seeming inability to learn from his mistakes. Its not the most exciting football to watch but in fairness has been reasonably successful so far this season. Recurring weaknesses include defending too deeply; failing to achieve clean sheets; weak midfield; isolated strikers; and over reliance on set pieces to score. We're reading these comments week after week. Now I get that some of these weaknesses are down to a horrendous injury list, but some are down to recruitment failures, especially up front. Usually a manager will try to source a wide variety of different types of a striker to give him various options. That doesn't seem to be the case with SK. We'll look at Vale, Stama, Ebiye, Robinson, Maswanhise, Tavares and Watt. Vale, Tavares and Maswhanise are all fast, can play outside the box but are lightweight. Stama and Ebiye are penalty box strikers but lightweight. Watt is more physical, bit is not a prolific scorer. Robinson is quite talented but very lightweight and not a scorer, despite yesterday's goal. In my opinion only, Robinson, Tavares and Watt have disappointed. SK loves a 3-5-1-1 formation and thats not a recent thing; so why have we not recruited a big target man? Like it or not defenders are becoming bigger and bigger. We had a fortnight to prepare for yesterday's game and SK should know Ross County inside out. So why did he get it so wrong? I get the players too had an off day.

The votes have been tallied and the 2024-25 MOTM Player of the season is... Lennon Miller Very much a season of two halves for the runners up: Callum Slattery was second, thanks to his strong showing after his return from injury. Aston Oxborough and Ewan Wilson one point behind in joint third thanks to their form in the first half of the season. Tom Sparrow in 4th, closely followed in 5th place by Dan Casey. Complete results as follows: Lennon Miller 47 Callum Slattery 28 Aston Oxborough 27 Ewan Wilson 27 Tom Sparrow 24 Dan Casey 23 Stephen O'Donnell 21 Tawanda Maswanhise 19 Tony Watt 15 Andy Halliday 12 Marvin Kaleta 12 Liam Gordon 10 Apostolos Stamatelopoulos 9 Steve Seddon 9 Harry Paton 8 Kofi Balmer 6 Luke Armstrong 5 Davor Zdravkovski 4 Jack Vale 4 Kai Andrews 4 Sam Nicholson 4 Dominic Thompson 3 Moses Ebiye 3 Archie Mair 2 Dylan Wells 2 John Koutroumbis 2 Zach Robinson 2 Ellery Balcombe 1 Luke Plange 1 Paul McGinn 1 Shane Blaney 1

Completely agree, the current squad will occasionally raise their game but will invariably disappoint , particularly the defence and the Goalkeeper. The defence needs a complete revamp. Other than keeping McGinn, Gent I'm not fussed about any of the rest. Halliday has shown bugger all that should tempt us to make his move permanent. Oli Shae needs moved out , ditto Barry McGuire. Id like to see Bair and Moses play up front next year. However if he secures Vale again I think Bair and Vale will be our front pairing. I sincerely hope we dont try and sign KVV if we lose Vale. I think Kettlewell has a big job ahead but frankly I wouldn't be looking to replace him. He deserves a chance to improve things but if we have another season like this and totally ineffective in the cups Id make the next season his last.

Jack Vale has been released by Blackburn.

I suspect Seddon, Paton and Casey have been offered deals of the ones OOC. My issue is if those 3 sign on that's 21 under contract if you include Mcghee. Currently leaving Andrews, Kaleta, Armstrong , Balcombe, Taveres, Watt, Plange, Dickson, Mair, Vale - Returning to parent clubs. Only 1 I'd want back is Andrews. Callahan, Seddon, Casey, Davor, Ebieye, Thompson, Paton, Blaney Of OOC I'd only keep Seddon.

You said you were 'baffled' that Kettlewell doesn't see what the fans see. He's paid to see far beyond the basics of what we observe. We see Vale play for 90 minutes. We don't see him in training every day. Kettlewell has to focus on tactical adjustments, adaptability, and overall team dynamics. It could very well be the case that having Vale play up top alongside Bair affects the qualities that Bair brings to the team. It could see him less able to play his preferred game. It could also affect the performance of the midfield having two players so far forward, instead of one playing slightly behind and offering an outlet to our attacking midfielders? It could be the case that the management team have seen reasons to play Vale slightly behind Bair because it will affect how the opposition defence then goes on to try to deal with them during the game, pulling their defenders out of position and depending on those defenders qualities, maybe that allows Bair more space to get in behind? Now, I don't know if any of that is true, but it could all be a factor in his decision. I would wager that it's nowhere near as simple as we like to think, and I'd wager that whatever we see from the stands, Kettlewell and his team see that and much more.

That’s a very short clip of the incident which doesn’t give a true account of it and is from a view the the referee couldn’t see. Watch the full incident and most folk will have a more balanced view of it. Vale’s straight leg and studs showing is due to him clearing the ball not attacking the Aberdeen player who runs into Vale and could have seriously injured him - look at the way Vale spins when they collide. As I’ve said before, no intent, no malice no red card. It’s a collision nothing more.

With Vale that has been my main gripe for weeks. He is a striker so why are we playing him in deeper role? Bair is isolated on his own. I also agree that guaranteed he starts Nicholson but I would hope he started in place of Spittal and we bring Moses in for Vale. Or bring Shaw in for Vale......cueeeeeeeee......ba.......boom....🤣🤣🤣

Of our 10 loanees only maybe 5 have been in any way useful. Taveres, Dickson, Plange - been completely pointless signings Vale - Was good last season but been injured majority of the season Mair and Balcombe - served a purpose as Ox and then Mair got injured. Watt, Armstrong, Andrews, Kaleta - all had a couple of decent performances but not been consistent.

In general, I agree with you. However would insurance not cover at least some of the wage costs of injured players? As for loan players, who pays their wages if they return to their parent club eg Vale & now Kaleta.

i've not been his biggest fan but Halliday is getting picked just now because he is playing well. The one that needs binned is Robinson with Vale, Ebiye and Tavares starting on Friday. With Davor missing out. Allowing Miller to play in his best position. All three of those substitutes were the reason we nearly grabbed a point yesterday. Vale driving forward made a huge difference. But I fear Kettlewell will again start Robinson despite him being terrible anywhere near goal. Might be a confidence thing but we cannot wait forever on him finding the net.