2024/25 Ins & Outs Discussion

[maz]

14 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Lamie and Mugabi were both inconsistent but in their spells of good form I think they've both shown more than Blaney has up to now.

Not for me but each to their own. Always felt anxious watching that pair I've never really had that with Blaney, he has always seemed generally consistent. Whereas we can rhyme off the Lamie and Mugabi horror shows. 

[Yoshi-1991]

Will need to move home games to Wishy general at this rate.

[David]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Lamie and Mugabi were both inconsistent but in their spells of good form I think they've both shown more than Blaney has up to now.

I personally think Blaney is more consistent than Lamie, and certainly than Mugabi. Sure, both of those guys were known to turn in a 8/9 out of 10 on occasion, but they dropped more 5/6 out of 10 than Blaney does. I'd rank Blaney as a 7/10 on most occasions, which I prefer.

[grizzlyg]

Never had an issue with Blaney, seen a lot worse centre halves than him.

[steelboy]

3 hours ago, David said:

I personally think Blaney is more consistent than Lamie, and certainly than Mugabi. Sure, both of those guys were known to turn in a 8/9 out of 10 on occasion, but they dropped more 5/6 out of 10 than Blaney does. I'd rank Blaney as a 7/10 on most occasions, which I prefer.

Blaney avoids defending. That's why he rarely makes errors. Constantly backing off. 

[Big Wispy Flossy]

The defenders are what they are - a bit meh. Our focus should be on a couple of pacy wingbacks and two attacking midfielders that can create chances. Suspect I’m going to be disappointed come the end of the transfer window 

[Cameron_Mcd]

Blaney is a bomb scare that loses his man non stop and can't pass a football to a teammate to save his life but that's what you get when you sign a guy because he scored a goal against you once 🤷‍♂️.

[Kmcalpin]

5 hours ago, David said:

I personally think Blaney is more consistent than Lamie, and certainly than Mugabi. Sure, both of those guys were known to turn in a 8/9 out of 10 on occasion, but they dropped more 5/6 out of 10 than Blaney does. I'd rank Blaney as a 7/10 on most occasions, which I prefer.

I agree that Blaney is more consistent than Lamie and Mugabi, but I'd put his level at about 5 or 6 /10.  On the basis of the games that I've seen this season, he put in poor performances against Montrose, Partick and Ross County. Although I've seen little of Balmer, I'd say that Blaney is the weakest of our central defenders. Its debatable, in my book, if he's good enough even for back up at this level. No doubt an honest pro though and he's probably doing his best.

[pretzel]

Blaney is out for four to six weeks and Callachan will also be missing for a while due to a hamstring injury.

[Kmcalpin]

If Shane Blaney is thought to be out for 4-6 weeks then with our luck, that probably means 8-10 weeks. 

[Kat]

16 hours ago, David said:

I personally think Blaney is more consistent than Lamie, and certainly than Mugabi. Sure, both of those guys were known to turn in a 8/9 out of 10 on occasion, but they dropped more 5/6 out of 10 than Blaney does. I'd rank Blaney as a 7/10 on most occasions, which I prefer.

I would agree with that, I have no issues with Blaney as he has always seemed a decent enough defender.

Lamie enjoyed that wee purple patch which I think papers over some of his horror shows. At times Mugabi would look excellent after a run of games dominating in the air and so forth but he always had that massive error in his locker which we paid for numerous times.

The injuries are actually depressing, we won't see Slattery and Paton until Christmas (if we're lucky).

In recent times we have lost the likes of Carroll, Hartley, Fox, and Tanner to horrible injuries in training. With Hammell as manager, you can accept the likes of Aarons and Moult given their respective histories but Mandron lasted a couple of games before he was out for months. I didn't think we could top last season with injuries.

[MJC]

“Speedy recovery” is fast becoming the most common post from our media team. Our injury record is nothing short of ridiculous. 

[Lobey_Dosser]

As someone that has been a big supporter of Kettlewell, my patience is starting to wear a little thin over our summer recruitment. With the repeated narrative that we have the 10/11th lowest budget and that there is no room to carry passengers, it baffles me that we have signed two injury prone players, Nicholson and Callachan, in an area of the park that we needed reliable reinforcements.

Not only that, we appear to have signed a number of players from outwith Scotland that despite being here for most of pre-season are still not to the level required to contribute. Of course, some of these players may come good in time, like Gent last year, but having lost Kelly, Gent, Spittal and Bair surely we had to be signing one or two more that had the profile and credentials of a Liam Gordon to hit the ground running. 

All parties deserve great credit for the Bair project but we are now going to have to needlessly spend a fair proportion of that income to get us back on an even keel. 

[grizzlyg]

The Callachan situation really is incredible,  were obvious injury concerns but hey have a one year contract.  Makes bench on Saturday and SK gives him 25 mins and suddenly out with hamstring injury.

But I am sure he's a nice guy so will no doubt get a coaching role at end of season.    End of rant 🤪🤪

[mfc]

We're getting our fingers burnt too often now taking chances on players with sketchy injury records,I get there going to be easy enough to sign and fit well within our budget but we're now going to have to shell out again to find replacements.i get players can get injured at anytime but we really have to stay away from bringing guys in that struggle with injuries.we badly need a couple of signings that can come straight into the team and make a difference.

[Busta Nut]

One of my mates said "if Blaney was right footed he'd be at a Championship team" and I agree with this weird left footed people HAVE to be in at LCB thing that's happened recently.

[wellfan]

2 hours ago, Lobey_Dosser said:

As someone that has been a big supporter of Kettlewell, my patience is starting to wear a little thin over our summer recruitment. With the repeated narrative that we have the 10/11th lowest budget and that there is no room to carry passengers, it baffles me that we have signed two injury prone players, Nicholson and Callachan, in an area of the park that we needed reliable reinforcements.

Not only that, we appear to have signed a number of players from outwith Scotland that despite being here for most of pre-season are still not to the level required to contribute. Of course, some of these players may come good in time, like Gent last year, but having lost Kelly, Gent, Spittal and Bair surely we had to be signing one or two more that had the profile and credentials of a Liam Gordon to hit the ground running. 

All parties deserve great credit for the Bair project but we are now going to have to needlessly spend a fair proportion of that income to get us back on an even keel. 

Buy cheap, buy twice, seems to be the Kettlewell way. It’s getting ridiculous now. 

[stv]

3 hours ago, wellfan said:

Buy cheap, buy twice, seems to be the Kettlewell way. It’s getting ridiculous now. 

Buy cheap get a full medical room before the season has really started you mean. 

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, stv said:

Buy cheap get a full medical room before the season has really started you mean. 

@Lobey_Dosser pretty much nailed the situation above, so I'll try not to repeat it. Kettlewell can't preach poverty at the same time as having to hurriedly expand the squad beyond what was budgeted for in order to address the massive and partly avoidable injury list. He either starts to learn from his mistakes and spend wisely in terms of transfers or he should not get a fourth transfer window. However, this is always with the caveat that some injuries are just pure bad luck, but not all seem to be this time. Some of them appear to be down to taking a risk on older players with an injury history in key positions, again! Furthermore, him preaching the benefit of getting business done early to allow a settled squad to go to the summer camp and be blooded during the League Cup seems to have actually been of no benefit, as echoed above. Time will tell on some of the signings, but it's generally been a poor and predictable window, and it's not in the least bit surprising. I expect some rabbits to be pulled out of the hat in the coming weeks, which will unfortunately eat into the Bair money and increase the wage bill in the long run, but it has to be done. 

[mfc]

15 minutes ago, wellfan said:

@Lobey_Dosser pretty much nailed the situation above, so I'll try not to repeat it. Kettlewell can't preach poverty at the same time as having to hurriedly expand the squad beyond what was budgeted for in order to address the massive and partly avoidable injury list. He either starts to learn from his mistakes and spend wisely in terms of transfers or he should not get a fourth transfer window. However, this is always with the caveat that some injuries are just pure bad luck, but not all seem to be this time. Some of them appear to be down to taking a risk on older players with an injury history in key positions, again! Furthermore, him preaching the benefit of getting business done early to allow a settled squad to go to the summer camp and be blooded during the League Cup seems to have actually been of no benefit, as echoed above. Time will tell on some of the signings, but it's generally been a poor and predictable window, and it's not in the least bit surprising. I expect some rabbits to be pulled out of the hat in the coming weeks, which will unfortunately eat into the Bair money and increase the wage bill in the long run, but it has to be done. 

I'm always wary when we seem to get a lot of our business done early,it doesn't suggest we have beaten off other teams for signings but rather ending up with a lot of dross that nobody else wants,someone like callaghan is a prime example,his injury record aside he's just not very good,players like him are ten a penny for the level we play at.keeping the likes of odonnell and halliday set the tone,we badly needed a bit of pace and mobility but yet we have these two operating in key positions and offer nothing.its astonishing that we have spent a more than decent amount on the guy from oz but yet we look like a side that will struggle to create due to the limitations at wing back and no creative attacking midfielder.

[TheoBair14]

We should put a offer in for Campbell and he might consider coming to the well 

Worth a try 

considering Aberdeen and Hibs have put in offer 

[well_said]

15 minutes ago, TheoBair14 said:

We should put a offer in for Campbell and he might consider coming to the well 

Worth a try 

considering Aberdeen and Hibs have put in offer 

Where has this been reported?

[Cameron_Mcd]

7 minutes ago, well_said said:

Where has this been reported?

https://x.com/footyinsider247/status/1821498019478450355?t=wDHZj5YmctyXGIKW7HtQFw&s=19

Scott Burns from the Record saying he doesn't want a return to Scotland 

[ropy]

A year at Fir Park to get back up and running would be ideal for him.

(And us.)

[TheoBair14]

2 hours ago, well_said said:

Where has this been reported?

https://t.co/2kqWZ7hj5F