2024/25 Ins & Outs Discussion

[wunderwell]

It's quite interesting when you find out one of the players who we are looking to sign in January.
It's definitely more frustrating to try and give clues when being sworn to secrecy!
I will say that I think we will be happy with this signing when the contract is signed.

[wellfan]

21 minutes ago, wunderwell said:

It's quite interesting when you find out one of the players who we are looking to sign in January.
It's definitely more frustrating to try and give clues when being sworn to secrecy!
I will say that I think we will be happy with this signing when the contract is signed.

Which position? 

[wunderwell]

6 hours ago, wellfan said:

Which position? 

Defensive Midfielder

[witchfindergeneral]

17 minutes ago, wunderwell said:

Defensive Midfielder

Alex Gorrin?

[wellup83]

Steve Jennings? 😁

[grizzlyg]

Penry.....the mild mannered janitor?

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, wunderwell said:

Defensive Midfielder

Great news.  We badly need a decent one.

.

[Kmcalpin]

Loan update. Dylan Wells scores for Edinburgh City today.

[prideoflanarkshire]

4 hours ago, wunderwell said:

Defensive Midfielder

Better than Ryan Jack?

[fizoxy]

5 hours ago, wunderwell said:

Defensive Midfielder

I like a puzzle. Are they currently unattached?

[Orinoco]

14 minutes ago, fizoxy said:

I like a puzzle. Are they currently unattached?

If they were, surely they would have been signed and in training with us.

Maybe wee Al Campbell wants to come back.

Probably some lad from abroad we have never heard of

 

[Orinoco]

Or a Carl Mchugh return? You know how we like ex players.

[steelman1991]

Calum Butcher??

[Kmcalpin]

Ally Mauchlen?

[dinnae-punt-it]

Hakeem Odoffin would be my guess as he’s out of contract in the summer. 

[Kmcalpin]

The January window is fast approaching and we will no doubt be fine tuning the squad. Quantity wise, we are fine, but maybe an opportunity to improve the quality? Given that, we'll probably need to ship one or two players out. Who would you move on to clear the decks a wee bit?

Johnny Koutroumbis, who appears to be out of favour;

Davor likewise;

Stuparevic;

Tavares send back to Easter Road?

 

[wellfan]

We do need to move a lot of the dead weight on to free up space to bring in 2-3 players with some quality. I also think there will be a few unjust and surprising contract extensions gifted as well.  

[Spiderpig]

21 hours ago, wunderwell said:

Defensive Midfielder

Is Rodri fed up at Man City given their current form, will he be fit to start in January?

[texanwellfan]

Change Tony’s loan to a signing

[AllyMax]

4 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

Change Tony’s loan to a signing

I would expect DU would be keen to get him off their wage bill. Question is, will Tony see sense and sign for us or revert to previous and end up in the Khazakstan Premier Leage on 10K a week ?

[thewelllfan]

Koutrombis, Callahan, Taveres would be the 3 I'd be getting rid of 1 of Robinson/Watt/Ebiye but Robinson out for the season I suspect he'll keep the other 2 as cover. 

We need a holding mid in January. If we keep Slattery and Nicholson fit I think we'll be fine for an attacking midfielder.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Lennon go in January as well so if he does we'll need to try replace him as best as we can.

Ox/Heygi

Mcginn/Balmer Gordon Casey/Blaney

Kaleta/SOD Miller/Davor/Halliday/Paton/Slattery/Nicholson/Sparrow/New Cm Wilson/Seddon

Watt/Stam/Maswanhise/Ebiye/Robinson

 

Unless he's planning to change shape I don't see us doing a lot of business. Probably end up 8/9th in the league.

[Stuwell2]

On 12/8/2024 at 1:33 PM, wellfan said:

We do need to move a lot of the dead weight on to free up space to bring in 2-3 players with some quality. I also think there will be a few unjust and surprising contract extensions gifted as well.  

I’m going to break this down into three parts 

dead weights, who exactly are you talking about and who can we move them onto?

2-3 players with some quality, do you - or anybody - think the club hasn’t been trying to improve the squad? Sadly over the last couple of seasons any players with some quantity who we could have potentially signed - or retained - all signed to other clubs who can offer better terms like Hearts/Dundee/Dundee Utd/StMirren/Hibs/Kilmarnock. 

Unjust/surprising/gifted contract extensions? Are you saying that the club and management are handing out money to existing players rather than getting in better players because of favouritism or just too lazy to try and find better players? 

 

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, Stuwell2 said:

I’m going to break this down into three parts 

dead weights, who exactly are you talking about and who can we move them onto?

2-3 players with some quality, do you - or anybody - think the club hasn’t been trying to improve the squad? Sadly over the last couple of seasons any players with some quantity who we could have potentially signed - or retained - all signed to other clubs who can offer better terms like Hearts/Dundee/Dundee Utd/StMirren/Hibs/Kilmarnock. 

Unjust/surprising/gifted contract extensions? Are you saying that the club and management are handing out money to existing players rather than getting in better players because of favouritism or just too lazy to try and find better players? 

 

1. Koutroumbis, Callachan, Blaney, Davor, Tavares, and Robinson (although now injured so we can’t try to move him on yet). It’s the managers job to wheel and deal both ins and outs when things need to be improved. Not my job. 

2. The club has obviously been trying yet often failing to appropriately recruit, which will have resulted in an overspend and bloated squad as the club has had to hurriedly replace the crocks and duds it continues to accumulate. The policy of signing quantity on the cheap and/or projects vs quality in the first instance has proven to be a false economy.

3. Yes, but not because of favouritism or laziness as you put it, but because it’s easier/safer (and stupider) for Kettlewell to extend the likes of Halliday than it is for him to engage his brain and come up with a better system as well as the players required to operate that system. Therefore, I fully expect the likes of Blaney and Halliday and Davor and Robinson etc to be offered new deals when the time comes.

Furthermore, perhaps it’s worth considering that our recruitment strategy might just be a bit shit and in need of a new approach. That being the reality would explain a lot of the above.  

[David]

18 minutes ago, wellfan said:

The club has obviously been trying yet often failing to appropriately recruit, which will have resulted in an overspend and bloated squad as the club has had to hurriedly replace the crocks and duds it continues to accumulate. The policy of signing quantity on the cheap and/or projects vs quality in the first instance has proved to be a false economy.

It's an approach and model that has us sitting in the top six, currently ahead of two major city clubs and a few others that can afford to outspend us on players.

As mentioned in the Kettlewell thread, if we maintain the pace we've set so far, we're likely on track to finish 5th or 6th.

[thewelllfan]

28 minutes ago, wellfan said:

1. Koutroumbis, Callachan, Blaney, Davor, Tavares, and Robinson (although now injured so we can’t try to move him on yet). It’s the managers job to wheel and deal both ins and outs when things need to be improved. Not my job. 

2. The club has obviously been trying yet often failing to appropriately recruit, which will have resulted in an overspend and bloated squad as the club has had to hurriedly replace the crocks and duds it continues to accumulate. The policy of signing quantity on the cheap and/or projects vs quality in the first instance has proved to be a false economy.

3. Yes, but not because of favouritism or laziness as you put it, but because it’s easier/safer (and stupider) for Kettlewell to extend the likes of Halliday than it is for him to engage his brain and come up with a better system as well as the players required to operate that system. Therefore, I fully expect the likes of Blaney and Halliday and Davor and Robinson etc to be offered new deals when the time comes.

Furthermore, perhaps it’s also worth considering that our recruitment strategy might just be a bit shit and in need of a new approach. That being the reality would explain the above.  

I'm not Kettlewell's biggest fan and don't understand multiple signings we made this summer,

Callaham, Taveres, Koutrombis, Stuparevic, Vale to name a few.

Our budget massivley limits what quality we can sign, I hardly think the manager and the recruitment team are trying to waste money.

On surprising contract extensions. Halliday has started near enough every game so will be given a deal. Davor I can see us letting go. Blaney also probably will be let go unless he performs to the the level he showed yesterday more often. Our recruitment strategy this summer was very different to that of previous. Guys like Koutrombis, Stam, Stuparevic are not your typical Motherwell signing in recent years. 

For what it's worth I think most of the window was decent. Seddon, Gordon, Watt, Kaleta, Balmer, Stam, Maswanhise all been good signings.

Robinson I rate but many in here don't so clearly splits opinion. As I said previously barring a change of shape I can only see 1/2 signings being made and 2/3 being moved on/loaned out. With Lennon probably being likely to move on as well.