2024/25 Ins & Outs Discussion

[StAndrew7]

10 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Good move for him, he was never really up to premiership standard, had a decent turn of pace but not much else.

I think he could pick a pass, too. He was decent as a high-10/shadow striker for KVV at points but like you say, never quite consistent enough for premiership standard. Also too small, really.

[MJC]

15 hours ago, steelboy said:

Why not just sign one decent player rather than Halliday, Callachan and Sparrow who will probably contribute heehaw?

Kettlewell's squad building is mental. He brought in seven short term wingbacks last season as well as extending SOD. 

Kettlewell’s management and recruitment actually mirrors the club itself. Cheap, unimaginable, tinpot, receding by the year and on a one way street to the lower leagues and part time football. It really is a matter of when and not if both of those scenarios happen.

[steelboy]

3 minutes ago, MJC said:

Kettlewell’s management and recruitment actually mirrors the club itself. Cheap, unimaginable, tinpot, receding by the year and on a one way street to the lower leagues and part time football. It really is a matter of when and not if both of those scenarios happen.

It might be cheap but it's also expensive.

We can't afford decent players but we can apparently afford players who aren't fit to play. We roughly know the playing budget and we know it's Kettlewell's choice to load up with sub standard quantity over trying to bring in some decent quality.

Spittal's form was inconsistent for us but he played almost every minute while he was here so from that point of view he was very good value. Compare that to guys like Obika and Soare who basically got paid to do nothing. That's the kind of signing we can't afford.

 

[MJC]

That's undoubtedly true and a huge irritant for me, that for a club that never stops bleating about being cash strapped and rattling the begging bowls we don't half sign some amount of dross, some of which we know from the outset are perma-crocked. When you think of the money we've spunked down the pan in the last year alone on the likes of Obika, Halliday, Souare, Shaw and giving SO'D an extension then it's frightening and infuriating.

But hey "c'mon Taylor Swift gees some money"

[MJC]

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

[witchfindergeneral]

6 minutes ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

2 more than Bair when he signed.. imagine how lethal ZR9 will be

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

Kettlewell’s management and recruitment actually mirrors the club itself. Cheap, unimaginable, tinpot, receding by the year and on a one way street to the lower leagues and part time football. It really is a matter of when and not if both of those scenarios happen.

Well we are a small fan owned club so what do you expected?  The only reason we've hung with the big boys so long is that we should have been relegated three times and got away with it due to the absolute shit show that is Scottish football.

Pretty much the whole of Scottish football is pure diddy stuff so we're always fighting against the tide just in terms of having sensible medium term goals and maintaining a standard of professionalism.

But hey, that's how it is and if it takes more out of you than it gives back, we're all allowed to walk away.

And honestly, I'd rather support Motherwell as is, than have some billionaire come in as use us at a play thing.

Motherwell might be a lot of things that aren't very inspiring but we are authentic.

[bobbybingo]

50 minutes ago, MJC said:

That's undoubtedly true and a huge irritant for me, that for a club that never stops bleating about being cash strapped and rattling the begging bowls we don't half sign some amount of dross, some of which we know from the outset are perma-crocked. When you think of the money we've spunked down the pan in the last year alone on the likes of Obika, Halliday, Souare, Shaw and giving SO'D an extension then it's frightening and infuriating.

But hey "c'mon Taylor Swift gees some money"

What's SOD got to do with the perma-crocked?

[Ya Bezzer!]

14 minutes ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

Mostly sub appearances and he was also playing wide rather than as a centre forward.

He scored 12 goals the previous season.

[MelvinBragg]

13 minutes ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

Or 6 in 25 if you include cup games. He's 21 and when in the Championship with Dundee scored more than one goal every three games. Not saying that he'll be good but you can pick your statistics to make a case either way...

[Benson]

16 minutes ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

What we really need to do is sign a striker that has a great scoring record that no one else is looking at and pay them a wage no one else can compare with,easy 

[weeyin]

19 minutes ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

2 more than Bair in the season before we signed him - and he played 27 games.

And 2 more than van Veen scored the season before we signed him.

[steelboy]

10 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Well we are a small fan owned club so what do you expected?  The only reason we've hung with the big boys so long is that we should have been relegated three times and got away with it due to the absolute shit show that is Scottish football.

Pretty much the whole of Scottish football is pure diddy stuff so we're always fighting against the tide just in terms of having sensible medium term goals and maintaining a standard of professionalism.

 

Caldwell came from Shrewsbury Town who are midtable League One in England and have a similar wage bill to us. Weir told us we are spending the best part of 60 grand a week on players wages so the manager has a budget where he should be able to sign a better standard of players than Kettlewell seems to be able to bring in. 

 

[David]

18 hours ago, steelboy said:

Why not just sign one decent player rather than Halliday, Callachan and Sparrow who will probably contribute heehaw?

Because that's not how the footballing world actually works. 

[weeyin]

26 minutes ago, steelboy said:

Caldwell came from Shrewsbury Town who are midtable League One in England and have a similar wage bill to us. Weir told us we are spending the best part of 60 grand a week on players wages so the manager has a budget where he should be able to sign a better standard of players than Kettlewell seems to be able to bring in. 

 

You say this every time, but have rarely (never) been able to give a single example of better players in our price range who want to play for us.

Also, there is no point in spending all our money on 1 player when we have 4 positions that need filled.

[robsterwood]

Welcome Zach! Hope he has every success. Some usual pessimistic comments on here. 🥱🥱🥱

[Richie]

For what it's worth, Dundee fans think we've made a good signing and can't understand why he didn't get more game time (and in his best position) under Docherty

[Mccus28]

14 minutes ago, Richie said:

For what it's worth, Dundee fans think we've made a good signing and can't understand why he didn't get more game time (and in his best position) under Docherty

It wont be worth much on here mate, the usual folk will be out with their pitchforks giving OUR OWN players pelters before they have even pulled on the training gear as thats how they like to live their life.

Makes you wonder why they even support Motherwell, its chronic behaviour

[steelboy]

44 minutes ago, weeyin said:

You say this every time, but have rarely (never) been able to give a single example of better players in our price range who want to play for us.

Also, there is no point in spending all our money on 1 player when we have 4 positions that need filled.

In the recent past we have signed Kelly, Gallagher, SOD, Spittal, Goss, KVV, Aldred, Hartley, Cole and others who fit the bill of having decent experience, in their prime years of 25-30 and not total crocks.

If you look at Kettlewell's permanent signings through three transfer windows none of them fit that bill. Everyone knows we need a player for the centre of the defence and a midfielder to play with Miller who have some quality and experience but he's obviously not got the managerial ability to get the players in.

12 months ago we had people saying Obika, Paton, Wilkinson and Soare would be good signings for us. He's doing exactly the same shite as last season again.

[grizzlyg]

Happy with signing, good luck Zach, please score within 20 mins of debut or you will be written off 🤣🤣

[Spiderpig]

7 minutes ago, steelboy said:

He's doing exactly the same shite as last season again.

Are you worried he's copying your approach then, he's far too sensible for that.

[steelboy]

Tbh I don't think Robinson is that bad a signing and if we start the season with Bair, the Serb, Moses and Robinson that looks decent and suggests that we are hopefully switching to two up top.

The problem is clearly central defence and centre mid where we seem to be spending money without getting what we need.

[David]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

You say this every time, but have rarely (never) been able to give a single example of better players in our price range who want to play for us.

The last point in this sentence is a huge factor in my opinion. We may have the money to spend, but two factors come into play in any given transfer window.

1. Are there players available on the open market who justify that increased expenditure on a single individual?

2. Do those players even want to come to Motherwell? For instance, instead of signing four players at the wage we usually offer for a single player, let's say we actually do consider combining those four salaries to buy one player. Just for arguments sake.

You'll often find that players commanding the equivalent of four players' wages at our level will attract interest from clubs higher up the hierarchy, who see that combined four-player salary as their standard, single-player salary. Consequently, they are likely to offer far more than we can.

In essence, it wouldn't work. It's a very simplistic way of looking at transfer dealings. It’s easy to plan with rough estimates, but the real world is usually far more complicated.

[steelman1991]

32 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Happy with signing, good luck Zach, please score within 20 mins of debut or you will be written off 🤣🤣

Too late it's already happened.

[stv]

2 hours ago, MJC said:

Zach Robinson signs. 
 

A forward who scored 3 goals in 21 appearances for Dundee last season. 

Refer to Bair /StJohnstone