2025/26 Ins & Outs Discussion

[purestate]

1 minute ago, MelvinBragg said:

It's often been a case of scrambling around in January looking for players to dig us out of a hole so this kind of relaxed window with a 'if nothing happens we'll be fine" probably feels odd as a Motherwell fan...

Indeed and just need to look at Ross County deals to see what we’re “missing”

[Richie]

Welsh confirmed 

[purestate]

1 minute ago, bobbybingo said:

I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to play, if the manager wants him to. It's just like he's been out injured for a couple of weeks.

Happy if he is available, I’m not sure how the signings work in practice- does Welsh need to be about waiting to sign a document?  ie not in bed dreaming of how to beat Dundee 😀 

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, davkel said:

Have a feeling Welsh might be on way back 👍👍👍

You were spot on. I tip my baseball cap to you sir. 

[grizzlyg]

Excellent,  welcome bsck Stephen

[Larkhall Dosser]

8 minutes ago, Richie said:

Welsh confirmed 

Great news.. 

[GrahamH]

20 minutes ago, purestate said:

Only misstep we’ve made this window. 
if/when SW returns it’s ridiculous that it’s not sorted much earlier in day to concentrate on game tomorrow and not this circus. 

The game’s on Wednesday.

[purestate]

1 minute ago, GrahamH said:

The game’s on Wednesday.

This is true.  I’m a numpty 🤦‍♂️ 

[weeyin]

25 minutes ago, purestate said:

Only misstep we’ve made this window. 
if/when SW returns it’s ridiculous that it’s not sorted much earlier in day to concentrate on game tomorrow and not this circus. 

The team will be 100% focused. It's the fans and the media that get caught up in the feeding frenzy.

[Kmcalpin]

Overall, I'd say its been a decent to good window; probably rating around an 8 out of 10. It could have been much worse, for example if we'd failed to secure another striker, lost a centre back and lost TJ.  It could have been slightly better if we'd signed another LB. To add to the mix we have McGhee and Nicholson back now.

I always believe that the time to strengthen is when things are going well and if we want to hold onto 4th or even drop to 5th place then more of the same simply won't do. To clarify, I mean the personnel not the system which will continue to work well.  Ostensibly both Aberdeen and Hibs have strengthened and even if only some of their new recruits hit the ground running then they'll threaten us. Fortunately we have a decent cushion over both.  We mustn't ignore Falkirk either as they are a credible threat and may have strengthened slightly.  

If we fall to 6th I'd still be delighted. If we drop to 5th place I'll still be over the moon and if we can hang onto 4th place I'll be ecstatic. Finishing in the top 3 whilst theoretically possible is pretty much beyond us. A Scottish cup run? Not so sure this time round.  I really think we can achieve something next season though, with or without JBA.   

[thewelllfan]

29 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Overall, I'd say its been a decent to good window; probably rating around an 8 out of 10. It could have been much worse, for example if we'd failed to secure another striker, lost a centre back and lost TJ.  It could have been slightly better if we'd signed another LB. To add to the mix we have McGhee and Nicholson back now.

 

I suppose you could look at it as we brought in Bjorgolfsson who strengthens our existing attack, Nicholson coming back creates competition for Just who has been our best player so far. He's also in the sort of 10 mould I felt we lacked at the start of the window in that he can score from range so another potential threat for opposing teams to think about. Mcghee is an upgrade on Balmer and has had time to settle in. We could definitely done with another LB but we're stronger than when we started.

Squad for the season now looks like

GK - Ward, Connelly, Oxborough

RB - JK, Sparrow, SOD

CB - McGinn, Welsh, Mcghee, Gordon

LB - Longelo

CM - Watt, Fadinger, Preistman, Halliday

RW - Maswanhise, Just

AM - Slattery, Nicholson

Lw - Said, RCC

St - Bjorgolffson, Hendry, Stama. Robinson

25 senior players with Ross, Mcallister, Mccolm etc on the fringes probably the strongest squad we've had since the 2011/12 squad so hopefully this 1 delivers a trophy.

 

[Andy H]

I'm surprised we have not moved AP on

[thewelllfan]

1 minute ago, Andy H said:

I'm surprised we have not moved AP on

i suspect we're hoping he hits form and we can recoup what we sold him for the fact we turned down 800k for him in the summer baffled me doubt we'll get anywhere near that come the summer

[fizoxy]

The 800k bid for AP in the summer was as much made up paper talk as all the JT stuff this month. Completely unsubstantiated but some folk are taking it as gospel for some reason.

 

 

[texanwellfan]

2 hours ago, thewelllfan said:

I suppose you could look at it as we brought in Bjorgolfsson who strengthens our existing attack, Nicholson coming back creates competition for Just who has been our best player so far. He's also in the sort of 10 mould I felt we lacked at the start of the window in that he can score from range so another potential threat for opposing teams to think about. Mcghee is an upgrade on Balmer and has had time to settle in. We could definitely done with another LB but we're stronger than when we started.

Squad for the season now looks like

GK - Ward, Connelly, Oxborough

RB - JK, Sparrow, SOD

CB - McGinn, Welsh, Mcghee, Gordon

LB - Longelo

CM - Watt, Fadinger, Preistman, Halliday

RW - Maswanhise, Just

AM - Slattery, Nicholson

Lw - Said, RCC

St - Bjorgolffson, Hendry, Stama. Robinson

25 senior players with Ross, Mcallister, Mccolm etc on the fringes probably the strongest squad we've had since the 2011/12 squad so hopefully this 1 delivers a trophy.

 

Might be time for a wee flutter. 
£5 Motherwell to win the league (125/1)

£5 Motherwell to win the cup (16/1)

£5 Motherwell to win the league and the cup. 

I can honestly say we are the best team I have seen in the league this year, so why not! 

[Yabba's Turd]

24 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

I can honestly say we are the best team I have seen in the league this year, so why not! 

The establishment will never let a wee team win the league

[Welly Machine]

Have to be fairly pleased how the window has worked out for us.

Glad to have Welsh back. Would have been, or probably was, very difficult to find an other option that would fit in as well. Hope the fact he is cup tied doesn't harm us too much.

[Wee Alpha]

Can you picture the reception that Welsh will get when he walks into the dressing room.

You can't buy that togetherness. 

[joewarkfanclub]

Slightly underwhelmed with the window.

Obviously delighted we didnt lose any players. But the club were in a real position of strength on that one, with money in the bank and long term contracts all around. 

Signing a striker is good, and although getting Welsh back is to be welcomed, he is still cup tied and cant play against Celtic, so tinged with frustration.

Not signing a left back is disappointing, unless we couldnt get who we wanted or there is maybe a deal still to be announced this morning.

Overall, we are stronger coming out of the window than when we went in, with Nicholson and McGhee coming back.

Hopefully Watt and RCC not too far behind them.

We also managed to get Stuparevic out the door, so Robinson is really the only unanswered question.

I think we are in decent shape, but we will have to see how the business our peer clubs have done pans out before we can assess our expectations for the rest of the season.

C+

[Kmcalpin]

27 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Slightly underwhelmed with the window...I think we are in decent shape, but we will have to see how the business our peer clubs have done pans out before we can assess our expectations for the rest of the season.

C+

Not a million miles away from my view Joe. 

In short we have to keep ahead, if only slightly, of our peer clubs. Its not just what we do or don't do, its what they do too. Performance and results wise we've done really well this season, and I didn't expect, at the outset, that to happen this quickly or at all to be frank. However we can't rest on our laurels.

We have got a little cash in the war chest and whilst we can't afford to squander that or eat into other budgets, hopefully it'll help to boost summer recruitment. 

[wellup83]

1 hour ago, Wee Alpha said:

Can you picture the reception that Welsh will get when he walks into the dressing room.

You can't buy that togetherness. 

And from the stands