2026/27 Ins & Outs Discussion

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

Aye spiderpig .  I hope you're pleased with yourself 🤣🤣

Delighted mate, should have been done a lot sooner though.

[well_said]

5 hours ago, weeyin said:

Didn't work out in the end, but better than our Alex Fisher/Jordan White/Jacob Blyth tier of non-scoring strikers.

Not that much better.

[weeyin]

4 hours ago, well_said said:

Not that much better.

Miles better.

I don't mind that we took a punt on AP. We need to keep looking in different markets for players. Sometimes you get a Priestman sometimes you get an AP. Just and Watt were punts that worked, and we have taken a few more this season that look like they might work out.

In fact our hit rate has been pretty high recently, so statistically we're due for a couple of absolute Casagoldas. Although I see he did hit 51 goals in 87 appearances for his last club, Crossing Schaerbeek, on Belgium. So he did find his level in the lower leagues there.

 

[SteelmaninOZ]

Stama Good luck to wherever you end up

At least the media commentators will be happy they no longer try to pronounce your name.

👋

[well_said]

2 hours ago, weeyin said:

Miles better.

I don't mind that we took a punt on AP. We need to keep looking in different markets for players. Sometimes you get a Priestman sometimes you get an AP. Just and Watt were punts that worked, and we have taken a few more this season that look like they might work out.

In fact our hit rate has been pretty high recently, so statistically we're due for a couple of absolute Casagoldas. Although I see he did hit 51 goals in 87 appearances for his last club, Crossing Schaerbeek, on Belgium. So he did find his level in the lower leagues there.

 

A quarter of a million pounds  is not a punt, Theo Bair was a punt.

 

 

[grizzlyg]

1 hour ago, well_said said:

A quarter of a million pounds  is not a punt, Theo Bair was a punt.

 

 

I remember the £350,000 punt on Shaun McSkimming and £200,000 punt on John Hendry.......cheers big Eck

[Jonesy]

A shame it didn't work out but he never really seemed settled.

Still a better option than 2 of the 3 strikers he's left behind.

[joewarkfanclub]

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos will continue to divide debate within the Motherwell Support for evermore.

There were those who had him pegged as a donkey early doors and that is a hill they will die on.

There are those who will forever believe there was a player in there and "circumstances" were all that prevented him from showing his best.

As always, the truth is probably somewhere in between.

He has however now moved on. And so should we. 

That Callum Hendry is a dud. Lets get him out the door.......😉😉😉

 

[dennyc]

3 hours ago, well_said said:

A quarter of a million pounds  is not a punt, Theo Bair was a punt.

 

 

He scored 17 goals in 26 games for Newcastle Jets the season we signed him and had just broken into the Australian team. A team that would prove good enough to reach the World Cup via Asian qualifying. That’s not easy. 
When we signed him nobody on here thought it was a poor signing or that £250k was excessive. In truth folk got excited. 
For whatever reason it did not work out despite early promise. I remember a goal at Ibrox and a cracking strike at Easter Road. Whether it was family reasons, style of football, injury,  homesickness, attitude or Managerial choice we will never know but it was certainly a signing everybody thought was refreshing and showed ambition. .

His biggest critics appear to have forgotten that, or chosen not to accurately remember.

But it did not work out and better for him to move on. I agree it could have happened earlier. I wish him well and would not be surprised if he is a success wherever he ends up.

[dennyc]

2 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

I remember the £350,000 punt on Shaun McSkimming and £200,000 punt on John Hendry.......cheers big Eck

Other than the transfer fee I raise you Omar Daly signed by his pal Stuart McCall. Biggest waste of space I think I have witnessed at Motherwell. Wonder how much he cost us in wages for no return. And again we were excited when he signed. Jamaican international and a flying machine. Apparently. 
The point is we sign players every season that don’t work out. Some cost us decent money by way of a transfer fee. Others in wages. Anybody remember Bob Malcolm? Connor Shields?  ( currently in Cambodia). List is endless. 

[Mad Dog]

4 hours ago, well_said said:

A quarter of a million pounds  is not a punt, Theo Bair was a punt.

 

 

Our business model now means that spending chunks of money is taking a punt. In Kettlewell's time and before we were looking for freebies.

[mio]

3 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

I remember the £350,000 punt on Shaun McSkimming and £200,000 punt on John Hendry.......cheers big Eck

John Hendry was probably our worst ever forward signing. Utterly appalling buy. His career was pretty incredible mind you, Dundee, where he failed to break into the first team, Forfar on loan where he scored a couple of goals and then Spurs?? wtf!! Where he played a couple of games and scored 2 against Arsenal in a league cup game. He really should have retired at that point.

big Shaun wasn’t the worst although not worth a penny of that huge fee we gave to Killie. He scored a rasper against the artist formerly known as Rangers so he does hold a special place in my heart.

for what it’s worth I felt AP was a good player, he just struck me as someone who wanted to give Europe a try, he arrived and was chronically homesick and wanted to go back. I think we did get an offer from a Scandinavian side but he point blank refused to go as he wanted home. Ultimately a bad signing due to the money we paid but a decent player… you don’t get caps for Australia at that time if you weren’t decent. 

[Yabba's Turd]

It's funny how we trust every other national team selector but our own when it comes to being capped because Vogts was handed a hard shift from Craig Brown and just threw everything at the wall in terms of team selection to see who would stick, it doesn't just apply to Scotland. Would describe the whole thing as a promising failure, good/bad/mid, he's gone.

[weeyin]

To be fair, I'd trust every national team selector above Scotland's.

[grizzlyg]

2 hours ago, mio said:

John Hendry was probably our worst ever forward signing. Utterly appalling buy. His career was pretty incredible mind you, Dundee, where he failed to break into the first team, Forfar on loan where he scored a couple of goals and then Spurs?? wtf!! Where he played a couple of games and scored 2 against Arsenal in a league cup game. He really should have retired at that point.

big Shaun wasn’t the worst although not worth a penny of that huge fee we gave to Killie. He scored a rasper against the artist formerly known as Rangers so he does hold a special place in my heart.

for what it’s worth I felt AP was a good player, he just struck me as someone who wanted to give Europe a try, he arrived and was chronically homesick and wanted to go back. I think we did get an offer from a Scandinavian side but he point blank refused to go as he wanted home. Ultimately a bad signing due to the money we paid but a decent player… you don’t get caps for Australia at that time if you weren’t decent. 

Ye big Shaun was unfortunate as he was signed as Uncle Phil's replacement plus he didn't decide the fee.  Not the worst......definitely better than Davie Shanks! ( one for 1980's fans)

[mio]

The players available to us under Bertie(apart from a few exceptions … faddy, Fletcher, Ferguson… possible 1 or 2 more) was dreadful. The worst in all my time watching Scotland. When you see lists of the players called up, you had no idea what team they were playing with. Bertie was given a sh1t hand. The standard of player I think got generally better by the time Clarke took over, regular premiership players, decent standard. Unfortunately the football Clarke chose to play was eye bleeding. 
I’m genuinely quite excited to see how this new manager will do, if he can mix the good ones we have already with a lot of the newer ones coming through. Lennon Miller hopefully included.

 

 

[weeyin]

13 hours ago, well_said said:

A quarter of a million pounds  is not a punt, Theo Bair was a punt.

 

 

A punt is just slang for a speculative investment that we hoped would make us money, but you knew that. 

The guy had just scored 17 goals in 25 games before he joined us, so it was a calculated risk if you want to split hairs on terminology. 

Eli Just was deemed no use to his parent club and pushed out to 2nd tier Austrian League loan obscurity. 

That was also a punt, but that one worked out.