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Having read a bit about Robinson myself it seems he jumped ship when the going got tough. Is this the type of character we need?
IMO one big black mark against Robinson,he signed Curtis Main so he obviously thinks Main is a footballer also the references on the Motherwell fans forum about his poor recruitment.
Quote from: wabtec on May 12, 2021, 09:31:11 amIMO one big black mark against Robinson,he signed Curtis Main so he obviously thinks Main is a footballer also the references on the Motherwell fans forum about his poor recruitment.In his market was he the best he could get? He hints at that in an interview I read last night. Worth noting Main was sold on by them.It's like Alfie may. He wasn't good enough for us but has been great for Cheltenham. It's all relative.
The worry with a leftfield candidate is that the level of rebuild we need here and the lack of experience they'll have of the transfer market and building a squad.I'd be all for getting a talented coach without too much experience if it was just a case of tweaking the squad and injecting some new ideas/better coaching. Unfortunately we need a full rebuild and we won't be throwing loads of money at it (not a dig) so having experience of building a squad with limited resources is probably top of the priority list for me.
Hi, Motherwell fan here. I’ve been following this thread since I noticed Robinson was in the running for the job and thought I’d chip in since you seem to be talking about him at the moment (sorry for the length of the post but it might clear up some stuff you're chatting about).The headlines of note with Robinson are he took us to two cup finals, brought in £6m+ in transfer revenue, cleared our external debt to previous owners, developed Academy players like Jake Hastie, James Scott, David Turnbull and to a lesser extent Allan Campbell, finished 3rd and qualified for Europe. We had the 3rd best points total for the calendar year 2019 behind Celtic and Rangers, playing an attacking 433. If that sort of thing impresses you.Overall he did a (very) good job here. He was parachuted in and kept us up. Gutted and rebuilt the squad, massively reduced the average age of the squad, took us to two cup finals, rebuilt the squad again, then did so again and finished 3rd and qualified for Europe.We'd see dips in form but they were often mitigated by injuries to key players that we weren't able to replace from the back ups we had.This season was slightly different it felt like a guy whose shelf life was up and he’s since said he realises that the ideal time to leave would have been last summer when he was interviewed for the Northern Ireland job (and it transpires also applied for the Bournemouth role). I’d say there’s definitely a recency bias at play in some comments from Steelmen Online or Pie and Bovril (some folk just didn’t take to him from the minute he got the job so there’s that to take into account too).This season saw him hit by a ton of injuries to key players (our injury list has been into double figures this season at points), we also had weird stuff like being awarded points by forfeit due to Covid postponements then having the points taken back off us. There are also a number of players who should be looking at themselves in the mirror because a fair number of them let Robinson down badly.Honestly, I don't blame him for chucking it when he did. He seemed absolutely knackered. I don't know for certain but I've a feeling the restrictions around Covid made it difficult to coach as he would normally.He’s by no means a perfect manager, if he was he wouldn’t have been managing Motherwell but he’s an experienced coach. He was involved with the NI youth set up and worked alongside Michael O'Neill at the Euros and generally he’s a pretty pragmatic manager. Basically, he’ll work with what he has. The criticisms of his style are kind of overplayed. As I mentioned he pretty much built 3 “versions” of a Motherwell side in his time here. The first (which reached 2 Cup Finals) was a 352 that was physical and direct and made no apologies for being so. It was also a lot of fun to watch, who wouldn’t enjoy watching their team bully both Rangers and Aberdeen out of Hampden in two national cup semi-finals.Unfortunately that side was found out pretty quickly and struggled the next season. Robinson admits himself that by the time our winter break came around we were pretty much unwatchable and needed to change. I’d say this is kind of where the “he doesn’t have a Plan B” comes into play. His time at Motherwell saw him find something that worked then just stick with it until it didn’t then just blow it up and start again.Which is what he did with the 352. He scrapped it completely and changed to an attacking 433 with David Turnbull and Allan Campbell pulling the strings in midfield and two quick, direct wingers in Jake Hastie and Gboly Ariyibi. Any Motherwell fan who says that wasn’t a good team to watch is, quite frankly, lying. We were loads of fun, quick wingers and the best young midfielders in the league running the show.Such is the way at Motherwell that side had to be rebuilt again after Hastie moved to Rangers and Turnbull was ruled out for a season after his move to Celtic collapsed due to an issue picked up in a medical and a raft of players moved on. This time he stuck with the 433 we brought in Declan Gallagher (who subsequently became a Scotland international on Robinson’s watch) and oversaw another rebuild and that’s the team that finished 3rd.In a way Motherwell was a perfect job for Robinson at the stage of his career that he was at.He was coming off the back of a basket-case like Oldham and had a point to prove, he knew the club, the league and the majority of the players because he’d been our assistant the seasons before. He also had the backing of the board and providing he kept us up when he was parachuted in he had a complete blank canvas to work with and the freedom to do so without any interference from the the board or GM.Which is why I’d be hesitant in saying he'd be a good/bad fit for Doncaster. It could probably go either way. Next season will be our 37th consecutive in the top flight of Scottish football (pub league, all your nans could score etc) but our expectations are probably very different to Doncaster who I'd assume are aiming for promotion.In terms of signings when they were good they were very good Trevor Carson (ended up NI keeper), Cedric Kipre (sold to Wigan for £1m), Liam Donnelly (became a full NI international), Declan Gallagher (became a Scotland international)...most of the other signings were fine although I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a fair amount of dross came through the door as well.One of his blind spots has been not getting enough goals out his strikers, he's keen on them being facilitators more than anything. A lot of our goals were spread around the team rather than coming from our centre forwards when we played with a 433.We're currently at the top end of the form table since Graham Alexander took over in January and he's done that for the most part with the squad he inherited from Robinson so that should probably give you an idea that his signings weren't quite as bad as a lot of people would like to make out (Alexander also has Devante Cole on 10 goals in 19 games so make of that what you will).All the best for next season whoever your manager is. Also, there's a pretty extensive interview with Robinson here if you want to give it a listen:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-IOIWrzI0
The club has a difficult choice I think, we have two good candidates and I suppose the mystery candidate must also be of a similar calibre.
Quote from: River Don on May 12, 2021, 01:10:43 pmThe club has a difficult choice I think, we have two good candidates and I suppose the mystery candidate must also be of a similar calibre.2 good candidates..... does that mean they will be off after one season.
Quote from: Alan Southstand on May 11, 2021, 06:36:05 pmI would think a ‘left field’ appointment is the last thing we need, considering what we’ve witnessed over the last few months! He may well have impressed everyone during his interview, but it’s hardly going to be something that the players can identify with.And, we have to attract some serious quality to the Club if we’re to have any chance of competing at all next season!What absolute nonsense Alan.Without any knowledge whatsoever you've managed to pull out a negative!
John Eustace the third man?
You can if you think you’re god-like.
Despite Robinson its hard to see the new manager being anyone else other than Wellens.Ohhh Richie richie...
Quote from: Dare to dream! on May 12, 2021, 10:10:24 amDespite Robinson its hard to see the new manager being anyone else other than Wellens.Ohhh Richie richie...Why though? It'd be good to understand why people think he'll be the right man