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Post by irlamsheightlad on May 12, 2022 19:53:53 GMT
Consider this a graveyard shift post ( ie we are waiting for the retained /realeased list and possibly a new manager).
So, Congratulations to Graham Alexander, as Motherwell have qualified for Europe (Europa Conference League).
In another parallel universe where he was never sacked by Salford City this is my opinion on what would have happened.
2020 - 2021 season. We were fifth and unbeaten when he was sacked. We would have hovered between 6 and 4 for much of the season and a final push would have brought us to third and an automatic promotion to EF1.
Then the next season, 2021 - 2022....in EFL 1, we would have struggled first half of the season, middle of bottom but not quite relegation. I think the owners would have then sacked him, not on the basis that there was a real risk of relegation, but becuase the chance of a further promotion was disappearing that season and they had to act to try and get into the play offs.
Any one else have any opinions on whaty might have happened???
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Post by chipbarm on May 12, 2022 20:15:48 GMT
Fair play to him, but the Scottish league is a strange one where it splits in half after so many games and then each half only play each other. Up until a couple of weeks ago Motherwell had won one game in 2022. They've won a couple recently and are 4th, although bizarrely the team in 7th would be above them if the league hadn't split. 6 points separate 4th from 10th. Outside of the 2 big clubs it's a poor league.
Using your scenario I'd say we would have done OK until around Xmas 2020 when our form would have dipped, as it did in the previous 2 seasons before a late season revival. We'd have missed out on automatic promotion as we dropped points due to being over cautious in key games. We might just have squeezed into 6th or 7th but would have stayed in L2 at which point he'd have been sacked. Wellens probably wouldn't have joined us due to Swindon being relegated in 2021 but as for who would be managing us now who knows?
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Post by je85 on May 12, 2022 20:34:47 GMT
Alexander is a top coach in the making and deserves this at Motherwell. Everyone, GN especially knows he should still be here and who knows what that would’ve meant - I don’t think the idea of top half in L1 is too far fetched.
A friend of mine who is a Burnley Season ticket holder would have him in a heart beat for the championship next season. Top coach always speaks well and is respected within coaching in the North West as someone who is going about management the right way.
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Post by Chris P. Bacon on May 13, 2022 5:53:52 GMT
Alexander is a top coach in the making and deserves this at Motherwell. Everyone, GN especially knows he should still be here and who knows what that would’ve meant - I don’t think the idea of top half in L1 is too far fetched. A friend of mine who is a Burnley Season ticket holder would have him in a heart beat for the championship next season. Top coach always speaks well and is respected within coaching in the North West as someone who is going about management the right way. I wasn’t a fan, I have to say. Chip’s post puts this into perspective. I was surprised at the timing of his sacking. But I also accept that given more time he would have succeeded. Most managers would at Salford. |
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Post by tangerinedream on May 13, 2022 18:41:04 GMT
I still firmly believe that if the Covid outbreak hadn't curtailed season 2019-20 - our first season in the EFL under GA - that we would have sneaked into the play offs as our form was turning significantly for the better. Also maintain that the sacking of GA was one of the worst decisions that GN ever made along with changing our colours of course!
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Post by Chris P. Bacon on May 13, 2022 18:46:37 GMT
I still firmly believe that if the Covid outbreak hadn't curtailed season 2019-20 - our first season in the EFL under GA - that we would have sneaked into the play offs as our form was turning significantly for the better. Also maintain that the sacking of GA was one of the worst decisions that GN ever made along with changing our colours of course! Give him a chance. He’ll make many more mistakes going forward. The next one could be even bigger. |
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Post by christoph on May 13, 2022 20:29:53 GMT
GB was sacked last week. Press release on Monday
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Post by irlamsheightlad on May 13, 2022 20:43:32 GMT
GB was sacked last week. Press release on Monday Do you have this on good authority? What is your source? |
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Post by Chris P. Bacon on May 13, 2022 21:39:01 GMT
Why would this be held back?
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Post by chipbarm on May 13, 2022 21:48:18 GMT
Why would this be held back? That's what I thought. GA was binned after the Tranmere game and it was announced on the Monday after, why would they now sit on an announcement for a week? Given the ubiquitous nature of social media surely something would have leaked out before now. |
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Post by tangerinedream on May 14, 2022 7:03:26 GMT
Why would this be held back? |
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Post by tangerinedream on May 14, 2022 7:05:24 GMT
GB was sacked last week. Press release on Monday |
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Post by alanb on May 14, 2022 9:43:25 GMT
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Post by bunkmoreland on May 14, 2022 16:27:25 GMT
Fair play to him, but the Scottish league is a strange one where it splits in half after so many games and then each half only play each other. Up until a couple of weeks ago Motherwell had won one game in 2022. They've won a couple recently and are 4th, although bizarrely the team in 7th would be above them if the league hadn't split. 6 points separate 4th from 10th. Outside of the 2 big clubs it's a poor league. Hi, Motherwell fan here, I was having a nose about the forum to see if there was any Alexander chat and found there was. I hope you don't mind me chipping in. Your point about the team in 7th being "above" the team in 4th is an understandable misreading. What it comes down to is that the team in 7th is playing "easier" fixtures post-split than the team in 4th so it stands to reason that they have a greater chance of taking points if they're playing the teams in 10th, 11th and 12th than the team in 4th who are having to play the teams in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. If the mid-table section is close (as it has been this season) you end up with the scenario you're talking about. I appreciate that it looks daft to an outsider but once you get your head round the fact that the "league" itself only runs to 33 games and the extra 5 are to make up a balance to 38 so it confirms the title and relegations issues along with an extra Old Firm game for SKY it's a bit less strange (we can't go to 44 games a season on account of scheduling due to teams playing in European competitions). Alexander has had a very, very weird season. From when he took over for the calendar year 2021 he had accrued the 3rd best points total in the league (behind Rangers and Celtic) however after the winter break everything went off the rails. We'd sold our top scorer (and the top scorer in the league at the time) and didn't replace him and seemed to completely forget how to defend so the games we'd been winning turned to draws and the games we'd been drawing turned to losses. The main complaint he's had from a section of our fanbase is his style of play which has been quite attritional albeit relatively effective. Going by Neville's comments when he was sacked I take it it was something similar down there (I know Neville kind of walked back on it a while back)? Although we were 1 win in 15 in the league we'd won a couple of cup ties and had drawn our fair share so it wasn't quite as bad as the headline suggests. Although had he not picked up the wins in the past week and confirmed Europe it'd have been a pretty awkward position for everyone concerned as he'd just signed a new 2 year extension in January just there. He then effectively went from the 3rd best performing team in the league to 12th. No in between. Did he ever have any similar sort of circumstances where he had wild dips in form with you guys and what was his squad building like? It's to his credit he's rescued it and managed to get a European qualification out of it though. The wins against Ross County and Hearts came about off the back of half the team having been unable to train due to illness. So it's fair play to him for digging out 1-0 and a 2-1 wins getting scudded 6-0 by Celtic on TV today was pretty much a team whose season had finished on Wednesday and a group of players ready for their holidays. Anyway, apologies for the length of the post and all the best for next season. |
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Post by Chris P. Bacon on May 14, 2022 16:52:22 GMT
The style of play was an issue for me. He once brought a central defender on upfront when we needed a goal, leaving strikers on the bench. He may have felt we needed some height, but he didn’t score and it looked a silly decision. If a player did badly in a game, they were sometimes not seen again for months. His team selections were bizarre at times.
I thought they may have sacked him at the end of that season, but they didn’t. Then…..I was surprised that they sacked him 5 games into the next season, when unbeaten….although not playing particularly great. The final straw was his last game at home to Tranmere. Tranmere had half their team off sick and no recognised striker. They tried to have the game called off but failed. I’ve never seen such a one-sided 45 minutes of football. We absolutely battered them and we’re 2 up, when it could have been 5 or 6. All was going well. Then we came out in the second half and sat behind the ball for 45 minutes.we allowed them to attack at will and they did. They had nothing to lose. The inevitable happened and we drew the game 2-2. To this day, I have no idea what he was thinking and why he did it. We should have come out and finished them off.
I never expected an Alexander team to be particularly exciting and at the time, our owners didn’t just want to win, they wanted to win in style. So I think that was part of it.
Neville now says his sacking was a mistake. But we’d already sacked Bernard and Jonno straight after winning the league, so it was no surprise. In my opinion, all our managers could have done well at Salford, if they had been given the time. But they piled pressure on every season demanding instant promotion and pronouncing that they had given the manager a title winning team…..he just had to nudge it over the line.
So it was harsh on GA, but no more than B&J, Wellens and if the rumours are true, Bowyer.
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