This is an excerpt from this week's McGarry on Motherwell, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
Sigh. It appears, once more, that Motherwell fans are the big, bad bullies of Scottish football. Shame on you all.
I think that we all would admit that your average ‘Well fan can be a bit on the moany side when the situation merits it, and sometimes, when it doesn’t. But having frequented press boxes for years now up and down the length and breadth of the country, and sat amongst every group of fans, let me tell you, it is hardly a phenomenon unique to Fir Park.
There does however seem to be a concerted effort from somewhere to paint the Motherwell support as distinctively demanding, unfair and ungrateful for the work that their managers have put in over the past few seasons, and specifically, that they have chased Graham Alexander and Stuart Kettlewell out the door with flaming torches and pitchforks.
Let me say this, I dealt with both managers on multiple occasions and got along well with both. They seem like good men, and I am in no doubt that they gave their all in their attempts to bring success to the club.
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Ambition, and aggression: What Motherwell chairman saw in Jens Berthel Askou
Nor that both suffered dispiriting (and borderline humiliating) back-to-back defeats to teams they should have been beating, with the greatest of respect, in Sligo Rovers and a struggling St Johnstone outfit respectively immediately prior to their departures from the club.
It seems though that such broadsides aimed at the support omit such piffling details in favour of the accentuation of a top six finish, or the team being in fifth place when Kettlewell walked, for example. These things are also true, and shouldn’t be ignored either, but the context of just why the fans were upset is usually downplayed or ignored completely.
As always, we have to make clear that personal abuse is unacceptable. And from earwitness reports, Alexander in particular got more than a few mouthfuls of it after his team went down meekly in Ireland.
I’m not saying that is what he should have expected, but criticism over his tactics and style of play, and pressure being placed on the board to remove him from his position after such a debacle? Absolutely. And that would have been the same from any fanbase in the country.
There seems to be an expectation that as long as Motherwell aren’t relegated, the ungrateful serfs among the support have no right to express their dissatisfaction with the fare they are paying their hard-earned cash to be served up every week. It’s a strange old phenomenon.
The Motherwell support isn’t a homogenous blob, and shouldn’t be painted as such. Among their number will be fans who will be less than angelic, sure. But this notion that the Fir Park faithful are particularly abusive or demanding is getting tiresome, and frankly, is the stuff of fantasy.
AND ANOTHER THING…
The acquisition of Elliot Watt from Burton Albion may not be the sexiest bit of transfer business ever, but it certainly appears to be a shrewd move.
His short stay at St Johnstone on loan last season in a struggling team wasn’t a rip-roaring success, with the deep-lying midfielder playing a bit of catch-up with his fitness when he arrived, but the feeling from McDiarmid was that the season probably ended just as he was really hitting his straps.
He is a former captain of the Scotland under-21 side, was once named in the team of the year in League Two in England while at Bradford, and most impressively of all, even scored against Motherwell at Fir Park back in April.
Looking at his stats from the admittedly small sample size from last term, he scores highly for regaining the ball, interceptions, and in particular for his ability to progress the ball up the pitch. Anecdotally, from someone who watches the Saints every week, he has a real eye for a pass. So, he brings a skillset to that area a little different to what the likes of Andy Halliday or Davor Zdravkovski bring to the table.
No doubt some more exotic sounding names will arrive in due course as Jens Berthel Askou puts his stamp on the squad, but this appears to be a solid bit of business.
