Stuart McCall and his 'legacy'

[LawSteelman]

He's often been described by some Motherwell fans and many outsiders as one of the best ever Motherwell FC managers, no doubt taking into account the league finishes during his tenure which admittedly were excellent, on paper at least.

However that only tells part of the story because if you look a wee bit closer then you will see that overall, Stuart McCall FAILED us as a club during a time of terrific opportunity for us due to Rangers going bust, the Edinburgh clubs, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd all being at historically weak levels.

That we finished 3rd, 2nd and 2nd again and reached a Cup Final in his first half season does make for great reading but we then preceded to fall flat on our faces at every single big cup match we faced thereafter, even when we had the best first 11 outwith Celtic, due to McCall being unable to get the players to raise their game when it mattered most and thus we ended up with a catalogue of humiliating results and thousands of pounds p1ssed down the lavvy

[protester]

you come across as a right bitter bhoy

may i remind you that 9 players from the 11 that finished 2nd last year are still here.

if anything look at the players.

[LawSteelman]

And what of it? As I said, we were extremely fortunate to finish where we did last season as the football we played was awful throughout and I lost count of the number of matches we scraped wins in by the skin of our teeth whilst running out of steam at the hour mark.

Look at the players? If you'd read what I posted then you'll have seen that I did criticise the players but the buck stops with the manager who assembled them and that is why we are in this mess just now.

Stuart McCall is far from the only culprit here as the way the club has been run over the past year or so has been a shambolic disgrace but as first team manager he has to take a fair portion of blame!

[protester]

whos comment would one believe, yours

worst ever motherwell team or derek weirs

Motherwell director Derek Weir said ex-Rangers and Everton midfielder McCall's tenure was "one of the most successful in our 128-year history"

the truth is your hatred of rangers and their ex players is an obsession.

[LawSteelman]

Oh dear so we're just going down the road of daft wee blind assumptions with no basis are we?

Aye you crack on, but I'm afraid I've got no time to argue online with a moron so I'll save my responses for the sane folk on here.

Run along now

[protester]

just read what you wrote, you are obsessed. extremely fortunate for a season long, or 3.5 seasons

if he did not want to do a rebuild job then why did he not got to sheffield or assist at crystal palace?

the team that finished 2nd last year at Aberdeen had a stand in goal keeper who was replaced and rightly so.

the only other absentee was hutchison who was sold to fulham (not released).

your judgement is so bitter I expect your obsession to reach an all time high if mccalll takes on the job hes been offered at rangers.

[LawSteelman]

just read what you wrote, you are obsessed. extremely fortunate for a season long, or 3.5 seasons

if he did not want to do a rebuild job then why did he not got to sheffield or assist at crystal palace?

the team that finished 2nd last year at Aberdeen had a stand in goal keeper who was replaced and rightly so.

the only other absentee was hutchison who was sold to fulham (not released).

your judgement is so bitter I expect your obsession to reach an all time high if mccalll takes on the job hes been offered at rangers.

More selective reading and daft assumptions.

At no point did I say we were extremely fortunate for 3.5 seasons, indeed I said that we had a better squad than everyone bar Celtic and Rangers for the first two, but last season after half that team moved on, we were extremely fortunate. And we most definitely were.

Also point me in the direction of where I said that McCall di

[afc_1983]

The similarities are there between McCall and Calderwood at Aberdeen.

Calderwood always had us up the right end of the year but the cup performances were a frequent embarrassment and occasional disgrace.

His legacy, on paper, looked decent. But dig a little deeper and you can see he left an admittedly horrendous Mark McGhee with a squad swollen with average players on long contracts who had, in effect, already cost Calderwood his job with the insipid style of football we played and cup bottlings.

You have to look beyond the stats to see the whole picture.

Aberdeen were right to punt Calderwood. The fact McGhee was dreadful as a replacement doesn't change that. McGhee's job was made difficult by the legacy Calderwood left - he had players you simply couldn't depend upon but which he was forced to depend upon.

I see the same kind of situation at Fir Park.

[protester]

http://youtu.be/yZYT3_qdOGU

have a look dolly

[meister1991]

Personally I think McCall made some poor decisions, specifically signing players on longer term contracts. That said we also need to look at the club for its chosen operating model.

When it came to loan deals or 1 year contracts he did pretty well.

But every year he had to rebuild from almost scratch so he opted to go for players on longer term contracts. That makes sense until the club cut the salary bill each year, coupled with the fact that those who we could secure for 2 years are by and large a waste of time.

The flaws boil down to the following

1) We have a poor youth system, we expected to sell players each year yet we don't invest properly in a youth system.

2) The better we performed in league positions the less money we made as a club - due to a ridiculous salary/bonus system.

3) All of our 2 year+ signings have been poor decisions (except Hammel - he's not injury prone if you look at statistics).

Our cup record is poor (not because of McCall - go look at our 100+ ye