Squad investment

[sieb1886]

With the cash accrued player transfers and IF were to be made available to strengthen squad … would you trust Robinson to spend wisely ? We are in desperate need a striker and his previous venture into this market has been woeful.
Given a loan player may take weeks to make an appearance due lack of fitness, Robinson running out of time to stop this abysmal run.

ATM - I would not give him any dosh to do anything player-wise. I'd be highlighting the Board has given him funds, allowed him to purchase his choices ... so, why don't you round them up Robbo, and get them to prove their worth to us, and your confidence in them?

[Handsome_Devil]

McKinstry left aged 15, or having just turned 16 and I think McLear was a year older - I don't think anyone other than yourself believes at that age they left because they weren't first team players but they got offered, even as a kids, life-changing opportunities.

[dasdeid]

McKinstry left aged 15, or having just turned 16 and I think McLear was a year older - I don't think anyone other than yourself believes at that age they left because they weren't first team players but they got offered, even as a kids, life-changing opportunities.

You cherry pick TWO players ... what of Gorrin, Scott, Hastie, Mbulu & Turnbull. Campbell had already proven was capable of stepping up. Barely had they appeared and had it not been unfortunate, Turnbull would have been gone. A matter of time for Campbell. Accept a selling club but few watch the reserves .. these guys were ready and SAVED Robinson.

[Handsome_Devil]

You cherry pick TWO players ... what of Gorrin, Scott, Hastie, Mbulu & Turnbull. Campbell had already proven was capable of stepping up. Barely had they appeared and had it not been unfortunate, Turnbull would have been gone. A matter of time for Campbell. Accept a selling club but few watch the reserves .. these guys were ready and SAVED Robinson.

I picked the best two from the last youth batch to explain why there's no one coming through...the club had already made this quite clear.

Gorrin was rubbish when he signed and Mbulu no better than so so before he got injured. Both needed time, one got it and eventually did a job, one didn't and we'll never know.

Why not praise Robinson for handling Scott etc well? Plenty of youth players have struggled by being pitched into battling teams and asked to do too much for too long...the manager successfully integrated a clutch of youth players into the team which improved results, made us millions and you're criticising how he did it? Not my attitude but each to their own.

[jwok]

I doubt that there will be any significant addition(s) to the squad until the winter window. And that only if we are still bumping along near the bottom of the table.

[LawSteelman]

I worry about allowing Robinson any cash or scope to enter the transfer market, especially to address the striker issue. His record in that respect is absolutely deplorable and given that we are forever being reminded that we are a small club on a small budget then it's all the more galling when you look at some of the guff he's recruited over the past three years, players that in some cases barely even featured. Alex Fisher, George Newell, Danny Johnson, Connor Sammon, Gael Bigirimana, Nadir Ciftci, Mikael Ndjoli, Christian Ilic, Christy Manzinga, Sherwin Seedorf and Jermaine Hylton. None of these players made/make any serious impact on the team and all were brought in by Robinson.

I like Robinson overall, he's a likeable guy and has done a decent job overall, but he has made the same mistakes year in year out and his transfer record isn't good enough. The least said about his 'brand' of football the better. It's time for him to move on imo, but we all know that the job will simply be handed to Keith Lasley in true cheap and unimaginative Motherwell FC style. This will just see us get more of the same as we currently have.

[Handsome_Devil]

Normally I agree about not simply handing the job to the assistant but in this case it appears there's been a conscious succession plan to develop Lasley and let him take over. Had Robinson gone in summer - with us on a high - there would have been little complaint.

It's slightly different if we bullet Robinson or he walks because we're ganting, however, a newer broom would seem less of a risk than sticking with the old plan.

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of Robinson's time being up, he's certainly on the edge, but if the next manager, whoever he is, produces "more of the same" (7th, 8th, 3rd, two cup finals and millions of quid in transfer fees) I'll be quite happy.

[LawSteelman]

Just like there was a succession plan to develop Malpas to take over from Butcher? We all know how that worked out. It very rarely works out allowing the assistant of the immediately previous regime to succeed the managers job. Apart from anything else it's also wrong and lazy. When we need a new manager the correct process should be followed. We advertise the job, interview candidates, agree terms and appoint the best one. That's the proper way to operate, but none of this will happen as it's already been decided that regardless of what happens, Keith Lasley will be handed the job.

When you put things theoretically like that, indeed Robinson appears to have done well with us and indeed I don't deny that he's done a decent (but no more) job over the piece. As I said last week, I don't believe that what he serves up is the best we can hope for though. The football way have played during that period has been, by and large, absolutely horrific to watch. We are so predictable in how we will line up and how we will change tactics and personnel when we're struggling against a side sitting in. Teams cottoned on to this in November 2017 and not much has changed since then! Also he has failed in numerous transfer windows to address the forward attacking issues that have dogged us for almost three years now and in that time recruitmed a litany of absolute dross, mostly that can "play anywhere across the front three", spunking God knows how much of our budget in the process.

We are clearly not going to get better under Robinson, but we're getting worse. Two wins in the whole of 2020 and we find ourselves bottom of the table after six games, no wins and only two goals scored. And all this after yet another summer where the managers transfer business doesn't look up to scratch. That to me suggests that things are going in the wrong direction for us and that a change of management is necessary. Otherwise we may well find ourselves relegated.

[Handsome_Devil]

Malpas was picked by Butcher and left behind when he went to Australia. Lasley was already been guided by the club through the youth coaching, his qualifications and part of Robinson's job has clearly been to develop him. You may disagree with having a succession plan or that Lasley should be the chosen one and the result might be the same - but it's obviously been a completely different process to what left us with Malpas. And when you look at the club leadership now and where we are compared to where we've been, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt if that's the call that's made.

Plenty of companies have succession plans in place, is there a fundamental reason it can't work in football? Liverpool did fine with it for a while...

I would say Robinson's record is reality and you're the one being theoretical...not much has changed since November 2017?? He completely changed the team and style in January 2019, lost several key players from it and rebuilt a side which was almost certainly going to finish in the top four before the pandemic hit.

Much like I never understood why people talked down how good Hammell and Lasley were for us when their times were coming to an end, I don't understand why there's a desire to put such a negative slant on everything Robinson has done with us now. His time may very well be up but the suggestion he's been rubbish the whole time or lucky or only played hoofball is simply not true.

If we write down all our managers since McLean (or even further back if you want) in two columns with those who achieved more than Robinson on one side and less on the other, it will be immediately apparent just what a good job he's done.

[LawSteelman]

The end result will be the same re: Lasley though. As with Malpas we will be handing the job to an untested manager who has basically got the job before it even becomes available. Neither of those facts sit well with me.

As for Robinson, yes he did change the team in Jan '19 when Turnbull became a regular and Hastie arrived on the scene and he does deserve some credit for that, but I'd argue that his hand was also forced in that we had just lost in the Cup to Ross County and the majority not the support had by that point lost patience with him. The Hibs game that midweek really was all or bust for him and we managed to get the result and went on a good run from then until April '19. I know you keep referring to last season, but I will keep answering the same. We were rotten last season and EXTREMELY lucky to be sitting where we were when the campaign was abandoned. The football we played for large spells last season, bar from brief spells during the Sep - Dec period was as bad as anything we had seen in the previous season and we completely fell away after New Year and only Aberdeen and others also being incredibly inconsistent kept us where we were. As far as I'm concerned anyway, 'finishing third' doesn't count because the season was not completed and we were rank rotten.

I don't claim that Robinson has been rubbish or lucky the whole time he's been here. When he came in at first he was a breath of fresh air and his work over the summer of 2017 in removing the deadwood and the 'class of 2003' from the first team, made some really good signings in Carson and Kipre and installed a much more enthusiastic feeling around the squad and the club. We started well before falling away but showed our mettle in reaching two cup finals, albeit the Scottish Cup run was slightly fortueose I thought, but we did well overall. Since then things haven't been so good. His rebuilding of the 12-18 over summer 2018 was a disaster and what we got on the park for the majority of that season reflected that. The football we have played as a spectacle has been dismal and there are no signs that will improve. His transfer record is patchy overall and woeful in terms of signing forward players and the signs are now that he has run out of ideas and him and us would be better parting company.