Hopes For The Season
Hopes For The Season
The new Scottish Premiership is a supposed new dawn for football, but will it be a new dawn for Motherwell? I think that the influx of foreigners will not improve the performance of Scottish players or the international team but it is obvious that there is a better class of footballer playing for us this season.
Here are my hopes for the season ahead...
The League - I think that this season will be a success if we finish above tenth. For once, I feel that this is not being pessimistic just realistic. We have signed a completely different side and it will take time for them to be able to play as a team. While a couple of new players (Michels and McGowan) show great skill at times, I don't think that they can carry us through the season. Despite that, I don't think we'll get relegated and I think we could do very well next season. By then the players will know each other and will perform as a team, just like 94/95.
Prediction: 8th
The League Cup - Motherwell and the league cup just do not go together. No matter who we play, we nearly always struggle and as it doesn't get us into Europe, we probably don't want to win it anyway(ha ha)!
Prediction: 3rd round
The Scottish Cup - Is there magic in the air again? I very much doubt it but we can but hope. However, I don't think we will go out too early and if we can avoid the big teams I would be confident of reaching the quarters. We will beat a wee team in the third round, a bigger team in the fourth and the get the inevitable draw of away to Rangers/Celtic/Hearts/Dundee Utd in the next round.
Prediction: Quarter Finals.
The Players - It is unrealistic to hope that all of our new players will be big hits but none of them seem to shy from hard work so no one should be abused too badly. From what I've seen so far, Jan Michels will be the fans' favourite. He is quick, skilful and even looks annoyed when things don't go his way. He also scored major brownie points by applauding the fans after the St. Johnstone game. Jamie McGowan reads the game like a book and is our best defender. Brian McClair is still a class above the majority of the premier league and Stephen Halliday also shows promise. Rob Matthei and Jered Stirling both look okay but could do more. Greg Miller doesn't appear overly talented but is very quick and gives 100%. Mikkael Doesburg is fast and always makes saving tackles. Holm Kraska hasn't played yet and Mikko Kaven has looked impressive so far.
The Board - I think that Chapman will eventually sell to John Boyle. John Chapman did a great job, but it is now time to move on. Boyle is obviously a very successful businessman and hopefully that will pay off when he is running the club. I don't expect him to invest huge sums of his personal fortune in us but a couple of million would be nice. Pleeeeeeaaase!!
The Fans - I thought that the fans were pretty poor last year. Not just because of the poor turnout but because of the constant stream of abuse directed at some players. How would you like it if someone stood beside you at your work and bawled obscenities in your ear for ninety minutes. It is also not unfair to compare the Fir Park noise levels to that of a library. It wasn't quite so bad at the St.Johnstone game although it should be noisy every week. The crowd was bit better - who knows we might not have the second lowest attendance in the league this year!
So that was my hopes for the season ahead. Will I be proved right? Will pigs fly? Regardless, no doubt we'll all turn up this time next year expecting our claret and amber heroes to beat everyone, snatch the league and ride off into the sunset.
All we can do is hope!
Derek Wilson
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