Motherwell F.C - Ending Glaswegian Dominance

[Liam I42I]

Motherwell F.C - Ending Glaswegian Dominance

Founded in 1886, Motherwell F.C is one of Scotland's largest untapped clubs in regard to it's potential. Situated in the heart of Motherwell, the club boasts the 8th largest club football stadium in the country, with a capacity of around 13,700 when fully seated. This provides the club with an excellent basis for financial development, particularly on FM as the prospect of success drives attendances upwards.

(Fir Park, 2020)

The club also boasts an excellent community reputation with the club becoming synonymous with community fundraising campaigns, championing support for men's mental health organisations, and taking massive strides to invest in youth development and youth initiatives. With that, Motherwell is a rarity in Scottish football, that within the town itself; Motherwell is extremely well supported in contrast with similarly sized towns in which most residents tend to lean towards Scotland's big two.

The club has been able to successfully invest in all of the above areas due to it's extremely efficient production line, with the club developing and selling players such as David Turnbull, James Scott, Louis Moult, and Scott McDonald in fairly recent times for significant fees. We will look to maintain the model throughout this save, protecting Motherwell's identity as a club renowned for youth development and it's engagement with the local community.


State of Play 2022/23

As you can see, the club is in a very strong financial position for Scottish standards, however there is very little transfer budget to speak of - which means we will have to wheel and deal in this first window if we want to strengthen the squad. As for competitions, the board are fairly reasonable across the board, perhaps being slightly strict in their league expectations (predicted 7th from 12). I would love a cup run, and as for Europe - anything better than Motherwell's IRL two defeats to Sligo Rovers in the 2nd round of Qualifying would please me. Surely that is manageable.

Key Players

Liam Kelly (GK)

Valued between £1-2m, Liam Kelly is on the periphery of the Scotland squad and should be our 1st Choice Goalkeeper for as long as we are able to keep him.

Kevin Van Veen (ST)

The 31 year old Dutch striker has bagged 21 goals for the Well this season IRL and has been nominated for PFA POTY. Anything similar for us would be remarkable.


Next Update: Summer Window and European Qualifiers​

 

[Liam I42I]

Summer Window & European Qualifiers

Transfer Activity:

This was always going to be a quiet window for us here in Motherwell but we do have one departure and one arrival this month. Starting with the outs we received a £35k offer from Ross County for reservist Connors Shields, we managed to negotiate up to £45k and accepted the offer.

Onto the ins, we then decided to move some of our circa £6k wage budget towards our transfer budget and along with the Shields sale, we had around £120k to play with. With that, I wanted to invest in a long term player who would instantly add to the first team squad. I therefore decided to look at the Championship, signing central defender Robbie Deas from Inverness for around £100k, rising to £500k over the course of the next 36 months.

Financially, this was about all we could afford this window however we did also manage to secure Liam Kelly on a new 4 year contract with no release fee, which is just as good a deal as any new signing in my opinion.

First XI

This is our team when everyone is fit. Deas slots straight into the left of our central defence. We have a strong mix of experience and youth. If we can avoid mass injuries, I am confident that we can make strides in the league and hopefully push high into the top half of the league this season.

UECL Qualifiers

2nd Round
vs.
FK Qabala (Azerbaijan)

A dominant away performance see us qualify from the 2nd Qualifying round of the Europa Conference League before a competent showing at home ensured the Steelmen march on in our quest for European glory. Fantastic performances in both legs from our midfield duo Sean Goss and Callum Slattery.

3rd Round
vs.
Gil Vicente (Portugal)

Whenever a Scottish team is drawn against a side from one of Europe's top 7 leagues, the fear factor sets in but no changes in system were made heading into this game. We had to stick with what we seen work in the first round of qualifying. We dominated Gil Vicente at Fir Park and should have been 3 or 4 up at half time. Unfortunately at 1-1, Barry Maguire was sent off in the 60th minute meaning we had to shift tactic and hang on to our more than deserved point heading to Portugal.

Heading to Portugal we knew we'd need to score first to keep any level of momentum in the game, and things didn't quite go after our way in the 53rd minute, when after a goaless first half; Gil Vicente took the lead after a goal from Fran Navarro. We managed to battle it back to 1-1 (2-2) through a Kevin van Veen goal in the 72nd minute forcing it through to extra time. With a highlightless extra time, we took the game to penalties where a Liam Kelly masterclass saw us progress to the Play-Off round.

Play-Off Round
vs.
Young Boys (Switzerland)

This was a horror tie for Motherwell, especially given the level of some other seeded sides we could have played (Rijeka, Wolfsberger AC etc) but we went to Bern aiming to stay in the game and return to Lanarkshire with something to play for. We managed to do exactly that, returning with a 1-1 draw thanks to a Louis Moult equalizer in the 92nd minute.

In the home leg, a penalty gave us an early lead and following the sending off of Cedric Zeslger in the 17th minute, we surged to a 3-0 lead. YB fought back to 3-2 before Blair Spittal all but confirmed our progression with a belter in the 72nd minute. Despite a late YB consolation, the Well hold on to our lead confirming group stage football at Fir Park for the first time in the clubs history.

Conference League Group

Absolutely buzzing with this draw. We get a glamour tie with Villarreal as well as two other beatable sides in Maribor and Vikingur. Very curious to see how this plays out.


Scottish Premiership

In future, I will cover the league games in more detail but this is already a long update due to European qualifiers so I'll group the games together for this update. On the road we have been excellent, scoring freely and generally defending well. A bit upset not to have won either of our home games against teams expected to place lower in the table but you will be hard to find a Motherwell fan unhappy with 11 points from 15. Worthy to note however, Aberdeen away is the only "big team" we have played so far.

The league table therefore looks like...

Season Tickets/Finances

Thanks to European qualification and a club record number of season tickets sold, the finances are looking extremely healthy and I will be asking the board to invest that back into the club through facilities and coaching as the season progresses.


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[Liam I42I]

September Update

Domestic Form

A tremendous month on the whole for us with us finally breaking our home scoring duck with a fantastic 4-0 win against fellow Conference League side Dundee United. 4 points against Ross County and Hearts makes for pleasant reading as we remain unbeaten as we approach Celtic on October 1st.

We are also through into the quarter final of the League Cup following a simple 2-0 win for the reserve side against League 1 outfit Kelty Hearts. We will play Ross County in the quarter finals.

Europa Conference League

MD1: Vikingur R. (ICE)
Fir Park, Motherwell
Att. 9,778

If we are to have any success in Europe this season we will need 6 points against our Icelandic counterparts and we started as we intend to go on. We were actually 4-0 up and faltered slightly in the last 15 minutes, but a commendable start to our European campaign.

MD2L Maribor (SLO)
Ljudsju vrt, Maribor
Att. 8,339

I went into this game hoping for a point to keep us in a strong position, but the boys really turned up in the first half blowing all expectation out of the water. Regardless of how we get on against Villarreal we are now in a very strong position.

A wonderful start but now the big challenge comes, a month in which we will Villarreal twice, as well as trips to Celtic, Hibernian, and Dundee United. Worthy to note we have earned £862k from these two results so far.



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[Liam I42I]

October Update

Domestic Form

Our most difficult month on paper began with a trip to Celtic Park to face league leaders Celtic but we were 1-0 down within 90 seconds and despite equalizing through a Blair Spittal strike in the 13th minute, we succumbed to a 4-1 defeat to Celtic. We made up for this defeat however by winning our next 4 matches, conceding just 1 goal in the process and also earning our place at Hampden Park for the Scottish League Cup Semi-Final where we will face struggling Aberdeen.

This recent run of form leaves us 3rd in the league table, well out performing any expectations we had at the start of season however there is obviously still a very long way to go.

Europe

MD3: Villarreal (A)
Estadj Ciutat, Valencia (If anyone knows this was in Valencia, please lmk)
Att. 21,930

This result was bad, but could have been much worse given that we were 4-0 down after 42 minutes. A Ross Tierney consolation gained us some respect but in fairness, our European adventure was never dependent on this fixture.

MD4: Villarreal (H)
Fir Park, Motherwell
Att. 11,694

Simply an outstanding result, matched with an outstanding performance. Granted Villarreal had the most of the match but they also have a wage budget x18 higher than ours. We punched above our weight, and gave the Spanish giants a ****** nose. A great finish from Louis Moult in the 83rd minute secured a point for us, leaving us in a great position to qualify.

MD5: Maribor (H)
Fir Park, Motherwell
Att. 9,503

A nervy performance here given we won comfortably in Slovenia less than a month ago. However, with another late Louis Moult goal, we have confirmed out finish second place within the group. Never did I think we would be in Europe after Christmas in season 1 but here we are.

Due to the World Cup, next update will be both November and December​

 

[Zlatan Lumic]

Estadj Ciutat, Valencia (If anyone knows this was in Valencia, please lmk)

This is Levante's stadium, which is a club based in Valencia (and Valencia CF's main rivals).
Villarreal's stadium is known as "Estadio de la Cerámica" (Previously known as "El Madrigal") and it's based in Villarreal (of course), a 60k population town in Castellón province.

Anyway, back on track... The club's performance is going on smoothly so far as in they're on their way to become the "best of the rest" in the Premier (while I imagine that the goal of this save is surpassing both Celtic and Rangers, the first step has to be surpass the Edinburgh based clubs, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd...) and as for Europe, qualifying was expected with the group you had but impressive nonetheless.

You're doing great so far, keep it going ^^

 

[Liam I42I]

This is Levante's stadium, which is a club based in Valencia (and Valencia CF's main rivals).
Villarreal's stadium is known as "Estadio de la Cerámica" (Previously known as "El Madrigal") and it's based in Villarreal (of course), a 60k population town in Castellón province.

Anyway, back on track... The club's performance is going on smoothly so far as in they're on their way to become the "best of the rest" in the Premier (while I imagine that the goal of this save is surpassing both Celtic and Rangers, the first step has to be surpass the Edinburgh based clubs, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd...) and as for Europe, qualifying was expected with the group you had but impressive nonetheless.

You're doing great so far, keep it going ^^

I actually mistyped on the original post, I meant to ask why they were playing there but I noticed when I was browsing on the game that it was because of stadium redevelopment work.

I'm actually a Celtic season ticket holder in real life, so fairly well drilled in Scottish football. You are right in saying that the Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen are bigger, more successful clubs but in terms of quality the only real advantage they have is depth. In terms of starting 11 we aren't miles off but I do agree generally that overtaking them is the first step, just not convinced that hurdle is overly tall.

 

[Liam I42I]

November/December Update

Final Group Game

MD6: Vikingur (ICE)
Laugardalsvollur, Reykjavik
Att. 1,457

A poor performance, a poor result, but ultimately it was an irrelevant fixture with exception to the coefficient. We finish second in our group with a strong 11 points from a possible 18.

The draw for the 1st Knockout round was unfortunate to us, we will play Dutch league leaders Feyenoord in early February.

Domestic Form

I am very content with out performances in November and December as despite defeats to Celtic and Rangers we manage to maintain our league position due to prolific performances against the sides we should be beating. Our form was topped off by an exceptional performance against Rangers at Fir Park where a Mugabi goal late in the first half helped us secure a pivotal point.

We are looking very comfortable now in the race for European football next season with a direct race with Hearts for the much coveted best of the rest tag - which also guarantees group stage football.

Looking Forward?

With the sale of some squad players and further European prize money, the club is in a very strong position financially. I am hoping to do some business in January but only if the right player comes up at the right price. We will look heavily into the end of contract market and potentially some loans.
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[Liam I42I]

January Update

We were expecting a quiet January... that didn't happen!

Outs:
Jake Carroll (See last update)
Joseph Efford (See last update)
Nathan McGinley - Loan w/ buy option (£40k) to Bolton
Matthew Penney - Recalled from loan by Ipswich

At the time of being recalled, Penney had played 23 times this season at Left-Back meaning a massive void was unexpectedly created in our starting 11, especially given our backup Jake Carroll left earlier in the window.

So I asked the board for some more money and wage budget and...

We won't go crazy (no promises) with this money but we did decide to spend some to reinforce the squad in our race for 3rd.

Ins:

Scott Robertson - End of contract

Scott Robertson will join at the end of the season in a pre-contract agreement. He fits the bill of young, Scottish, with high potential. He should provide some much needed squad depth.

Cameron Harper - Inverness CT (£93K)

For £93k, this boy will do a job for the next 18-24 months at left back. He has all the core attributed and because we hit a cheapish release fee, he should hopefully have some sell on value following some development. Really happy with this deal.

George Johnston - Bolton (£120k)

A pricey deal at over the 100k mark, but a solid homegrown player who should provide plenty of cover and offer us a bit of versatility in defence with his strong left-footedness. We are now much stronger at back depth wise and I feel comfortable in our ability to outdefend most teams outside the Glasgow 2.

Deadline Day Addition. Scott Wright

Little bit of a coup based on where we are getting him from. He has experience, quality, and age on his side.

Winter Form

What a bizarre month. 2 wins from 3 is pretty solid league wise and advancing in the Scottish Cup is great but we threw away an excellent chance at a cup final in our first season up against 11th places at the time Aberdeen. We were outplayed and deserved to lose but it was extremely frustrating.

The overall picture:

We also took advantage of the clubs financial position to advance some club infrastructure, improving both junior coaching and youth recruitment. We will always look to build on those philosophies outlined in the original post.

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[Liam I42I]

February Update

Domestic Form

So we are now solely focussing on the league after a horror draw sees us knocked out of the Scottish Cup at the fifth round against Celtic. We put up a commendable fight but unfortunately that isn't enough against a side who just splashed £25m in the January window.

As for the league, we go perfect! 4 wins, 4 clean sheets, and 6 goals sees us secure our place in the top half of the table, completing some short term objectives and guaranteeing we are in the correct side of the split after MD33.

League table starting to confirm the reality that we are looking solid in 3rd, and heading for a return to Europe next season. I just hope we can maintain our form and secure Europa League football, and guaranteed group stages (at some level). I have to say, other than us and Aberdeen, this is a very benign league season in Scotland with all the big clubs in the top half (again exc. Aberdeen). I am actually hopinh Aberdeen eventually go down (sorry @Mr_Grieves ) because they have some incredible young talent such as Connor Barron, Jack McKenzie and even more established players like Ross McCrorie that I would love to steal.

Europe

14 games on from that summers evening away to Qabala of Azerbaijan, our European run comes to an end against Dutch league leaders Feyenoord. We were outclassed in the away leg and despite a strong start at home, the Dutch giants were simply out of our league and we couldn't produce another major European upset. Hopefully we can do just as well next season.​

 

[Liam I42I]

March/April Update

Domestic Form

Wow! Simply an incredible 2 months to end off the regular season pre-split. We are keeping clean sheets like nobody's business right now, some shift being put in by the back line.

Was hoping to get a result against a Rangers team still in Europe but the win at Celtic Park after being 2 goals down in the opening 10 minutes more than makes up for it.

That leaves us in 2nd as the league splits. Rangers lost 4-0 away to Celtic before the above draw at Pittodrie. Can we really hold on for 2nd? Rangers at home on the final day of the season...

Regen Day

Liam Burns was the pick of the bunch and will probably make our squad at some point down the line. Hopefully he can develop well in the youth system and potentially go on loan once he hits 17/18ish.

Next update will be end of season + review​

 

[Liam I42I]

End of Season Update

Domestic Form

In the first four of our final 5 games, we managed a respectable 8 points from 12, but surely this meant Rangers had overtaken us into 2nd? Well no, they lost away to Dundee United 2-0 on the opening day of the split. Meaning the league table looks like this heading into the final match day.

We play Rangers at home. Avoid defeat and we bring Champions League qualifiers to Fir Park next season.

An early goal from a corner seen us take the lead and with around 10 minutes to play Rolando Aarons scores a pivotal goal on his last Motherwell appearance to secure we play in Europe's elite competition next season.

As you can see, this relegates Rangers to third, with the Edinburgh duo making up the remainder of the European places. Aberdeen narrowly avoid the drop.

This is an outdated table therefore the European places are not confirmed but all 5 places go to the league as a result of Rangers winning the Scottish Cup, whilst at the other end, St. Mirren get relegated by Dundee in the play-off meaning we will have a Dundee derby in the league next season.


Domestic Trophies

Scottish Premiership - Celtic
Viaplay League Cup - Rangers
Scottish Cup - Rangers

Scottish Championship - Partick Thistle
Promoted - Partick Thistle, Dundee


European Runs

Motherwell (UECL KO Play Off Round) - W7 D4 L3
Celtic (UCL Groups/UEL Round of 16) W1/1 D1 L5/2
Dundee United (UECL Groups) W3 D0 L7
Hearts (UEL Groups) W3 D0 L5

Rangers - Just look at the graphic

As a Celtic fan I detest this but Rangers win the Conference League.

What a season for Scottish football. 5 teams in European group stages and a trophy coming back is an immense return. A strong coefficient season for sure (will update then coefficient board is updated by suspect we will move from 9th to 8th)

Rewards

Managers POTY - Liam Kelly
Managers YPOTY - Ross Tierney

Finally, some background information.

This bad boy popped up, boosting our budget heading into next season...

As you can see, the finances are looking healthy, especially with more European football coming next season. As a result of the guaranteed income next season, we will look to invest that budget in Scottish talent.

I know FM shows average attendances, but not across all competitions so I composed a little spreadsheet.

That is a record breaking 248,000 punters through the doors of Fir Park this season, generating £3.5m in gate receipts on top of the £1.94m generated from the sale of 5,475 season tickets. Let's hope we can build on that next season and maintain our sustainable position next season.​

 

[Liam I42I]

Summer 2023 Update

Apologies for the delay between updates but the summer took longer than expected.

Transfers

We only made transfers in this window (so far) as we had so many players leaving from their loans.end of contracts that we couldnt really afford to sell anyone else. We did however get new long term deals for Liam Kelly and Callum Slattery.

Ins:

Liam Scales - Celtic - £250k

Liam Scales will come in as our starting left back this season. He is our club's highest earner which is the only downside but his qualities are clear to see, and if needed Harper can slot in if we need Scales at CB.

Jack Grimmer - Free - End of Contract

Jack comes in as our cover for Stephen O'Donnell on the right side, and I think he is excellent for that and could probably start for most teams in this league. Again, another player who can play a few roles and is reasonably both footed with solid technical attributes. Decent player on a free.

Jack Byrne - £150k - Shamrock Rovers

He was initially joining us on an end of contract but due to Ireland having a summer league, he wouldn't join until November but I think the £150k to sign him now is more than justifiable looking at his attributes. He is a very solid player at SPL level and I hope that will show in his contributions next season.

Bruce Anderson - Livingston - £75k (£150k)

Kevin Van Veen will remain our main man up top this season after his phenomenal return rate last season but at 32, and with Louis Moult's loan ending we had to find some adequate cover. Enter Bruce Anderson, Livingston's top scorer last season with 12 goals. He should do a solid job when called upon.

Mikey Johnston - Celtic - £200k (£350K)

MJ has always had raw potential, and as Celtic fan it wouldn't shock me if Ange tried him next season after a successful loan in Portugal IRL, so when I saw him transfer listed it was a no brainer. He will be a real threat in our attack and between him, Byrne, and Wright, we should be a real danger going forward.

Zander Clark - Hearts - £50k

Why Zander was willing to join us under a backup squad status with a wage cut is beyond me, but we now have a very very solid backup to Liam Kelly.

Squad

This is the line-up for MD1, however expect some of those boys on the bench such as Johnston and Goss to start plenty as well.

The media appear to agree that we have strengthened and have us marked as best of the rest. 3rd is also my aim for this season as we really shouldn't have split the Glasgow 2 as early as we have.

Coefficient & Europe Update

As expected, the Scottish Premiership has cinched it and moved up to 8th in the European rankings. We will need a few good seasons before making any further progress and will look to secure 8th more firmly this year. We also saw Motherwell rise significantly in the club rankings, although a long long way still to go.

Speaking of ways to go, we drew Braga in the UCL third qualifying round. Make no mistake, Braga are the clear favourites for this tie, however I cannot help be delighted we got them out of a draw including just Braga, Brugge, PSV, anf Marseille.

Other News

Ange has left Celtic to manage Dortmund, we got offered (and rejected) the Celtic job.

But who they hired... HAHAHAHAHAHA

The snake returns, hiss. Can't wait to get battered by my most loathed Celtic manager of my life (Bar the 12 months of Mowbray).

Next Update: End of Window, UCL Qualifiers, Start of League Season
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[Liam I42I]

Just a brief update post.

This save has not stopped, and will continue in the near future. I have just had a little break from FM, as well as finishing the last few weeks of university.

Be back soon!