On Wednesday afternoon, having guided Motherwell FC to yet another inglorious exit from a cup to a lower league side, Ian Baraclough was relieved of his duties as manager.
A long time coming, (one Motherwell forum having a ‘Baraclough Out’ thread over 60 pages deep before the announcement) there was little surprise amongst the Motherwell faithful as Bara got his jotters, having done very little in his nine month tenure to endear himself to the fans. Granted, he kept The Well in Scottish Football’s top tier in the two games where the players seemed to actually give a hoot for him, but one 6-1 thumping of Rangers does not a hero make.
Below are the five ways in which the former League of Ireland winning manager contributed to his own downfall in Lanarkshire, based on the manifesto he set upon his unveiling as MFC manager.
1. Delusions of Grandeur
“I want to win trophies. Why not Motherwell Football Club? Why can’t we win the Premiership? You’ve got to go out with that thinking otherwise you won’t achieve anything. To have days out in the cup are great for fans, but they are important. It’s a way into Europe and I’ve been used to that and want more of it, as I’m sure the fans do too.”
Now that is as positive a soundbite as you could expect from a newly appointed gaffer. Trophies and titles? Easy. At the time, not only was Bara taking over a club that languished in the lower echelons of the league, but had been absolute dogdirt in cup competitions since 2011, and here he was, proclaiming that he wanted to elevate Motherwell to title challengers.
Having tasted success at Sligo Rovers in that vein, it was clear that he’d overestimated the Fir Park club’s potential, while underestimating the Scottish Premiership and our brand of football in general. Mustering one League Cup victory, in extra time, against East Fife, was never going to see us achieve those highs with him at the helm.
2. Positive Tension
“I’m a positive guy and I’m upbeat most of the time. The players will find that and I’ll try and get that across to them.”
There is positivity and then there is just pure pig-headedness. A one-man spin machine, mainly to himself, more often than not Baraclough’s post-match assessments of Motherwell’s dwindling results seemed more a case of self-assurance than fan reassurance that things would start to look up.
Rarely would Bara come out and mention the negatives of the performances his side’s would put out. Instead he’d occasionally bemoan luck while foraging for the positives. His wide-eyed, oft manic, look in front of camera never showed him in the light that someone with a PMA would have, despite his words.
Whatever positivity he sought to bring to the club never really seemed like it was taken on by the players. Iain Vigurs, Craig Moore, Dan Twardzik, and probably plenty more going by performances, definitely did not buy in to that mantra.
3. Pride (In the name of the wee man)
“I want to give the fans as much pride in their team and town as soon as possible. I’m very confident that we can get out the bottom three and start moving up to mid-table and then aim for as high as position as possible.”
To be fair to Ian he did achieve his aim of installing pride in the team and town. For 180 minutes. In nine months.
With small forays away from the bottom of the league at sporadic points in his tenure, it felt like the only way Motherwell would stay up would be down to two factors, and neither of them Baraclough: St Mirren and Rangers.
As bad as The Steelmen were throughout last season, the Paisley Buddies were always that bit worse, meaning that they were always for the chop. With that utter shambles of a Rangers side wobbling their way to the play-off final, despite Motherwell’s historical capitulations at Ibrox, our poor Premiership squad was always better than their atrocious Championship one.
However, as his aim was to get Motherwell to mid-table, he should have been doing all he could to ensure that play-off didn’t happen. With Kilmarnock in free-fall towards the end of the season, it looked like Gary Locke might just save us instead, but dismal display after dismal display culminated in the only thing he’ll be able to use on his CV from his time in Motherwell, a town which he’s ultimately just been run out of.
4. Youth and Young Manhood
“I am big on development, so the young players will certainly have a pathway to the first team if they are good enough.”
Qualifying this statement with “if they are good enough” was probably a wise move at the time, but given that he’d later be giving it big licks about developing youngsters to sell on for large sums, he would prove to be reluctant to follow through on this.
Granted, Lee Erwin made the move to Leeds for a fee under Bara’s tutelage, but other prospects at the club have not been given the same opportunities to show what they can do. Dom Thomas has drifted in and out when the consensus is that he should be a regular starter. Jack Leitch seems to be getting shunted out in favour of the dire Jake Taylor and Manchester United prospect Liam Grimshaw. The only thing the David Clarkson acquisition seems to have achieved is forced Craig Moore out on loan. Chris Cadden, Ross McClean and Luke Watt have all impressed in their cameos, yet haven’t been blooded enough in the first team.
Whether “good enough” or not, it would have made better sense financially and developmentally to at least put a little bit of faith in them, to see how they get on, as opposed to bringing in a trove of unknowns from down south to underperform instead.
5. Arrested Development.
“I feel as though there is more than enough to push us up the table in the short term then try and build for long term by producing players.”
It’s the second part of that sentence that has baffled the Well faithful to the point where all hope was lost in Baraclough. Not content with stifling the youth movement, his signing policy to bring players in to be polished up just has not worked. As of his dismissal, Bara’s squad for this term has five strikers in it, only one of which is scoring goals regularly, with all five of them ahead of Moore, who is scoring for fun on loan at Ayr.
With the experience of Clarkson and Scott McDonald and the competition of Louis Moult and Wes Fletcher, Moore would have been the one who could have learned the most this season with them around him, yet his place in the pecking order has further diminished with the signing of Theo Robinson. Moore has been the next big hope at Fir Park, behind Erwin for a while and he now looks destined to be the new Bob McHugh. With all due respect to Bob, that’s not really development.
So, in short, barring survival, Baraclough has been all talk and no trousers in his nine month tenure and has generated feelings of apathy and anger at Fir Park not seen since the Maurice Malpas era. It’s a shame that it hasn’t worked out for him, but his hubris and bravado have just not been enough to make his time in Lanarkshire the success that he thought he could bring.
Written by Kris Jack (@krisjack85)
Listen to the latest Terrace Podcast show by clicking here.