Robinson: I’ll give stars platform to get Well soon
IF Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has his way, Fir Park may soon be known as Scottish football’s own rehabilitation centre for players that have lost their way.
Robinson recognises that all things being well, there would have been little prospect of Motherwell attracting players like January recruits Nadir Ciftci and Curtis Main given the clubs both men boast on their CV.
That these players now find themselves at Motherwell via teams like Celtic, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth, with no disrespect to the Lanarkshire club, means that something has gone a little awry.
Enter Robinson. The Northern Irishman is certain that the staff he has at the club, and the atmosphere they have fostered at Fir Park, makes it the perfect destination to set t hese undoubted talents onto the straight and narrow.
If he can get the best out of the forwards and they produce the goods for Motherwell, reigniting their own careers along the way, then everyone’s a winner.
He senses that Main, newly-arrived defender Tom Aldred and Ciftci in particular, are ready to grasp the chance. And they all could be thrown into today’s Scottish Cup clash with local rivals Hamilton.
“We don’t get Nadir Ciftci if he’s at the top of his game,” said Robinson. “We don’t get a £1.5million player. “We get a boy who’s maybe not progressed as much as he should have for someone of his ability. It’s up to me to bring that confidence back, get his fitness levels up and give him a real platform to excel again. “He’s shown us glimpses of absolute brilliance in training at times. But he does need to get fitter. That’s not to say I won’t start him, throw him on for 60 minutes. He’s getting better and better each day and bought in to what we’re trying to do here.
“Curtis Main and Nadir are obviously here for a reason – they’re needing to re-start their careers and get moving again.”
ROBINSON admits he initially had reservations about bringing Ciftci into his dressing room, given the reputation that precedes him and the bond between the players already there which is so vital to their success.
But after speaking to some trusted sources, and now knowing the player first-hand, he is glad he gave the 25-year-old the benefit of the doubt.
“The perception out there is that if something doesn’t work then the player’s a bad egg,” he said. “But everybody makes mistakes in life and I don’t think you should judge him or write him off on the basis of the past.
“I’ve found Nadir a great boy. I did a lot of homework on him.
“The whole atmosphere around the place has taken a 10, 20 per-cent lift in terms of the application and enthusiasm. It’s refreshed everybody.”
The Motherwell players, according to Robinson, are champing at the bit to make amends not only for their wretched run prior to the winter break, but the defeat in the Lanarkshire derby at the end of December. He said: “It’s a nice, easy, quiet game to get things going again, eh? It’s going to be feisty. We owe the fans a little bit and we’ll come out firing.”
Chris Cadden will be given every chance to start, but Elliott Frear will be out, while Ellis Plummer will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his leg in Tenerife.