The Well boss has had his say on the Dens Park pitch ahead of his troops facing Dundee at 3pm.
Disregarded According to Stuart Kettlewell, Dundee’s playing squad has received more funding than infrastructure, which is why the pitch at Dens Park is having issues.
Motherwell paid the money to resolve problems with their surface and surrounding regions even though they had their own problems with Fir Park. The budget for players has been impacted by that significant investment, but it is necessary to enhance the Scottish game as a whole and market the highest-quality product.
Following a 1pm pitch inspection this afternoon, the Premiership matchup between today’s teams was approved to go. This is when the explosive radio bomb occurred. Today was the SECOND check on the surface alone, following the originally planned 11am view. After the initial inspection, referee David Dickinson allowed the Dark Blues additional time to get the pitch playable, and that two-hour span was sufficient to persuade him to approve the game.
Nevertheless, once pictures and videos of the playing conditions at Dens Park appeared, Motherwell issued a club statement expressing worries over player safety. Since then, manager Stuart Kettlewell has confirmed those rumours in the City of Discovery, telling BBC Sportsound that “Motherwell wanted this game to be on.” You have my word on that. We spent the entire week diligently preparing. I must mention the most absurd last three or four days leading up to this match in terms of backup plans offered, and the messages I received from Dens Park and Dundee indicating there was no possibility this match would take place today. Although those aren’t official channels, football fans are familiar with how this operates.
“We are here in 2024,” is what catches in my throat, and this is when I really start to get on my high horse. Once I say that, the guys on the show will probably start to argue it. Our goal is to improve this game and provide the finest possible product for our customers.
“Motherwell understood a few years ago that they had an issue at Dens Park and invested £1.25 million to improve the pitch and surrounding area. On our pitch, we might have started our game at any time. That may be a pointless debate, but Fir Park’s pitch has been usable for play all week. We take that action for the benefit of Scottish football as a whole and the football team.
“The season opener, which we held here on August 2, nearly resulted in a postponed game. As a result, I advised everyone to wait and observe the issues that Dens Park will present throughout the season. In essence, and I feel passionately about this, my player budget is depleted when you invest that money. Clubs may then begin to offer or pay more for particular players, and this may occur as a result of your failure to make improvements to your field or infrastructure. I have strong feelings about it. Many will disagree and offer reasons why they shouldn’t but lets be honest we are all pretty well educated people and we can see that is the
“You can see where my argument is coming from if you want to pay players more and you jump in and say you would offer X amount of money more on the same player I am fighting for. Fir Park’s appropriate playing surface was first provided by Alan Burrows. In this game, the money that was invested in that goes a very long way. How do we proceed? Should we explain that we are simply going to abandon our pitch to be in a state or should we state that we are going to make an effort to provide a suitable surface? Rangers, Celtic, and other major teams have visited our pitch and made remarks about the quality of the surface. I firmly think that football players should be developed, and the establishment of a suitable playing surface is necessary to achieve this.”
