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Andy P was a central figure to this forum and today marks 5 years since his passing, its ironic that the World Cup starts today. I had the pleasure of getting to Andy P well by doing the MFC Podcast with him and Andy Ross, he always found positives even during sone shit times. I would love to hear Andy P thoughts on the season just passed and his views on Jens and Co and I guarantee he would be on his way to America. 5 years passed so quick and I still think of him often. Gone but he will always be part of my thoughts.

O’Neill has always been a nasty piece of work. Don’t let his doddery auld man act fool you, he has always been able to appeal to the worst element of Celtic’s support. He did it years ago when he was there first time around and he is doing it again with his comments about the penalty against us and the behaviour of their support last week. Deflect, deny and lie through your teeth. That is the Glasgow Celtic way and O’Neill is an absolute master of it all.

Del???? Oh please im delighted we don’t have a support who use the phrases “he jist gits it” “he knows whit the clubs aboot” “he’s a rangers /sellic man” …… that whole low life bigotville we are blighted by. thank god we are not these “people” the guy sounds like he wants to maintain what we have and it’s another refreshing appointment. Goan yersel Alfie

Aw well thats it settled then the man is obviously shite and totally the wrong appointment, that post must a new record for negativity concerning a new player or manager 1 hr and 37 mins after the formal announcement 🤦‍♂️

I'm surprised VAR didn't award a couple of goals to Maeda so that he would get it instead.

🤣 Of course, on reflection, Clarke's record in the finals of international tournaments does speak for itself: we are unquestionably dire 😱.

Clarke definitely took a shambles of a Scotland outfit and turned it around into a team that was difficult to beat and that the players wanted to part of. And no doubt he did well to qualify for our first Euros. The way we performed in those finals was embarrassing and 100% down to his tactics. I would have punted him then, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt given it was our first Finals in 200 years or whatever. When we got to our second Euro Finals our performance was even worse. Literally no lessons learned from the first debacle. That, for me, was when Clarke absolutely had to go. Fair play for what he had achieved, but he had more than reached his limit as a coach by then. Anyone who watched or World Cup qualifiers could see were dead lucky to make it. Outplayed in multiple games with only moments of individual quality rescuing us in spite of the insipid tactics played. In that last game against Denmark, they battered us for most of the game. As happy as I was to see us win, and with some cracking goals, our 30% possession in must-win home tie says it all. Even with 10 men, they were the better side. It was a miserable performance with miserable tactics once again rescued by 3 moments of individual quality. A classic Clarke approach, and with no change in approach to squad selection, I expect every game to be a grind in the US regardless of how far we do or don't get. Now was the time to bring in someone more progressive and take full advantage of some of the more talented players we have available.

You can see Watt just loves being in among it. I can imagine him when he's 50, down Strathclyde Park for a kickabout, knocking the weans out the way to get the ball.

Cheapest club in the World. If they were a person they’d be Tam from Still Game

As a Swede, I understand most Norwegian, but I still took the easy way out and had ChatGPT summarize the interview. And you're right—the comments section seems full of people who were very happy with him. Summary: Alfred Johansson explains that he feels sadness and disappointment that his time with Rosenborg has come to an end, as he greatly enjoyed his time at the club and built strong relationships with players, staff, and colleagues. At the same time, he expresses deep gratitude for his experience there and the memories that were created. Reflecting on his two and a half years at Rosenborg, Johansson highlights that the first 18 months were characterized by development, positive performances, and results moving in the right direction. The final year, however, was more challenging, with results falling short of expectations. Despite this, he remains proud of the work that was done and what the team managed to achieve during his tenure. Johansson particularly emphasizes the club's long-term development. He explains that Rosenborg had a clear strategy when he arrived and that the management and coaching staff worked purposefully to create stability. He is proud to have contributed to the development of several young talents who later moved abroad or established themselves in the first team. He also speaks warmly about the supporters, describing their backing as something he will never forget. Despite the high expectations, he experienced tremendous encouragement, passion, and support from the fans, which left a lasting impression on him. When discussing the players and club staff, Johansson becomes emotional. He thanks the players for their hard work and stresses that he could never question their commitment. He also expresses sincere gratitude to the board and club leadership for giving him the opportunity to lead Rosenborg despite his limited experience at the senior level. Furthermore, he thanks the coaching staff, administration, and all employees at the club for their support and the sense of community he experienced during his time in Trondheim. The interview concludes with Johansson wishing Rosenborg and its supporters the very best for the future. He expresses strong confidence that the club will achieve its goals and believes it is only a matter of time before Rosenborg returns to the level it aspires to reach.

Elijah is the closest I have seen to Willie Hunter of Ancell Babes fame effortlessly drifting past lead footed opponents and scoring some sensational goals. Pity Willie is no longer around to see if he agreed with the comparison. I'm sure he would have.

I don’t think hearing the audio from that night will tell us much that isn’t already pretty obvious to be honest. VAR saw a ‘potential’ handball which obviously wasn’t but Andrew Dallas or whoever it was likely knew that John Beaton is too scared to give any big call against Celtic and would take the ‘safer’ option by giving them a penalty. And it took Beaton literally seconds to watch that and give it when it would have been impossible to be able to determine that in that time. Celtic run the show and the whole thing stinks. I’m not talking about daft conspiracy theories like lodges, dodgy handshakes and knowing nods, I’m talking about that club having such a hold on football, media and society that they are running it through fear and intimidation. Celtic caused a refereeing strike in 2010 for far less than what happened at Fir Park earlier this month and since then they’ve had almost everything their own way. And on the odd occasion that they haven’t the officials in question have been absolutely hounded by them, their fans, the managers and their media stooges. John Beaton being the most obvious but there have been others. The reality is that Celtic Football Club are an absolute cancer on Scottish Football.

Should be a good final.

How much did Celtic ask for?

I think you may be supporting the wrong club mate!

Jeez, you dont half quote the bloody obvious..." fine as long as it works out" ....covering all the bases there.

Del, who has one league cup to his name as a manager. We'll see. I'm not sure what 'knowledge of our league' is worth these days. Most players & managers in the SPFL arrive from outside Scotland, and they're rarely here very long. On the downside, too many knowledgeable Scottish bosses seem stuck in the past, tactically speaking, and can't seem to shake off their defeatest attitudes when it comes to taking on the 'big' teams.

Suspect Just and the Club have bigger fish to fry than Celtic now.

Ahem a Motherwell player is joint top goalscorer at the World Cup!I think we could be loaded soon lol.

Heard from an Arbroath fan in Antalya airport last night that we're apparently in discussions with Dunfermline over Neil Lennon...

I remember we beat AGF Aarhus 1-0 in a pre-season friendly before the 1974/75 season. It was part of a 5-game pre-season tour in Germany and Denmark. We also beat St. Pauli, Hamburg and Aalborg.

So suspended punishment of a reduction of 100 tickets for Celtic which lasts until 30th June 2027 and a £2500 fine. And the same fine for us with a suspended closure of Block E for the same timescale. And five of our fans and five Celtic fans referred to the SPFL Trusts pyrotechnics awareness course. So there you have it, a slap on the wrist for Celtic and us lumped in with them to dilute the blame. That’s not to say that ‘Block E’ are blameless and indeed they gave the authorities the open goal they needed to drag us into what happened, but this non punishment for the true culprits is as predictable as it is laughable.

I've gone ahead and moved some of the World Cup chat to the World Cup thread in General Football so the Former Players thread can get back on track. A few posts around current players and players leaving us in this window have been shifted to the 2025/26 ins and outs thread.

Aye, because I genuinely believed that was how his name was spelled and wasn’t making a joke at the expense of the thick Celtic and Rangers fans.

I hope Lennon MIller wasn't planning to play in the 2030 Finals: "The Scottish FA has announced that Steve Clarke has signed a new deal, extending his stay through to the 2030 World Cup" As terrible SFA decisions go, this must be one of the worst.

25yrs too late

I bought season ticket as thought he would be here another season. Thinking of asking for money back now.

Most definitely not. But certainly our most exciting manager since Mark McGhee first time around and a much more likeable character than McGhee and Alexander who also got us European qualification. And a much better mindset and attitude than longer serving managers who also had success for us like Stuart McCall. He had us going into games against Celtic and Rangers believing we could beat them and lo and behold we record wins against both for the first time in over twenty years. Compare that to the meek, subservient pish we got against those sides under McCall’s management where you had key players like Stephen Craigan admitting that they were ‘scared’ to go to Ibrox etc. JBA changed our play and our mindset and that was brilliant to see.

You'll never guess who I bumped into on my way to the opticians last week... Everybody! 😬🤪

Just a re run of the Euros squad. Clarke is taking his mates on a big holiday before leaving. Hanlon and Souttar ffs. Both injured recently, came back but can hardly run. Ask Hibs and Rangers fans about those two since January. Miller is too talented a player for Clarke. Passes the ball forward far too much.

Yep, a GIRUY to all of us who care about Scottish football. It will never happen but the clubs should unite to force a complete overhaul of the refereeing system in our country. Its cosy and incompetent, self-serving cabal needs to be removed. I can't remember Jens's exact words in a recent interview but it was along the lines of "Why bother playing football at all when there are decisions like these?" Our game is rigged for everyone to see now.

We have seen on a few occasions how actual ignorance of the Scottish game and by extension the OF circus/fawning, can be beneficial.

By drawing his name out from one of the bowls?

Can only echo the other comments relating to Andy, one of the good guys who's opinions on Motherwell and fitba in general were always worth listening to

Dont panic .

In other news.....opening game of world cup .South africa no.13 surname is sithole.....thank feck Sean Connery not commentating! 🤣

Madness

One of life’s good guys. Like we have, he would’ve loved the season past and not missed a minute.

Reached out with two fingers.

Bugger . His adventurous, cavalier, forward thinking, slick passing ,attacking style would have suited us perfectly. He would have been an asset for the club at the weekly jurno interviews aswell.

All you need to know about The Record is that they proudly announced van der Gaag as our new boss about an hour before we formally announced JBA.

Exactly my point. It’s way past time that we stopped pussyfooting around them and their obnoxious fans.

I seem to be a lot more relaxed about JBA's departure than almost everyone else. Last season was thoroughly enjoyable and all credit to him for transforming us on the field. However when I looked at his CV last year, I noticed he had had 7 coaching/managerial jobs in 8 years; the longest lasting about 2 years and 4 months. On that basis, I never expected him to stay very long, and I doubt he'll stay long at Toulouse either, for whatever reason. Our board now has a proven long term system in place and I have faith in that.

I've loved the whole 'let's play the game our way and impose it on the opposition" approach.

Can only follow him if we agree to sell them. Players know how the game works, and any professional worth their salt makes their own way in their profession and doesn't follow a manager. I'm also very sure most of our players knew exactly what was going to happen with JBA, and probably joined us hoping they could do the same. We're clearly trying to build a model to work from that doesn't leave us dependant on a specific manager or player to function. Kind of what you see at Brentford and Brighton, who have seen other clubs poach staff and players from them constantly, but they continue to have success. That doesn't mean we will hit the highs of this season every year, but it should mean that we don't get too sentimental about these things when they happen and make rash decisions. Whether JBA moves tomorrow or in a years time, it will be interesting to see how we handle that, and who comes in, as that will be a good indicator of how much of our success is just from JBA, and what is down to our overall leadership group.

"I'd like to make an appointment for an eye test." "Good idea - I'm the butcher"

"Except for viewers in Scotland."

Never mind McGinn, trying to tell me Ralston deserves to be there ahead of O'Donnell..?

There was a high?