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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.

Special mention to MJC for his 36 “bookmark this” defeat predictions this season. That type of positivity has spurred the boys on to European qualification 👍

On a lighter note, I just saw a picture of our disabled section the other night and they have a banner saying “sit down and sing for Motherwell” kudos to them, outstanding banner 👍

The votes have been counted, and the 2025-26 SteelmenOnline is... Elijah finished 10 points ahead of a congested pack, reflective of so many great performances this season. As always, the scoring system each match was 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd. Elliot Watt and Stephen Welsh finished joint second on 33 points. Lukas Fadinger was squeezed into 3rd (or 4th depending on your arithmetical preference) by 1 point, ending with a total of 32. SOD finished on 29 and Slatts on 27. Complete list of players who scored at least a point: Thanks for voting!

Former Fir Park favourite Liam Polworth has signed a PCA with Livingston. Perhaps his good lady will enjoy the retail facilities on offer there.

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.

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

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?

He will be in deep mourning, in a darkened room just now as his big team got fukd.

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.

Ten mins to go at Parkhead. Will be a nervy last 28 mins for Hearts....

Not one person at the time in the stadium or the viewing public saw that as a penalty. No one person had a clue why the match had stopped. There was no clear or obvious error. There’s a list of about 20 other things to argue it’s not a penalty. beaton and nepo baby Dallas deserve every single bit of criticism and both should be banned from ever officiating any more senior games. It’s not a one off for either of them, both have been totally incompetent for years. And yes….. I’m still not over it

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

Yes, I think we all knew this would happen but I fear the conduct of the aggressive and unruly Celtic fans in particular will only get worse, further emboldened by the feeling they can act with virtual impunity. Also, they now have the sainted Martin confirmed in charge, who clearly does not want to upset the apple-cart by calling them out for their thuggish behaviour. What's it going to take for the "authorities" to grow a pair? Do we have to have a death or two from this kind of disorder before anything is done? I still feel absolutely disgusted about the events at FP last month in particular. Askou looked livid after the game and I'm sure he was glad to be getting out of Scotland given the level of corruption and intimidation he had witnessed during the season.

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.

That a different level to “was seen at upper crust bakery” 😂

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.

This is what the SPFL and SFA want. The exact opposite is what is required. Fans, Clubs and Politicians refusing to ignore what everybody in the Country witnesses is exactly the ultimatum the Authorities need. VAR and Referee incompetence is one aspect, but the ongoing vile behaviour of those Celtic fans cannot be allowed to be swept under the carpet and lumped in with minor infractions of other Clubs' fans. Sure we will likely be held to Account for the pyro stuff. Fair enough. ...... but that is nothing compared to the Celtic fans behaviour at Celtic Park, Ibrox and Fir Park. Possibly elsewhere as well but Clubs and Media are too intimidated to speak out. Well said Hearts and McInnes for addressing the garbage that O'Neill is spouting. The narrative coming out of Celtic Park is disgusting although it does fit well with their 'Victims' approach. It's time other Clubs spoke up rather than keeping quiet in case Celtic refuse to stump up for the damage caused by their moronic fans. Motherwell included. As a minimum, the SFA should be making them play in front of some empty Stands at Celtic Park and also limiting their numbers at away grounds, with compensation being paid to those Clubs that suffer reduced away fan ticket sales. In exactly the same way we had to recompense Dundee last season. What's good for the goose etc etc etc. Strange how when UEFA threatened such action, the Green Brigade were immediately banned from European games. As soon as Celtic were pumped out the ban was lifted although in fairness Celtic did introduce another ban when Board Members and their families were threatened. That is until they needed them back to give them an edge in the biggest League Title challenge they have faced in years. Rant over. For now.

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

If we end up back to the usual crap, fair enough. But no one saw this season coming, so let's give them a chance. For me the point is, it's my club. Till death us do part - for better or worse.

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.

"Except for viewers in Scotland."

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

I thought you were well girl, I read that as I love slattery , really need to get reading glasses .

Also delighted to have proved all the old dinosaurs wrong who said this style of football wouldn't work in the Premiership for a wee team like ours.

In pub on 2nd bottle of wine with Mrs grizzly, she has allowed me one glass 🤣🤣 What a season. I just love this club and this season been immense. No idea what happens before next season but I have no fears as this club is in good hands and on the way up. Right who wants a joke?..........OK.....too far 🤣🤣

The most appalling aspect of this statement seems to be that they don’t even understand the point of VAR Mistakes will be made on the field, and subjective calls made in front of the VAR monitor, just as managers will pick the wrong team, goalkeepers concede soft goals and strikers miss from five yards out. Do they not get that’s the whole point of var is that you do get a chance to review and correct / confirm the decision? The striker and goalie in their analogy don’t. They seem to have made the argument that most of us would agree with is that current version of VAR should be scrapped and only reinstated if proper investment and training of officials takes place.

That is one pathetic statement. Its ok for Celtic managers to speak directly with officials to criticise or openly question them live on tv, but pundits cant? Also banning pundits for saying what the majority think about standards. VAR decisions cant be subjective. Clear and Obvious!! Obviously threats to officials is so wrong. But remind me which clubs fans is most guilty of this and because of that these officials are now compelled to side with them at all costs because they dont want hassle. Several officials are known to he compromised by this yet keep getting put in charge of Celtic games. SFA is not fit for purpose.

A problem entirely of their own making, i assume its not the Celtic fans allegedly harrassing Beaton, which is totally unacceprable under any circumstances. So why does Beaton keep getting Celtic games given the issues involving him. The statement condems everyone else but fails to mention any intention to resolve the main issue, ie incompetent match and Var officials continuously getting decisions wrong.

Happy to accept you have posted this in good faith, but not sure how an article from the Express helps the discourse? They are fervent anti SNP Brexiteers with an axe to grind. They also mention in the article that similar schemes are in place in Germany and the Netherlands. So what agenda are the governments / FA in those countries following? There are many faults in our game and with our government, but suggesting that there is some conspiracy between the SFA and SNP to ensure Celtic win the league (as the article does, not you personally) is some leap.