Andy_P

I'm not going to mention the sum concerned but a definite figure of what would be taken out of the budget was stated at the AGM earlier in the year. Having heard that - alongside the ethos of youth development and sourcing younger players with sell-on value, my eyebrows were most certainly raised when it was announced that Pearo was signing a two year deal. I genuinely believed that he and McDonald would have a mutually beneficial spell with us this season where they raised their profile, proved their fitness and ability whilst they hopefully kept us up and they'd move on to bigger things again. It's left me a little unclear as to what kind of squad we'll begin next season with. But in terms of sustainability the investment put in is already paying beginning to pay dividends. That's two excellent performances from Erwin and Johnson that have gone out live on nationwide TV in recent weeks, not to mention the box of tricks last night that was Dom Thomas. Yes, Erwin still has to sign the deal that will give us bargaining power when it comes to a transfer fee but that would appear to be imminent. In time those three alone could go some way to recouping the outlay that was invested to (hopefully) ensure our top flight place and make some strides into paying back the monies due to Messrs Boyle and Hutchinson.

I might be wrong but I seem to remember it always being there, it isn't just since since the upgrade. However.... if you move your cursor across the right hand side of the claret header that has Shoutbox on it, and let it hovver for a second you should see a wee minus sign. Click the minus sign, the shoutbox is minimised out of view, and you need never be bothered by it again. And if you ever get nosey, same principle applies, except it'll be a wee plus sign you'll click to re-activate it.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Aye, one of the BT Sport channels.

Listened to most of the podcast on the way in to work this morning (ran out of time and still have the last 10 minutes to go) but even without having completed it much of what I had intended to post has already been covered. I think the away fan idea is one that should continue on occasion. In years gone by one of the things I did for the 'Well programme was to try to get an away fan to give us their views. Now you always run the risk of the opposition punter being a bit of a fud (a Rangers fan one year memorably demanded payment for example) I always thought it was worthwhile as it gave an insight into a team and their support that you generally wouldn't have and it's always interesting to see how others view us. The podcast is a much more extensive and more modern extension to that. The very fact that it has generated a fair bit of discussion and reaction on here, greater than many regular podcasts, suggests that it has a place in the grand scheme. Again as already discussed above the main talking point for me was the atmosphere related chat from the Saints boy.In attempting to make what a was a fair point in general he very much lost his way when he tried to use Fir Park as an example It was an very poor choice of phrase to describe the Bois and to go on and attempt to have us believe that the atmosphere generated in Saints old crappy covered enclosure was real and spontanious yet the atmosphere generated in Motherwell's crappy old covered enclosure was artifical and manufactured was a bit laughable. The atmosphere down that section of the ground is of course no more manufactured and artificial than St Mirren fans used to make in their North Bank. In fact given his "observations" about the lack of atmosphere in Saints new name he might do well to study the evolution of the atmosphere at Fir Park.

Thinking very much along similar lines. It has the makings of quite a game. For slightly different reasons there is no margin for error for either team. We can't afford to let Ross County get any further ahead or St Mirren pull us back towards them and obviously there is potential for them to go 10 behind both us and County. That St Mirren really have to win could perhaps be to our advantage in terms of our ability to break at them with pace, particularly if Johnson makes it. We seem to be growing as a team, confident, and have shown some good character of late. We must see more of the more of the same allied to playing as we know we can. Do that and I would like to think we'll be fine.

Your thoughts and votes please...

Unless it's happened already I'm hoping the failure to confirm Locke as the Killie manager going forward will transmit some uncertainty to their players. I thought he'd have been a shoe-in and it would have been a case of simply rubber stamping his appointment. Any little distraction helps!

That was probably the Partick Thistle loan deal where he was on loan to them for all of about 6 minutes, if indeed he ever got as far as Maryhill, before breaking his arm.

Question for Mr Buff Balderson.... What was life like being a Motherwell player who resided (and was known to partake of the odd pint or two Delletts bar) in Airdrie? Get much stick? Give much stick? Give you an extra incentive?

Rangers fans will quite rightly claim Coop to be one of their own. He did after all play for them for more than a decade and supported them but whilst I'm obviously biased I believe it's vital not to underplay the significance of his time at Motherwell. His career was after all going nowhere at Ibrox when he came to us. He'd already reached veteran status and with each big money buy Rangers made, like Mark Walters for example, he was being pushed further and further down the pecking order. The move to Fir Park revitalised him and was a perfect marriage of player and club. It must surely have been beneficial for him to come in and work under trusted former colleagues like Tommy McLean and Tom Forsyth and alongside former team-mates Craig Paterson and Bobby Russell. Not quite perhaps a home from home but would he have enjoyed the same familarity, understanding of his capabilities and belief in him that those guys had, had he went elsewhere? Who knows. Whatever the case as has already been said in the thread he really moved us on a level as a club. We gained so so much from his ability on the park and on the training ground. And we certainly gained a warmer media profile that we hadn't had before. But Motherwell were good for Davie too. He got a Scottish Cup winners medal when he probably expected he'd long since lifted his last piece of silverware. He also got a return to the Scotland side after a couple of years and but for injury would have represented Motherwell at Italia 90. As I say a perfect match that was mutually benifical. One of my best memories of him playing is actually the one Flow has recalled in his Evening TImes piece but perhaps the thing that makes me smile most is the tale of his apparent childlike glee at being able to parade the Scottish Cup around the streets of Motherwell on 19th May 1991, that for obvious reasons had been denied him when played for Rangers. Something quite special about a man that made so many people happy sharing one of the happiest experiences of his playing career with those very people.

He's quietly smirking to himself having just told Darren Jackson, John Clark and Dave Bowman "here's what you could have won".....

Ross County have been on absolutely sensational run...........yet are still just three points ahead. All those games undefeated, all those great wins, but still only managed to get three ahead of 11th place. Far, far from being over.

Think it was there, aye. Much the same as now, if you clicked on the actual shoutbox it opened in to a kind of sub-forum that allowed you to scroll through roughly double the amount of shouts you see at the top of the screen. And I think you had the option to do a search through the archives as you can now. It's just not really an area of the site many would generally be scouting back through so probably went unnoticed.

I wonder if the experienced players like Sutton, Pearson and McDonald are giving Baraclough something to think about but personally it would not surprise me if none of the three of them are with us next season. The budget that we're operating with now is not going to be the same as what the manager will be working with next season for one thing. And tied in with that of course is that the focus of the club is now meant to be about developing our own/bringing in youngsters with potential. I may well be wrong but I would imagine that come the summer both Pearson and McDonald will have shown enough in their time back with us to have raised their profiles sufficiently to achieve deals acceptable to them. Even if they were amenable to taking what I would anticipate would be reduced terms, where does re-signing thirty somethings fit in with selling on at a profit? Sutton is marginally different in that he isn't trying to re-establish his profile in Scottish football, but the point still stands that having, I would suspect, taken a cut to come back here in the first place even if a deal was offered is he likely to consider another cut when other teams will I'm sure be keen get someone with his scoring record on board. I could easily see him at somewhere like Firhill or back at Dens next season - which would be sad. However I don't want to end my post on a negative when the thread is about celebrating one of our finest goalscorers of recent years. He's not everyone's cup of tea but our team have clearly benefited from his presence over a number of years as his goalscoring record shows.

It's the text field you have to type right? Not the actual name bar. I was trying to tap the name bar earlier and getting nothing but when I click on the text field that the Edit and Quote options appear.

Your thoughts and votes please on this most joyous of Friday evenings...

I'm feeling positive about tonight. I don't think it will be easy but I get the impression that we're gearing up to come absolutely flying out the traps at that them. If we can get an early goal or two, set the tone hopefully we can go on and win with something to spare. We've been on the kind of run Accies are on just now, we know how at times like this all it needs is something to go against you, an element of doubt creeps in and you see the players thinking "here we go again" and some of them fold. Gerrintaethum, as a wise man once said!

Now done Sieb!

Aye, I caught it. As soon as it came on I thought it had to be from the podcast given Les was seemingly in Barbados. Should have been a proper namecheck for you but at least they didn't have the total cheek to pass it off as their own work. Still 'As seen on TV' can now be added to future podcast adverts

Immediately before pumping us 4-0 they played us at home and over 120 minutes nobody could find the net (which is kind of close).

Would it be difficult to add PayPal to your list of payment options? Strikes me that, that could be a fairly straightforward workaround. Plenty of overseas forum members for example contributed by that method to this sites own WS membership. Whilst there may be fees minor involved in the transactions it may well be better in the longer term if it's the case that overseas folk are finding a barrier to their greater involvement.

Whaddya know. He's right...... ....is this what they mean by law of averages....

If it works for you Sieb, PM with me that you wanted to contribute, I'll paypal it to Yabbas Turd and you can square me up at the Accies game on Friday.

The site gaffer politely asked that the abuse, trolling, discussion of abuse and trolling be left aside. It wasn't. Much of it has now been edited/removed to help keep the thread on track. Some stuff there was no need at all for. Some stuff was fairly accurate in response but I hope you understand why both have gone to clean the thread up a bit. If you suspect someone of trolling - ignore it or continue to take them to task - just leave out the abuse.