LadywellToi

I just selected a few, I could of course listed Malpas, Black, Gannon and Butcher but time is precious.

Aye that's it, you hit the nail on the head.

There has been an undercurrent of malaise and apathy from many in the appointment of our new boss, I feel some wouldn't have been happy unless Gus Hiddink or Mourinho stepped into the breach. We have Stuart McCall, he ticked all the boxes (or at least most of them), he is now at his second club since hanging up his boots, God knows how many managers started off with us, had indifferent spells and now are considered hot property (Davies, McLeish). Just to put things in perspective, here is how Stuart has performed in his first month compared with others: McGhee St Mirren 0-1 Motherwell - WIN Motherwell 2-1 Inverness CT - WIN Motherwell 1-2 Kilmarnock - LOSS Gretna 1-2 Motherwell - WIN Motherwell 3-1 Raith - WIN Motherwell 0-2 Hearts - LOSS 9 points in the league from the bottom 3 sides (one game being away but actually at home), progression to CIS next round. Brown and Knox Kilmarnock 0-3 Motherwell - WIN Inverness CT 2-0 Motherwell - LOSS Motherwell 2-0 St Mirren - WIN Falkirk 0-0 Motherwell - DRAW Aberdeen 0-3 Motherwell - WIN Motherwell 1-0 Hamilton - WIN 13 points in the league, out the Scottish Cup at first hurdle. No players leaving in Jan other than McGarry who was a fringe player. McCall Hamilton 0-0 Motherwell - DRAW Dundee 0-4 Motherwell - WIN Dundee Utd 2-0 Motherwell - LOSS Motherwell 0-0 Inverness CT - DRAW Motherwell 2-0 Hibernian - WIN St Johnstone 1-0 Motherwell - LOSS 5 points in the league, good chance of Scottish Cup quarter final (granted we've had a favourable draw), 3 starters and 1 fringe player leave the team. At present I see us taking 5th from Inverness in the next game or so but overtaken by Dundee as they have 4 or so on us, which retains 6th and the extra revenues. This doesn't take account of the resurgence or other teams.

Sorry Dave, for me this thread is a little divisive. Granted you don't ask directly if he's the right man for the job, but you have to accept the options you pose in the poll lead many to that debate, highlighted by how much you've had to defend this thread so far. If we were all made fully aware of what went on in the aftermath of pink and perky leaving, the calibre of candidates who applied with McCall and if they truly knew the financial constraints on the club at present then I can understand. However we're not and never will be unless Leeann or Boyle release their memoirs in 20 years time a la Alistair Campbell. There are so many factors affecting things outside if they actually like the club. There are geographic considerations, family issues, knowing you have a core support of 3,500, getting shirt buttons from Sky as punishment for Setanta and the budgets that goes with that. Not to mention living so close to the cash cow that is English football, most ambitious managers would always have their eye on moving back down south (like Gannon).

Saint Johnstone beat us with a moment of madness it would appear. Radio commentary suggested yet again we're struggling to offer alternatives in the final third. Aberdeen win again, Blackman gets their second goal. Poor night all round.

Handball by Craigan, no yellow card???? Pick it up gents, this time last year we were embarrassing Hearts and Killie.

Yet again Flow get more mentions than any squad member. Sounds like its a dire game though.

Apologies it was a Froidian slip, it was Stewart I was talking about.

Here's a shout. Michael Fraser is training just now with Falkirk, worth a punt? Half decent pedigree, recent history is a bit murky though, however we don't know the full story why he left Hearts by mutual consent and things turned sour in Turkey. Everything points to him starting a fight in an empty room though. Secondly don't be surprised if a current first team starter has his contract is extended this week.

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I'd be interested to know if any club official see names mentioned on here and puts them forward for further scrutiny.

Now the Old Firms eyes have been opened to this, maybe this is where steer things. That way they can play each other countless times a season in bigoted, money-spinning utopia.

Them's the breaks

Going forward with football in this country, this is key.

I think this news compounds the fact last week was one to best forget.

Rumbled. So what's the deal then Dibble? First you extol his virtues at every opportunity, you call for him to wear the Dark Blue, you suggest you'd drive him to Ibrox if Rangers were to bid for him and now Eddie has found you waxing lyrical on the board of Gannon's new team. The only constant is you back Humphrey no matter what however the ultimate loyalty you should have on a forum website should be to the club. Players come and go. So what is the deal? Family relation? Your sister is his better half? Of course you must know by admitting what your relationship is it would loosen the shaky peg of your credibility.

I doubt our board could be too angry, we've pillaged the lower leagues of England and used the cross border thing to our benefit more than we've lost out. Rotherham's duty is to maximise their return, by leaking our interest to the press they remind everyone he's there for the taking if the price is right, in this case its £0 at present and 11 days and counting, so anything on the table may be entertained. Otherwise the source could easily be his agent trying to ensure a increase in his wages and consequently his 10%. From what I read he appears to go through peaks and troughs in his contribution to games, they suggested he sometimes was electric but it happened far too infrequently. There is also a degree of ambivalence which means he wasn't regarded as being integral. However most are wanting to get some money from him and would certainly keep him in the background. I'm sure we could name a number of players that share that bio and have played at FP in the past few years.

I'd agree with your summary Johnstone. As much as it pains me to say it, he'll come up against 2 teams that regularly hold their own at least half the time with some of the biggest teams in Europe. 8 times a season he'll play in 20,000+ capacity stadiums, (4 of which will be 50,000+) He'll get more media exposure even if our and Rotherham's average attendances are much the same. Any rated players that have left us have went to a higher level than league 2.

Page seemed to sit in front of the defence in a central role. He did shadow Zamamammamamaamama though. Meechan to me looks physically like Patterson the season before McGhee got him running up and down stairs. He has the look of that guy that managed to get his photo taken with Manchester Utd before their champions league game. He didn't do anything wrong but then again nothing overly impressive, that could be said for almost all of the team today, against anyone above St. Mirren we may have struggled, Hibs were God awful. Jones looked nippier than I expected, few nice touches and certainly balances the team from relying just on Humphrey.

I read Leeann's post with interest, who is she kidding ..... as Pingu addressed in the Grella thread, this is what he said in his BBC interview: The blonde, colonial, donut munching fanny was ditched for this outrageous sentence. I love the fact the club now have a zero tolerance, no nonsense policy on players who come out with idiotic statements. Don't believe this FIFA regulations stuff, he was sent packing for his rambling tongue. I for one am impressed that we've grown balls again. Casagolda .... Stockport come and get me ..... you're getting a voodoo doll made up by Porteous at present, prepare for some pain.

There must be a whole litany of people who could/should have known Grella's status and advised accordingly. From Leeann, to McCall, to his agent, to the player himself, to journo's and to his parent club, plus countless others who were aware of the move and could have taken their boss/colleague/friend to one side and asked the pertinent question. Long and short is, there should have been someone from 20+ who were involved either directly or indirectly who recognised there was a barrier to him joining us.

Well lets see, so far in the past year or so (feel free to add any I've missed out): Gannon signed with no contract, some may argue this worked out well for us, others feel he was Well's great last hope. Brown and Knox signed, again with no contract, bit of chat in interviews from them that Boyle is honourable and this is their last job .... yadda yadda yadda, Leeann countering with a contract is always on the table if they want it. Sponsor chat during the summer, told we'd have something in place by a Tuesday in mid June from memory, it turned out to be Commsworld for a song a nano-second before the SPL started. Announcement that Brown was staying after his first meeting with Milne ... we all know how that turned out. If Blackman comes back to Scotland it will definitely be with us. Sbagria, etc. publicly giving us the bum steer. Grella today ..... Of course we don't know all the details surrounding all of the above, however from where we are sitting it appears to show the club as being inept and worthy or our criticism. I did put say something along the lines of "whatever we do, lets get the press releases sorted out so we don't get egg on our faces yet again" about 2/3 weeks ago. I did a search but couldn't find it.

You have to be bloody joking. If this is the case then its yet another example of a glaring oversight, some may say, our third in one season.

Going by that questioning precident I'm surprised he didn't follow it up with: "We have lots of McDonalds, Coke and there is the odd Frankie and Benny's, you'll feel right at home no doubt?"

Surprised you'd judge him after 90 minutes or less mate. For me his age is irrelevant as he is only with us for 6 months before returning to his parent club. If he was an acquisition we'd used part of the £100k Reynolds cash then I'd share your wariness. Fizoxy has a point, if we'd speculated on the transfer front well in advance of Odense then it may have made that extra bit of difference this season. With our current league position and cup progress it would be nice and hopeful to think that we'd take a punt, however I think those days were 5 years ago with an average attendance 1,000 more than at present and more interest from broadcasters at least.