weeyin

Wonder if Fletcher can take a pen.

I didn't see anyone mention "hurt feelings" anywhere in the thread. I did see a few concerns about throwing a guy in the team that just drove up to Motherwell yesterday morning, but we'll know soon if that works out.

While it's not unreasonable for the fans to think the new keeper is coming in as Number One, Baraclough certainly hasn't played it that way to the media. Regardless, even if the plan is to make him first choice, I'm not sure he should play tomorrow purely because he might need a few more days just to settle in.

Lazy journos everywhere are getting ready to print their "Ripley's Game" and "The Talented Mr Ripley" headlines.

That's what everyone said That's what everyone said about Dan when we signed him.

With those credentials, he might even be allowed 2 games to settle in.

Seriously, though - excellent news.

Stuart Ripley's boy I see. God, I'm getting old - I remember him playing on the wing when Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League.

I hope so. And, of course, on the bright side, if he's mince, we can ditch him in January

Great to have a new keeper in, but I guess the gaffer didn't manage to get the permanent signing or fulls season loan deal he was looking for.

And, of course "definitely not replacing Scott Allan".

I hope that means will get him for free at the end of the Irish season.

Maybe not replacing on form, but we can't afford lack of cover there like last season if Hammell is injured even short term.

I gave up complaining via email about a year ago. They were always quick to reply, but nothing ever happened. I had my dad raise the paypal issue at one of the recent meetings, and he got the "we're working on it" response. That was a few months ago. I raised the issue of not being able to participate when the first Well Sociey meeting was planned and was fobbed off with the "we dont have internet or phone lines" excuse. I raised it a few more times and only ever received more of the same. Same when I raised the issues about most of the membership benefits being of no use to anyone except locals. There came a point when I was just wasting my energy to even write the email.

That seems most likely. We missed Hammell last season with no natural left back to cover him and I'm sure Chalmers was brought in to remedy that situation.

In his interview yesterday, Baraclough said that a couple of keeper options they were pursuing fell through and, while he was open to a loan, he'd prefer to buy (or at a minimum get a full season loan). I agree that defending has been a weak point the past few seasons, but with 2 central defenders and a left back signed, at least it seems we are taking steps to address that.

So more than 20 minutes and less than 2 years would be reasonable. My bigger complaint is the general treatment of overseas and long distance members. There was a lot made at the outset of how global the Society was and all these members from all these different countries. And here we are today with no facility to make payments online and, more importantly, no way to participate in, or even listen to, any of the Well Society meetings. More and more it feels like we are an afterthought. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have contributed to the Society and help out the club as it's one of the few options open to and expat. I would stop short, however, of asking a friend to join unless they lived within spitting distance of Fir Park because otherwise they won't be able to participate at any meaningful level.

Baraclough's quote from Sunday: "We definitely need another keeper in because we’ve only got one senior keeper, but we’re not too far away on that."

I remember when half of Fir Park screamed abuse at Steve Kirk every week. That was shortly after the demonstration demanding Tommy McLean get the sack.

Aye, but we knew he wasn't going to sign. As for whether it's scummy or not, thanks to Bosman, there aren't many ways to make money from transfers these days. The first step that made the rich teams richer and killed the smaller teams like us.

Signed up and paid. If paypal skimmed any weird conversion fees or charges let me know and I'll be happy to make up the difference.

Is that not exactly what we did with Lee Erwin?

Plan to sign up later in the week. My only comment is the prize structure seems a little generous. I'd be happy with 10 or 20 quid first prize plus bragging rights given the money raised is going to a good cause.

That's the dilemma for a keeper, of course. Any decent team needs 2 quality keepers to cover for injuries, loss of form etc. Inevitably, one of them will end up on the bench week after week. I'm sure, you are right, that for some (if not many) they are happy to take the money - but I imagine that a lot of that has to do with the mentality of keepers too i.e. for years you prepare to be in that position, because it's the nature of the beast. However, I still don't doubt there is sufficient quality available out there that we can tap into.

As long as we can guarantee at least 200 selfies per team member I think we could have a result here.