weeyin

The format for the league cup is OK, although it remains to be seen how long clubs take it seriously in future seasons. I can see certain teams worrying more about their glamour friendlies than games against Annan. My bigger concern is that those in charge think tinkering with the formats is the solution to the underlying malaise in our game. So rather than tackling the issues across the board, we are, to quote that intellectual heavyweight Sarah Palin, putting liptstick on a pig.

Exactly. It's like when my company bills my time to a client. If I got that money in my pocket, I'd retire. Unfortunately there are those pesky overheads like tax, insurance, heat, light, internet, phones, holidays, training etc. that also have to be paid - not to mention the time when I'm not working for a client. Would be great if turnover = profit.

The Accies game meant something to me only because I lived in Hamilton and had a lot of Accies supporting mates. So bragging rights were important, especially at school. Games against teams like Hearts, however, always felt more derby-ish, just because of the history.

Is Motherwell vs Clydebank a derby these days?

30 quid sent via paypal. Was able to spring for a bit extra thanks to the favourable exchange rate.

It's even more naive to think that any information that leaks is anywhere near true. Of course we can work out approximate wage scales for players based on our annual budget, but that's different from guys blabbing about their wages.

I don't think the players discuss their wages with punters, no.

Saying "I didn't come here for the money" isn't the same as "I don't get paid very much".

Still amazes me that players will happily share their contract details with punters. They need better agents.

Not a bad move to placate the fans seeing as Greg Stewart also looks to be on the move. Be interesting to see how he performs at a higher level.

On the other hand, if we brought in a player for 30k and moved them on for 500k every year, we'd have one of the best business models in the SPFL.

The main driving force is that Les set up the infrastructure to identify players to bring in, develop and move on for a fee - even if we had to lay out some cash up front. He set that up in tandem with his strategy to develop from within the club. We had been terrible at doing that in recent seasons, but I fully expect to see one of our top players move on every year now. That's not necessarily a bad thing as long as we keep doing the right thing when it comes to our scouting methods and youth development. It's really the best way for a club like our to sustain itself.

We'll hammer them 1 - 0.

At the very least this should be part of the Ins & Outs. Too many personnel related threads opening up. As trolling goes, however, 2/10.

I would't rush to judgement on anything based on our first competitive game in the middle of a preseason with new defenders. If we are still doing it in September, that's a different story.

Not really. It stops clubs playing favourites and recalling players to help their mates (or their own club).

Given McGhee's tactics of playing 3 up front last season, and it's relative success, I don't see why he'd change it this season. Would be good if we could change shape from time to time, though, as 3 up top won't work every week.

Good to see us keep the head against stuffy teams and keep creating chances until we take a few. Makes a change from losing last minute sickeners.

Unfortunately all down to reduced budgets. It's also why they stopped covering all SPFL games live. On the plus side, BBC Alba has stepped up their game for the regular season and offer excellent coverage, both live and 1hr highlights.

Selling on players is something that we have failed at in recent times and has cost us financially. If we are going to be successful off the field we need to get back into the habit of moving on a better player each season, and having others step up to replace them. While Marvin is obviously an asset to the team, let's not forget how good we were for a few seasons before he joined. He'd be a loss, but he's certainly not irreplaceable.

Or the NY Jets and NY Giants based out of New Jersey.

I was surprised Thomas wasn't loaned out when McGhee came in. I remember in one of his first interviews after re-joining, McGhee was talking about how useful it was for players to be loaned out to help them develop, and Thomas was one of the names he mentioned as a candidate. Was fully expecting to see him loaned out this season. Of course, there is still time for that. I think he has suffered a bit from being close enough to the first team to want to keep him involved, but not getting enough game time to see how he develops.

I believe distractions like that fall under the category of "Waiting for the code to compile."

I suspect Thomas will receive the same Sports Scientist treatment this season that Cadden & Hall received last season to beef (and sharpen) them up a bit.

Except it is. The only difference being that (as McGhee pointed out) in a real pre-season he doesn't have to keep easing back on (or missing) training sessions because of the games. The only other difference is that we are winning games.