weeyin

I'm open to the idea of Boyd, but if he did join that would make the need for some pace even more critical. I could just about keep up with Sutton and Boyd myself!

The Sutton stuff I read all appeared to be lifted directly from his MFC TV interview with 'Flow rather than interaction with any journos. Presumably this is just a chance for the media to get a few quotes of their own.

This is Motherwell. We have some fans that want us to blood the youngsters, but who give them dog's abuse if they show any lack of consistency.

Or convicted.

As well as the names floating around, McCall also said he plans to bring in some trialists over the next 10 days, so presumably he has an eye on a signing or two from that pool.

Not a Wullie Pettigrew fan, then?

That seems in line with McCall's comments at his press conference today,

Exactly. I think we could learn a lot from the German financial model, and the French 10 year plan they adopted to improve their game from the grass roots (albeit on a much smaller scale). However, while that would improve the quality on the park and maybe (just maybe) lead to more financial stability, I doubt it would have much of an impact on attendances. We could make it free entry at Fir Park every week and I doubt we'd ever see it full.

I'll take that plus a Cup win

Looking forward to the rebuilding. McCall and his team seemed to think they had identified potential targets to replace all the out of contract guys, so we'll see soon enough how that pans out. Mixed emotions about Higgy - sorry to see the big man go, but better he leaves a hero than struggles to match the form again this season. Been happy with the 2 new signings, so if the remainder are of a similar quality I'll have no complaints.

I'd put money on us signing a player or two after our first Europa Cup game. I'd rather we signed the right players than the players that happen to be available early.

It's more than 2 months before the window closes - then there are the free agents after that. Plenty of time for clubs and agents to be working out their best prospects.

I didn't say it was a perfect model - it was a quick calculation while I was drinking my coffee. The original poster was, however, talking about how how we could operate a 'scaled down' version of the German model and I think my back of a fag packet figures are a reasonable first order model to show that our relative attendances aren't that much different. Also, to address your point, the model assumes that the % of people in Germany who don't support their local club is similar to the % of people in Scotland who don't support their local club. The bottom line, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is that if we got 25 million Euros every year from telly we could afford to implement some of the pricing and other incentives Dortmund offers.

A quick trawl of the internet stats shows that: Dortmund's average attendance equates to approximately 7.2% of that city's population. Motherwell's average attendance equates to almost 10% of Motherwell's population. So maybe we are a scaled down version already?

They can afford to charge those prices (and hold that lofty principle) thanks to the 25 million or so Euros they pulled in from TV. Having a population of close to 600,000 probably helps their attendances too.

Of course, the flip side to that argumemt is that it's going to be difficult for any player to break into such a settled and successful side - the fortunate situation we have been in the past couple of seasons. If we were in a comfortable mid-table slot the managent team might be more willing to blood a few more youngsters. I also still need convincing that a second tier Dutch team is of higher quality than our first team from last season.

No idea, but I'm hoping whoever we bring in will be supported by a few Lee Erwin and Craig Moore appearances this season.

It will be sitting there a long time if they are waiting for me to pop in and pick it up.

Ach, give him a break. He's excited now that he's learned how to cut and paste his google search results.

Ron and Williamof ?

The transfer window doesn't close until the 31st of August and we kick off on the 1st. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that a signing or two arrives after our season has started (either in August or even as a free agent after that). Obviously it would be ideal to have everyone signed before that, but if players are weighing up offers until the last few days of the window, we (and other clubs) may have to wait.

Like I was saying, I'd rather we signed Dougie Imrie than have another day of this patter.

I'd rather we signed Dougie Imrie than have another day of this patter.

My concern with Sutton is that he only hit that form in his last few months because he was looking for a move and wanted to impress potential suitors. However, if McCall has an idea of how he might fit into a rebuilt squad I'm willing to give him a chance.

One of the first players that made an impression on me as a kid. Fair to say his style was "no nonsense". Had a cracking shot on him too and not afraid to have a pop from 40 yards.