weeyin

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The reason the local media loves NFL players is because there are so few teams and such a big market. So no rivalries to speak off and most cities are a one (or zero) trick pony. When there is a rivalry, the teams are kept apart so they are never in direct competition. It's smart marketing by the league, but the structure of the whole franchise business and the market for the game is so different as to be a pointless comparison with the SPL. I still doubt, however, that any Broncos fans have any love for Cutler.

As a club with a requirement to 'sell a player a season' we have done pretty well in holding onto our assets. However, I think it was inevitable, even before new TV deal was signed, that we would need to offload one or two this time around. I was expecting Randolph and Hutch to be prime targets and I think we have sufficient cover to avoid it being a catastrophic loss. It would be more difficult to deal with the loss of Jennings and Law.

I think that is a huge generalization of a population (and something that certainly doesn't happen in the North East, at least). If you are a Yankees player and brave enough to be walking down Lexington Avenue, you better be prepared for some stick! Of course there are exceptions in certain parts of the country - particularly where there towns with only one professional team, but the majority of newspapers and sports talk shows are dedicated to slagging off A-Rod, K-Rod, Tebow, Bay etc. American Football and baseball crowds have been dropping in recent years too as value for money becomes a priority. When I moved over here in 1997, there was a 10 year waiting list for season tickets for the New York Jets, for example, and no new applications were being taken. In the last 3 years, not only have they burned through that waiting list, they now can't sell the remainder. They actually have commercials on TV now trying to offload them.

Works fine for non-UK folks now

I tried to buy one, but when it came to paying, I received an error message saying that 'product' was not available outside of the UK!

The same is true for most teams though, so it's still a reasonable statstical measure.

The problem is, while our overall average attendance is low, we rank among the highest in spectators per head of population for the town. You want more fans through the gate, you need to kill or severely restrict live games (including EPL and Spanish, German etc) and stop messing around with kick-off times.

Exactly. If he wanted to play for us I think we might know. Right now, he's obviously not interested and there is no reason why he should be.

Is that some new rhyming slang - he's OK, just need 5 stitches in the athens thread?

From their forums it sounds like they are the Spanish version of us: And just for steelboy

No way we could afford Beattie and, tbh, despite the doubters on here, not a position we need to address compared to midfield.

I think if you bothered to check my posts over the years, my comments on the team performances have been pretty reasoned and balanced. Or even just my comments on the Ross County game. And there was no criticism of the team from me for the first leg. I don't think, for example, being disappointed with Hutchy for making exactly the same mistake 2 games in a row is particularly harsh or having it both ways. I would say that was a constructive comment that we need to learn from our mistakes. In the match thread, I laid out the reasons for my pride, delight (and yes) disappointment at the performance in the tie. It's OK to have more than one thought or emotion at a time. Sorry if you find that having it 'both ways', but not everything in life is black and white.

Fixed it for you

I don't want any tie that gives the English media a chance to patronize us if we lose.

I'm sorry, but this just smacks of the 'plucky Motherwell' headlines we are likely to see in tomorrow's papers. I have no problem in with being proud of the team for their achievements, and both amazed and delighted we made a CL game in my lifetime. That doesn't mean there isn't some disappointment in some of the errors that we made. When we beat Hearts at Tynecastle last season to set ourselves up for 3rd place, I don't remember any chat about them being bigger and stronger and costing more than Motherwell can ever dream of (even though all 3 are true). There is no shame in losing over the 2 legs to a team of that calibre. There is no shame in being proud of what we have achieved. I don't, however, think it's unreasonable to be annoyed at the nature of the first goal we conceded tonight or concerned that we are still lacking a cutting edge (whether against Greeks or SPL opponents). Remember, we a have a number of players with European experience at club and U-21 level and would expect them to be just a little more savvy sometimes. That doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the tie, it just sets up more talking points for the upcoming games - including lessons to take into our Europa Cup adventure.

If the opinion is along the lines of "any man under 40 could play as well as Higdon", I think 'muppet' is being generous.

The fact that he didn't learn his lesson from last week is sufficiently worrying.

I don't think that was the plan in the first half. When Aberdeen were successful in Europe, they played this way for all their away games. First half, shut up shop - second half, open up. Not to say we are going to do anything dramatic tonight, but base on our propensity to lose early/slack goals, no harm in starting off with these tactics.

McCall said that while we were looking to score first, he wasn't necessarily looking to score early. So the plan is working

Too expensive (and they are professional players). For our budget we need some of your 'any man under 40' contacts that we can pick up cheap. No pros or ex-pros.

Which one of these readily available goal-scoring machines do you suggest we sign up as a replacement? I'm sure Motherwell, and most SPL clubs, would love to know.

They are all following the party line: It's very hot Be patient First goal important Still have Europa Cup

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/ I expect more to follow.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/ has a stream listed for the game.