Al B

The thing that I can't get my head round, is that every single decision they make revolves around getting as good a TV deal as they can possibly get for the games, and then if we stay at home and watch them, we're in the wrong. The whole thing's fucking mental.

I couldn't give two hoots if we have no clean sheets as long as we're scoring goals. I don't pay my money to watch great defending.

Oh of course, im not saying it would have been better to have a 400k offer 5 years ago, as opposed to the 5 years service and everything that came with it. But it goes a long way to explaining part of the reason between the 2 situations. If Aberdeen had dealt with Fraser in the same way that we dealt with Murphy...they wouldn't have had a 400k bid either.

That's kind of the point though, and ties back to what's being said in the other thread. Thanks to a few different parties including Craig Brown...Everyone knows Ryan Frasers name at 17, after 3 full games. Jamie Murphy was at Motherwell for 11 years and it's only in the last couple that people have properly heard of him.

Not impressed that you've never heard of January sales?

I don't think you can demand more for our players in transfers, because other clubs will only bid what they feel the player is worth, and we're not in a financial position to be turning many bids down. Where we can have an influence though, is in how other clubs view the players of ours that they are looking at, which in turn raises their opinion of what they are worth, and that's what brings in slightly higher bids. Unfortunately that promotion of our product (ie the players themselves) is where we fall down badly.

That's absolutely bang on the money, and it's from the highest level at the club right down to the fans. Our club mentality has always been "let's not get carried away", and it's let us down in everything from player values/transfers/PR, to European performances and results....and occasionally even league finishes. As far as the fans go, you only have to look at the difference between fan reactions when United had a few non-entities called up to the Scotland squad and they defended the inclusion of guys like Gary Kenneth to the hilt. Steven Saunders gets a call up and what did we do? We laughed and said...good luck to the boy but how did that happen?! We're talking about why Jamie Murphy's transfer value here, and two major reasons for the level it was at are these: If he'd been called up to the Scotland squad last season, there would be 5 pages on here congratulating him...and 5 pages saying he was nowhere near good enough for Scotland and shouldn't have been picked. Our clubs official response would have been along the lines of "he works hard and deserves his chance, but we've got a lot of hard working boys here. It's a good experience for him to be in and around the squad, and hopefully if we're doing well he might get 10/15 mins" We are RIDICULOUS for this "punching above our weight" nonsense. You are where you are and you either make the most of it, or you sit and wonder why every one else is getting stuff that you aren't. You can play fair and then sit and moan about other clubs, or you can get stuck in and try to take what you want. This niceness as a club does my nut in.

Twitter is responsible for a ridiculous amount of fucking creepy behaviour.

In fairness, a large part of that pressure situation could have easily been avoided by actually putting the ball on the spot. Yeah it put huge added pressure on him...but if you're blatantly going to do this: Then you have to accept what it's going to cause when it's beamed onto the 2 big screens at Parkhead. We might see it as petty, but the difference in distance isn't going to give you an advantage so why create that situation for yourself?

What I would say is that i'd imagine many clubs are looking at a similar change, throughout the footballing world. In times past a penalty was pretty much as good as a goal, you'd have been as well just awarding it and keeping the game going. But the advent of technology and access to viewing games and players in the last 10 years, has meant that goalkeeping has moved on from "the dafty that will chuck himself in front of anything", to being an actual art. Goalkeepers do their research, are much more agile, and are much more up in the psychology of the game these days...and all of those combine to make a huge difference. From what used to be almost a certain goal, a penalty these days is probably only around 70/30 in favour of the taker. We're noticing our failings because we're close to the club and see every single one, but if you look at the wider picture in other games, leagues and countries, penalty shootouts, goalkeepers have upped the stakes massively in recent years.

Aside from the fact i'd imagine most peoples understanding of football differs from yours, Im addressing a problem, not apportioning blame. As I said I like Tom Hateley a lot but regardless of who the player is, and regardless of where the instruction comes from, the dominance of dead-ball situations by someone who has a success/completion rate of less than 1% in putting the ball where he's attempting to put it, surely flags up a problem that should be addressed. If Chris Humphrey was designated to be the set-piece taker, how long would he last before someone else was told to hit them instead? Tom Hateley's delivery is no better...why is he untouchable?

This. I like Tom Hateley, and for his general play he would be one of my first names on the team sheet...but the only person that thinks he has any type of dead-ball skill is himself...and believing that you're amazing at something which in reality you're extremely poor at, is not an endearing quality. And that's today's penalty aside...not only is he ineffective with a dead-ball, but his dominance of every opportunity prevents anyone else having any kind of attempt at success.

"I'll take it! I'm a dead ball specialist!! I scored from a corner....I have an earring like David Beckham and wear Predators and everything!!!!" Right ye are Tom.

A lot of the content of this topic reminds me of this type of scenario.... "well Jennings will be away in this window" *Jennings stays* "well obviously Jennings will be jumping ship in this window" *Jennings stays* "it's a dead cert that we'll lose Jennings in the summer" *Jennings stays" "It's not as if Jennings will be here past January" *Jennings stays* "we should just accept that Jennings won't be here next season" *Jennings goes......* "told you Jennings would be away".

I've always enjoyed away games much more than home games. For years i've said that if I had to cut back on games for financial reasons, i'd give up my season ticket and keep going to aways.

That's a bit of a bold statement, i'd be interested to know what you're basing it on? Im 100% confident that anyone else from the area who has met him will confirm, Barry Ferguson is up there with one of the nicest, most pleasant down to earth guys that you could hope to meet in football. Will make time to talk to absolutely anyone, and is always happy to sign stuff, chat away to kids and adults alike who approach him. Contrary to the whole Rangers image that some people seem to have of him, he's pretty much exactly what you'd want from a professional sportsman.

Was just having a wee look at the league table there, and as much as all the chat is about us being shite at home, unacceptable, etc etc...we've only lost 3 home games (which is pretty fucking decent at this stage of the season actually), and we've scored more goals at Fir Park than Celtic have at Parkhead.

Makes a change, suckers Fenlon into making a complacent change, turns the screw, Fenlon doesn't know what to do, makes another change to hammer it home, Fenlon is fucked. But aye, he's tactically unable

I completely agree, but as far as those who fall into that category you mention at the end, I reckon you're looking at possibly 1000 people, tops. Wouldn't even touch the potential 10,000 or so extra that may come to a cup final.

Can - Open...Worms - Everywhere.... What's that got to do with anything? is there some rule that says you can't go once if you're not willing to go every week? Being a fan of a sport or a particular club is a completely different thing from being someone who attends regularly, and there are hundred reasons why someone might not be interested in actually attending football week-in week-out. It's a fairly sizeable commitment that for a number of reasons, people aren't interested in, regardless of how much of a fan of football (or Motherwell) they are. I never ever go to the cinema....maybe once or twice a year, but I love films and im a fan of particular actors. If my mates went to the pub every single week...I probably wouldn't bother it all the time. However if my mate from Australia was home for a couple of weeks and a night out was arranged, I'd go...whatever it took, because it's a special occasion. The people who turn up to Cup Finals and European Games for clubs like ours, aren't fairweather fans or stay away fans, they are people who aren't interested in regularly attending football for whatever reason, who are making a bit of extra effort for a special occasion, and there's fuck-all wrong with that.

Tweed out!

3-1 Motherwell. Aberdeen are fucking shit.

That's Desp, Numpty hasn't posted in this thread

I have a feeling we'll hand out an absolute dicking tomorrow. Us by three.

I prefer to call it "joint 2nd"