joewarkfanclub

Do you think a football club should live outwith its means? If not, it doesnt matter whether the club is fan owned or not. Its the job of the club board to raise and expand existing revenue streams so we have a bigger budget to work with. We have a new chairman, directors and a CEO to deal with that. Its the Society's job to generate sufficient cash reserves to ensure that should the time come we have a big enough overdraft facility to satisfy the governing bodies and deal with any shortfall from operational revenues (apologies for any clumsy terminology, Im not an business person). Any investor is looking for a return on their money, its not free cash. Thats why Im 100% against any investor having majority control of the club as they could literally bleed us dry. Nothing wrong with encouraging investment thats a win win for the club and investor, but thats a whole lot more difficult to find. I would have thought after last summer we might have put all this kind of chat to bed. Its been less than 12 months since we saw off Barmack. Look at the changes that have occured structurally at the club during that time. I think those responsible need a little bit of credit for that and maybe a bit of support in moving onto the next phase?

Hopefully means changes come Saturday.....

Those 3 would certainly be the pick of the bunch. Thompson gives the ball away for fun. Watt offers nothing anymore and Balmer still spends the entire time arguing with officials, opponents and trying to wrestle with anyone who comes near him. All 3 can go at the end of the season.......

Never really enjoy games at Rugby Park due to the surface and the way we usually end up playing. Im hoping that Wimmer isnt influenced by the pitch, sticks to his guns and plays the high intensity passing game. Even if we dont win it might make it more enjoyable to watch....

At the game it was the level of force that concerned me. If both his feet are off the ground then presumably he is out of control and by default has endangered his opponent?

Didnt see Sportscene last night. Did they show the Papa Gueye tackle? Was interested to see if the point of contact merited a red card? Didnt look too clever at the game but it was too far away to tell.....

Not arguing against the need for Balcombe due to the injuries to Ox and then Archie Mair. But Ox is back on the bench now so he should be back in when fit......

Not really sure where to start with yesterday. Found it really hard to work out what our gameplan was. We certainly didnt press high with intensity (so no high ball wins) but we didnt sit off in a low block either. It was some sort of weird mid block that Aberdeen passed around with ease Not sure if thats on the players or the manager. SOD & Sparrow had very poor first halves although both were much better second. Thompson looks like a footballer, but continually gets wrong side of his man and gives the ball away for fun. So careless with his passing, although not the only one yesterday. Agree Balcombe not at fault for goals yesterday, but he does parry everything and distribution is rotten so Id have Ox back in asap as he is our keeper. Like Armstrong, works hard and with more support could be effective at our level. Tony Watt should be put on a bus back to Dundee. He better not have some sort of contract for next season that no one has told us about! Least said about the defence the better. Lots for MW to think about. Thats the first time tge players have shown him their negative side. He needs to deal with that. Final word for Aberdeen and their away end. Absolutely shocking. Penned in a tiny wee corner only have of which was covered. Given the weather forecast we were lucky not to get more of a soaking than we did. They wasted more seats with their "new segreagation" than they filled in the old away end and the efforts of their stewards to keep their neanderthals away from us were pathetic. One guy was right in our faces after every goal. Thankfully the polis eventually huckled him. At £10 it was overpriced and I wont be back in a hurry.

Big shout out to The Well Society for the comedy night last night. Great night out, very well attended and with all the acts appearing for free, should have raised a nice wee sum for the pot. Together with the quiz night, prize draw, membership drive and raise a million by May initiative, its good to see the Society Board following through on their promises to be more active in generating revenue for the club to fall back on should it be required.

I totally understand and accept your argument. What I would say is that the 4/15 stat that is used to beat him with requires some perspective attached given who we played in those games. (and how we performed in the Nations League). Only the N.Ireland home game would be one we should be expected to win. A bit like Kettlewell, Im not calling for Clarke to go, but I do see his deficiencies, so I wouldnt be devestated if he left. He isnt getting sacked before the World Cup though. So onwards we go......

I guess every manager has their shelve life. For me, we are back where we were after the Euros. He had earned the right to look at things and see if he could re-invent the team. He did that by changing to 4-2-3-1 and we ended up putting in some really good performances in Nations League A. Unfortunately, he didnt recognise the warning signals of the 2nd half on Thursday, so we are back to the drawing board.......

There are a lot of teams at the World Cup, but its statistically harder for European teams to qualify now due to the way the extra teams have been distributed through the other federations. Qualifying for the World Cup would be a much bigger achievement for Clarke than the 2 Euros. I agree though, Ive no great desire to see us fail miserably again when we get there.....

Qualification would be great. But if we went out in the same manner as the 2 previous qualifications then the result should be the same. We actually discussed this away in Greece. I think everyone would like to see us play more adventurously. A manager with a different outlook would help. But I think we are still a few players short of being able to do that competitively anyway. We certainly need to find a good striker, a couple of good centre halves (Souttar if he could stay fit would make it one) and a new goalkeeper. We talked about Will Sagnol, Bielsa and even big Ange as the kind of managers we would like. How realistic any of them are on the money the SFA can pay is another matter. I guess Wimmer is the perfect proof of someone we have never heard of being able to do far more with the same players though (albeit still early days) so maybe there is someone out there on our budget.....

You hear it all the time on Scotland trips as well, and theres nothing wrong with voicing the opinion that you want the national team to do better. Clarke is a cautious manager and his teams can be negative no doubt. Sometimes too negative. But see my previous post re risk v reward. I was looking at clips this morning of our game v Slovenia at Hampden in 2017 and there are large swathes of empty seats. Thats no longer the case under Clarke primarily due to his ability to get us winning games, especially at home. The SFA could sack him before the World Cup Qualifiers, but they wont because he has proved he can win games and put bums on seats. He will either qualify us for the World Cup and they will be vindicated. Or he will fail and he will be gone by November as his contract expires with our elimination. I re-iterate though, Gemmill should be gone. His teams dont even play the same style as the first team. That should be a pre-requisite to ready players to step up.

Not sure thats true. Finances limit whats available and again its the risk v reward scenario. Do you fire a guy thats got you to 2 major finals and a World Cup play off in the hope you can get someone better? Gemmell should be nowhere near the U21s though. A proper progressive youth coach shouldnt be beyond the SFAs finances and there is no risk attached to making a change there as he has been generally shite.

I agree with most of that. He should have changed away from 3 at the back during the Euros when KT got injured. We would still have had difficulties given we were already without Doak, Hickey and Patterson for pace and width, but he compounded it by playing an extra centre half instead of bolstering the midfield. He 100% should have changed back after the second half in Athens, with KT fit and available, and no Doak.

Its not irrelevant. Far less risk playing a young winger than a player right in the centre of the park. The winger has the freedom to take players on and if they lose it, its not going to be in a area where you can be hurt. Totally different situation if your no.6 does the same. You also ignored the competition for places. Unless you are calling Gilmour, McTominay, McGinn, Christie and Ferguson duds. In addition to Doak, Clarke has also thrown in Hickey, Patterson, Conway and now Johnston and Wilson. The idea that he doesnt play young talent is a myth.

As did Max Johnston in Athens.....

Your comparing apples with oranges. The 17 year old greek was a winger. Clarke started Doak at 18 years old on the wing in the Nations league on the wing to some success. Miller is up against Gilmour, McTominay, McGinn, Christie and Ferguson for a start. I get that McLean started both games and folks will point to that, but he captains Norwich in the Championship and is highly experienced, not to mention under rated. Do we really think Lennon is ahead of any of these guys right now? The boy has a great future ahead of him and will have a great career. But lets be realistic about our expectations and not just react to what was undoubtedly a poor performance.....

I dont think it was the right circumstances. Regardless of the fact that Clarke would have still been hoping for a miracle right to the death, putting him on in, what was by then, a totally unbalanced team getting the runaround wouldnt have been fair to the boy at all. What chance would he have to shine? Play him from the start against Lichtenstein and/or Iceland alongside some experienced midfielders and give him the best chance to show what he can do. Just my opinion mind.....

I dont disagree. As I said, I would have played Tierney in a 3 and Max instead of Ralston. Just to get some pace back into the side and give Greece something different to think about. I probably wouldnt have dropped Ferguson and I might have been tempted to put Hirst up top with Adams to give him some support. All decisions Clarke could have made differently. It just annoys me that when Scotland lose folk start scapegoating players like Hanley and Ralston who give everything to the cause, when there are others who were just as poor and make just as many mistakes. PS. To turn this back to Motherwell players, Miller will undoubtedly get his chance in the June friendlies. There was just too much riding on this camp for it to happen unless the circumstances had panned out different.

Hanley and Ralston were both absolutely outstanding in Athens on Thursday night. Lack of first team football didnt seem to impede either of them then. Max Johnstone has been a bit part player for Sturm Graz. Hardly a first team regular. I rate him and I would have liked to see him given his chance last night. I would have reverted to a back 3 with Tierney available again and Ralston not suited to the RWB role. It would have been a risk either way. But for me the way the second half panned out in Athens, we should have offered Greece a different test. Thats on Clarke.

As someone who follows Scotland home and away, thats just not true. Miller is in the squad at 18 years old. I still think its a bit early for him but absolutely delighted with his inclusion. Turnbull was in plenty of squads with the chance to impress. Maybe he didnt? He only got dropped when he got injured for Celtic and then couldnt force his way back into the Celtic first team (and then onto Cardiff where he is again injured). Doak was selected for the Euros squad at 18 years old when not even commanding a first team place at Liverpool. He didnt go because he got injured in training. He isnt in this squad cause he is injured again. Slicker, Conway, Hirst, Adams, Dykes, all selected in problem positions where there literally are NO naturally born Scots youngsters battering down the door. There really isnt anyone in Scotland good enough who isnt being selected because of a so called "non-scot".

The only person responsible for Billy Davies being out of the game is Billy Davies. Im glad we didnt entertain bringing him back.

It was mentioned previously that SODs extension was probably appearance related. Given the number of games he has played this season, thats most likely to be the case. Im pretty relaxed about it. He does make mistakes, but is no where near as bad as some make him out to be. He is a local lad and senior pro. Every club needs them to drive standards and look after the younger ones. He may not play that many games if McGhee comes in and McGinn gets fit again, but a good utility player to have in a squad. PS delighted the club have taken their option on Slattery. He is looking good right now and we might get suitors in close season. If we dont he has proved a very useful player to have around.