Ya Bezzer!

Law was better today but he missed the chance that would probably have won us the game.

I can understand why he didn't want to put Ainsworth while we were still in the game because it would have left big spaces for Dundee Utd to exploit. I think he should have come on at 2-1 though.

Black is really just picking up where McCall left of. Twardzik saved us from a heavy defeat.Law getting a start is surely a piss take.

Disappointing to go out, especially having taken the lead but I was reasonably satisfied with the performance and right now, in our position, that's more what I'm looking at. First half we were probably the better team, had spells of real pressure and played very well. Lots of good performances across the park - Lasley, Vigurs, Ojamaa, Angol etc. If we'd got that second goal it would probably have changed the match and we'd probably still be in the cup. Second half Dundee Utd nullified our creative players. Ojamaa and Vigurs were taken out of the match and let's be honest, Dundee Utd are a team with pace and technique all over the park. They dominated the second half and the goals weren't a surprise, if it hadn't been for an immense performance from Twardzik it would have been more. Some times though you just have to put your hands up and say you were up against a much better team. I still think it's night and day between our performances with McCall at the helm and the two matches since so I'm reasonable positive because, although we lost today, I think we have got our belief back to a certain extent. Bring on Ross County on the 13th.

Had a nightmare couple of days, hopefully Motherwell don't add to it today as I'm hoping for some escapism!

I'm guessing you probably said something similar before the league match. We might be shite but we have a chance and nothing is "inevitable" especially when we beat the same team a couple of weeks ago. The level of negativity says more about some of the posters than the football team. It's not great right now but I can't be bothered with people throwing the towel in before a ball has even been kicked.

We can't hold off for ever but I still don't think there is a big rush to make an appointment. We need someone in before the Ross County match and the run of games immediately after but the 13th December is still two weeks away. We were told the club ownership issue would be settled before then and as far as we know it will be. If nothing still hasn't happened in 7-10 days then that's a different story but right now we just need to be patient.

If budget was important as you are making out we wouldn't be anywhere near the Top 6 anyway because there are 7 city clubs in this country. This used to be the case back in the McLean era when we were competing in a 10 team league against 6 or 7 strong sides that were just much better than us but I don't think that's the case any more. Those days are gone because the overall quality of the league has been completely diminished. There was a time when Aberdeen could have a European class, perhaps even World class player on the books. Today, even though they pay out more than we do, the quality of player they can attract is no where near that level and that's really my point. The difference in quality between a £800 a week player and a £1,400 a week player in Scotland is negligible. The idea that we can sustain Top 6 finishes every year is cloud cuckoo stuff, as is any notion that we can lose £1,000,000 every three years and stay viable.

I don't agree with this. Hamilton and Inverness are probably spending a lot less money than the likes of Ross County and ourselves. And ourselves and Ross County have been spending a lot less money than the likes of Hibs and Hearts when they got relegated. The gap in quality between European places in the Premiership and even lower in the table in the Championship is very small. Much smaller than the wage gap that currently exists and I think it's really time clubs like ours took advantage of that. There are players in the Premiership who are only very marginally better than players in the league below, if at all, who want twice the money. I think we need to start saying "No". With a good manager that gets the right players for the right price and you add in youth development, scouting players at an affordable level (ie lower Scottish leagues) I don't see why the bar would be set so low.

Dundee United are undefeated at home but they have been pretty poor away this season and there has been something of a stark contrast between those two sets of results, especially recently, so all the glum types should cheer up at least a little bit. I think they have three straight defeats on the road in the league and only won at Easter Road in the cup on penalties, and we more than matched them a couple of weeks ago. I think we'll have a decent stab at it although whether we win or not is impossible to say. Unfortunately I don't see the OP's prediction of a big crowd coming true. If anything it might be a smaller crowd than usual with no cup matches on the season ticket and Christmas coming up. Dundee Utd was also the last home match so there isn't a lot of novelty there and our general poor form and cup record won't draw a lot of folks in. That said, I'll be there and I'm hopeful we can get through to the next round but really I think we are all waiting for the crucial run of games before and after Christmas now.

Probably worth giving Bobby Donnelly 4 games if we also get a top class defender that plays over 150 games in an era of success and then is sold for a six figure sum.

We need to start looking at this as won 1, lost 1. So far Black has done better than expected to be honest.

Inverness - You can't expect to go up to Inverness and win at any time but especially not when they have been very good and are undefeated at home and we have been very poor. If you think we should have won yesterday when you need a big dose of reality. I said during the game that I'd bite your hand off for a point but it wasn't to be. We should be judging this team on it's performances against fellow strugglers not teams that are joint top of the league a week shy of December. The Clarkson and McFadden decisions - Clarkson should have been signed. I said it at the time, no hindsight required and I think McCall's decision to actually leave the club was partly down to that bad decision. Not entirely but I think it weighed heavy on McCall's mind. Managers have to make good decisions and when Clarkson scored against us and basically sunk us a couple of minutes into a very important match I reckon McCall's confidence in his own decision making was effected. McFadden was not the McFadden of old last season but he would easily deserve a place in this team and I bet we would have more points than we do now if he had been playing this season. For me the McFadden decision was a money one. He didn't deserve and we couldn't afford to pay over the odds for him but if he'd been willing to play on a reduced wage then I would have kept him. You can point out he wasn't great last season but there are people out there who aren't willing to acknowledge McFadden's contribution last term which wasn't insignificant. He contributed to 10 goals in the league scoring 4 and setting up 6 just for a start. The squad is worse off without him especially as he wasn't replaced. Dom Thomas - If he is as good as we are all hearing he should have been played before now. I saw him against Fulham and I thought he showed up quite well making his debut in a match where we were comprehensively beaten. We've been crying out for a left winger for a couple of seasons which makes McCall's decision not to play him even more baffling. I don't know if Dom Thomas is the answer but that's kind of the problem. No one does because he's never been given a chance. Even the players that have like Lee Erwin have been played out of position. The Dom Thomas situation is just part of the complete pigs ear Motherwell have made of youth development over the last few years and whether you like it or not that coincidences with Stuart McCall's reign. Meanwhile Dundee Utd have actively tried to develop a player like Aidan Connolly, even though there are several players in his position ahead of him in the pecking order, and he scored yesterday. The fact is our youth development has gone backwards by a long way and has turned into some kind of Walter Smith 1990's dinosaur stuff. Wonder where that came from?

St. Mirren seem to be in free fall but Ross County are battling away. We need to roll up our sleeves with these important matches coming up.

Inverness are undefeated at home this season, won 4 out of the last 5, this was always going to be a tough match to get anything out of.

I don't know for a fact but I'd guess that's probably about correct. I've read from a decent source that £800 a week is about average at Championship level (excluding the big teams down there at the moment). Assuming that's correct you'd have to assume we are paying roughly £1100-1200 to our average pros and more to the high earners.

Malky Mackay plus South American consortium. Headlines in the making there....

This. And I don't want him anyway.

Our last financial figures stated turn over of almost 6 million pounds. I fully accept that running a provincial football club is no easy matter but surely if the club is turning over 5 or 6 million pounds a season we should be able to run a reasonably successful Premiership level team? I'm speculating of course because I don't know what our players get paid but I've suspected for a while Motherwell player have been on nice little earners over the past few years. However the days of bring players up from the English professional leagues or bringing in marquee singings are over and I think we should really be focusing on strong scouting in the lower leagues in Scotland and in youth development. If we do that, and control our player wage expenditure, perhaps by offering lower wages but on longer contracts, I don't see why we can't do relatively well, and by that I mean continue as a Premiership level team, on our existing revenues. We have 13 first team squad players out of contract at the end of the season. I think the close season will be a good time to realign our wage and bonus structure. As Hamilton Accies and Inverness have proved this season, you don't need to pay out huge wages to build a good team that plays decent football.

I'd be surprised if the bookies had any real information on the recruitment process. You can understand at a bigger club where things can leak out but at Motherwell it's a pretty tight knit group of people who will know what's actually going on.

He retired as a player 9 years ago and doesn't seem to have any serious coaching experience. A non starter in my opinion.

Adams would be a disaster. He ticks none of the boxes I want to see ticked. Who are all the Ross County youngster that have been developed by Adams over his relatively long period in charge at County? That's right there are none. What is his long term strategy to team building? Every year bring in dozens of cheap foreign players with absolutely no continuity season after season and having to rely on January transfer window investment to dig his teams out of trouble. What is his relationship with the press and football world? Poor, conducts himself in a very unprofessional way and is not liked in Scottish football and if the rumours are to be believed his relationship with his own dressing room was poor. Contacts? Poor, seems to rely heavily on agents for players. Style of play? Dull. Record in the top flight? Mediocre, this season, even worse than us. As for Calderwood, I'd take him as a short term measure until the end of the season. You might not like the man but his record is there for everyone to see.

I understand reservations about the Well Society but at the very least they care about the club. If a South American consortium came in they could change the name of the club to International de Madrepozo and the next thing you know the club colours are changed to green and white hoops because they are considered lucky in Ecuador. That would be far fetched if it similar things weren't happening at other clubs right now! I think we'd be taking a massive risk selling to these guys especially since their previous shambolic attempt at running a club is out in the open now.

I disagree entirely. Motherwell needs to start cutting its cloth to more or less guarenteed revenue streams, ie, our own fans and the bare minimium tv and prize money. Relying on someone pay your bills is not a very sensible way to go if you are looking for stability.

This is off the top of my head and I might not have all the facts right but lots of investment companies made a lot of money out of buying 'shares' of players and then coining in when the player was sold on. If I remember there was a case with FC Porto when a player was sold for big money and almost all of that cash went to third party investors who had 'shares' in the player. The investors pay money that the clubs couldn't normally afford but when the player is sold the transfer fee goes to the investors. So the investors are essentially providing high quality players for free or at low cost in exchange for a big lump sum from a future transfer deal. I believe FIFA have now made this illegal or are in the process of doing so and I hardly think that those same people who have been doing quite well out of this are going to pack up their bags and go and do something else. They will be looking for loop holes. Could it be that a club going cheap, in a fairly high profile league, right next to the greatest cash cow league in the world, would make for a decent investment for these same people? After all if they own the club, who own the players they can get round the third party investment rules. Just a thought.