Ya Bezzer!

Adam Cummins has had first team opportunities that most young players at Motherwell would bite your hand off for. He has 25 starting appearances and a further 8 substitute appearances. Guys like Mark Reynolds and Shaun Hutchinson came in and took their chance and showed they were good enough. Cummins hasn't. Maybe there is another reason but I suspect it's because he's just not very good. It speaks volumes that he went to Dundee on loan and had a couple of substitute appearances. Kyle Benedictus, recognised by most Dundee fans as absolutely rank, played ahead of him as did Declan Gallagher, who was released in the summer. You know what that tells you? He's not even Scottish Championship material. It's harsh but the guy shouldn't be anywhere near our level of football. I'm all for giving young players a chance but he's had his chance.

Can't wait to see a Motherwell back line of Carswell right back, Cummins & McManus centre backs and who the fuck knows at left back.

I think you generally need better defenders to play 3 at that back than 4. If we can't defend with 4 I'd be wary about defending with 3. Back when we played three at the back under McLean we had quality players like Boyd, McCart and Krivokapic that could play between two centre halves. We don't have anyone as good as any of those players now.

It's worrying that Ramsden is again on the injury list. Maybe it's a very minor injury but we cannot go into the season with Ramsden as number 1 and a deputy in Adam Cummins. Ramsden is a severe injury doubt and Adam Cummins will cost us league places just like Stevie Wood did years ago. If bringing in Darren Barr means we have a bit of cover there, I don't see why anyone would kick up a stink. Perhaps Barr could come in and play like Reid did to try and win a contract before the end of the window, especially if the injury list is genuine - Ramsden, Reid, Hammell, Francis-Angol, Kerr etc.

Who's signing was it then? Not like we've got a Director of Football or tyrannical chairman type figure. Lawson doesn't really fit into our system but I don't see who else would have made a player signing other than McCall.

On the Dan Burn topic, I see Fulham have just signed a new centre half. So perhaps he will be going out on loan although whether it will be to us is another question.

Vigurs is our best player in terms of technique and imagination but I don't think he's best served in McCall's very conservative 4-4-2. It's a bit like in chess putting your best piece on the edge of the board. It limits his effectiveness by giving him less room and options. I have nothing against 4-4-2, many tactical analysts think it has had its day and I disagree, but with out current squad I think we should at least be looking to change things around a bit. The formation of the World Cup was a 4-2-3-1. That formation I think would serve the squad we have better with one exception, Sutton's ability to play as a one up front. -------------TWARDZIK------------- REID---RAMSDEN-----McMANUS----HAMMELL -------CARSWELL----LASLEY---------- AINSWORTH-----VIGURS--------(attacking left side player) --------------SUTTON--------------- Lasley can be the runner in midfield, and if the full backs step up Vigurs has a lot of options. Carswell sits in front of the centre backs. I accept that Sutton hasn't done well up front alone but in this system wide players aren't really wingers, you should have one on the opposite side of playing coming in to play off the striker. Ojamaa and Anier would have been ideal. If we can replace Anier with a similar player I think that system could work.

Any decent player that height is going to score goals in this league. I think I'm right in saying Stephen McManus scored 4 goals last season and was one of our top scorers Sutton aside, look how many goals Virgil van Dijk has scored for Celtic. Don't know much about the player but I assume if he's at Fulham he's probably good enough for us.

Dynamo Moscow fucked mine up.

If you want to avoid that risk you put players into the first team as soon as possible. If a kid of 17 or 18 can hack it at the top level the likelyhood is they will do something in the game. By the time a player is 20, 21 he's already lost too much development time. Of course some players develop later but as a general rule if you look at players who have stayed at a higher level, they are guys that played earlier in their careers. We blood players far to late in this country and when they do go in it's 15 minutes as a sub two or three times a season. Maybe I'm wrong but if Divock Origi was a Motherwell player, he wouldn't even have started a game, never mind been to a World Cup and signed to Liverpool for £10million at 18. But what has really disappointed me is that I think we have really missed a great chance to blood youngster. Two seasons ago we had a really good team. That was when we should have given youngster a chance. They could have played along side Ojamaa, Murphy, Law, an on form McFadden, Higdon, Randolph etc. That chance has been lost for ever now. It might be a long time before we have a team that good again. Today if youngster are blooded they are coming into a team that is, lets face it, not on the same level.

I would never have thought that. To me, Tommy McLean was always a wee old man with a tartan showl over his knees that would fly off when he got animated. Now I'm approaching that age!

I think there is still a place for friendly matches under ideal circumstances. First of all it gives fans a chance to come along and see any new signings. Secondly you can watch your own team play against slightly exotic opposition that you wouldn't otherwise see them play. And thirdly even a shit game of football at Fir Park is better than sitting in the house. The problem is thought we don't have any really have any new signings to come and see and the matches are played without any edge whatsoever, something that wasn't always the case. Somewhere along the line it seems that in Scotland anything that wasn't a important competitive game was completely disregarded. You can see it spread out like a cancer in the game....club friendlies, then international friendlies, the league cup matches, now even Scottish Cup, European matches and competitive international football doesn't seem to matter to a lot of people. It's a total lack of professionalism in my opinion and the Scottish game has, surprise, surprise, gone right down a hole, since that sort of attitude started to invade the game. You don't pick and chose what games you perform in. You go out there and give it your best shot every time. I wasn't very good at football, or rather, my coaches didn't think I was as good as I thought I was but you know what if I was playing Fulham or anyone else for that matter in a friendly I'd still want to go out there and get stuck right in. How can you want come off a pitch and think that you made it easy for the opposition, or as I prefer to think of them 'the enemy'.

Do we have a friendly at the weekend or not? If we do, I need to know so I can walk up, buy a programme and then go home again. The game can go hang but my programme collection is a different matter.

Footballers autobiographies are generally anathema to me but I might try and track this down.

Bread on a hook was what that was.

Say we were able to beat a team from Iceland if we had a summer season. What happens two weeks later or a month later when we are drawn against a team from La Liga or the Premiership or Bundesliga or even a bigger team from outside the Big Five. Chances are we are still going to get beat. Would it really be worth changing the entire set up of Scottish football to beat some minnows in the 1st or 2nd Qualifying Round of the Europa League?

Maybe we are running out of ex Bradford players that we can sign...

I'd just like us to be LINKED with someone. It doesn't have to come off. Oh for the exciting days of yore when David Clarkson was training with us!

Hutchinson was an established first team player. Carswell has come in because of the dismal failure of Paul Lawson. Moore and Leitch have been forced on him due to squad restrictions and still only have a handful of starts between them.

We'll bring in a striker before the window. Therefore unless Erwin can make an impression before the new guy comes in he's going to be 4th or 5th choice. Dom Thomas has not made a first team appearance and the fact that McCall has played Kerr twice this season on the wing suggests Thomas has a lot to do before the manager has him making appearances.

Seriously, what makes you think that? Stuart McCall is still our manager right? Maybe I missed a big announcement!

They've only lost on loan James Dunne who was a first choice player in the second half of last season. You could throw in Hasselbaink and Cregg but they were bit part players for them. They are carrying a smaller squad this year than last year but they have kept the solid foundation of the cup winning team and with their Euro money you'd expect them to bring in one or two. Mannus - Mackay, Wright, Anderson, Easton - Miller, MacDonald, Davidson, Wotherspoon - MacLean, May. Prety solid line up, with some experience on the bench and some promising youngster coming through as well like Chris Kane, Liam Caddis and Scott Brown. They aren't miles ahead of us but they are a bit more 'solid' I'd suggest.

I think we will bring in 1 more player. We need 3 for the squad to stay at an even level of competitivness so it's going to be a season of taking steps backwards. Hopefully not too many though.

To be honest it's hard not to predict a 'same again' at least in the Top 6 finishers. I suspect the order will be different though this time. Inverness have virtually the same squad as last season and so far have held on to their best players. Can't see any challengers in the Bottom 6 to be honest. I think Accies will do quite well but won't be good enough to get Top 6. It will be interesting to see how Paul Hartley's Dundee will do but I think they will come unstuck at the top level. St. Mirren are good in some areas but weak in others and that will be their undoing. In terms of squads probably Kilmarnock have the best one in the bottom 6 but Allan Johnston didn't exactly set the heather on fire last season.

I think you couldn't complain too much if we retained a top six place this season but I don't think we will be in the hunt for a European place this time round. Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and St. Johnstone all look to have better teams than us this term. We may of course strengthen our own pool but that's the situation right now. St. Johnstone in particular have a smaller squad this season so it could come down to injuries, suspensions, or signings in or out. Margins are tight in this league so small actions could have a big effect either way, up or down. In the cup competitions a lot comes down to the draw but ultimately I don't see any success there and we all know why.