Ya Bezzer!

With all due respect (you know what comes next when someone says that!) I think this is a lot of rubbish. As far as I was concerned it was never a case of 'what might have been' as 'what would be' because Lawless was clearly the best player to come through our youth set up since Paul Slane. It was hardly a surprise then that he had a hugely successful season at Partick Thistle. Daley and Higginbotham had something like 30 appearances between them last season, a mix of starts and substitute appearances and at the end of it we have nothing to show for it except wages paid out with no real return. If those appearances had been given to Lawless we would have a really hot young talent with a bit of SPL experience behind him in the squad now, instead we are scrambling around looking to bring in players when we already had a guy there and let him go for nothing. So I disagree, I hardly think playing in one of the best Motherwell teams in recent times would have 'stunted' the development of Lawless. I think our youth development is an area of major concern and isn't being utilised properly, especially at a time when money is tight. People are going on about Erwin and Moore but I'm afraid their fate is likely to be fairly predictable unless there is a major turnaround in our philosophy regarding young players and especially young local players.

To be honest, I'd rather keep Hutchy. Without a quality centre back in the squad next season we could be leaking goals all over the place. Darren Randolph papered over the cracks in that regard and he isn't here any more. In my opinion we cannot afford to lose Hutchinson this pre-season.

You neglected to mention we played the worst 90 minutes of football I've ever seen from a Motherwell side in the first European match. I don't think we want to see anything like that again. But yeah, it's still early.

No problem with John Sutton returning if Higdon goes. Sutton was a very good and consistent player for us. Is it going to be now that a striker is 'crap' if he scores 10 - 15 goals a season? Folk need to get it into their head that Higdon's tally last season was a once in a life time feat.

Jamie Macdonald is a good young goalkeeper. In fact he's probably one of the few players they might get some cash for.

Ramsden deal was already announced. Not heard anything about Hutchy.

That's the way I see it. I don't think there will be any radical altering of our system. Vigurs will play left, Lawson and Lasley in the centre and a yet to be announced on the right.

Think Vigurs is potentially a great signing. If he can play for us the way he performed for Ross County last season we have an excellent player on our hands. The hunt will be on for a Humphreys replacement now, although Faddy can play wide right but even if Faddy signs up again I think we need another out and out wide player.

I think it's more a sign that we can't afford to pay wages to attract good English players up here. I reckon you are also likely to get better quality Scottish players for the same money if they are looking to come back to Scotland to be around friends/family after a spell in England, they will be willing to play for less money to get home. The opposite effect will be in trying to bring in English players away from their local area, you'll probably have to pay them a bit more to tempt them away.

At the end of the day you would imagine McCall will have full say over who comes in and what proportion of his budget that player takes up and if he's on holiday he might have been uncontactable for a few days or might not be up to date with the negotiations. Hopefully we can bring Vigurs in, sounds promising.

Don't think it's a goer. I think they are looking to move him out with a fee. Not sure about this Elliott Ward rumour. That's not so much a drop in wages as falling off the north face of the Eiger.

I would be over the moon if we could sign Iain Vigurs.

This thread is a bit like when I go through the Herald property section imagining I have £1,000,000 pounds to buy a fancy house when actually I've got £186 which isn't enough to pay the rent.

25% of the time he looks good, 50% he looks like a youngster that isn't ready to be a first choice player and the final 25% of the time he doesn't look like a footballer at all.

Wee update. G O A L K E E P E R S 12. Lee HOLLIS - Contracted to 2014 43. Ross STEWART - Contract details not known D E F E N D E R S 3. Stevie HAMMELL - Contracted to 2014 5. Shaun HUTCHINSON - Contracted to 2014 6. Tom HATELEY - Offered new contract 15. Simon RAMSDEN - Contracted to 2015 19. Fraser KERR - Offered new contract 26. Zane FRANCIS-ANGOL - Contracted to 2015 30. Adam CUMMINS - Contracted to 2015 M I D F I E L D E R S 14. Keith LASLEY - Contracted to 2014 18. Stuart CARSWELL - Contracted to 2015 20. James McFADDEN - Offered new contract -. Paul LAWSON - Contracted to 2015 F O R W A R D S 9. Michael HIGDON - Offered new contract 16. Bob McHUGH - Contracted to 2015 T R A N S F E R R E D / R E L E A S E D -. Henrik OJAMAA - To Legia Warszawa 01/07/2013 -. Nicky LAW - To Rangers 01/07/2013 -. Chris HUMPHREY - To Preston North End 01/07/2013 -. Darren RANDOLPH - To Birmingham City 01/07/2013 -. Jamie MURPHY - To Sheffield United 03/01/2013 -. Johnny PAGE - To Hamilton Academicals 02/01/2013 -. Steven SAUNDERS - Free agent -. Omar DALEY - Free agent -. Steve HETHERINGTON - Free agent

Clayton Donaldson was comically bad. And Greg Wylde didn't make a single appearance for Bolton and has been released one year into a three year deal!

McGhee gave Hutchy his debut the season before Gannon came along.

Shaun McSkimming wasn't a bad player at all, he just wasn't worth the price tag McLeish put round his neck. Didn't Jered Stirling score an absolute peach of a free kick and then only play about 4 more games? Franz Resch was an Austrian international so he couldn't have been that bad although he didn't turn any heads at Fir Park. That leaves David Murphy who was, well I'm being kind here, crap.

Gow is a case in point but the way I see it we either bring in standard journey man players or guys who have potential but haven't realised it elsewhere. I'd rather go for the latter as the potential rewards are much greater. I don't think we have the cash anymore to bring quality players from down south anymore like Randolph, Law or Jutkiewicz.

It's a nice re-working but it ain't the Motherwell badge. For me there is nothing wrong with the current badge and I don't see any reason for changing it.

I had the video programmed to record the match while I was at the game. As anyone old enough will remember in those days long before cable and digital TV you often had to move the TV aerial about to find a sweet spot and get a picture. When I watched the game back the picture went just at the very moment Ian Angus struck the ball at goal and then it was unwatchable from then on in. The cat got the blame for probably knocking the aerial.

Actually Hooper scored 31 goals this season to Higdon's 27. Although 4 of Hooper's goals did come in a League Cup match against Raith Rovers...

Was it not suggested McCall wanted to bring him in at Christmas but Dundee nipped in? Both Harkins and McCourt have got enough ability to be great players for us, the question marks over them are elsewhere. I'd still rather give these kinds of guys a chance that others who don't have that level of natural ability. If they come in its down to the backroom staff to make sure they fulfill their potential.

Graham Shinnie would probably be ahead of the two you mention.

Nijholt played both positions. In my all time XI I have him in the right back slot because we've not had too many good right backs while we are spoilt for choice at left back. At left back it's a very difficult choice between Tom Boyd and Rob McKinnon and I tend to lean towards the latter. Hammell is a club legend though, it's quite possible no one will ever play more games for Motherwell again.