Ya Bezzer!

Yeah, shouting at players NOT to put a tackle in, don't play for the jersey, show no commitment and onwards to glory!

£800 per week is considered the low end of the wage scale for SPL players. Most established players will be on much more than that.

I've always rated Dargo, I said we should sign him back in his Kilmarnock days! A good player at our level but at 31 his best days are probably gone, especially with his recent injury problems. Still, if you can keep him fit, you could do a lot worse.

It's just more top quality Scottish journalism. What they meant to say was Hearts. With St.Mirren scrapping for survival you can see them picking up more bookings than us. Hearts are a few more back and again might be more determined.

Willie McLaren will be going down to the 2nd Division with Clyde assuming he is still contracted. Worth a pop? Still only 24, scored a few goals this season, won Scottish League Player of the Month, a couple of months ago and we need options in the wide areas. Just a suggestion.

Captain Sensible, your boys took one hell of a beating!

McGhee more or less said Malcolm would be on his way on the radio on Saturday.

A B squad maybe? I'm pretty sure neither Woods or McCart got called up to a senior squad. Scott Howie did make full squads though.

Ha ha ha I think I ran into it a few times why looking nervously over my shoulder.

Well done and don't get injured!

Here's my stat sheet for the 2006-2007 with most things you could possibly want to know (dates, matches, squad, squad numbers, line ups, goalscorers, results, league positions, bookings, red cards etc, etc) so you re-live the horror of that season in Excel form. http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0d21edf...83e1a53a15c55e2

People have selective memories about that season. We put in some great performances sure enough, but by the second half of the season the team had just about given up the ghost. I remember a Sunday afternoon match at Firhill against Partick that is probably the worst Motherwell performance I've ever seen....

....but he's the best player we've got! Clarkson is the best player in our squad right now and actually one of the better players in the league, as his international place and the goal scoring lists show. You take Clarkson and Hammell out of this present day Motherwell side and you could just put "Motherwell 0" on every result.

But actually won fewer games, gained fewer points, played poorer football and never seriously challenged Rangers for the Championship (unlike the previous season when we could and possibly SHOULD have won it). Any grudge I had against McLeish went when he left after that he was someone elses problem but his time at the club was absolutely awful, there's no debate about that. Still, if I remember correctly his last game in charge was a 6-2 victory over Hibs!

I've checked it out. 298 is the correct total. I had league totals of 37+1, 37+1, 37 instead of 37+1, 37, 37 for seasons 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-4 on my spreadsheet. Just a typing error on my part so you can put off buying the cake for another week!

I've been saying this for a long time. That's not to say we shouldn't aim for better or celebrate finishing 8th like its a major achievement. But over all it's hardly a disaster. I've said this before but a lot of 'younger' fans of Motherwell have had an easy ride lately. In the last ten years or so we've got to numerous semi finals and a League Cup final, qualified for Europe, finished 3rd, made the Top Six or just missed out most seasons and we've produced a long line of good and in some cases brilliant young players. Contrast to back when I started supporting Motherwell we were fucking rank! We hadn't made a final in about 40 years! Never qualifed for Europe EVER! You went home happy if we scored a goal never mind all this Europe stuff! I was five seasons of regular attendance before I saw us even finish in the top half (6th from 12) and that was considered amazing! We've had a relatively 'golden' period since administration with only two troublesome seasons but I'm sure a lot of fans will remember when almost every season was a battle against relegation. I guess peoples expectations match their experience as fans. Lately, all things considered, we've had it pretty good.

If we don't pull up their socks we aren't even going to finish 7th. McGhee keeps going on about our great recent form but its five without a win now and three defeats on the trot. I'm happy for McGhee to have a third season in charge but some of his recent decisions, tactics and selections have been baffling.

Great record hopefully he makes 500! Incidentally I have Stevie Hammell on 299 (265 league, 16 league cup, 16 Scottish cup, 2 Euro) appearances in all competitions, so next week should he see his 300th.

It's not really a goal scorer we need. Clarkson, Sutton and Porter all scored goals and are right there at the top of the SPL goalscoring charts. The big problem is no one else in the squad scores goals. We get nothing from the midfield or the defence in terms of goalscoring (Big Boab is the top scorer excluding the forwards with 3 goals). What we really need is midfielders chipping in with 4 or 5 goals and defenders getting 1, 2 or 3 per season. Instead we got Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell, Lasley, McGarry and McLean on 0 goals this season in 129 combined starts! Then we have Quinn, Hughes, Fitzpatrick, O'Brien, Murphy, Klimpl and Sheridan with 1 goal each in 117 combinded starts! So basically our squad, excluding the three main forwards and Bob Malcolm have contributed 7 goals from 246 starts or ONE GOAL EVERY 35 APPEARANCES. There is the problem and it's a much bigger one than just bringing in a new striker.

The Motherwell programme has certainly improved a lot but it is far too expensive at £2.50 (if I remember correctly) to actually buy! I usually do buy the fanzines, if only as an act of 'fan solidarity'. They suffer from the same problem the newspapers do, i.e, in the age of the internet how do you make something interesting that's already been discussed to death long before your print deadline. Also, a negativity has seeped into the fanzines which I don't think was there in yesteryear. It used to be these fanzines were always a pamphlet of defiance, sort of "we support a crappy team and we take all the highs and lows and still support the team and love the game, no matter what". Now they just seem to be a list of gripes. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one of the happy clappers. People are entitled to criticise the club or the players or the performances, I know I do, but I think the love of the game and club has been pushed aside somewhat. After all no one goes to Fir Park with a gun in their back, we go because for some strange reason beyond logic, we love the whole thing and I think that's been forgotten lately.

There is a big difference between these two players. Look at Barrowman's record, he'd done nothing in his career, had one good season and got his move. Dobbie, on the other hand, has scored consistantly over three or four seasons now. In fact Dobbie has almost as many goals this season as Barrowman has scored in his entire career! Even if Dobbie didn't work out he wouldn't be any worse than Grabban, Sheridan, Elliott, Grehan as a forward option. I think he would be worth the risk. Even if we got 6 or 7 goals out of a third choice striker that would make a big difference over a season.

Bob Malcolm?

But really Hughes doesn't create that much. He just looks good on the ball and then the ball, ultimately goes out wide. You don't need Hughes level of technical ability to do that. It's not as if he does what Colin Cameron or Paul Hartlety used to do at Hearts. I think this idea of the 'creative' midfielder is just about obsolete in this era of football. Most teams defend with 9 or 10 players behind the ball, there is no space for the creative midfielder and its almost impossible to pass through the middle of a defending team without world class players. What you need now at this level is someone like Dorman at St.Mirren. He's not as techincally complete a player as Hughes but he runs beyond the strikers, has an eye for goal and strikes the ball brilliantly. Hughes doesn't do any of those things. Modern football is about running and Hughes doesn't want to do that, he wants to stand in midfield and spray passes about but that style of play is becoming less and less effective.

I think Hughes has improved in the later half of the season after a poor start and I gave him my MotM in the last game. HOWEVER, I'd probably still let him go. I just don't think, if he really is on the kind of wages we hear he is, he gives us enough bang for the bucks. He's a bit of luxury player, our Barry Ferguson if you like. Nobody is doubting his talent but he just doesn't live up to his potential enough and like Ferguson doesn't seem to have the defence splitting pass or goal scoring ability you are looking for from a modern midfielder. He is good on the ball but then what? I wouldn't be gutted if he was still with us next season but I do think we could get more for our money and finances are going to be a major factor next season. If we can get in two hard working midfielders, who will battle hard, score the odd goal and perform consistantly, even if they don't have the same technical ability, in for the same wages as Hughes is currently on that that seems the best course of action.

I don't think we can afford to let anyone go as we can't now afford to bring many quality players in. What we will see is all the top earners going:- Porter (already gone of course), Malcolm, Hughes. Smith looks almost certain to go. Obviously the loan deals will also leave:- Krysiak, Sheridan, Klimpl (who may or may not return). Not certain but don't be surprised if we HAVE to make a transfer sale, probably Reynolds or Clarkson. That leaves us with about 15-16 players and possible less if we have to sell one or two. With reduced financial resources we are going to have to bring in at least 4 players (excluding Fraser who is already confirmed). GK - Fraser DF - Quinn, Craigan, McLean, Reynolds (?), Hammell MF - O'Brien, McGarry, Lasley, Fitzpatrick, D. Smith FW - Clarkson (?), Sutton, Murphy Not much of a squad! We'll definitely need a new goalkeeper and a striker. Midfield looks the weakest area mostly composed of fringe players so we'll have to bring in at least two midfielders (possibly Klimpl returning and a replacement for Hughes).