Joeboy

I guess you have to consider prices as well. To attend all four games, an adult Motherwell fan would have had to pay £47, that's even before a £300+ season ticket can come into validity.

As did his previous assistant. We now have one who will be there in those weeks in September, October and November. So, whatever way you look at it, we are now one member of staff up at international breaks.

We have appointed a club legend, who has played at the highest level for club and country who knows the vast majority of the current players well. Good appointment in my book.

Aye, I'm with that. Especially considering timehop yesterday reminded me of his performance away in Iceland. Never seen such an empty, unprofessional performance in my life. The lad had talent, aye. We didn't always play the system that suited him, aye. That excused him swanning about the pitch doing fuck all, naw. On another note, signing these guys on two week deals doesn't half give you nightmares about Gunni Jonsonn.

Really don't see it being McClair. What we would offer him would be a drop in the ocean in comparison to his wages both at Man United and Scotland. I can't imagine his next job being in Scotland.

I'd much sooner get rid of Kennedy than Laing personally. Both are similar in that they have made the odd, inexperienced error at times, but I would say as a footballer Laing is far more accomplished than Kennedy.

70 conceded in 42 games: 1.66 per game 58 conceded in 29 games without Laing: 2 per game 12 goals in 13 games with Laing: 0.92 per game

Last season: Conceded 69 goals in 42 games- 1.64 per game Conceded 47 goals in 26 games when Laing wasn't playing- 1.81 per game Conceded 22 goals in 16 games when Laing was playing- 1.38 per game Don't know if your statement holds any weight.

By my reckoning we have lost eight wages from the end of last season (Ripley, Pearson, Fletcher, Gomis, Law, Leitch, McFadden, Hall) and replaced them with five (Tait, Heneghan, McHugh, Brill, Blyth). If you also factor in the fee being around 100k for Pearson (don't know if that figure was hearsay), that would probably be roughly two players salaries for the season, it would seem that our budget seems to be at five salaries down from last season. That's even before you consider the fact that Hammell, Lasley, McManus and McDonald took wage cuts. I know 30% was quoted for Hammell, but again I don't know whether that was hearsay and I don't know if that was the same across the board for the other three, it does seem like we really genuinely have cut back. As much as I'd like us to sign another midfielder and balance the squad out, I am actually quietly content at the fact for once we do actually appear to be budgeting sensibly. Last season I was put off the well society majorly by their claims we would become self-sufficient, yet we were chucking money at anyone who would sign. It is strange that we have gone from one extreme to the other in terms of playing budget, but it is at least encouraging we seem to be moving towards practising what we preach.

I really liked Laing when he first came in, aside obviously from his introductory red card. I thought he was really good on the ball at centre half, but that may have been because I was used to watching Mark O'Brien just spend the season kicking the ball as long and as far as he could. I was really pleased when we managed to get him permanently and I thought it was something of a coup. However, I was then put off by his body language against East Fife in the league cup. He started the game looking to me as if he was giving them no respect, but soon realised he had to when Nathan Austin was tearing him apart. He obviously then had a long spell out the team but I was then impressed with him at right back, pre injury. I was a Josh Law fan and defender, but I thought Laing had a presence and engine that Law perhaps couldn't give us. It was unfortunate he got injured when he did as I felt he could've established himself there. All things considered, I'd say the jury is still out for me, as it is with Kennedy too. I would say that I prefer Laing over Kennedy, probably due to technical ability. Both are prone to an error but I think Kennedy's a stopper and that's his limit, whereas Laing is decent on the ball. It wouldn't break my heart to lose one of the two, especially with Ferguson able to step up to fourth choice centre back.

We were compensated for Pearson going, as per the official site, so we didn't let him go for free. Law is the type of player who wouldn't command a fee and it is common place for players to negotiate a release from their contract, both north and south of the border. I don't think it means we are "soft" as such. As for huffy Skippy, he went in the huff in January 2007 when we rejected a bid from Rangers, yet without his goals that season we wouldn't have stayed up. If he goes in a season long huff where he continues to score important goals for us, I for one won't care much about the huff.

I think it is possible we offered him a deal hoping to get compensation and he called our bluff and accepted it.

I am a McGhee fan but several of his moves I have questioned. Looking at the goalkeeper situation, if things really were as tight as we are believing, I don't know why we didn't go for a younger, less experienced back up than Brill. Maybe this comes from Samson not having McGhee's full trust as number one, but if that's the case he shouldn't have signed him. Then there's the centre back situation. I think Heneghan looks a good player and could be a good signing over time but if we were signing another centre back I see little point in giving Ferguson a new deal at 21, to be a fifth choice. Maybe this means he plans to exclusively use Laing elsewhere this season. Signing Blyth was one I also questioned to an extent as well. Retaining Moore as well as having Moult and Mackin made me think we were signing Skippy or someone else, not Skippy and someone else, especially after his comments regarding El Bakhtoui. Now Moore is out on loan it makes the load seem a bit lighter there, but it just makes giving Moore a new deal all that bizarre. So considering all that, you could argue we are spending a surplus in goals, defence and up front (maybe less so if Moore's wage is covered now) yet we are threadbare in midfield. Over the summer we lost Pearson, Gomis and Leitch and we now have Lasley approaching his 37th birthday. Lasley was missing for one game on Saturday and to replace him we played a guy who most people would agree disappointed as a second choice left back last season. I'm not happy with what looks like a supposed reliance on him playing every week this season, given his age. Pearson had a massive impact last season, especially in terms of goals and whilst Cadden shares many of his attributes, I don't think we should place the reliance on him to emulate Pearson as yet. Gomis and Leitch aren't that tough to replace. I think I would have been most comfortable with our midfield three being Cadden, Lasley and a replacement for Pearo, rather than having surplus elsewhere in the squad.

Not only our top goalscorer, but also our top assister. I'd hope we are getting reimbursed well if he goes. Will be a struggle with Moore at Ayr and Moult needing surgery. That leaves us only with Blyth and Mackin, who are both similar types.

When we signed Anier permanently in the January, we had to lose McHugh and Cummins from the wage bill to facilitate that and I suspect this is us being clever there. Seems a bit bizarre giving him a deal all the same.

I don't know so much about Chalmers. He had a reasonably good game, but he done nothing to show me he wasn't just a stop gap we could get through a game with. I wouldn't seriously consider him even to be a short time solution in there. I'd have much preferred Allan Campbell to get the nod.

Don't worry, they'll definitely find a replacement.

I make it two assists and zero goals. He didn't get any last season and the season before I'm sure he set up two for Sutton in 2014/15 (1-1 draw with St. Johnstone, 5-0 win over St. Mirren). I expected him to be further developed by now and I think he probably has stalled due to a lack of consecutive starts, or even just starts in general. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place in regards to that, having very little depth to the squad. My only criticism of Saturday's setup is Chalmers in central midfield. He played reasonably well, as in you could get away with him there for a game to do the simple things, but I don't think playing him there is any kind of solution, short or long term. I really don't know what the harm in playing someone like Allan Campbell in there would have been on Saturday. That said, I was convinced we'd play Skippy in midfield and start Blyth. Edit: the one against St. Mirren came off the keeper before McDonald shot and then Sutton netted the rebound, perhaps a bit rich calling that an assist- so one.

I reckon we'll end up getting a loan midfielder from down south towards the end of August.

McHugh for me. Looked good at picking a pass and put the boot in when required, both great attributes in that role. Johnson was great in the first half aside from the final ball too.

My thoughts are that we will see McDonald playing centre midfield with Ainsworth joining the front three. Probably quite a similar shape to the playoffs. Campbell will be on the bench I reckon.

Ryan Stevenson sounded like he had virtually signed then went to Hearts. Not quite as close to a deal, but Samson was highly linked to us in the media and McCall made noises about signing him too.

We do seem to be in a better position than we have been with sellable assets in years gone by, given the length of his deal. However, I really can't imagine 1.6 million being the opening bid and I am also sceptical about our ability to negotiate up to it.

He had a howler when we beat Partick 3-1 at Fir Park in February.

The day Aberdeen beat us in the Scottish Cup in 2012. He got a straight red for it.