star sail

Did not realise he had said this, I suspected this might have been the case though. Cheers.

Is it at all possible that the club are actually looking for two men literally. Director of Football roles are a hot topic at the moment with clubs like Hearts and Rangers going down that road. Robinson's strength seems to be as a first team coach. The question mark might be, would he have a long term vision for the team and the club? If there was a Director of Football working with him, he could concentrate on what he is good at. Maybe a Director of Football, is simply not an option for a club our size but is it all possible that the announcement of Robinson's appointment is being delayed because they are looking for that very thing?

My thoughts on the names mentioned: Stephen Robinson: I would be happy with this, A well respected coach who has seen success with NI as is at the point in his career where management of at team our size seems the next logical step. I would not hold his time at Oldham against him. I listened to an interview with John Sheriden where he admitted that he left the club first time round because he did not believe that he had the resources to keep the club in the Championship. As a first managerial experience it would have been a baptism of fire. If would be a real shame if he does not get the job because he seems like a decent guy who has done much in a positive sense for the club over the last few seasons. Yogi Hughes: I really like him has a character and as others have said, I don't think he will be nearly as daft as he comes across. Won a Scottish Cup for ICT and had them playing good football with little resources. I have heard him speak very positively about Motherwell as a club and I think he has the personality to unify the club. Again would be happy with this. Simo Valakari: Normally this would be the kind of appointment that would excite me. A hungry, up and coming manager, with fresh ideas and success at a slightly lower level. On this occasion however I am not so sure. Maybe it is the memories of the Harri Kampman experience or maybe it is just because I feel that it is just too much of a step into the unknown. As I have said before our support does not have the patience or stomach for an experiment and a few poor results could see the mood change very quickly. Heart says yes to Simo, head says no. Owen Coyle/ Billy Davis: Not for me. Would be expensive options and may be guilty of thinking, like McGhee, that the job is beneath them. Not sure that they would have the hunger for the fight. Alan Stubbs: Seems to be unpopular on here but for me would be a great option. Took on a team in Hibs that were in freefall. Calderwood and Butcher had been able to do nothing to stop the rot, Stubbs rebuilt very succesfully and achieved a Scottish Cup win. People would argue that he could not get Hibs out of the Championship but he had the not so small matter of Rangers and Hearts to contend with. Young coach with a wealth of experience looking to rebuild his reputation. Would be delighted if it was Stubbs. Jim Duffy: Part of the Scottish football establishment so for that reason alone, it's a massive NO for me.

Lost out to two of the other biggest teams in Scotland, Rangers and Hearts and as I said above he won a Scottish Cup. If we are ruling out people like Stubbs as not Motherwell standard then the pool is going to become very small indeed.

Indeed. The very same man. There was the small matter of a Scottish Cup victory as well. I guess he was just lucky.

I suspect that Alan Stubbs would be beyond our price range but if he was looking to re-build his reputation then he would be an exciting option: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alan-stubbs-management-getting-sack-12638634

Three managers sacked in the last two and a half years with the 'senior players' holding some influence throughout that time would suggest to me that in-house is not the way to go. There is something not quite right about our squad of players and has not been since the last day of the season at Aberdeen in 2014. We need a fresh start now. We need a manager who will not pander to the senior players. Two relegation battles in 3 years, with these players apparently having a hugely positive influence at the club. Something does not add up. The play-off's showed us how these players could play, when they could be bothered. Whoever takes over has a very difficult job on their hands. I would not like to be the person charged with getting the decision right.

It is very harsh to say that Baraclough and Gannon were catastrophic failures. Both managers rebuild squads that had been severely depleted by the previous managers who were both Scottish and familiar with Scottish football (McGhee and McCall). In Gannon's case the list of good players he brought in was almost unprecedented and let's not forgot that he left the club at Christmas with Motherwell sitting fifth in the league. They finished fifth that season under Craig Brown (as experienced in Scottish football as they come). In Baraclough's case he kept us in the SPL, something that can hardly be classed as a catastrophic failure. it would be a brave man that would suggest that any manager could have kept us up that season, so surely he must be given some credit. Baraclough also brought us a victory at Ibrox, something that no other Motherwell manager has been able to for decades. He was also responsible for bringing Marvin Johnson and Louis Moult to the club, Motherwell's best sellable assets in some time. Also has the tried and tested Scottish manager worked this time round? I don't have a strong preference as to who any new manager should be, in fact I hope that McGhee can turn this round and remains our manager but I would like to keep an open mind rather than trashing people because they are a) not Scottish b) don't know the Scottish game. It is that parochial attitude that has left Scottish football in the sorry state it's in. As an aside Alex McLeish gives me the fear. Turned one of the best Motherwell sides of my lifetime into relegation fodder while spending a relative fortune in the process. Report's of his time at Motherwell and Rangers suggest that he was very relaxed when it came to things like player discipline and the players eating/drinking habits. Maybe I am not so opened minded for that kind of 1980's style management after all.

It is very similar to other challenges in recent weeks in that there is a genuine attempt to win the ball but contact is made after the ball has been won. If by the new rules of the game these challenges are deemed to be a red card, fair enough but it would be a real shame if Motherwell developed a reputation as a dirty team on the basis of these challenges. Ironically,I feel that Motherwell are actually a bit light weight and tend to be bullied by bigger more physical teams.

What will be the structure of the club when he returns? Does this suggest the possibility of Mark McGhee becoming a Director of Football or will it push James McFadden onto the sidelines? It would seem a luxury to have a manager, assistant manager and a first team coach.

I think that McGhee is about as good as we are going to get as a manager. He has vast amounts of experience and has shown that he can bring success, even if that success is often short lived. Just like Lionel Ainsworth who's inconsistency makes him a Motherwell standard player, despite his obvious ability, McGhee would not be our manager if he was consistently good. I always feel that we have two choices as a manager. A tried and tested Scottish manager with a chequered past, or a young manager trying to build a reputation. My preference would always be for the latter because there is always that hope, however slim, that the club has unearthed the next Alex Ferguson. I enjoyed the Gannon and Baraclough era's if only because they brought a freshness of thought to the the often parochial, narrow minded Scottish Football old boy's club (that includes the press and senior players). They also did not have the Old Firm fear that drips from the likes of Stuart McCall, Craig Brown and McGhee himself. As a collective support however, we have proved that we don't have the stomach for an experiment. That leaves us with the Scottish managers, the ones who ensure mid-table respectability but are happy to accept losing 5+ goals to the Old Firm eight times a season. McGhee has been unlucky this season. He has drawn Rangers twice in separate cup competitions and Celtic once (both away from home at the knock out stage) and he has had to over-see a player budget reduction. As a positive, he has introduced some of the young players to the first team squad and has kept pace with the other teams in the league (outwith the top four). I think if we had a fully focused Mark McGhee, we would be absolutely fine. Maybe the board can use recent results as leverage, to make him focus a little more on his Motherwell responsibilities. For now I would rather have the continuity and maybe it can be looked at again in the summer.

One of the lads. Love it. That's the problem with Scottish football. It's an old boys club that has been stagnating for decades now, From the SFA down, the so called 'lads' have strangled the game in this country so that we now have one of the poorest leagues in Europe. That the Kris Boyd's and Crag's of this world, themselves mediocre at best, feel qualified to comment, I find laughable. From Paul Le Guen onwards, managers with modern ideas have been bullied from the moment they enter the Scottish game. I am no fan of Hearts, Walter Kidd saw to that, but I hope that Cathro is a massive success. The Scottish game needs something to bring it out of the dark ages.

Looking at the red card decisions, I think there was no doubt about the O Halloran challenge. Dangerous, high and reckless. On the other two, they are either both yellow or both red. Whichever way you look at 2 out of the 3 decisions are correct in my opinion. When looking at the Kiernan decision against the McDonald decision, there are a couple of factors that have clearly affected the decisions, none of which have anything to do with the rules of the game. The first is the circumstances of the game. Rangers have already had a player sent off and it is only twenty minutes into the game. It would take a very strong referee to send a second rangers player of at that time. That does not make the decision right but can make it understandable. The second is the position of the McDonald incident on the pitch. It happened directly in front of the dugout. The whole rangers bench would have been on their feet in a second instantly adding to the perceived severity of the challenge. Again does nor make the decision right but most referee's are going to take the path of least resistance. The frustration for me is that McDonald was stupid enough to lunge into the challenge. He must have known as a seasoned pro the tightrope that the whole Motherwell team had to walk for the remainder of the game. It was yet another poor decision from one of the more senior players in the squad. It must be very frustrating for a manager to watch a weeks preparation go down to the tubes in one moment of madness.

Would not like to be allocated the space beside him in the changing room.

I was going to turn it off at 1-0 and did turn off at 2-0 last night. As soon as I heard the 5 at the back gig, I knew the game was lost. Reminiscent of Stevie Hammell in midfield for the Scottish Cup Final a few years back. It's a desperate attempt to simply keep the inevitable defeat respectable. After the Cup final, I sensed a feeling of relief from the players that they had held it to 3, last night, I would not have been surprised if the players and McGhee felt some relief that they kept it at only 5. I don't think that there will be a team from any division that will go there with the same inferiority complex as we did last night. The tone is set by the manager and the senior players. I had hoped that the play off game might have represented a change in approach to Old Firm games but we are back to the same old approach and mentality.

Going by that article it sounds like Jim Gannon too! Had there been any attempt to blame Hugh Dallas and i would say that it definitely was Jim Gannon.

We are the team with the points in the bag so that makes us favorites to be in the top six come Saturday eve. I would be surprised if all three results go against us, our own result excluded. Having said that, i was not expecting the results we got last night. I am hopeful that we will take something from the game on Saturday. I would have been confident but Celtic's 3-1 win over hearts shows that they can still produce results when they need to.

McGhee's achievements are incredible. My feeling is that when we have a focused, motivated McGhee, we have the best man manager in the league. Looking back over the last 10 years, I think we have done exceptionally well with managers. Not all of them have been a long term success, but they have all contributed in timely fashion, to Motherwell's continued Premiership survival. Gannon and Baraclough built squads at times when we desperately needed players to allow the experienced man managers in Brown and McGhee to then mould these squads into top six teams. McCall provided a time of almost unparalleled success for the club but there was always a sense at that time that it was a live for the day mentality, with no forward planning at all. The point I am making is that few of our managers have been the complete manager, but they have all contributed in their own way at just the right time. In fact since Tommy McLean, the only two managers that for me, had an overall negative effect were McLeish and Malpas. That's not bad for a spell of 25 years in a clubs history.

That would be a miracle. Changed it.

Credit must go to Mark McGhee on what has been a fantastic string of results. Thinking back to the Kilmarnock game at FP when I really believed our season was falling apart, it's hard to believe that was only 5-6 weeks ago. Also Ian Baraclough has been vilified by some but Moult, Johnston, Ripley and others are looking like shrewd signings now. The squad had to be overhauled when McCall left and Baraclough built a platform for the club to move forward. Ironically the last time an overhaul was required a certain Mark McGhee left us with a thread bare squad. I think when we look back Jim Gannon and Ian Baraclough can both be credited for helping maintain the clubs proud history of top division football.

Talk that the foul leading to the goal was not a foul but for me it was a foul any day of the week and should have been a booking. Studs showing, two footed, reckless, dangerous. In European football that could have been a sending off. I know that people pine for the days of Peter Grant/ Colin O Neill type players and challenges but those days are gone and rightly so. Nothing better than seeing strong robust challenges but that one was dangerous. Good result. Great to see some fight. Also now seen two great goals from former players at FP this season, Vigurs and Anier. Vigurs one hurt because we lost, Anier one we can enjoy because in the end it did not matter.

Shit!!! Maybe I am getting confused by Claudio Ranieri mentioning 40 points for safety in the EPL.

I think 41 points (26 +15) would see us safe. Be unlucky to end up in the play off's with that total I think.

Fact is that nothing seems to work at the moment so a radical change may just do the trick. It's the old story, win and the manager has pulled a rabbit out the hat, lose and we will all be back on to add 10 pages to the Mark McGhee thread. My only feeling is that we need three in the middle. Lasley is just too immobile for a midfield two. Gomis, Lasley and one other in the middle would suit me. All the best to MM on a bold team selection.

The thing is though that, taking personality out of it and McGhee is not covering himself in glory at the moment. Publicly criticising players , contradicting himself in interviews, playing some baffling formations and being out thought by the likes of Lee McCulloch on Saturday. You make the joke about dinosaurs and it reminds me that you were a strong critic of Ian Baraclough. What would your view have been if Baraclough had put in the same performance as McGhee has since the start of the year? Ian Baraclough's Motherwell comfortably beat ICT in the first game of the season. Fast forward six months and ICT seem to have taken a step forward when Motherwell have gone backwards. McGhee himself made a big play on this before the ICT cup game. This is not about personality it's about performance. For what it's worth, my belief is that the problem lies with the players. McCall, Baraclough and now McGhee have all been (or are being) shafted by players that just don't care enough. I happen to believe that all three (Baraclough included) are decent manager being let down by a poor squad of players.