Kmcalpin

Sadly any fee will be somewhat less. Even if the gross fee was £500k, £100k would be siphoned by the Treasury in the form of VAT.

I'll be surprised if Marvin Johnson is still with us by the end of 2015 - didn't think it would be long before the vultures began circling overhead. The key question is can we secure a decent fee for him.

When does pre season training start this year? If our first friendly is on 7 July the players must be starting back pretty early. Last season our first publicised friendly was 9 July against Fulham with the Stjarnan games coming in Mid July.

This. Our team of the mid seventies was the best side I've seen in all the time I've been going to Fir Park but I didn't like the sash strip. It should stay in the past. Stick to our traditional hoop.

Whilst that is undoubtedly true, there were quite a few players who hardly featured for one reason or another after the January sales, or even before. ZFA, Vigurs, Cummins, McHugh, Lawson, Reid, and Nathan Thomas. Their wages would amount to a few hundred thousand over the course of a season. We did have a bloated squad but in reality many were simply names on a wages sheet. Next season I'd expect a smaller but more settled squad with hopefully less passengers and injuries.

Presumably someone from the club reads these pages? Given that a few posters seem to have details or know someone who has details of the flarethrower(s), I hope these have been picked up or passed to the club. The SPFL is holding an investigation right now and the flarethrowing is an integral part of that. Its very likely the club will be punished for our fans' pitch invasion and I just hope it isn't punished for "our fans" flarethowing.

These artificial pitches are always sold publicly as being state of the art and marvellous but players and management constantly gripe about them. From what I've seen of the NDP pitch it just wasn't good and the ball was bouncing unpredictably. If it was all it was cracked up to be why replace it?

Hopefully we will minimise loan deals this summer. They do have some advantages but have many drawbacks. By their very nature they are short term; they don't tend to arrive until well after our season has kicked off - usually late August; players might not be 100% fit; and they miss our pre season preparations.

Kampmann's signings were entirely different - not so much hit as miss. In assessing Baraclough's signings we have to take in to account the nature of the January window, in which it is very difficult for clubs like ours to do business. Very few managers have a 100% signing record. If we look at Bara's record you could say that Pearson, MacDonald, and Johnson have been clear successes. Laing, Grant and and Long have been ok and Straker and Thomas were poor. Harri Kampmann's record was worse, far worse.

No surprises at the departures. Ian Baraclough says he wants to freshen up the squad and I wouldn't disagree with that. No doubt quite a few players coming in over the next 2/3 months. The decks have been cleared.

I'm a bit put out by the Rangers press release and Flow is disappointed it was released at all. I don't know where they get the "investigation into the behaviour of the Motherwell fans" from. Is that their take on the remit of any official investigation or is it official? In my view any investigation should cover the security arrangements and behaviour of all fans. To limit the remit would render the entire process flawed and unsafe.

Absolutely Al. Stuart McCall is a decent guy but he left us in a poor state. His squad rebuilding decisions over the past 2 years proved to be very poor. Off the field too, I suspect things were not as they could have been. Not expecting miracles next season but hopefully we can achieve at least one decent cup run and higher league placing - 7/8/9 place will do me. It promises to be an interesting summer on the transfer front with a good bit of rebuilding to do. Ian Baraclough will have the opportunity to rebuild at the right time and not having to firefight during the difficult January window. Targets were identified as far back as January so matters are already in hand. Will be renewing my season ticket shortly. The Play Off Final games seem to rekindled interest among many fans.

What did Flow say on Sportsound?

Having said that what contribution have Vigurs, Lawson, McHugh and Cummins made this year? They would account for a few thousand pounds surely.

I wonder how quickly we have to hand over yesterday's 50% gate takings to the SPFL? We should take a leaf out of their book and hand it over sometime in say October. Either that or deduct it from the cash they are due us.

I agree Allan, as you know. The problem is that the Police instruct the stewards to take a soft approach. A year or two back I complained about Celtic fans continously standing in the south end of the POD Stand - we couldn't see the corner of the pitch. The steward on duty said he'd speak to his supervisor and he did but his boss said the Police had instructed them to take no action. Maybe stewarding and policing is something the Society needs to take up with the club. Its an important issue for fans and we aren't clear about what goes on.

Good post. I suspect the large blue contingent in the POD Stand may have been a mixture of hospitality, complimentaries and those just chancing their luck. Of all the stands this was the one in which there was most likely to be trouble and for years now that has been the case. Credit to the club, including under pressure ticket office staff and people like Yir Elder, for doing their bes, but yes,there are lessons to be learnt surely. Stewards and gate staff must take a more proactive role and remove obvious interlopers PDQ. Quite how a family kitted out in blue and orange managed to gain access to the East Stand and sit near the Bois beggars belief. Thankfully there was no trouble. Stewards should be taking note of seat numbers and passing them to the club for long term use.

We also have Fraser Kerr who is out of contract. Is the jury still out on him?

I think thats because the Police wanted to keep a low profile as they usually do at Rangers and Celtic games. Disorder in the South Stand could have resulted in a few arrests I reckon.

Pretty sure Sutton, Erwin and MacDonald will all move on. Reports that Erwin's agent is talking to Leeds United. As Haggis said Sutton's time has come and gone.

I think thats about it Greg - not sure about Angol's position though.

Quite a few security issues today eh? Prior to the match we drove into the almost full Knowetop School car park with ease. Despite what Police Scotland said beforehand we found no ticket cordon whatsoever. No steward at the car park entrance to check parking tickets. Quite a few Rangers fans in the wings of the POD Stand. Now I suspect from previous experience that many of these would be complimentaries but I might be wrong. In that case they were there legitimately. However fans should report any seat numbers occupied by interlopers to the club to prevent the same culprits acting in the same fashion again. Potential flare throwers should also be reported. One or two at the south end behaved themselves but others left acrimoniously amid a barrage of catcalls and boos. Our fans should not have invaded the pitch end of. They should certainly not have goaded the South Stand. The Police were far too slow to react to the events. That said, the Rangers fans pelted our fans with cans and even a ripped out seat - no Police reaction to that. Quite a few Rangers fans were also involved in nasty exchanges with stewards and the Hospitality boxes in the South Stand after the game ended. Again the Police were nowhere to be seen.

Fantastic result today and over the piece we were worthy 6-1 winners. As expected Rangers relied on the long high ball and initially we allowed them far too much leeway to sling crosses into the box. Once we scored the first goal though the outcome was never in doubt. A huge result for us. So credit is due to Ian Baraclough and the players - a real team performance. Probably Lasley, Pearson Johnson and McManus were the pick of the bunch. We got our tactics just about spot on. A very emotional day in many ways for so many but my overriding emotion is one of relief.

Certainly Ian Baraclough has produced the goods in the Play off Final. It'll be interesting, now that we've secured our top table place, how he reshapes the squad. A substantial rebuilding job is necessary.

Maybe you're right. I do know that the Police have the final say on ticket office opening hours though. Almost everything that goes on today in and around Fir Park will be under the control of Police Scotland - don't know about the match itself though!