David

Agreed. It should be very rare when we give a manager anything longer than a 12 month rolling contract, in my opinion.

Imagine how much more f*cked we'd be financially if we'd binned off Kettlewell and his backroom team earlier this season as well?

Every chance we will eventually be relegated. Virtually every other club around us has been in recent times, so it could just be our turn. Hasn't kicked a ball since November. Take from that what you will.

But how are they able to do that? Aren't St Mirren fan owned? Just like us?

Aren't St Mirren fan-owned? Just like us? Where are they getting the money?

You telling me you think Forrest has a chance of making the Scotland team by coming to Motherwell? Or any other Scottish club for that matter?

If he knows anything about Steve Clarke and the criteria he has for picking players, he'd be asking his agent to find him a move to an English Championship team then.

Not only that, but he signed a deal with them until 2026. There's no way we can match the salary he's getting there, so if he's leaving permanently then he'll surely be looking for more than we can give him? A loan would be different, of course, because he'd still be getting the salary he agreed with Groningen, with us contributing.

It's worth bearing in mind that if his goalscoring record was impressive, we'd be nowhere near him.

I could be wrong, but didn't Wilkinson want away? It's not quite the case that we moved him on entirely of our own choice, is it?

That last sentence sums up why I'm not too fond of that kind of situation. No one actually knows. Clubs in Scotland, like Dundee United, have shown they are happy to get a few dollars thrown at them. Taking the money and asking questions later seems to be the order of the day.

I'm certainly not saying he's shifty or has ulterior motives, but again, guys like him don't make their fortune by throwing it away on silly projects. His Vegas ice hockey team winning the Stanley Cup wasn't really "the impossible." The way US sports are set up, many teams have a good chance of winning their major trophy, especially if they can get into the playoffs and so on. Plus, the Knights are running at $200 million in annual revenue, which is a profit of just over $50 million. Plus, there's a lot to be gained from owning an NHL franchise. His aim of buying into that exclusive group makes perfect sense. A Scottish football club, though? I don't see him winning any titles any time soon, and the avenues for generating real funds aren't really there in our game. This suggests to me that the positives and gains to be made by him aren't entirely financial. He's also not for telling either.

Considering that even if we sign Brophy and A.N Other we'd have three fit strikers available. There's a good chance that youth will get a look in.

Again, what does he get out of this? That's all I want to know. Why doesn't he lay out exactly what he gets from this? Beyond the warm fuzzies of being a good egg and all that, of course. Again, the same question applies here. If, in theory, a bigger club wants to "affiliate" with a club like ours, the question is why? They obviously don't need us, so why are they doing it? And it's not so much getting screwed over that doesn't sit right with me. It's the fact that such relationships often change the club at its very core. It's extremely rare that extremely wealthy people or organisations part with their money without wanting something in return. If they were the type of people to do that, they wouldn't be where they are in life.

It depends on what you mean by a "big gun." An individual with money? Someone like Bill Foley, who fancies losing a few million for a laugh by "investing" in a Scottish football team? Or the ownership group of an already established English club that sees us as a feeder or "B team" of sorts?

It's very clear what Hibs would be getting. What I'm wondering is, what exactly is Foley getting? From what I see, he's putting in some money to have no direct control over football matters. The board wouldn't change, and he gets no security of Hibs's assets. Guys like him don't spend their money for a laugh, despite what he claims. There's more to this, long-term, than what's being let on to the regular punter.

Just more news to depress me with, eh? 😂

The only stats that matter are those that show we've won four, and drawn nine in 22 games, and sit 9th in the table.

If I told you we were going to bring in a striker this window who was 27 years old and had scored over 50 goals in our top flight, you'd think that was a signing we didn't want or need?

A few things on Stav Nahmani as a potential target. First of all, he's only just turned 21 years old. He's still young in football terms, so he's still improving. He's also not had much of a chance at St Mirren. He's only started two games or something like that. Also, how St Mirren play and how they utilise their strikers may differ from how we do. Also, we can only afford what we can afford. Finances and availability within the market during this window is a huge factor.

Honestly, I'd rather we continued to operate within our means. And if that involved a drop down to the Championship or even lower, then so be it. I'd rather watch a fan-owned Motherwell Football Club play in the Championship with the best players we can afford and a healthy smattering of youth in our ranks, than some 2nd-rate, oil-backed English teams reserve outfit plying our trade in a weird frankenstein league. But that's just me. Maybe the majority would be happy to go along with it, in the hopes of a few of the oil dollars rolling off the big table and into our hands. I'd likely pack it in and follow junior football at that point.

I imagine it would mean we'd get access to more Mika Biereth's. But it also means we'd have more players taken away at the drop of a hat, just like Mika Biereth. The truth is, at that point, you need to ask if we're really still Motherwell FC? Or just QPR B, or Sheffield United B? If it did happen, it's likely the closest I'd actually come to just chucking it altogether and following rugby instead.

We live in an age where people seemingly know the age and schooling plans of players kids. You think a PCA has any chance of being kept quiet?

It's not that much of a stretch. They're similar to us as far as league and cup ambition goes, and can reportedly offer more money. Plus, it wouldn't require the player to uproot his family or take kids out of school. It's a no-brainer.

I would admit that if I'd ever claimed it, but I haven't. In fact, when fans on this forum slate the manager, I often say there's a reason he's being paid to do the job he's doing while we're all discussing it on an internet forum. If you're looking for people to admit to what you're asking there, I think there's probably more than me you need to ask. Like most fans, I'll give my opinion on things, but I've never claimed to know better than any manager we've had. It should also be said though, that one signing that has come good in Bair isn't a vindication of our transfer business and approach to it as a whole. There will always be outliers and surprises that pop up, but for every Bair there's an Obika, Souaré and Shaw. It could still be argued that one of the reasons Bair looks like such a decent signing is because the overall bar set by the recruitment team and our playing squad this season has been set so low.