MelvinBragg

And just to further dampen your spirits, we now face the prospect of four SPL games without a Motherwell player making a tackle...

Do they wear sombreros in Kazakhstan?? I'm not counting my chickens yet. Unless McGhee sends Klimpl back to Denmark...

Would you want this Motherwell team going into the last day against Kilmarnock needing something...?

I thought the Porter loophole had been closed by UEFA?

A lot of talk of our goal difference being too good for us to go down. A couple of 3-0 defeats in the next couple of games change anyone's minds...?

BLASPHEMY!!!!!!

McLeish also signed Valakari and Owen Coyle. Just to try and add some mitigation...

Sums up perfectly why I love the guy. Even if we get a player with the same level of ability (on our budget, doubtful), would we get someone as willing to run himself into the ground for the cause? At the moment, letting this guy leave would be folly of the highest order...

He was a novice when at Fir Park. It would be churlish to suggest that he's learned nothing in the last 14 years he's been a manager. He's probably a better manager now than he was then. Doesn't make him a great manager. And doesn't mean I'll remember his time at Fir Park with any more fondness...

As would I, big man, but don't kid yourself that Arsenal don't win the battle before they start playing football. The most successful of Wenger's team's had Patrick Viera in it. Shrinking violet, he was not...

The fact he's only scored one gaol fewer than Steven Fletcher and two more than Lee Miller, guys who get raved about in the media, tells me he's a more than decent SPL striker. The fact that he genuinely seems to love playing for Motherwell probably means he gets an easier ride or more praise from some of us. As it's always been for guys who give 100% for Well...

I normally agree with a lot of what you say but I'd say Reynolds is far more replaceable than Clarkson. Trying to find someone to score maybe 10 goals in the SPL in the summer is going to be hard enough, without looking for two of them...

Would take some money to replace Clarkson. IF we get offers for Reynolds is the key question. I can perhaps see Hearts coming back in for him, beyond that I'm not so sure...

Aye, cos 1 in 3 is a terrible ratio for a Motherwell striker. As Tweed pointed out in another thread, we don't exactly create much for our forwards. And without even thinking, he was pivotal in the build up for O'Brien's goal recently. I'm sure if you look at the other goals we've scored, he'll be in and about most of them...

I actually thought Clarkson's play had been pretty poor for the first half of this season. But even given that he's chipped in the goals. I love the guy, and I fear for us next season if he's not in Claret and Amber. He's the one guy in our team that you know will run through a brick wall for Motherwell. Sometimes this season he's tried too hard, to do too much. If you don't believe he's the main threat in our team, watch who the opposition choose to boot up the air at every opportunity, the next time we play...

I don't think anyone with half a brain expects us to be top half every season. I'm happy to stay in the league every year. I think what does rankle with me is the manner of performances that lead us to where we finish. One of my favourite seasons watching Motherwell was the season we finished bottom under Butcher. But the performances always had a bit of bite about them, we were in people's faces, and if we lost it wasn't for the lack of effort. Now I know it's hard to replicate that kind of spirit that came from being in administration, but I expect teams to have to work hard to beat us. If that happens, fair play to them. Being honest, I know where our place is in the grand scheme of things. I just want some of the doggedness of a McLean or a Butcher team. Far easier teams to love. These players are capable of it (the cup tie at Tynecastle last season). Just wish we saw it more often...

I'm not convinced that there weren't two players available who will be at the club next season who could have sat on the bench rather than Sheridan and Malcolm. As regards my "constant negativity", I stated earlier that McGhee is a good manager (quite negative, eh?). I just don't think the sun shines out of his arse. If my posts aren't well thought out, well that's your opinion. But why are so many of the responses I get not answers to the questions I pose but criticisms for being negative or as Jay points out cries of "DO YOU WANT MALPAS BACK?!?"? I don't mean this as a criticism of McGhee but are he and Malpas the only two managers Motherwell have ever had?? I know that it may come across as if I feel we should be sitting third or challenging for the title. Not true. I'd quite happily be sitting in 9th if I thought that the players and the manager were giving the best they had. Sadly with some of the players, they too often don't look interested. And thanks to some of the manager's decisions, they sometimes look as if they don't know what the plan is. I can accept Motherwell not being very good (I remember John Gardiner, Paul Kinnaird and Gordon Mair). I think what does rankle is when the team's effort (and yes, sometimes the team selection) looks half arsed. Particularly at the moment when people are spending money, when times are tight, to watch the team. And without wishing to sound like that hat , the real reason I'm thinking about giving up my season ticket is the fact that freedom of speech seems to have gone out of the window at Fir Park. This has not come from McGhee himself but from fans of his who refuse to accept any criticism of him (I don't necessarily mean any of the posters on this thread). Weeyin is right, it is a game and if things went as they were supposed to it would be dull. But for as long as I can remember, as football fans we were allowed to grouse when things weren't to our liking. It seems like, at Fir Park, that time is over...

I have said in a couple of posts very recently that I'd love us to finish seventh but that I doubted that the best way for us to achieve that was to continue playing guys whose motivation could be questioned. As far as I'm concerned that wasn't a criticism of McGhee, just an opinion on the way we should go for the next 5 (now 4) games. This only becomes a criticism if you have taken McGhee at his word when he stated that he was only goinbg to be using players whose future lay at Fir Park. What were Sheridan and Malcolm doing on the bench yesterday? Why was Sheridan used ahead of McHugh? Why (it could be argued) were we using Hughes and Smith who have not made it clear where their future lies? I am only taking McGhee at his word and questioning when he goes back on it. I understand that he felt it was a game we needed to win. I just question his approach to doing so. For the first time in my recollection, to question or criticise a Motherwell manager's decisions is seen as blasphemy by a large section of our support. I have been McGhee's harshest (not his only) critic. But I'd like to think that the majority of my posts have been well thought out and have raised questions that many of us at Fir Park have had while watching the team this season. Baffling team selections are becoming a regular occurence. The home Nancy game, St Mirren at home in the cup and the recent league game against St Mirren are just a few examples off the top of my head. You could add yesterday to the list, playing Lasley at right back when we could easily have shifted McLean out there given there was a centre back on the bench. Now I'm aware that I'm quicker to jump on these baffling decisions because I don't really like the guy. However, as I said in a post recently, he is a good manager, but not without his faults. Just seems like a lot of the support can't see them...

Careful, with talk like that round here...

I'd agree with your last statement, the first paragraph I'd take issue with. Clarkson, Sutton and prior to his departure Porter have all weighed in with goals. The real problem is that no other bugger does. We need a goalscorer, aye, but one that plays in midfield not to replace one of the strikers...

I think Quinn is far more of a leader than Craigan but unfortunately the manager undermined that by removing the captaincy from Quinn last season. We do need someone to be a driving force in the middle of the park. I don't know if Klimpl is that man, he seems a bit much of a headless chicken to me to fulfil the Scott Leitch role...

I think the way we play hasn't helped Sutton. A lot of our build up goes through the middle. He's a guy who thrives on crosses. I think that a 4-4-2 with proper wide men raining crosses in, or even a 3-5-2 might benefit him. And I don't think this would do any harm to Clarkson's game either, he's decent in the air as well. Also might mean that not everything was gojng through Clarkson. It seems to me that teams have worked out that if you shut Clarkson down, there's a fair chance we won't score...

Christ, I hope we don't qualify then...

I would argue that worse than that everyone at Fir Park (supporters, management and players) know that McGhee has his favourites who will not be ousted irrespective of form and whether there are players that would be able to do a better job. The names McGarry, Reynolds and Hughes leap to mind... EDIT I know McGarry has been dropped but he seems to return for key games despite having shown nothing in substitute appearances...

Ah, the old fallback if you dare critcise McGhee. If you don't like McGhee then you must want Malpas back? How I've missed that one... As I've stated on other threads, I'd love us to finish 7th but I don't see how playing players whose futures may lie elsewhere or who have one eye on their summer holidays helps us achieve that. McGhee himself has stated that he is preparing for next season as of now and will only be using players who see their future at Fir Park. How does that square with the line up today, particularly the selection of Hughes and Smith who, if we're being honest, will only sign a new contract at Motherwell as a last resort. And I fail to see how playing players out of position and guys who frankly are so out of form it's not true helps us achieve the aim of finishing seventh...