fizoxy

The difficulty for the young guys is the lack of a reserve side. I'm sure that if any of them had been performing well in the reserves they would have had a couple of 1st team appearances this year, but we're not going to recall them from a loan spell to fill in for one match. Hopefully one or two can make an impression in the second half of the season and force themselves into the managers plans, taking away the need for new signings and allowing us to use the funds to keep the likes of Jennings and Sutton.

How many contract extensions has Fitzpatrick had? I'm sure it's only 2, with the first one being when he was playing for us week in week out under Butcher, and then he got the six month deal to give him a chance to prove himself after being out injured a whole year.

At least McCall has got to see him in a couple of games. He may not have had this opportunity with all of the loanees, and he wont get much of a chance to look over any new signings before getting them in. Therefore it may be that the manager is keen to keep him on as the squad player that he is and at least have a known quantity that can cover a few areas. He's not a great player, but he's also not as bad as some people are making out. He's left sided, can cover centre-mid, left-mid and left back at a push, which I'd say is pretty valuable for a squad player. He was a regular under a few managers, and more than one manager has chosen to keep him on, so the guys in the know obviously see something in him. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he went, but I wouldn't be offended if he stayed either.

Hard to choose between Sutton and Murphy, who were both excellent today. So I picked Murph since he's winning Having Jenno and Las together in the middle makes a huge difference as well.

Might be some here the morra. I watch the bbc stuff using a proxy that Weeyin talked about on here a while ago. Works great with loads of stuff, but not 4oD for some reason, although that's nothing to do with football.

See, I don't think that these better leagues are any less physical or cynical than ours. They just have players who are physical and good at football. A pansy in the SPL would be a pansy anywhere else.

I think it's quite clear that the needs of the supporters isn't a major concern here, since our thoughts don't seem to have been considered. Fans will come and go, but there's only one Sky TV. They can always chuck another couple of quid on the ticket price to make up for the drop in numbers.

A 10 team league = more teams playing like Hamilton. Hardly going to have SKY TV battering on the door to get a piece of the action. The best thing to happen to our club was to hit rock bottom in the admin days. The Scottish game needs the same, no more patch up jobs. Hanging on to the coat tails of the OF is killing the game and we need to accept that and support them in getting them to fuck.

Did anyone drop their prices when VAT was cut?

This sums up the Fitzy situation for me. We won't find a first team regular who is better than what we have for the same wages Fitzpatrick is on. He's an experienced backup player and worth having in the squad. Every manager we've had from Butcher onwards have seen something in the guy, so he's obviously good for something. Of course, it's entirely possible that he may want to move on for regular football, and the best of luck to him if he does. Gow is a luxury, and I'm not fussed if he stays or not. If we need to free up a wage to bring in a new face, then I wouldn't have a problem with it being his. Blackman is in a run of bad form at the minute, but I would prefer to see him and Sutton/Murphy up front, rather than him and Gow. Hopefully we can extend his loan as over his time here he's been a useful player to have. We could also see the likes of Jennings, Sutton and Reynolds sold on this month if we can't tie them up long term, so this may have an effect on who we try to keep out of the first lot. All of the above are replaceable though, with Jennings the only one I really hope hangs around.

He's not Motherwell class.

You're a terrorist.

This Saturday's a big game, but win or lose I wouldn't give McCall all the credit for just a couple of days work. If people want immediate results, and think they can judge the guy on this weekend's performance, then they're deluded. I don't know what would have qualified as a great appointment this time round. When was the last time we had one (at the time, not in hindsight)? I'm sure that every appointment from McLean onwards has had its fair share of sceptics, I can't speak for the earlier ones but I'm sure they were the same. It will be nice when we can one day appoint a "Motherwell man" as manager, but who the guy played for really shouldn't come into it, he's not playing for them anymore and has a new job to do, and I'm confident McCall will give his all at FP, and we'll see what that amounts to. My opinion on McCall will be based on what he does from today onwards.

Seems pretty shitty, but could it not be down to a broadcasting rights issue?

As has been said countless times on this thread, Calderwood hardly achieved what he has done on a shoestring. Also, did he apply?

We've looked a fair bit more composed this half so far.

I bet on the ref falling over. Well, half time and it's only 1-0. Can't complain.

Gow is worse than George Weah's cousin

Just won a booking!

Celtic are playing well, but this is as hopeless as I've ever saw us. We are dreadful in every department.

We're looking pretty hopeless right now.

OK, this page suggests that Stuart McCall's win % is better than Motherwell's all time win % in the SPL. Got to love stats! Butcher, Brown, McGhee all won games at about the same rate.

I doubt the win % of most of our previous managers would have been much better.

I'm sure this isn't the first time we haven't got our first or even second choice candidate. These things happen all the time, they just aren't always played out in the media. Out of all the names mentioned over the past couple of weeks, Fenlon was the only one that I thought would be an exciting choice. McCall isn't a glamour appointment, but anyone who was expecting a big name or someone with an excellent track record is deluded. Look at the quality/experience of players we attract and that will tell you the kind of manager we're going to get. Very few managers are going to want to work with almost no money, and even the teams in the lower leagues of England have money to spend, add this to the fact the guy has to be unemployed and this is going to thin out the list of possibilities further. I don't care who our new manager used to play for, all I care about is how he manages MFC. He's obviously impressed the board enough for them to offer him the job, so I'll trust them on this one for the time being. One thing that seems to be lost on SPL teams these days is bringing through players and managers from the Scottish lower leagues. Is this a quality or a financial thing?

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