fizoxy

I don't remember much about that period, other than every other team conspiring to give us third :-)

According to Hammell, via the record, we're working on getting at least one striker in before the weekend.

There's no evidence to say that we aren't working on signings. Hammell has said multiple times over the last few weeks that they have been working around the clock to try and get things done, but it takes two to tango. The idea that a bunch of players will just turn up on day one of the window is wishful thinking to say the least. We are rarely a players fist choice, so we often have to wait for other moves to happen before we can make ours.

Did we disturb a burial ground when we upgraded the pitch?

Penney? Before him, maybe Cole?

We've had the same head of recruitment throughout all of this. I sympathize with the timing of hammell coming in with regards to improving the style of play, but this shouldn't have interuppred our recruitment in any way. I agree that Hammel is in danger of losing his job, but surely Daws must be in the firing line too?

Slattery was the closest we had to someone grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, so went with him. Thought Spittal was far better in the advanced role with Cornelius behind him.

Once again our inability to take our chances has cost us points. We were hardly troubled at the back and had loads of possession, but we cant take a half decent set piece, and we are way too tentative in the final third.

Shouty players being good leaders is an old fashioned trope. We need players that are not shite, and preferably not slow. How they choose to communicate is way down the priority list. On loan Peter Hartley was excellent, but post injury he was as bad as what we currently have now, and spent a season on the bench before taking it easy in the Indian league. Players that wear their hearts on their sleeves can be endearing to fans, but if we signed a unknown player with all Hartley's attributes and similar career path, this place would meltdown. As bad as we've looked at the back, we have been in every single game this season, and I feel that our lack of cutting edge up front is our biggest problem. If we had taken a handful of our chances we wouldn't be as panicky as we are right now. Having an actual threat up front would make it a lot harder for teams to throw everything at us in the latter stages. Right now there is no risk to teams leaving themselves more open at the back. If we don't sign a halfway competent striker, we're screwed.

He was gash for Falkirk last year and is now a year older and hasn't played for half a season, there's absolutely nothing to suggest he's up to playing at the top level again.

Someone is going to bite, I'm hoping it's a Dunfermline or Arbroath and not us.

I doubt County would let Iacovitti go, and we don't have the kind of money to persuade a team to let go of a player that is a regular in their team. We are limited to: 1 - loan signings, which means the player is either pretty young or not getting games. 2 - Players who are surplus to requirements at other clubs (one man's trash, another's treasure, yadda yadda). 3 - players who are already free agents. The reality is that we are very unlikely to sign players our fans know, unless we know them for being shite. It is possible we could pull the old pre contract and force to sell trick, but I do t think we have the funds for that.

What's the future like? Do we stay up?

Yeah, Turnbull looks to have been knocked pretty far down the pecking order, so I can see him going out on loan, but I doubt it would be us. Would be nice if they sold him and we got our kickback.

The generational thing is something I was chatting to someone at work about yesterday. If you had a time machine and went back and got prime Pele, and chucked him in today's Brazil side, would he be any good? Possibly not. But if Pele was born in 2002, and had all the information, training, nutritional advice, etc, that today's players have would he become the goat? Maybe. I don't subscribe to the "have to have seen him" argument. We have enough information at our disposal, including the accounts of people who did see these players, to have an informed opinion of the players of the past. Hughie Ferguson scored almost 300 goals, and McFadyen scored 52 in a season, that alone is enough to tell me they should be right up there in the reckoning. The stats do give defenders and goalies a raw deal though.

We have nothing about us. Teams can handle us when they are a man down because we pose no threat. It felt like our lead was more down to how poor killie were, because we were very pedestrian on the ball, and took the negative option every time. Refusing to bring on subs until they were level was criminal.

Teams should start with ten men against us.

Efford posted yesterday that he'd be back soon.

Joe Efford is the American Shivute, so very apt. Excellent initiative by the club at a difficult time of year for many. The patch with the charity numbers is a great idea.

This is a good resource for player info https://www.motherwellnet.com/database/player-archive/

Hammel has said they're all working tirelessly to indentify targets and get things moving. So he'll mend him if they're shite :-)

I like Cornelius, and I would love for him to push on as a regular. However, he's no faster than the current midfield, and he's being made into something's he is not by some of our support due to not playing. I always thought he'd thrive in that pressing role in front of the midfield, with Goss and Slattery as the 2 behind, but that probably means losing a forward. I think that us being close in every game has left Hammel reluctant to make big changes, and I can understand that. If KVV and shields converted one of their clear chances in the last few weeks, or SOL keeps his hands to himself, we could be in a completely different mood.

Surely the point of having a head of recruitment is that we don't need to rely on the manager's contacts? I'm yet to be convinced by Daws, but finding and acquiring players is his job. Agree on the windows, if we keep going into January requiring major surgery we're going to have a bad time.

Some kind of defensive midfielder, a center half, and at least one striker who has some pace. All we really have coming back from injury is Efford and Mcginn, who are decent, but aren't going to move the needle to get us out of the bottom half shit fest.

Grimshaw, fuck sake.