Steve Diggle

Glad it all seemed to have gone well. But why anybody was unable to attend is none of anybody's business I don't think

Are you sure its no' FGUA? Fat Gutted Under Achiever

I don't think anybody's 'punting' Stephen Hughes out of Motherwell. Well apart from Stephen Hughes that is. I think most (vast majority) fans want him to stay. But if he can't commit or will only stay if we burst the bank and the wage structure then he sits on the bench for the remainder of the games and we move on as a club. it's really that simple. And he plays best beside Fitzpatrick Hughes, Klimpl, O'Brien and Fitzy would be my 4 as long as they're interested in wearing the jersey Stephen Hughes is not the only player who carries half the Motherwell support on his back either.

I wonder if Yogi will get his trotters if we beat them. Or will a win for them save his bacon. If we play 3 up front we'll be in with a snout after a crackling match. I wonder if the car pork will be segregated to prevent infection. But seriously I hope this couple will be OK. I'm sure the oinkment will do it's job!

Pig Sh****g B****ds, You're Only. . . .etc etc etc.

I think Dobbie as at the end of his contract. I've heard from someone close to the coaching staff thare that they are absolutely amazed that nobody is coming for Dobbie. In fact one of the coaches reckons he's as good as any player he's played alongside during his distinguished playing career. Shed a load of lbs taking his football seriously. Although i did hear Swansea linked with him last week on the BBC Edit: These are the type of signings we should be considering.

Maman was last seen at Toronto in the MLS. I thought he looked a decent enough player during the Bradford game and I'm sure McGhee would have kept him if the funds were available. I know we only seen a snippet of him - but he was clearly a 'football' player and looked to pretty skillful - with regular games etc - we could have been onto something.

Its a fair point you make Ceske. pricing across the board is nonsense. it's falkirk's decision at the end of the day (just like it was Motherwell's on the two instances you highlight). Team's reap what they sow in terms of pricing. However if Falkirk want extra home support to cheer your lads out of the hole that they're in and extra away support to fire that whole thing up then pricing is one way to do it. For most of us £21 is a no-go at this stage in the season due to our non qualification for the top 6 - so you can see why we aing gonna pay the full price. I think that empty seats in any football stadium while someone is staying away who would gladly pay £10-£15 to get in is one of the biggest follies of our time.

I think this is where McGhee needs to learn a bit of the Wee Tommy McLean's. I think he's the guy for the job - but he needs to manage that wage bill more prudently. To think we gave Malcolm a wage packet and not someone like Maman looks just plain mental looking back - and I think that this has slipped most people mind in the whole Hughes / midfield going forward debate. That guy must've been better value for money on the wage bill than Malcolm McGhee needs to look at his overall budget in terms of wages and available transfer funds (which I believe as Elvis Costello once said will be "Less Than Zero") and acquire players that can do the job we need. With Hughes and Malcolm looking like they're offski - their wages could equate to 3 journeymen. Look what McLean did with journeymen. Hopefully he is actually planning for wells pre season this year. As he quite obviously had other things on his mind last year.

One big thing you missed is that it would cost many thousands of pounds in compensation for your 'get rids' that would detract from any 'bring ins' that would need to happen as a result. I disregarded your keeps and get rids - but read them in a kind of good guy, good guy, wank type scenario. I think most peoples objections to your pontification and the general belief that you don't know as much as you proffess to is that you had way too many good guys down as wanks and way too many wanks down as good guys. In fact (if you pardon the pun) you had too many wanks overall. To get rid of all of them would be suicide. And quite frankly ain't gonna happen. McGhee will try to add to the squad to compensate for our shortcomings this year and to replace the guys that leave. He'll have very little say over that. I don't see many of the contracted players attracting offers as their isn't a lot of money flying around. I don't really like slating any players that are currently wearing the C&A - yet you had one of our young guys down as a keep that unfortunately (and stevie wonder told me he agreed with me as he passed on his bike) wont make it as a regular SPL player this century. He's a great lad though.

I don't think you'll need a tin hat for that one mate. I think most folk agree. if his desire is to play elsewhere next season - he might as well start as soon as. And if he's undecided I'd say get someone else in until he makes his mind up. He's put in some great shifts and should be graciously thanked for that. But we've a team to sort out and build for next season - Thanks and Cheerio son.

I think we're missing the point - The only reason the OF as big is that they're aligned to the big religions. So it's not more teams in the league we need or the OF pissing off. We just need to align more of our clubs with religions. If we're in quick we could pick either Muslim or Jedi You can just imagine it eh? Buses of stormtroopers coming from perth, Dunfermline, Falkirk Inverness, Fort William etc every Saturday to cheer on the Well. C'mon the Jedis!

I don't think it can - for Falkirk to win all their games and us to lose all ours plus all the teams in the middle have to lose and gain points etc. it just ain't possible.

Have they no been playing Corcoran as a defender - who looks like the fat dancer from Take That? He's been mince in all 4 Accies games this season if it's the same guy I'm thinking about. MacArthur or Easton - aye, Corcoran? Nah!

I'm so glad we never ever had a silver away shirt. Aye Poor Hearts Unless. . . . . . you actually went to the games where the durty cheatin swines kicked everything above grass level (in the days when we had grass) and bundled the ball over the line through any means possible. Albert Kidd - what a guy!

Cheers - Like you say - he's perfectly entitled to move. But on the quiet - We've got several players who are sure they want to wear that claret and amber jersey (hopefully with a hoop). lets give one of them top billing on our web page / email newsletter. Untill he's made up his mind I'd give the big yin gardening leave. Put meldrum in goal.

Yep that's how we found all our gems in the past - Throw them in!

IMHO I think the McGhhee message about who's up for next season should have been the main message in the weekly 'well newsletter. See that type of uncommitted - "what will be will be" / "I'm waiting for an offer from elsewhere so I won't say I'm away just yet" interview with Smith that headed the newsletter - that's the type of thing that does my box right in. He's already had an interview like that printed so - f**k him. Print an interview with someone who wants to stay and is ready to set the expectation for next year. Are you in or are you out Buzz? (I think he's out). If the answers hum and haw then I'm afraid the decision should be made for him. Cheerio son, thanks for your efforts, particularly in France. But the club moves on! Smith undecided over future Graeme Smith admits he doesn’t know where his future lies following Motherwell’s failure to make the top-six. The goalkeeper is out of contract in the summer although he has been offered an extension at Fir Park. Hibs have expressed an interest in the 25-year-old but he remains undecided and simply wants to focus on the final five games of the season instead. “I’ve got five games before my deal is up and we’re still plugging away trying to sort the future out,” he said. “What will be, will be. Just because we’re in the bottom six it’s not going to have any bearing on what I’m going to do. “Is there a chance I’ll still be here next season? You never rule anything out in football. But right now I don’t know where my future lies. “For the moment all I’m focused on is what the manager said after the game on Saturday. He told us there would be changes next year and he needs to assess his squad. “He wants us to win the last five games and said if we don’t approach them in the right manner our futures will be in doubt. He made that clear to the boys. “We’ll probably be the only team who are safe in the bottom six, but we’ve a responsibility not just to the other teams but ourselves too, to play well and that was the message he put across to us. He was disappointed not to be in the top six, but we’re not happy either."

I'm disappointed - and think we should have finished higher. Yet in the grand scheme of things 7th is good enough for me! What I disagree with is your assessment of a lot of the players. I think you've got a high % way of the mark I've been following Motherwell long enough to know that we'll have to hang on to as many of those guys as we can. We'll let Boab go - and unfortunately I think Klimpl (and the other loans as well) - for financial reasons. Plus Shug and Buzz will depart. The rest we'll try to keep.

Good post Mr Johnstone. In general I'm a McGhee fan - i think he's a great manager and hope we hang on to him - but there have been a few mistakes this season. he'll know better than me what he was trying to achieve in certain games - but I just doidn't get it at times. I'd add that one of the big factors in player performance this year has been lack of confidence. I feel that the way he chops and changes affects some worse than others. he plays someone who is not in their best form quite often and drops someone who has played a blinder the week before. Fitzpatrick is a guy I like - in and out the team like a yo-yo early in the season he came on regularly for Big Boab and added a wee bit of football to the midfield. More recently he didn't play too badly then has been out for the last few. We could have done with him at Ibrox and against St Mirren and Aberdeen at Fir park in recent weeks instead of McGarry (Dons / Gers) or any one of 10 central defenders on sat. Murphy - disappointing this season although again in and out like a yo-yo early on and let down badly by MMcG in the Nancy tie. Big Boab - any of our midfielders on the bench while he was play must've been greeting into their beer at night. The inability to get a blend between Porter, Sutton, Clarky and Murphy frustrated the life out of everybody - particularly the players. Lasley - again in and out - at times in the team when not playing well. Had a good game a few weeks back and was dropped. O'Brien - signed him then didn't play him. I was one of the guys who liked him pre-season. yet he didn't get a sniff til the Inverness match at the turn of the year probably. One of the reasons folk got on his back was that we signed him and appeared to be a slacker on the bench - Could McGhee have got more out of him sooner? Just a couple of random thoughts. I believe in playing the guys in form - not shoehorning your favourite defenders into a starting XI because you like them. Still - on saying that - i think we've got a good manager. Could be doing with a wee bit of the Tommy Mclean spirit though. he'd have made mincemeat out of that rangers team at ibrox - with the same squad McGhee has. Compare how the chipmunks team shut the opposition down compared to last sat and the space that Mendes and Co were offered.

I'm not that fussed about Buzz moving on to be honest. I don't deny that he's a great shot stopper as he proved again on Saturday. And he's had some blinding saves this season no doubt. However I don't think he's as good all round as he thinks he is, just yet! he has the potential to be great - but big chunks of his game are missing week in week out. His performance in Nancy proves that he can command the box - but he just doesn't do it day and daily. Things like his indecision to come off the line last week I think caused the first goal at Ibrox (even though Boyd was originally offside and there was 10 seconds of bagatelle before Klimpl's disastrous touch), then being too far off his line IMO helped Boyd make their second look good. i think he struggles with crosses at corners / set pieces etc. Like i say - just an opinion. Farewell Buzz

I think the first round of name plates went onin the early nineties and I'm sure those are the ones that are still on in some places. Don't know about the value in a permanent name or reserved name plate - as the ST seating plan will change annually and historically we've never been good at keeping on top of these things.

Trying to be light hearted with the engraved name plate point - however with a couple of days notice - printed hi-vis stickers stuck on by a couple of volunteers is all that's required surely. wrt to the not required point we've had a few 'discussions' on here about folk on both sides of the coin's attitude to someone sittiing in their ST seat and likewise folks reaction to them and their kids being punted from a ST seat a minute after kick off by a ST holder turning up in the knickers of time for the match - when those people have been in the ground for 40 mins. so the stickers let people know. I think they were a reasonable idea. In fact (noo that I think about it) even when it's a non ST (i.e. cup) game some ST holders moan if you sit in their seat - I experienced that myself this year at the St Mirren match (and I'm a ST holder to btw). Agree though Saturday was a sickener.

I know it's Monday morning after a crap display and we're all grumpy ESWF But yer know gonny get engraved name plates for ST wi 4 days notice and Flow answered the question on the apparently 'empty' ST seats two posts above yours.

This site is probably / possibly unique in that it has close links to the club in terms of membership. Players, players families, club officials, club general managers, Provan Sports staff, Provan Sports management. I think that's all good and healthy - and we've seen the benefit and frustrations of this situation over the time that the site's been around. I can live with not having the links or the unofficial images - 30 seconds on Google takes me to them and even though the teasers are (intentionally) miniscule - it's quite obvious that the mock ups aint the official design. I wholeheartedly agree with airfinz (and know he agrees with me) - there are some real self important pretentious twats on here Speed Bonnie Boat Like a Bird on the Wiiiiiiiiiiing. . . .etc