A convincing and persuasive analysis, JWFC, and I thank you for it but it only persuades me that the manager is pretty clueless and stubborn to the point of self-destruction.
If the board wait until the season is over I suspect it will be too late by that time.
As some older 'Well fans have said, the signs for GA are ominous when you consider the dire lack of quality of the teams he has selected to play (but not necessarily of those he has brought to the club). Those seeking consolation that we are losing narrowly but not being "pumped" could look at the side relegated in the late 60s: IIRC we lost a significant number of games then by the odd goal but were seldom humiliated. Yet the split offers another avenue to relegation by introducing head-to-head desperation games in a situation redolent of Hibs in 2014 and Dundee in The Noughties, when they narrowly missed the top six and then collapsed after the split.
I see little merit in the manager's approach and organisation: a sterile long-ball philosophy, a lack of a cohesive and functioning midfield, clueless wide defenders, vulnerability in central defence and an excruciatingly long-winded and delusional analysis before and after games. Thank God we have a goalkeeper.
We can also see on these pages a significant number of older ST fans who say they have had enough and I too have thought similarly. Even the year we should have gone down in The Untouchables season, we had gifted younger players and IIRC we managed to beat a good few of the top six that season: it was the head to heads below that level which got us into trouble.
It will be 60 years next year since I started supporting Motherwell but then it had a wonderful philosophy of playing football at a time when wages were only modestly above the levels of a skilled worker. I know the societal problems are wider and deeper now but it seems there is no vision or imagination at the club and these problems go back further than the recent fan-ownership period.
In short, we need a charismatic visionary with an encyclopaedic knowledge of tactics and the UK football market and incredible motivational powers.
Does anyone think the board are aware of the task ahead and are able to tackle the problem?
I do hope they have someone looking at these pages.