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We better hope Alexander either lost a significant part of the dressing room or hadn't a clue what he was doing tactically, because if that was a happy squad of players playing to the best of their abilities, we're in deep shit.

Have to love how these rumours just suddenly become fact. It seems we've forgotten the calls for O'Donnell to be dropped for being rank rotten, and are overlooking the idea that Woolery is now playing in Turkey most likely making far more coin than we could ever hope to pay him.

David and Yorkyred I admire you for your ongoing robust defence of our former Manager. If you believe there was no animosity between Alexander and former/current players which affected moral within the squad then I think you are in the minority. Like everyone else you are entitled to your opinion and you fight your corner well. Whether any such animosity was justified or otherwise at times is another discussion. As for O'Donnell being "shit", even an out of form O'Donnell was miles better than Mugabi at right back. And I'm not having a dig at Mugabi as he was clearly trying his best and doing as he was instructed. SOD is one who certainly has his detractors (as you highlighted) but how many of them were on his back before he even kicked a ball for us? Whatever, he certainly brought a better balance to the team when he featured. That's the same Mugabi who was repeatedly exposed at right back by Alexander ( and we are seeing the effect on Mugabi to this day) whilst a reportedly fully fit SOD was left to rot on the bench. Why, if not for spite? Drop him altogether if he has no chance of featuring. Like he did with Liam Grimshaw. Alexander even resorted to O'Hara rather than O'Donnell on occasion. Seems quite clear to me, as it did with Slattery, Woolery and others who seemed to be ignored no matter what. One thing you cannot deny or deflect from is that the performances on the pitch were really what was "shit" for 6 months, and arguably longer. Both in a tactical sense and a results sense. And that in most people's view was down to Alexander's refusal to adapt or try a fresh approach when his approach was failing. Sure, the players were not blameless, but it was the depressing and seemingly clueless match day performances that brought his time as Manager to an end. In fact but for a loyalty shown by our Board Alexander might not have lasted to season end. He was given credit for earlier achievements and allowed to take us into a new season in the hope that he could improve the situation. Had he shown any inclination to adapt he may well have survived a bit longer. Alexander does have his supporters amongst the players he left behind, but I honestly think the number thankful to see the back of him will be in the majority. Whatever, as professionals they all need to pull together to take the Club forward. No matter who the new Manager is.

It's not really that hard to explain. Tony Watt was offered more money to go to Dundee United. Simple as that. He didn't "suddenly" want a move, he became interested when he realised not only could he move in the summer and earn more than we were paying him, but could leave us in January and start earning higher wages quicker. Same goes with Woolery. He didn't "suddenly" fancy a move to Turkey. He only became interested once the opportunity popped up, and rightfully so, as he'll also be on more money than we were paying him. And are just going to kid on that O'Donnell had been playing well for us and that all of the Motherwell fans were fully behind him getting picked for Scotland? Go back to the start of the year and into March on this forum and see the type of reaction O'Donnell was getting. In fact, just put his name in the search bar above. So let's not kid on that O'Donnell being dropped was a travesty, and was all down to him arguing and falling out with the manager. It wasn't. He was shit. Did he lose the dressing room? It's interesting that we're all willing to buy into rumours and made-up "facts" yet the only noises coming out the dressing room are from our captain and best player who says exactly the opposite. Do we believe him? Or just ignore Kelly's comments because it doesn't fit with the anti-Alexander narrative? I didn't think Alexander was particularly great as a manager, but I'm also not that sure we can expect to do much better. Alexander's record down south is decent enough, with promotion won for Fleetwood Town, took Scunthorpe to the play-offs, and got Salford promoted while taking them to a cup final. I know lots of our fans like to kid themselves on that he was a donkey, but his record says otherwise. Let's hope the next guy we bring in can live up to the lofty expectations of the experts we have in our fanbase.

Thats it for me. Last season was what it was. He achieved the results, albeit with a very poor second half to the season. The football on offer wasn't very attractive but I could live with it. I always had the impression that he wasn' getting the best from the palyers he had at his disposal for whatever reason. The Sligo games changed it for me. I was looking for some indication, however modest, that he was changing things, but that just didn't happen. The rest is history.

The thing is, there's context to be had during his run, like most things in life. Did he run out of ideas? I'm not so sure he did. He was embarking on a new season where he was looking to bring in fewer players and run with a tighter squad. He came in and steered us out of trouble, that much is true. But he also had to deal with managing the club during a time of short-notice suspensions and even call-offs due to Covid, which had a pretty substantial effect on recruitment not just for us, but other clubs in the league. Let's be honest, there's a reason why most clubs in the league last season were terrible. Over the season we brought in 16 players. I think most of the league clubs brought in extra bodies to try and help deal with any potential Covid suspensions, but the kicker is that they had to do it without an increase in budget. Basically, we all needed more players on less wages to make up the numbers, which is why I think our squad (and the squads of those around us) were bloated and the quality simply wasn't great. That doesn't even begin to address the issues with training and masks and social distancing and all that jazz. Those aren't excuses, that's just how it was. It was a really tough time to come into a football club and try to successful manage a squad of players. On his record, we finished last season in 5th with a record of 12 wins, 10 draws, and 16 losses. The year before St Johnstone finished 5th with a record of 11 wins, 12 draws, and 15 losses. And in 208/19, Hibs finished 5th with a record of 14 wins, 12 draws, and 12 losses. So, it's hardly as if our record last season is all that terrible. Where Alexander faced issues was in having what was a very good start to the season, followed by a terrible finish. He even snagged a few Manager of the Month awards, didn't he? Flip those around and he'd be considered a managerial mastermind for changing things up. The result at the end of the season would have been the same though. On signings, personally, I think McGinn and Spittal will come good for us. I actually prefer the idea of signing less players, but players who have a decent pedigree in our game, than signing 8-10 new players from down south who are all huge gambles. Spittal made 37 appearances for County last season, while Mcginn played 34 times for Hibs. We know what we're getting from those two. Neither will be amazing, but they could both be good, solid first team players for Motherwell for a good few years. Morris I don't know much about, but last season aside he seems to have a solid reputation in League One down south, playing over 30 games each season in four out of the five he was at Fleetwood and Scunthorpe. In conclusion, I think Alexander will be fine. He'll get another job down south no problem, mostly because the comments from Gary Neville about how they made a huge mistake in sacking him at Salford, plus his record there, and at Scunthorpe and Fleetwood will hold more authority than him being binned by us in what most down south consider to be an inferior league. I expect he'll pop up in League One or Two before the season is out.

Craig Brown can bugger off.

Thats my gut reaction right now. I understand why others would prefer him to stay where he is as the first team coach role can be a poisoned chalice and Id hate to see Hammy legacy as a player tarnished. However, sometimes you just have to take that chance and he ticks a lot of boxes for me. The one big gap is experience with first team players. Leaving aside Craigans alleged reasons for departing last time round, he would be my other choice for similar reasons. Lambert is interesting and has managed at a high level, but does that make him a good fit at our level? Simo also seems to be a good fit but he has been passed over at least twice before. Only the board will know whether thats an impedement this time round. Hopefully we will start to see firmer news by the weekend.

Alexander started well, saved us from going down, last season got us of to a great start in the league, sitting 3rd by Christmas , then it all went wrong, fallouts with senior players , top goal scorer moving to a rival team mid season and our results were shocking, we will never know what started it but for me the dressing room was gone then. Due to other teams being a shite as us we managed to scrape into the top 6 with the last kick of the ball at livingston and eventually claimed a Euro spot. However that only covered up the problems Alexander came across as arrogant and unwilling to change his ways to get results, not playing senior pros ie SOD and generally looking like he did not giving a feck he was out of ideas. In some ways the Sligo defeats as embarrassing as they were done the club a massive favour by finally getting rid of him, because if he had stayed we would be getting more of the same from him this season. So will he be remembered fondly if he ever turns up at Fir park with another team no chance, for me he will be remembered as the manager who ruined a potentially good season by his arrogance and inability to manage a team and got us pumped by an Irish league team.

Clarence seedorf,he may be about 48 but id have him player/manager,saw him in a charity game,might b good for an hour or so lol

The thing is, if you go back and read the posts from January to March you'll see that I was fully supportive of O'Donnell. I wouldn't have dropped him, but the manager dropped him because he looked to suffer a dip in form, which cannot be argued against. I don't think Mugabi is better than him at right-back, and believe O'Donnell was our best option there last season, but there's a lot of fans who didn't think that. They were screaming for O'Donnell to get punted. The point I'm making is that now, looking back, there's fans changing the narrative retrospectively because they want to shoehorn in the notion that he had a falling out with the manager, and that it's Alexander's fault. When in reality they were glad to see O'Donnell benched. And I'm not saying that there wasn't tension between O'Donnell and Alexander. There should be, considering O'Donnell wants to play and the manager had dropped him. But let's not kid on that O'Donnell was dropped because he challenged Alexander, which is what some folk are saying. He was dropped because he didn't play well last season, which is the reason Alexander brought in McGinn to replace him.

Good shout, get him in that dressing room to show off his six pack and see if that motivates the players.

Supporters make things up, always have and always will. Sometimes simple facts like a player actually not playing well enough to retain their place is not seen as good enough, even when half the fan base is stating they’re shit. The “lost the dressing room” is trotted out time and time again, I doubt it’s true 95% of the time.

Nah I'll stick to the "GA was an arrogant hopeless man manager and coach with limited abilities who had no idea how to get us winning again" conspiracy, he's history now so Let's wait and see who his replacement is.

If we're serious about wanting to rely on our own youth rather than buying in players on a gamble, then Hammell is surely the man for the job? He knows our youth players very well and will know who's up for the task and who isn't.

I don’t think Robinson was any different, he more or said so. He was tired of having to constantly build new squads after losing our best players. It’s certainly my belief that Motherwell is now a very tough gig. Limited budget and a percentage of the fanbase who have the mentality that whatever you do it’s never enough. Both Robinson and Alexander took tons of abuse even when reaching cup finals and finishing top six in the league. Where does any manager go from that point, with our budget it’s only going to be backwards. I think the targets set by the board are very different from the targets set by a minority of the fanbase. For Kelly to get the abuse he did at the Sligo game and online was absolutely shocking.

Ultimately he'll go down as one of a few managers in recent times who came in to do a job when we were struggling, did that job pretty well, but then didn't really know what to do next. Here's hoping our next one will leave because of his successes, rather than running out of ideas.

This. In a way us scraping into the top six and ‘Europe’ did us more harm than good because I believe had we not scored that last minute leveller at Livingston in April and finished bottom six then Alexander would have been gone at the end of the season. That way we could have got a new manager in in time for pre-season or the League Cup group stages and made the right moves in the transfer market. As it was we were never going to part company with a manager who got us into the top six and qualified for Europe and therefore the board and Alexander were able to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the results and the shite we served up on the park since January was remotely acceptable.

I think Van Der Gaag was the one that got away when we appointed Baraclough. He was the fans favourite at the time and his career path since suggests he is a highly regarded coach. Sadly that ship has sailed. I think the fact that potential candidates are former players does have some importance. For one thing they know the club so will have realistic expectations of what to expect. Secondly they will have connections within the club that may be beneficial. I have always been a big fan of Paul Lambert. He was a great player and captain. Hard working, tough with vast amounts of experience. I think he would be a great appointment. My memory however is that he left Motherwell under a bit of a cloud? Did he not fall out with Tommy McLean over contract negotiations? Valakari is a manager with good experience who has proved he can be successful at the clubs he has been with. Again I would be happy with this. My reservation is that Harri Kampman struggled to make the step from managing in Finnish football. Would history repeat itself in that regard? Anybody thinking that these names are not worthy of our great club need to consider that we lost comfortably to an Irish side last week and are far from a football superpower. Malky Mackay would be my first choice however even with the baggage that comes with him. I can’t see him moving from RC to us however unless it is was for purely geographical reasons.

Alexander had the chance to sort things out this summer and blew it. He chose to pick fights with Woolery and O'Donnell that weakened the squad and didn't have the players match fit for a game with a lot of prize money at stake. We don't know what his discussions and targets were with Burrows and the board for the beginning of this season but if they weren't telling him we need better results than he's produced since January and we need to show up in Europe then something is very wrong.

If he had never played for us, would Lambert be getting a mention I think not, the same applies to Valakari , the only ex player who might have been worth a shout this time is Van der gaag if he had been available.

Could you get anymore patronising if you tried.

Short term memories. O'Donnell made about five critical errors in games in a row. Crazy handballs to not clearing his lines (remember now?) gifting goals. I am the polar opposite to your narrative, I couldn't believe when we signed O'Donnell and thought it was a coup for the club. Stinks of player power and when Gannon got sacked for dropping seniors who were simply not playing well. No one has a god given right to play when they are playing poorly. Which is why I found it nice and refreshing to see the young man make his debut last week ahead of Tierney who played poorly in his last game. * Name 5 decent games he's had. Where did he finish in last seasons votes by fans?

Absolutely Greg. Whilst driving his Ferrari he didn't drive it that well, but had no crashes or driving convictions. Can he change a tyre on 10 year old Corsa though?

Bit left field and possibly uninspiring to some fans but Brian Rice was mentioned to me earlier. Knows the league and his team's were always a hard nut to crack. Worth a punt?