Lukemfc1

Am I missing something here? Honestly, I'm usually quite quick to speak up when signings look to be pish but I don't really see the doom and gloom about this guy. He clearly has talent given the clubs he started off at, his goal record isn't great but he has scored a handful of goals in a limited amount of appearances. From what I have read online from Blackpool and other fans he was hardly slated. Most of the comments suggest he has some potential. We are going to be in the market for another two strikers i would suggest so let's see who else we go for.

Aye, I think he has but this gives me the absolute fear, Tanner is far too slow for the wing. His pace was an issue for me even in a more central role. No harm to Tanner he has been so unlucky but I would get shot of him if he isn't match fit by Autumn time. Generally speaking let's hope we can get a winger and a striker tied up fairly soon. Our squad looks pretty light in a lot of areas so a lot of work is going to be required from our scouting team.

Aye that's a fair point, personally I just don't see what he has done to take 'a step up' to Aberdeen. Can't do much worse than Stevie May and James Wilson I suppose!

Sky Sports now running with the Main to Aberdeen story as being 'agreed'. Apparently beat Hearts to him. Strange signing to me

Aye for sure, the money would be nice and there is no doubt 120k is a fair wedge. I just honestly can't see us losing our last two games, that would be a helluva collapse. 8th is a possibility but 9th seems a bit of a stretch to me. I totally agree this chunk of money should be good motivation from the club's perspective to put importance on this fixture. I'm not sure it gives the players any motivation though.. Personally as a fan, I honestly couldn't give a fuck about 7th. Aye I want us to win obviously but I find it hard to get emotionally invested in money which we aren't going to see any real tangible benefit from. I would be shocked if we even used the 120k to invest in another few players for the summer. From what I understand our budget is set out a while back, maybe it will give us a wee bit of flexibility but that's about it. The whole battle for 7th is a bit tinpot lets not kid ourselves. From a fan perspective at this stage of the season my main interest is the young players coming through and what our plans are for next season.

Tbf I think it is pretty meaningless from a fans perspective. Clearly we want our club to get as much money as possible but expecting a fan to get excited over 100k in the bank (which will likely go towards debt) is a bit of a stretch. Aye, I want the club to get as much money as possible but i don't really have any emotional investment in this sort of thing. Up there with folk getting off on transfer fees to me personally. As a fan I'm far more interested in as bringing through young exciting players in the reminder of the season (and relegating accies hopefully)

Wasn't at the game last night but on the face of it 2 of the Aberdeen were very very fortunate. Grimshaw missed a sitter too. Overall the players can be proud of what we have done since January ish

Hearing a few rumbles that the Hastie Sevco deal is not happening. Fingers crossed folks.

Considering our form earlier in the season I'm absolutely buzzing that we even have a small chance of getting top 6 at this point in the season. Aberdeen's form has been honking at home so this isn't as hard a prospect as it once was. I honestly don't think it's that much of a stretch us going up there and winning. Killie now have their sights set on second place, I would suggest they will go to Easter Road and get atleast a draw. Us and Killie winning could quite easily happen based on recent form, clearly we are reaching somewhat but it's realistic. Anyway, IF results on Wednesday go our way I am fairly confident for Sunday. Rangers are in pieces just now with various players out, I can really see them slipping up further. I'd back us in a one-off game at home against most at the moment. Regardless of what happens in the next two games the transformation after the Scottish Cup game has been tremendous. I was one of the many who wanted shot of Robinson and I am pleased to say he has well and truly proved me wrong. Embracing a new style of play and introducing our youngsters has totally changed things at Fir Park. Given we will have nothing to play for after the split I would love us to continue to blood more youngsters and build towards next season.

With us moving closer to the summer it will be interesting to see what players get tied up on new deals. I have a feeling that we could be seeing a fair number of players moving on and another rebuilding job similar to a couple of summers ago. Perhaps not to the same extent but similar in that a number of 'first team' players could be moving on. The post McGhee rebuild was a lot more vast but there could still be more than half our first team leaving on a free this summer. Notable names: Curtis Main - I would be surprised if he stayed despite Robinson being a big fan. He has done a job for us but for me he has proven himself to be not good enough in front of goal. When he came in his stats were there for all to see and he has followed that pattern since coming in despite a purple patch initially. I think he will want to go back down south, just a hunch. Carl McHugh - I've been a fan of McHugh, hard wrap in my book but with him following out of favour I think he will be offski. He is still a good age and will want to be an established starter. Chris Cadden - A difficult one. I'm really not sure what suitors Cadden would have down south now. Hope Chris stays, would be great to see him back playing as an actual winger. The whole wingback thing really set him back IMO. Tom Aldred - Would love to keep Tom, the no nonsense defender we need. I have heard suggestions that he is on 4k a week at Bury however so it might be difficult for us to compete with other suitors. Jake Hastie - As sad as it makes me I think the boy is going to be away. Would really be gutted if he didnt stay for another year. Alex Rodriguez Gorrin - I'm hopeful Alex will sign up, he has shown his worth the last few months and could really kick on with another season under his belt. Elliot Frear - A lot of unfair critics of the guy and I think he has some talent but I'd honestly rather we moved him on and looked at other options. Physically he is lacking to compete regularly in the SPFL IMO Craig Tanner - So unlucky with injuries and clearly talented if a bit too slow for my liking. No doubt an unpopular opinion but I would let him move on. His injury record is problematic for me and I'd have genuine concerns whether we would ever see a return on our investment.

I'd be keen to see this. In all honesty Scott hasn't had much time to make an impression. It would be good to see what he can do from the start. To be honest I'm hoping that we can give him (and others) regular games post split seeing as we will essentially have zero to play for.

To be honest, I think the hysteria surrounding this is perfectly normal. One of the best players we have produced in some time pissing off to the Old Firm is as depressing as it gets. IF Hastie goes he will get pelters and rightly so. The boy is quoted as saying he wants to stay and will have done a u-turn. Obviously the fans are going to be raging at that. I think if it was down south we would be slightly less depressing but the fact it's them is a boot in the balls.

Fully expect Hastie to sign, don't think there is much doubt about it either. We have only just given him his chance so what would the chances of someone down south actually playing him? I'm going to say significantly less. The money for both the club and player here is continue to progress for another few years. We need to make sure anyone like this is tied down sooner IMO. I know it's hindsight but according to anyone you speak at the club a blindman could see Turnbull and Hastie's potential last year so I'm not sure why we would have anyone out on loan to develop like that and not signed up.

Probably the best I have seen us play in a good few years for the first 20 odd minutes. Brilliant to watch, so refreshing. Hastie is so direct and strong, I have really high hopes. We could have a generation of quality players on our hands here.

I'd honestly be happy for Tanner to go in the summer. I feel bad for the guy but he has barely kicked a ball for us and must be taking up a decent wage. Even when he was fit I didn't really get the hype. Creative but lacks pace for the game up here. Given his injury record I don't think he has enough quality for us to justify risking another wasted wage.

We actually have a chance to change the complexion of the season somewhat in the next few games. Form would suggest that we will again slip into more defeats but I'm hopeful we can try to turn a corner; the next few games are very much winnable. If we can get victories in our next two games against Livi and St Mirren we could be sitting in 7th place with a genuine outside chance of top 6. Hibs are in internal turmoil at the moment and have two tricky fixtures against Aberdeen then Celtic so it is not inconceivable that they could end up with zero points from their next two fixtures. I'm well aware that this is a glass half full approach but we might as well be hopeful given otherwise we pretty much have zero to play for over the next 3 months. In terms of the team, I think it would be madness to change anything. We need to try to get more consistency to our selection. For me, we need more of the same from the Hibs game, get the two wingers on the ball and run at people. Hopefully Main can add some goals to his workrate, goals are probably my biggest concern at the moment. I am hopeful McCormack will be in better shape this week and be able to be a bigger influence from the bench. It will be interesting to see what happens when he does start to get up to speed. Our system just now seems to be working pretty decent but I'm not sure he would be suited to the lone striker role and I don't think the wing really suits him at this point of his career either. I see him in more of a second striker position these days IMO. Anyway, like I said I am hopeful. Livi haven't been on a great run but you just never know.

I think it's a bit early to describe the signing of McCormack as 'bust'. Give the guy time, Robinson made it clear that he wasn't fully fit when he came in. There is still alot of games to be played this season. In regards to his last sub appearance against Hibs, Robinson put him on the left wing. Wasn't the brightest idea given his fitness situation. I'm not sure you are ever going to get great workrate out of him in that position. That isn't what you sign a 32 year old with that quality for. Overall, I'm hopeful there is still some business to be done before Thursday's deadline. In terms of goals we are still severely lacking. Obviously we will be hoping McCormack gets fit and can chip in but I still think we need another striking option. The only proven natural goalscorer we seem to have is Johnson, it's clear he can't play himself up front. Main has a proven track record of not being able to score goals. Sammon likewise minus a purple patch many moons ago. Scott is untested. I'd like to see us bring in another option upfront, something a bit different with an eye for goal would be nice. I'd also like another defender in still. We have a lot of players out of contract in the summer, it would be nice to get a couple of permanant deals in with that in mind. Also, we need to start getting guys tied down where possible.

Dunne simply can't play left back. Robinson needs to bite the bullet and drop Peter Hartley. I'm not really sure on the formation, I don't even know what we are trying to do anymore. I'd like to see Robinson give the likes of Hastie and Scott the chance from the start, but he won't. He's going to go for Sammon or Main. Just give us something to get slightly optimistic about Motherwell, pretty please.

I see Michael O'Halloran has been released by Melbourne City. Probably going to be other interested clubs in the league but would be a very good addition if we could convince him to come here and kickstart his career again.

This window is starting to look like a very positive one. McCormack - Need I say more.. The second coming. Ariyibi - Fits the pacey winger/flair player category we have all been yearning for. We've traditionally done well with pacey wingers from down south so let's hope this goes the same way.. Still on the wishlist? I'd suggest we should be in the market for another defensive option with Maguire going out on loan. As well as this I'd like to see us get another striker in, suppose this very much depends if Sammon leaves. Another attacking midfielder or wide player would also be nice. One thing I am aware of is reliance on the loan market, especially with the amount of boys we have who are out of contract in the summer. We could be seeing another massive turnover of players in the summer, which is a good or bad thing depending what way you look at things. Hopefully if we do bring anyone else in they will be permament acquisitions. To be fair I think it's fairly expectional circumstances being able to capture someone like McCormack on loan so it is fair doos. In terms of outgoings, I'd like to get a shot of a few but realistically I think we should be pushing to terminate Sammons loan and offload Bigi if we can. Hopefully that would then free up some wages to bring others in.

Did the club provide or does anyone have a ballpark figure of what the total outstanding debt to Boyle and LH stands at? Surely to God we can't be that far off clearing this by now...

I'm usually at the very least swivering whether to go to away games like this but currently I have zero enthusaism to go watch us in Perth. I think the last bit of positivity was zapped from me in the trips to Ibrox and Livingston. In the 14 or so years of going to games I can't recall us ever doing well up there. No harm to St Johnstone but results aside it is a pretty soulless place to go similar to the Tony Macaroni dome. Hate to be negative but it is what it is. Nonetheless the run into the January break is very important, I still think we should be under no illusions that we are still part of the relegation battle until we can put some more breathing space between us and the bottom spots. I'd be looking for at least 7 points from this run over fixtures. Something similar to the below would probably be acceptable. Again though our reliance on winning fixtures against Dundee and St Mirren is pretty concerning. Hopefully the boys can exceed expectations for the reminder of the year but it's difficult to see us picking up much elsewhere. St Johnstone (a) - L Celtic (a) - L St Mirren (h) - W Kilmarnock (h) - D Hamilton (a) - W In terms of personnel I think its quite clear we need to make some changes. The summer window was a bit of a disaster and there is a lot of boys that have been around for a while now and haven't offered enough. My main concern in this run of fixtures is goals, this is something we need to look at in the transfer window but hopefully we can extend the gap rather than finding us in the middle of a battle going into the New Year. Unfortunately for us, Dundee look like they have turned a bit of a corner so I wouldn't be surprised if they picked more points in the next run of games.

It's amazing what a couple of results can do. Totally unexpected on Saturday and I need to take my hat off to Robinson and the players. They have again proven that on their day we can beat one of the better team in league. My confidence in this ability had been lacking given the start to the season but hopefully we can kick on after a horrendous start. Interestingly Dundee and St Mirren have started to up their game so we aren't totally out of the woods yet. It was getting to the point where I thought we might be isolated alongisde them and just trade blows. When the line up came through on Saturday I had no idea what it would look like tactically I thought for a while it would Mbulu at RB but it looked like Grimshaw was actually RWB in a makeshift 3-5-2. To be honest it worked really well and I need to credit Robinson for improvising. It was great to see Mbulu get a start too. I thought he done very well. Other special mentions go to Johnson who provided what we have all been crying out for upfront. Grimshaw was excellent and Turnbull again showed that he is good for a goal. Was encourgaging to see Rodriguez back too who I think a few folk had unfairly written off. All in all a fantastic afternoon, I thought the atmosphere was rocking too so credit to the bois in the east for that.

The reality at the moment is we are 7 points off the bottom of the league with a game in hand. Not disastrious but what must be taken into account is our very difficult run of fixtures up until the St Mirren game at Christmas. We are still to prove that we can take 3 points off anyone other than Dundee and St Mirren so need to start doing this. Luckily Dundee and St Mirren have an almost equally tricky run in with the exception of one game against Accies each. It's not unthinkable that either team could put together a win against Accies + another in this period of time. For this reason we really need to pick up a couple of results to maintain a bit of breathing space. The point has been made that we could survive this season just taking wins off the bottom two but I'm not sure where this leaves the manager long term. I'm really hopeful we can pick up a couple of results but I can't help but wonder where these will come from going into Christmas. Livi/St Johnstone perhaps but both teams have really performed well as of late. Aberdeen (H) Livi (A) Celtic (H) Hearts (A) St Johnstone (A) Celtic (A) I hope some of Robinsons talk about player loyalty results in more changes. In this regard I'd be looking at the likes of Hartley, McHugh and Main (despite his goal recently) to drop out. Won't hold my breath right enough. I'd like to see the likes of Mbulu and/or Livingston included but would probably go for something like the below. It would be interesting to see what we looked like if we swapped to one up front in some of these away matches. I liked the shape against St Mirren/Dundee and think it is good at home but it in some of our tricky fixtures I fear we could get completely overran in the middle of the park. It isn't very trendy to say but I wonder if we would be best served in some of these fixtures getting an extra centre midfielder on the park particularly after losing so heavily at Ibrox. Carson Cadden Mbulu Aldred Tait Grimshaw Campbell Turnbull Bigi Johnson Bowman

Regardless of the red card I'm still absolutely fuming at the amount of goals we shipped yesterday. Let's be honest, 10 men at Ibrox is very difficult but to lose 7 goals in any game is a complete joke. Had we lost 3/4 yesterday I would have chalked this one off but 7 is an absolute embarassment. To be clear here, Ranjurs are decent at going forward at the moment. Decent. Nothing special but we made them look like world beaters. The ease at which some of they goals went in was unacceptable. Peter Hartley is kidding himself on this season. Since that injury he hasn't looked anywhere near the player he was. His mobility looks to be heavily restricted. Perhaps he should do less talking and more playing. I would drop him to the bench and bring Dunne in with Aldred in the 4 against Aberdeen. I know he has only really played left of a 3 but the Hartley/Aldred pairing clearly isn't 'solid' as some within the club have mentioned. It is very slow and laboured. Perhaps even the Mbulu boy merits a chance? Overall I genuinely don't see where we are going to pick up results in the near future. We seem to be slightly better than Dundee and St Mirren but in a no man's land between there and the rest of the teams in the division apart from perhaps Accies. There seems to be a real gulf this year between us and the other 8 teams in the league. The run up to Christmas is tough. We really need to make sure we bridge this gap and pick up points against the better teams in the league, as the 8 point cushion we have just now could deteriorate very quickly. Clearly games like yesterday are different from games against Livi and St Johnstone but I still expect us to compete better than we did.