Welldaft Mk1

So would I. I have no gripes that he went off to Oz. It was too good an opportunity too ignore. At least we would not have to put up with the constant speculation that surrounds McGhoo.

Actually despite my last post I have been reasonably calm. But there comes a point where the silence is deafening. I am not accusing McGhee of doing anything. In fact I have stated on this forum that he would only take the Celtic job in Scotland and nothing else. But I am starting to get a bit anxious as i do not want our pre season ruined because some teams want to take all summer to make their minds up. The only club that matters to me is Motherwell - end of story!

Whatever happens - we should sue the f*ck out of whomever gets our Manager. This has gone beyond the point of farcical. Celtic obviously have a recruitment drive that involves doing bugger all for several weeks and then making a panic appointment. They are complete and utter tossers. If McGhee leaves the club any later than next Monday we should seek not only compensation but also damages for lack of preparation for the new season. I would hold out for £1 million at least. Fecking vultures

Where would I go in order of preference: Wales - definitely NI - definitely Luxembourg - definitely Faroes - definitely Malta - definitely Estonia - definitely Albania - maybe Macedonia- maybe Montenegro- maybe Kazakhstan - Nope - as far as flying to India!!! Europe my ar#e Azerbaijan - Nope - might get a few oil workers supporting the Well Armenia - Nope 6 Definitelys - 3 mibbes and 3 no thank yous!

IMHO I don't think McGhee is going anywhere unless he is offered the Celtic job or a decent job down south. I am not saying that he is not in the running for either the Aberdeen or Hibs jobs, but they have to approach us as he is under contract. Hibs is a non starter, but even for Aberdeen - Miller would want to avoid paying compensation as he is from Aberdeen! This may especially be the case if the Setanta money does not appear. The flip side of course is that Motherwell FC could well do with compensation if the Setanta deal as is looking likely falls through. Maybe it would be in our interests if Aberdeen or any other club come in for him right now. Still as I said I doubt he will be unveiled as new manager at Pittodrie or Easter Rd anytime soon.

I am quite sure they will be sitting waiting and watching. They could of course line up a deal with the SPL - contracts permitting and that would indeed be the death knell of Setanta! I would be very surprised if no TV deal was forthcoming next season whether it is Setanta or AN other. I hate to admit it but Celtic and Rangers have a largeish worldwide audience. Surprised Setanta have said nothing or very little. PR is appalling. Right now I pay a monthly subscription and i would assume many are cancelling because they do not know what will happen next. Just the last thing Setanta needs.

Not everyone shares the same viewpoint and and even more so on this forum. That said there is no way I will ever miss a home European game unless I am 6 foot under or have to travel for work and even then I will try to ensure I am about. People forget that it was over 10 years before Nancy came along and who is to say it wont be another 10 years. Miss it - NO WAY. I could amlost understand if it some mob from Kazakhstan that we were winning 3-0 from the away leg but even then I would still go. I have never missed a euro home tie and I aint about to start now.

I was born in Hillhead in Glasgow and apart from 0-4 years old (when I was in Glasgow) I have never ever lived within 30 miles of Motherwell. My folks got divorced and my Old Man had the choice of taking me to either watch Hillhead Rugby or Motherwell every other month. He took me to my first Motherwell game in Dec 1975 and it was love at first sight. Well the truth as I remember it was that it was freezing and I wanted to go home. Let's look on the bright side. I could have been a Partick Thistle fan if I had supported my nearest club

I like that! To be fair that is one of the main reasons he did not jump ship last summer to Hearts. Well that and the fact the man in charge is about as mentally stable as Amy Winehouse. I think McGhee has what it takes to manage at the top. He will not go to Celtic but I would be more than confident that he would do as good a job if not better than Mowbray or Coyle for example. Thankfully their fans are so deluded they are waiting for the Messiah. McGhee got a little bit carried away with his success down south and it came back to bite him. He is going to make doubly sure that if and when he moves from Motherwell, it is to a bigger and better club and one that if he does well at will give him the stepping stone to the Old Firm or the Premiership. The truth is he cannot afford too many more F#ck ups in his career. Of course he may yet manage Scotland if as I suspect Burley continues to make a pigs ear of things.

Would everyone just calm down FFS. I cannot believe that anyone on hear is truly believing what they hear or read in the media or on messageboards elsewhere. Will McGhee leave us? Quite possibly. Will it be to Aberdeen - quite probably. Boyle is a business man and I am quite sure that whilst he accepted last summer that in order to keep Mcghee going to Hearts, he agreed that he would allow McGhee to talk to certain clubs which may or may not include Aberdeen. But I am also quite sure that he would not have waived our right to compensation should he leave before the contract is up. EDIT: See Flow just beat me too it!

Understand your point but this gives us the opportunity to make few extra pounds that might help the Manager strengthen before the SPL season begins. Sadly Motherwell are a business and we have to maximise our income. We will not have budgeted for a Euro campaign. If we have another Mypa we may be out after 1 round. I hope not given the likely opponents. If we were to get through a round or two I could see the point in reducing the price to make it more affordable. Don't get me wrong I am not saying £20 or £25 a head, but any lower than a £15 or a tenner for an adult makes it pointless playing the game. Of course the flip side is you make it cheaper to start against less attractive opposition and increase as we (hopefully) progress: £10 for Rd 1 - £15 for Rd 2 and £20 for Rd 3? That of course again assumes we get through a couple of rounds.

Accies or Livi for me. I think the Shyberry Excelsior is a dump. Livi would be my choice, but the crowd would be down a few hundred or more than at Accies. But it depends on the rental that either club would look for as to which option is more economically viable. What would the crowd be for a tie against a team from Kazakstan?

For me I would go to Wales, Ireland, Estonia, Luxembourg, Faroes or Malta. There is more than a 50/50 chance of that happening. As for the rest which include Armenia, Montenegro & Kazakhstan

The dogs bollox. It really has put me in a good mood this news. Hopefully it will be accessible location. Otherwise would probably go with the official team charter this time around. Ireland or Wales - bring it on

I would give Mr Blobby a wide berth. I know that going back in time is very rarely a good idea, but I would take Butcher back in an instant. Sadly that would mean bringing Malpas with him. So that is not going to happen because he would never come back and would not be welcome either. Butcher would not do the dirty on Malpas unless Malpas was given the Caley job Other than that I really don't know who would be in the running. I do however suspect that we will be looking for another Manager very shortly. I hope I am wrong because I would rather McGhee stays. I just hope it gets sorted soon as we can ill afford to go into a summer break with no plans or player strategy if and when he goes.

I think the Dons will come after him - no doubt. Whether he would apply I am not too sure given he is under contract. It is a tad ironic that one of the reasons Calderwood parted ways with Aberdeen was a lack of silverware and more specifically losing to lower league clubs in the Scottish Cup. Sound familiar? If offered the job I am sure he will take it. All will be revealed soon I am sure. All in all I would be sorry to see the back of him. I am quite sure we will not replace him with anybody better. I would take Butcher back - but that will never happen unless he loses malpish as an assistant and that will never happen. Oh well - yet another summer of speculation on the Manager.................same sh#t different year!

All things considered I think we had a decent season. A number of things happened this season that did not last season and that undoubtedly affected our entire season and league placing. For example last season we started by playing the (theoretical) bottom 6 and had 2 extra home games when you take into account the away games v Gretna. We also avoided injury for the most part and had Ross Mccormack and Porter playing together for the entire season. That and the fact it took teams a while to acknowledge we were a vastly different side to the previous season under Malpish. This season we started against the top 6 + Hearts which meant it was difficult to build a winning momentum. We started to experience injuries and suspensions around Nov/Dec that we did not have last season and did not have the strength in depth to cope. My biggest gripe remains our lack of a decent Scottish Cup run. I would not object to losing to any of the sides in the top 6 but we seem to be experts at losing to lower league and bottom six sides That line up v St Mirren at home was 4-5-1 all day long. I rate McGhee and hope he stays, which all being well he will. But the more he seems to think about 'big' games the more he tinkers with formation and we look lost. I think we have done ok this year. If last season was an 8 out of 10, then I give this one a 6 out of 10.

Barring a riot on Saturday I would be very surprised if we missed out. Unless some people were hopelessly misinformed and that includes the media. A few weeks back it was between Motherwell, St Mirren and Hibs. In that time we have picked up a few more cards than St Mirren but a hell of a lot less than Hibs. Yet in the total (season) card total we are still ahead of St Mirren albeit marginally. Yet we have scored about a dozen more goals than St Mirren, have won more games and have a lot more league points, so you would think we would be scoring better than them in the positive attacking football stakes/points. As for Hibs not quite fathoming that one out. They have picked up 20+ more yellow cards - yet are on roughly the same points. As long as we have no-one sent off and pick up only a couple of yellow cards we should be safe. If not then there is something very rotten going on.

What he said. It is not that I cannot understand the point of view of those who feel this is a waste of time and could affect our pre-season preparations. But herein lies the rub: Motherwell will be back in Europe again.......I would rather qualify via league placings, but it is not that we have been in Europe every season or 20 or 30 times that as a Motherwell fan I don't care one way or another whether we get back in via this route. 10 years passed before our trip to Nancy and our previous european adventure - 10 YEARS . No - I will be more than happy if we are back in Europe. Rather that than watch friendlies against Colchester in front of 1246 fans. And who knows if we get through a couple of rounds we may just get a decent draw and some much needed revenue.

How are Celtic the fair Play winners? They may well be - but the fact is that they now have more disciplinary points than the Well based on cards issued. I am not sure the SPL can award the place to anyone other than winners or runners up. In short their will be an audit trail. If we don't get the place now - it will stink to high heaven. Short of Motherwell fans invading the pitch and attacking killie players or getting 2 players sent off and 8 booked - I fail to see how we can miss out now without it being a fix. We were in pole position and Hibs have an extra 20+ yellow cards on us, yet have less points. St Mirren are our nearest challeners in the card stakes, but how with 12 less points and a shit load less goals scored could they have outscored us based on attacking play etc. Nah if we don't get it now - it must be a fix and I would expect a legal challenge to investigate why.

Still 2 yellows and a red ahead of St Midden in terms of card count but I would hope given recent results and goals scored we are ahead of them on other criteria. It would take a bloodbath at Fir park next week for them to overtake is in the disciplinary stakes. That said I would consider resting Klimpl and clarky as they seem to pick up bookings on a weekly basis. Klimpl was doing so well today - but then as sure as night follows day picked up his customary card - for talking back to the ref when we are 3-0 up and a few minutes to go. I do rate him - but he has to keep a lid on it!

Why do questions need to be asked??? As far as I understand he put up the wages for Porter or Hughes or even both. The man may not be flavour of the month or even year with some of our supporters but he as lost a heck of a lot of money over the years - some may say that was his fault - maybe, but he did it with the best of intentions - that and he is a well fan through and through unlike Romanov etc. Our Season ticket sales will be down this year. Hopefully not by much but they will down at Motherwell as they will around the country as a lot of people will not be in a position to afford because of the economic environment. As for losing two players to St J - Mackay would have been a squad player at best and probably knew that. St J may run a tight ship but they have a fan base that is very poor and will I suspect still have a weaker squad than Motherwell next season even if we do not add any players/ I would like to see McLean and Klimpl stay. Probably also Buzz and Hughes, although out of the two I would take Buzz. He is a vastly underrated keeper and in the top 3 or 4 shot stoppers in the SPL - I hope I am wrong but I do not see Fraser as a capable replacement. Next year will be tough, but if we get the fair play place and can negotiate a couple of rounds that might give McGhee a bit of extra cash towards the end of the summer transfer window. I certainly feel we need a goalscoring midfielder and another striker to keep Sutton and Clarkson on their toes. We may not be able to afford transfer fees, but we will have the wages available for Porter, Hughes, Malcolm and Buzz available - if McGhee can work his magic then there should be enough floating around in the summer to pick and choose.

It was an excellent experience played in the right atmosphere with a few cracking goals to boot. When was the last time the home team scored 8 at Fir Park?? Being able to say that I: Scored a goal at Fir park Set up Stevie kirk to score a goal at Fir park or Had a shower with Stevie Kirk at Fir Park A special mention for log in to learn and ChasserB for making it all possible and also for Mortonhall Well for being my Man of the match with his Kaiserlike performance in defence.

I know as do we all by now that there are other criteria which goes towards the final standings. But let us assume for just a minute that Hibs get the Fair play spot and yet have collected 20 more yellow cards this season. I don't know if it is a simple arithmetical counting of points or are their weightings applied. Cos there damn well should be. I cannot believe that their fans have been any better or worse than ours and as we are only seperated by 1 point in the SPL table they surely cannot be that much ahead on points based on attacking play. Anyway best to ensure we avoid any further bookings or at least match Hibs then we should be in pole position come the end of the season.

I still cannot quite understand how Hibs are supposedly our nearest rivals for this fair play spot. I mean they are something like 20 yellow cards behind us. If they get in ahead of us then they should change the name to the "make it up as you go along league".