Welldaft Mk1

I guess it basically goes along the lines of it you are SNP you believe it was the correct decision and if you don’t support the SNP then they overreacted and there is plenty of data to back up the latter assertion. FWIW I think it was a prudent decision at the time. Hindsight is wonderful. I just feel for all those who have businesses or work in hospitality. The timing over Xmas and New Year could hardly have been worse…

I hope so GazzyB. I would hate to miss the Morton Cup tie and possibly Hibs at home. Would cost the club quite a bit of money too. The data on numbers of infections shows the current restrictions are having little impact compared to down south where there are none. Conflicting stories everywhere this morning where I have read Jason Leitch supposedly admit restrictions on football are having no real meaningful impact but should still stay in place. God knows what to make of that if true !

Actually a good debate. Some good reading and excellent posts from Al B. I am no fan of the SNP, but I can understand why they took the decision to have restrictions to protect the NHS and until the data proved otherwise. Was there an element of being different from London and Boris etc. Possibly but if Boris is proved correct it looks like it will be by a bawhair. The disappointing element of this is timing. Omicron could have arrived earlier or indeed later. The fact it arrived to coincide with Xmas and New Year makes it terrible for the hospitality industry. Literally their busiest time of year. I would expect crowds to return after the 17th but will be interested to see if they go from 500 to full houses. My worry is they come up with a middle ground. Leaving clubs to again manage ballots and tickets and all sorts of nonsense. The other issue is timing. Sport needs to know (you would imagine) early next week and not 2pm on the 17th January to prepare. Leaving it at 500 will lead to a considerable backlash. Is it law ? Could the SPFL tell clubs to allow crowds in. Certainly there will be a confrontation if it is the status quo.

Yes you are….well maybe not the only one. I am quite tolerant and level headed as most who know me would agree :-) But he has as much to thank Motherwell (if not more) than we have to thank him. I said over on P&B we gave him the right environment to flourish. He did not do so at St J or Hearts. He was fairly anonymous for both those teams. So flourish he does and is top goalscorer and as a result has netted a significant wage hike. Of course he has applied himself, but again he has had more clubs than I have baths in a year ! He is also going to a direct rival. So I simply don’t get this wishing him luck bollox. Enough luck that he scores 15 goals for United from Jan and they pip us to a European place. I mean really. I hope he scored very few goals and that he regrets this move. Bitter maybe but tbh I would feel that with any Motherwell player that jumps ship to a rival. Turnbull may be an exception, but again as he is at Celtic I find it hard to have warm fuzzy feelings towards him any longer.

I think that most sensible posters or Well fans can fully understand him wanting to secure the best contract he can aged 28. Where I think or know the vitriol is coming from is who it is he is joining. In the main DDee Utd are inoffensive, but they are a rival and by a lot of measurements not that much bigger a club. So a frustration that a rival club can blow our offer out of the water and he could continue playing well and make them a better team. If he headed south there would be few noises or complaints. How it is and always will be.

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. If Watt stays and is not going to get a game then he could quickly become a disruptive influence. That might not be in his character but he is unlikely to be happy ! The fact he was such a key player and seems an all round good egg (apart from his duplicitous dealings with United) then there is no way this will not be a bad thing for Motherwell. Best for all for him to move on in January even if it meant we broke even. Hopefully his form nosedives and United continue their slide down the table. I always got the impression GA was not a fan of his social media / gaming activities. Yes he was performing on the pitch but not sure GA will lose much sleep. Try to get in a decent replacement but it gives Shields and VV the chance to shine and one game in so far so good…

That fact it is Dundee United makes it very awkward as it would any competitor of ours in the top flight. I would even go as far to say this (if true as it would appear to be) is more of a kick in haw maws than Dec leaving for Aberdeen. Mainly because Dec was actually not playing that well and if I recall we did not find out until a lot later in the season. That plus top goalscorer in the league is going to be a bigger miss any way you look at it. Arguably he would be worth several hundred thousands in a transfer fee in Jan. But I see no way how Utd could afford that and unlikely we will settle for much less. In situations like this in the real world more often than not an employee would be put on immediate gardening leave. But we could be left with a disgruntled player, Manager and fan base. Big Questions to be answered. Does he start tomorrow. Probably no bad thing there are only 500 fans allowed to attend. Glad in a way I won’t be there. He could be the consummate professional and give 100% until end of season. Tbh it would not matter to me. If this story is factual then I will hardly be able to bring myself to get excited when he scores or plays well. As before it may seem petty, but it is how I will feel going forwards.

Well this has come out of the blue somewhat ! Fully expected him to leave but to go down south not to Dundee United. They have a bigger fan base of course but not by much. Historically in terms of league performances they are less successful than us. If this is remotely true then I would be scunnered. Moving to a direct rival in the same league. Not sure but if true I don’t imagine the fans would be that forgiving if he stayed till the summer. And how are United in a position to afford such wages ? This stinks. Again all paper talk but if true he has to move on in the window. Either that or we play players that are contracted beyond the summer and/or bring someone else in.

Unless I am mistaken that £4.1m includes all staff wages inc Manager etc. We must have a hefty non playing squad wage bill also. I am also sure that the Board stated clearly they would not go down the road of offering silly wages and putting us in trouble. With Kelly you could argue he is very much an investment at his age and worth the extra to entice him up here. I doubt Watt would be that sellable after another 2 or 3 year contract.

Who knows but u would like to think so. I am quite sure the club will have made their best offer in keeping with his status and impact on the pitch. You would have to think that would make him the highest earner or certainly one of them. I doubt we could go above £3k per week, although we are rumoured to have done so with Liam Kelly. But even at £3k per week that is small beer compared to the £10k per week a Championship club could offer or the £5-6k Hibs or Aberdeen may offer not that as many say he is likely to stay in Scotland unless with us.

Happy with that. Should be a good crowd. We have a good record v Morton in the Scottish Cup. These things can come to an end. Indeed Morton may get a bounce from a new Manager. But if you asked me would I rather play the team top of the table with 9 wins from 16 or team near bottom of the table with 2 wins from 16….. Hope this does not come back to haunt me !

Pettigrew was my 1st proper Well Idol so he would make my top 5. I like a few on here adored Doogie Arnott. He is probably my all time favourite player to this very day. My top 5 would be: 1. Dougie Arnott 2. Willie Pettigrew 3. Louis Moult 4. Tommy Coyne 5. Michael Higdon. Subs: McFadden, Sutton, Watt, Skippy. If Tony can score his way and our way to Europe he could displace Higdon in the top 5.

Certainly in terms of wins recently, but they just beat Rangers easily in the League Cup and deserved a draw in midweek also in a very good performance. We all know how our last home league game went v Rangers. That and Easter Rd is not traditionally a happy hunting ground would mean I would be happy with a point. I see no Sol and Cornelius starts. Good luck to the young lad. Also SOD's back in from the start. Bearing in mind I think we have only won one game whilst he started :-(. Hopefully that will change today.

You wonder if having the competition from Sol and Ojala has helped them to realise they need to be at a 7 or 8 out of 10 performance every week or they will not be playing. Clearly does not matter with Sol and Ojala being injured. Hopefully Sol will be a lesser injury and he will be back shortly. But definitely something in having a stronger squad to push each and every player. Credit to The Management team. Listening to BBC Sportsound the other night and they mentioned only Brown and Ramirez get pass marks of the new Aberdeen signings. All our new signings (bar Parker who we are yet to see) are starting to show why they were brought to the club. Who would have thought after 1st couple of appearances that Goss would be a 1st pick for me in midfield. Lets go to Easter Rd and get a positive result. Keep the momentum going at least until Celtic away :-(

So Alexander is not under any pressure…… Very much like Hearts game for 65-70 minutes which by then the conditions were farcical. MOM was Woolery. His best game for Motherwell. He was excellent. Watt goal was a gem and his performance was his usual 8/10. Also thought Mugabi was electric for the 1st 30 minutes. He was awesome. Just a very good night and a very good result. I thought after Rangers game we would get at most 5 points before we play Celtic. We have 9 with an outside chance at 12. Well done the players and the Manager.

Got a touch of the lurgae so will be watching from warmth of the house ! I suspect given the game is on Sky, the weather looks poor and the 3-0 defeat at Dundee. This will be comfortably the lowest crowd this season. No doubt the best performance will follow. I can see a few changes for this after Saturday. You really could not change team after Hearts game. But I expect SODs will come back in at right back and one of Lamie or Mugabi back on the bench. Would like to see Carroll get a game to see if he is actually any better than McGinley as with each passing game he gets better. To be fair McGinley did play well v Hearts but imho that was an exception. Also I expect one of Woolery and Roberts to start with Watt and Van Veen. Did we miss Goss ? Never thought I would even ask the Q but his dead ball and crosses are very good. So hopefully he is back fit. Hope for a win but expect a score draw.

Utter nonsense. Fanciful stuff but if we can win on Tuesday that would be 9 points from 12 when I would have guessed 4 or 5. Clearly it is going to be an up and down season….

I expect we will see a fair few changes for Tuesday night v United !

The voice of positivity! I think it will be a tough ask tomorrow but that is when we usually pull a rabbit out of the hat. Here is hoping…

I agree with this viewpoint. He has been actually very poor this season. The fact we have won 80% of our games whilst he has not been playing is quite telling. Sure there will be other factors at play including the quality of the opposition. But I would not be inclined to drop Mugabi from RB assuming Ojala and Sol are fit. That said I doubt he will be left out. He is our Captain and GA can always point out to how well he played v Denmark.

No surprise really. I was sure they would come close to selling out the Tommy McLean stand. They are on a good run. More people to sing happy birthday :-)

This may be utter garbage I am spouting - BUT had we beaten or drawn with Rangers and both Kelly and Watt had very good games I would not be surprised if either or both were selected. Truth is we conceded 6 in an awful display. Also Kelly has had brain farts v Hearts and St Mirren. His form has been iffy of late. So not really surprised by this news. Only surprise is SODs keeps his place. I suspect if Calvin Ramsay of Aberdeen was fit his place may have been in jeopardy. He also could have had no complaints based on recent performances.

I see both sides of the debate. GA came in and turned things around. We were almost certainly doomed without him and with Tommy Wright (who many wanted) took Killie down. All that said I do feel as if we have the squad depth to be performing better than what we are seeing. We also must have any permutation of 11 players that can be more difficult to beat. Right now 4-3-3 and leaving our flanks exposed time and again is NOT working. We are constantly overrun out wide and in midfield. At the moment he does not appear to have a plan B. I am not saying 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or any other formation will yield a dramatic turnaround but we simply need to be more difficult to beat and we need to bolster the midfield. That and try and get two full backs that look like they know how to defend properly. Then we might just see an improvement. But if at Pittodrie we see 4-3-3 and McGinley at left back I think he should be fired before KO.

Totally agree. Mugabi is far from perfect but has actually turned in a couple of decent performances at right back. Also offers a bit more aerial cover. Hopefully Ojala is fit to play next week. Either way I would play Mugabi at right back. Also Carroll has to come in for McGinley. He is not the answer in many ways but offers a little more threat from set pieces and going forward. And since McGinley cannot defend what would we be losing. Also I would try 4-4-2 or 4-5-1. But we know that is as likely as McGinley defensive masterclass. Alexander is running out of plus points. Probably get SFA at Pittodrie but a better performance would be a start.

Awful defending for the second. Basic cross into the box. We are very easy to score against. Very simple. Seems a good tactic to let crosses come in at will. I mean why could possibly go wrong …