David

Anyone got Ellery Balcombe's number?

Known in Lanarkshire circles as "the cheap option."

I would be more worried if we'd brought in a manager who had started talking about "good honest professionals" who "run their socks off." Personally, I want modern and new dimensions. As I've heard people say in the past, if we're going to be pushing for top six/finishing 7th-9th, let's at least make it exciting for the people who part with their hard earned cash to watch.

Not at all, I think the more discussion and ideas being exchanged, the better.

Can you provide some examples? Don't feel like you have to, I just found this comment interesting.

And I would have been very surprised if you'd said anything other than that.

It really depends on what the club wants. If it wants pragmatic solidity, clear structure, and safety-first organisation that grinds results, Neilson is your man. If they prefer high-intensity pressing, rapid transitions, attacking fluidity, and a knack for developing youth talent, someone like Wimmer offers a more modern, progressive style.

If we're looking for adventure, I'd rather we looked overseas. The idea of having Brown, who will be under the media spotlight as a "former Celtic man" throughout his tenure with us isn't really the kind of adventure I want. He'll never be "Scott Brown, Motherwell manager," he'll always be "Scott Brown, former Celtic player and scourge of Rangers." If we're looking at hiring a Scottish manager, I'd choose Neilson over Brown.

Personality is all well and good, but I’d take a manager who knows how to get results any day. Neilson might not light up a press conference, but he’s shown he can win games in Scotland. A win rate of 51 percent across more than 400 matches as a manager. He guided Hearts to the Championship title twice, once in a league that included both Hibs and Rangers, and again in a season with Dundee in the mix. He also led Dundee United to the title. He’s taken a team to a Scottish Cup final and secured a third-place finish as well. If we’re judging Scottish managers purely on achievements and consistency, I’d say he’s well ahead of Brown at this stage.

Not at all. My point is that we need to move with the times. Look at the other leagues in Europe. They see foreign coaches all the time, it's commonplace. But in Scotland, we still look at a foreign coach as something exotic and risky, when in truth, it's not any more risky than appointing someone like Pressley or Neilson. I was more questioning your logic behind the notion that a less-than-stellar experience with Wimmer would represent a need to return to the status quo. I don't agree with that at all.

This is what I heard also, although not in any official capacity. And as you say, that is a private matter. What I am confident of is that it wasn't a case of him arriving at Motherwell and deciding he missed his family. He knew exactly what would be required, in the short-term at least, when it came to that side of things.

So, going by your reckoning, and as weeyin says above, a new manager who we recruit from the south of England would fall into the "unfamiliar foreigner" category.

I know a few things have been floated out there, but I don't believe that Wimmer left because he missed his family. There was more to it than that.

The Wimmer situation was simply a case of bad luck. These things happen. What’s baffling is that some people still view overseas managers as though they’re strangers from another world, like we’re stuck in the late nineties. Football is more international now than it’s ever been. We should be focused on finding the right person for the role, regardless of where they come from. Their nationality shouldn’t matter.

I’m actually with you on a lot of that, especially when it comes to Scott Brown. I didn't really like him as a player, but I’d be kidding myself if I said he wasn’t a real leader. The man was a proper competitor, and he’s clearly serious about making his mark in management. What he managed at Fleetwood under difficult circumstances, and now at Ayr, deserves a bit of credit. If he were willing to buy into what this club stands for — the community, the youth setup, the Society — then I’d absolutely be open to it. That said, I think the whole analytics thing often gets taken the wrong way. It’s not about choosing a manager because a spreadsheet says so. It’s just another tool to help guide the decision-making, not to replace gut instinct, not to ignore interviews or understanding what the club’s all about, but to add to that picture. Saying the data would have pointed to Kettlewell at the time is probably true, he was doing well by the numbers. The issue came later, when there wasn’t a structure around him to turn short-term results into something sustainable. The data didn’t get it wrong. The problem was, in my opinion, that the club didn’t use everything it had in the right way. People always bring up Cathro, but that was more about Hearts throwing someone with no real experience into the deep end. Critchley didn’t set the place alight, fair enough, but he wasn’t picked purely on stats. He had a strong background with youth players and links to a top setup at Liverpool. Again, it’s more about whether the club gave them the proper support than about any numbers someone ran on a spreadsheet. The truth is, some of the most progressive clubs in the game, including Brighton, Brentford, and even Liverpool, all rely on smart data alongside strong football minds. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. So aye, bring the candidates in. See who really understands what Motherwell’s about. But I’d want the Board to have every possible insight in front of them before making a decision, especially in a league where the margins are razor-thin. As for Brown, he’s more than earned the right to be part of the conversation. Let’s just make sure we’re not going for anyone based purely on name or sentiment. Whether it’s Brown, someone from overseas, or a name that’s not even on the radar yet, it’s got to be the best possible fit for where we are and where we’re trying to go.