David

Funnily enough, whenever those two cup finals are raised there's also guys who say "well, we didn't win them, did we?" or who scream "that's all well and good, but we didn't qualify for the top six that season, did we? League form is what matters!" Those same guys are then pointed to last season when we finished 3rd, which is surely a good thing? Alas, no. Why? Well, it seems the argument is "if the league hadn't been cut short we'd never have finished third!" Wish I could tell the future as clearly as those lads. Basically, they don't want to hear any of it. They shift the goalposts to suit their argument. If you seriously think Robinson getting a new deal was a case of an old pals act you're mental. It was prudent business to keep hold of one of the most over-performing managers in the league. Paper over the cracks? Since his first full season as manager he's took us to 7th, 8th & 3rd, and yes, he took us to two cup finals. What exactly do you expect? If that record is "papering over the cracks" what would a successful replacement manage to do? What would be acceptable to you? As for buying "utter shite" it should go without saying that with our budget most of our signings will be a risk. We're bringing in guys on free transfers on low wages who are deemed worth a punt. We're not in a position where we can sign decent players who are a relatively safe bet for success. However, he's brought in the likes of Carson, Dunne, Kipre, Grimshaw, Hartley, Gillespie, Donnelly, Aldred, Gallagher, Polworth, Long, Watt, O'Hara, and O'Donnell who have all had varying levels of success from decent to very good. Perhaps just as importantly he has presided over the sales and profit of Kipre, Scott and Turnbull. He also led us on a decent little European run that brought in somewhere in the region of €780,000. I'm not sure what constitutes success in some people's minds, but what I've described above is really as good as it gets for a club like ours. Outwith a cup win, which we had two opportunities at only to fall to a dominant Celtic side. So long as we're not fending off relegation and potentially have a shot at a top six finish then I'll take it. Honestly, there's absolutely fuck all in Robinson's record to give any of our fans cause for despair. We're a small Scottish club with next to no money. We'll have period where we play utter dross. It's always happened. It always will happen. If you moaning types are feeling bad now, just think about this. See in years to come when Robbo is gone? We'll probably look back at the young players we had and the two cup finals, third place finish and European games as a time to look back on fondly.

£12 for a stream of a cup game seems reasonable enough to me. Complainers on social media aren't being forced to buy, are they?

Not the most exciting 90 minutes of football we'll see this season, but a point away at St Johnstone when we didn't play particularly well? I'll take it.

Aye, totally depends on the player in question and his own circumstances. Like I said, it depends on if the lad has a wife or whatever. What do they do for a living? If she's studying then that makes things difficult perhaps? What about her parents? For the record, I'm not saying the player shouldn't move south. I'm just saying that there's more factors to be taken into account than just footballing reasons. That's all. Yeah, but if the player has decided he doesn't want to leave Scotland, for example, at the moment, then they'd be wasting their time. Unless he's a really top talent who brings something to the table that other players don't the buying club would just move on to their next target. Again, all I'm saying is that while a move to Hibs or another Scottish club would be seen as a sideways move to the average fan, it may not be for the player in question. Personal circumstances could play a part. It's not just a case of a footballing decision.

Maybe he will, maybe he won't. I'm just offering the reasons why he may choose to remain in Scotland, that's all. It's not a decision he'll make based entirely on football is my main point. There's other factors such as the ones I mentioned that will come into his thought process. In most cases the first port of call for an interested club will be the players agent, and if Campbell has told his agent that he fancies remaining in Scotland for the time being, for whatever reason, then why would the English club pursue the player? As for guarantees about the football population, you can't make any kind of claim to that end. The truth is, neither you nor I knows what goes through any individual players mind before they make a move. What I've provided above is some of the factors that, for many players, will be a factor. If you honestly think that a footballer won't take into account the circumstances and preferences of their significant others and family then I don't know what to tell you. My main point is that just because a potential move to Hibs, for example, may be seen as a "sideways move" by some fans in a footballing sense, it doesn't mean he's not going to entertain the idea based on factors outside of football.

What is it? Like 2 and a half hours from Glasgow? As opposed to four or five hours down to Stoke or wherever? The point still stands. He'll have to take into account more than just his own circumstances unless he's a single guy with no relationships or anything going on. It ain't football manager, players aren't just making decisions based on their career, they have lives outside of football to consider as well.

Feel free to shift the commentary to the Tartan Army section @steelboy Hope we hang on for the win mind you.

Aye, but like anyone taking a job that would see them move to a different country or whatever, you'd take into account your family circumstances I'd imagine? I'm sure he'll do the same. Is he married? In a long-term relationship? If so, does his other half work? Do they maybe study? Is he going to just fuck off down south and leave them up here at University or college? Do they want to quit their job and move to somewhere they know no one? Away from friends and family? While he's at training and can effectively "plug in" to a social circle of new team-mates the partners are often the ones left at home in a flat or house with fuck all to do except get homesick. There's a lot of different considerations for any player when they decide to move club. He may very well fancy a shot down south. Maybe he's single and can take off wherever he likes. But maybe he'll see Hibs or Aberdeen offering a decent wedge and figure it's a win/win as he'll be close to home and also earning a bigger wage. A whole lot more to it than football, which, if we're honest, is only a job at the end of the day. Family comes first and all that jazz.

Personally, I think he'll leave at the end of the season for compensation and end up at a club like Hibs or Aberdeen. Not every young lad wants to bugger off down south away from friends and family, and I think if he fancied that we'd be hearing about more clubs down there keeping an eye on him and maybe even putting in some bids in the window just past. Aberdeen or Hibs is a decent step up if he's wanting to stay in Scotland. He could go to either and have a very good career at a decent level on decent dough.

Then don't watch. If you want entertainment, watch the English games on Sky, or the Spanish games. In reality I've been entertained in the traditional sense very little in my time as a Motherwell fan, which is to be expected considering the level we're operating at in the transfer market, but entertainment isn't the be-all and end-all for me. It's the team I support, I have an emotional investment in the club, and as such the money we have in the bank, and how sound a footing we are on is very much a priority. Honestly, I don't know a proper fan of any club who doesn't care about those things? Who just want to sit down, watch some exciting football, then fuck off home again. If you don't want to bother yourself with the details of supporting a club like Motherwell and you're just after pure entertainment, you're probably in the wrong place. Pick another team for that. Every Motherwell game is "entertaining" to me in the sense that I'm gripped by the action from start to finish. I kick every ball, I shit myself when the opposition gets through on our goal, and I leap from my couch when we squander a sure chance to score. To a neutral many of our games would be absolute dross, in the same way as I rarely find myself watching, for example, Accies play St Johnstone. To me that game would be boring. But to an actual fan of either club, it's their weekend. Again, if I felt about the club the way you seem to, which is not giving a fuck about the financial stability or how sound a footing we're on and only caring about being entertained during the 90 minutes, I'd probably watch another team. If it's entertainment you're after, there's certainly better out there.

Pretty much.

Well said.

That's the best way to approach it. Still, I think I'll wait a few years once it's available and see what the fallout is. It'll likely not be me or my age group (40 years old, healthy, no history of medical issues) that they try it out on first.

Well, every other vaccine has taken years to create. Be it for flu, polio, whatever. I'm no expert, but usually with something like a vaccine you're talking anything from four to six years of academic and in-lab research. Then there's three to five years of trials, including closely-monitored small-numbers human trials, then it usually takes a few years to gain regulatory approval after the process of independent scrutiny and investigation. I know "technology" and all that, but if a vaccine hits shelves within a year or so of this virus becoming "a thing" I'd have to believe that some of the above-mentioned steps have been overlooked in favour of being first to provide the world with the answer. This is like a pharmaceutical space-race of sorts. And it seems America is doing all it can to be first yet again, no matter what it takes. So yeah, I'll be giving it a wide berth. I'd rather take my chances with a virus like Covid than run the risk of being part of a live testing phase for some quickly put-together answer to the pandemic.

Not for me it isn't. I'd rather catch a virus that there's a good chance I won't even know I have than take my chances with a vaccine that has been produced quickly and without the years of testing and research usually applied.