Leaderboard

Absolutely. When you've just sold McFadden and Pearson for example there is a raised expectation level that those who immediately follow will be both equally as good and generate similar financial returns. Of course that is unlikely to happen but you're spot on that there is much to be said for the "middle-of-road" player who comes through the ranks and gives you a few years service and fifty/seventy-five/ a hundred plus appearances before someone better comes along or they move on. Home grown players of a decent standard don't just bring a financial benefit.

I've said this before but we have good service from boys from our youth system who weren't able to establish themselves at our level but made good and cheap contributions. Shaun Fagan, Marc Fitzpatrick, Ross Forbes, Darren Smith, Jonny Page, Willie Kinniburgh, ZFA, Adam Cummins and Stuart Carswell all have highlights with us that a fair chunk of our signings couldn't match. Add in that bringing through youth is good for the atmosphere at the club and means more money for quality starters and it should be mandatory for every manager.

Playing the most ugliest brand of football and winning is almost tolerable but there’s no hiding place if we get beat. Robinson is therefore rightly open to criticism in my opinion and that comes from someone who has been fairly supportive of him in the past. The problem we now have, amongst many other deficiencies, is that we don’t now have any central defenders comfortable playing from the back and in Hartley and Alfred (and dunne when he’s fit) have an ultimate hoofing gene code. Kipre wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t without risk, but he brought the ball out from defence reasonably well. Another gripe I have, and it’s one that every Motherwell I spoken to on Saturday agreed with, is that Robinson somehow sees sammon and main as a viable and effective strike partnership. This should be the last we see of this, even if it is a week too late. There are many other issues from Saturday and previous games that I could raise but in the main I can’t be arsed as most have covered the very same concerns. It’s just a pity that after 4.5k home fans felt enthused to attend on Saturday, a significant proportion will seriously consider not attending the next few home games.