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Footballers careers only end at 30+ if they choose. There is coaching, management and punditry after that. Not to mention "normal" work.

I think your colleagues would have a very different view if their career had been guaranteed to end in their mid-30s at the latest, perhaps much earlier if they were injured.

My current view of Robinson is that I really don't know where I stand with him. Just when I think his time is up we'll come up with an Aberdeen or Celtic result but then just as quickly I find my morale sapped with missed opportunities. Just when I think we're beginning to work towards the evolvement of style of play he'll take a hissy fit and talk about being forced to play too many footballers. Just when I think there is a considered plan about introducing youngsters there's remarks attributed to him like the ones about Livingstone's fitness leading you to suspect he's not all that convinced about our youths. Current league position? It isn't where I'd want us to be but in the context of supporting Motherwell across my lifetime a 'Well side sitting relatively safe three or four places off the bottom coming towards the turn of the year is by no means the worst I've seen. Looking forward accruing points at the current rate we should hopefully be OK. There's no guarantee it will remain the case but the bottom three do rather helpfully appear to be adept at taking points of one another meaning if we keep ticking over we should remain clear if danger. If that is the case it presents Robinson with an opportunity to do exactly as he has suggested recently to freshen the side up with youth. Ya Bezzer for one, having queried why he didn't do the same last season in an even stronger position, will I'm sure be sceptical but I think even if results do continue in a frustrating inconsistent manner, it will be more tolerable if we know that it it's going to be beneficial in the longer term for those youngsters involved. The January transfer window will be interesting. It's obviously fair to say some signings haven't worked out as hoped thus far and there's apprehension from some that they don't want Robinson handed more of the budget to use but by the same token I welcome the fact that if he has acknowledged that if some he has brought in are the wrong fit then better that be addressed sooner rather than later. I suppose I really I hold much the same hopes as I did back before the season started. An easier on the eye style of play, a greater proportion of youth players involved in the team with a view to their permanent inclusion if good enough and hopefully another good run in the Cup. If we get that then and steer clear of the bottom two then there will be something to take from the season. If we continue in the vein of frustrating losses when often the football isn't great and youngsters have been overlooked it's difficult to see how the optimism from last year that lead us to getting these near record season ticket sales can be recaptured.

Football can’t be compared to “normal” professions. For good or bad, there is the potential to earn a whole lot of money very quickly regardless of performance. You can leave Motherwell for English lower league nobodies and triple your salary for three years without even playing. After playing, unless you become a top manager or pundit, the same money just isn’t there and there are fewer jobs. So from a financial standpoint it makes sense to move if the opportunity arises. However, many young players know that it makes more footballing sense to get regular playing time, build a reputation, and reap the rewards of a bigger move a few years later, and actually playing games is why most got into the profession in the first place. Either way, I’ve never had a problem with players moving to maximize their income, that’s totally their business. Ideally the good ones stay and develop and the shore ones leave before we give them a contract, but that’s not how it works. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should restrict yourself to posting late at night...clearly you are more level headed and fair minded :-) I am not sure where you get the idea that our support prefers unknowns to solid Scottish talent. I for one would have been happy to take Ross Callaghan on board. It does appear as if St Johnstone as an example have on many occasions recently bettered the wages we offered to some targets. Kilmarnock are documented as paying as much as 30% higher wages than us. The only team that are performing better than us based on budget are Livingston. Conversely Dundee have a similar average wage to Killie and are arguably underperforming. The stats on win % are interesting but it is worth noting that I suspect that both McGhee and McCall had a much larger budget and average wage to work with than Robinson does. The reality is that as a fan owned club we should only be paying wages we can afford. That means that for the foreseeable future we will be more involved in bottom half battles than top half. At home we have drawn with Rangers and Celtic and comfortably beaten Aberdeen. We have also been very unlucky not to take anything from games v Hearts and St Johnstone. Fans get frustrated when we lose games but I think Robinson has done a decent enough job. I think our frustrations and certainly mine stem from the fact that when we narrowly lose a game, we can reflect that with a little bit more effort and concentration we could have taken something. Yesterday a case in point. Nothing really between the sides for the most part but we concede another soft goal. A nothing header that lands in our net. I am confident we have enough about the squad to avoid bottom 2 spots, but we will not be far away from them all season and we will continue to have one decent result followed by one or two shit ones.

Tommy Wright, in the main, recruits local players that know this level of football. It seems to me our support reacts better to bringing in unknowns and hoping or imagining they are better than they are. I don't think there would have been a very good reaction on here if we had signed Ricky Foster, or Ross Callachan or Liam Craig. In fact if you look at the squads of the three over performing sides in the league - Livingston, St. Johnstone, Kilmarnock, those sides are the ones with the most Scottish players. Contrast with the 'foreign' legions at Dundee, Hamilton, ourselves or even St. Mirren. That might be a coincidence....but it may also say something about where you recruit your players.

Although some will disagree I am actually a fair man. Hell, I even stood up for Robinson after the Livingston match. I've actually been slightly heartened recently that Turnbull is now in the team and that guys like Mbulu, Maguire, Livingston and Scott are now, finally, making the odd appearance. Of course they need more appearances, for instance I think now is the time to put Scott ahead of Bowman on the 'off the bench' roster, as Bowman had another ineffective introduction today, and they should have played more before now. Fingers crossed on that. Also our form over say, the last 8 matches or so, is by no means the worst it's been under Robinson. We were actually MUCH worse for long spells last season but of course we were in the cup so all was forgiven by most of our support. Remember last seasons 2 wins in 15 matches? Well, perhaps, but it didn't seem to register with too many. Certainly makes our 4 wins in 16 matches this term look a bit better. And for me that is really the interesting thing here. I've been a long standing critic of Robinson, even when we were in relatively good form because I had the foresight to see that that style of football was not going to be successful long term. However it seems to me that the antagonism towards Robinson has risen sharply this season when to all extents and purposes our form is no worse than last season and, in fact, has actually improved slightly. What's the difference? Well, it has to be the lack of a cup run. Is that actually a fairer way to judge the manager than the criteria that I've pretty consistently stuck to? Anyway, now my foresight is telling me we cannot go on with a revolving door of low quality lower league/non league players coming in and out of the club every couple of seasons and expect anything more than...well...what we have now. Sure there will be some good ones. Louie Moult is one of my favourite ever players and I'm in my 4th decade of supporting this team. But overall the standard of player has to improve if we are going to improve as a club and since it's difficult to bring them to the club it stands to reason that we have to produce them. So Robinson can win my support any time he likes by having a forward looking vision centered around youth and a modern style of football, I have absolutely nothing personal against him, it's just a disagreement in strategy. And given that we've given the route one/percentage football a pretty decent whack and not really got anywhere with it, I think things are ripe for change. I actually hope Robinson can transform himself and his philosophy, because otherwise it's bad for everyone, especially supporters like me that actually go to every match. Whether I'm confident that he will is a different story.

Whit right back