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Imagine repeating what you saw on twitter and then demanding recognition for "leaking" it and then backtracking after it transpires what you leaked was a heap of shite.

Some leaks going about that it's Allan Campbell's birthday today.

That was a very interesting time to be a Well fan. I don’t think we should forget the mess McGhee left behind. The squad had been neglected with McGhee looking elsewhere for some time before he actually left. I still maintain that Gannon ensured our SPL status the following season thanks to his signings alone. We also have to remember that European football was secured the following season thanks to his fair play philosophy. I sometimes wonder, if Jim O Brien had scored that penalty against Rangers could it all have been different. I fear sadly not. There was the potential for a very good manager in there but either he did not want it to work or he simply did not have the tools at the time to make it work. His contribution was greater than many are prepared to acknowledge but I think the same can be said of all the non Scottish managers of the last decade (Baraclough and Robinson being the others). We would not be an SPL team at this time we’re it not for interventions from these men at critical times. Sadly you will get little acknowledgement of that amongst many of the fans at FP.

I believe that the manner in which coaches like Scott Gemmill stifle the natural talent of players in matches is as much to blame for poor results as anything. Players seldom play to the same standard we see week in week out at Club level. Why not? Watching Alan Campbell...and before that Chris Cadden.. playing for Scotland, it’s like they are playing with the brakes on. Campbell is so deep he might as well be playing at Centre Back. Gemmill and the rest are more focused on frustrating the opposition than playing to the skills of our own youngsters. The fear of losing is the driver. Hard for players to give of their best and progress at International level when the coaches are totally negative. Flair Players like Middleton of Rangers and Johnstone of Celtic must be relieved to get back to their Clubs. There are others. Even the girlies team seem scared to express themselves as Shelley Kerr takes the same approach into games. Following the party line. Hopefully Clarke will change our approach, but I doubt it. I genuinely believe there is good young talent out there. Throughout the Divisions. Perhaps more so than ten years ago. And they are ambitious and confident. Norwich are about to sign an 18 year old midfielder from Partick Thistle for £350k. Perhaps that answers your Clyde/Nevin or Dumbarton/ Phillibin question. Time will tell.

Fooled me, like.

The team we played on Tuesday?

I, for one, will be bitterly disappointed if we ever signed anyone, going forward, from above conference level and not based in Northern England.

Stop digging Marv! Suck it up and move on.

I think any manager who got the backing in the transfer market that Gannon had would have kept us up no problem. Three Premiership loans, another four signings, a core of Craigan, Hammell, Lasley and Sutton plus Murphy, Reynolds, O'Brien and more young players below them. Brown and Knox got a lot more out the squad when they took over.

With the benefit of hindsight it would probably have made more sense for Turnbull to take the Norwich deal under the proviso that he be loaned back to Motherwell for a season or even two. He'd have been making more money, but still been close to family and friends with the opportunity to play regularly for at least another season. That was obviously before the medical stuff came to the fore, of course.

I was right in line with that and could see clearly in real time that it wasn't offside. Absolute cheating at its very worst. We should have won both home games against Them that season, we drew the first one 0-0 and played some really good football before Jim O'Brien missed a late penalty.

The games I saw him he mostly ended up playing one twos with Kerr the Centre Back and he hardly crossed the half way line. Maybe in the Toulon Tournament when our tactics seemed to be to lump the ball forward to the big striker from Everton? Certainly it was not the energetic Campbell I see playing for and driving Motherwell forward. He could have been played as you say in other games but either way it’s certainly not playing to his strengths. Stifled is the way I see it.

Yes, show the goal as a fluid piece of action then chop it up for the replays and the arty folk

I guess it comes down to the old "is the glass half full or half empty" approach. Personally, I see it as a sign that our game as a whole is improving and attracting players from down south, who see a move to Scotland as a way to further their careers if they're good enough. Yeah, but you're idea of "used to be" is 30 odd years ago. Aside from the fact that it's still 11 players on a team with a ball being kicked about it's hardly even the same sport nowadays. Back when those players you mentioned were making the move down south the footballing world was a lot smaller. Foreign players from such exotic locales as South America and Eastern Europe were the exception rather than the norm. Clubs have access to a wider talent pool today, so it makes sense that English clubs would choose to look further afield than Scotland and other home countries. Our clubs are doing the same. I don't necessarily believe it's a case of our talent levels dwindling as it is more choice being available from across the globe. Scouting and tracking of foreign players today is totally different from 30 years ago. What other European nations though? The only European nation of similar size to us that I can think of that's really done well producing players is Croatia. The likes of Ireland, Norway, Finland, Slovakia etc are all pretty similar to us when it comes to developing players. The landscape in football has changed drastically over the past 30 years. As I mentioned, it's hardly even the same sport in many ways. Again, you're talking almost 40 years ago when you mention the early 80's. Totally different footballing world, and also a totally different world as far as general society goes. As someone who was a kid back then you had a few options when you weren't at school. Either stay in the house and do fuck all, or go out and play football. Today though? There's internet access, there's Netflix, there's mobile phones, there's Xbox and Playstation. In all honesty, if me and my pals had the option as kids to either go out to a rain-soaked patch of grass with a ball and play football in the cold or stay at home, hook up the Playstation and stick on the headphones and play football online against each other online (as well as against other kids from across the globe) I don't think I'd have played as much football outside either. There will always be kids who play football, but there's more options now. That's just a fact. There's a danger of becoming the very people we used to mock as kids, the types who'd watch a football game in 1990 and say "Pffft, this shite isn't a patch on the stuff from the 50's. I remember when players had proper haircuts and goalkeepers didn't wear gloves." Another thing to consider is that international football is totally different now as well. There's far more fans out there (myself included, in all honesty) who see international football as nothing more than something that gets in the way of club football. As the game becomes more global and fans identify more with club football the international scene becomes less important. You're not blaming them, but you're claiming that unless they head down south they don't have ambition or confidence:

I Agree, I like to see the build up of the goal, i want to see how player X ended up one on one with the keeper before taking the ball around him. each to their own I suppose.

If you look at our young national squads success at qualifying for tournaments in the last 20 years, it's almost as unimpressive as the senior team. For as long as I've been watching football, there has been good young players in their teens, but we are terrible at developing them as much as other European countries seem able to do. There have been a few more good youngsters come through recently - often as a side effect of teams like ourselves, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee Utd etc. having financial contstraints - but if our history is anything to go by, most of them will have good, but not great careers. The last really successful young Scottish team I remember was the 1982 Andy Roxburgh side that won the U18 Euros back in the early 80s (John Philliben scored in that final, along with Pat Nevin and Gary Mackay). When was the last time Stirling Albion produced a youth international like Philliben? Or Clyde produce a Nevin? This isn't really news though. We all know the Scottish game needs an overhaul from top to bottom. We also know that nobody in power will ever do that while the short term interests of the OF and others are the prevailing mentality. As I said, I don't blame any youngster taking a particular career path. I just see it as a symptom of the underlying issues of our game - not as the cause. It won't stop me watching and enjoying my football across all the SPFL divisions - I just don't hold out much hope of seeing the improvements being made that could raise the overall quality.

But is there a dearth of young Scottish talent? Plenty of promising youngsters around, and getting game time in the SPL. Kerr at Saint Johnstone, McKenna is still young, Turnbull, Campbell , several at Celtic, Rangers (including Hastie), Hibs and Hearts. And I'm sure fans of most clubs could come up with their own young hopefuls. Plenty of folk think the lack of success at National level might be more about who is managing those teams coupled with the whole antiquated SFA set up and it's old boys network. Rather than lack of raw talent. Billy Gimour, Ryan Gauld and David Bates are three scottish youngsters who fairly recently showed plenty of self belief in moving to England, Portugal and Germany respectively. If I recall correctly there were plenty of folk questioning why those youngsters were intent on leaving Scotland at such a young age. Can't have it both ways. The talent is out there.

i do get the impression that there are fewer Scottish players heading South in comparison to years past. Certainly first team players. You suggest it is down to lack of ambition or confidence but I think it is mostly down to lack of opportunity and factors in England and Europe that have dramatically changed over the past 30 years. You quote Nicholl. Gray, Nevin etc as examples but in those days there were far fewer foreign Owners/Managers/Coaches/Recruitment Staff in England with a vast knowledge of the market in Europe and even further afield. And a lot more with a working knowledge of the Scottish and Irish markets and little knowledge of European Leagues. Plus there was much less cash flying around (No Sky billions). Put those factors together and it is no real surprise that many English Clubs....even in lower leagues..... nowadays recruit extensively from overseas, Also add increasing media coverage of European /US football andInternational tournaments such as African Cup of Nations, World and European Under 19s. 20s etc etc bringing many more players into the transfer mix. These players often have a much higher profile than good Scottish players who play for a team other than Celtic and possibly Rangers. in short it is a much wider market place. I do think there is still a market in England for players from Scottish Clubs, but nowadays the focus has changed to youngsters such as McKinstray or foreign imports such as Virgil Van Dijk who have proved themselves on the European stage. Lindsay at Barnsley, Cooper at Leeds and Fraser at Bournemouth are examples of players, who when given the opportunity as youngsters were ambitious and confident enough to head South. Turnbull opted not to. I am sure many others would also make that move, given the opportunity and personal circumstances permitting. I don't think the lack of players heading to England is about either ambition or confidence.

I can see my point is still being missed, but I'll take the blame for not explaining it very well. Turnbull is one of many Scottish players over the last decade or two who have either turned down moves to England (or abroad) *at any age*, or who have spent one season and come running back home. It's a trend that, in my opinion, is part of the deeper issues in the Scottish game. It wasn't that long ago, Scottish players - some from the lower divisions - were making moves down south to further their career e.g. Steve Nichol from Ayr Utd to Liverpool when he was 19, Andy Gray from Dundee Utd to Aston Villa when he was 19, Pat Nevin from Clyde to Chelsea when he was 19, Alan Hansen from Partick Thistle to Liverpool when he was 22, Gary McAllister from Motherwell to Leicester City when he was 20, Steve Clarke from St Mirren to Chelsea when he was 24. None of them feeling the need to keep their commute to a short drive to Glasgow. All of them prospered after their moves. Even our own McKinstry took the leap to join Leeds at the ripe old age of 16. It's not a criticsm of any player. Everyone is free to make their living however they see fit. It's just very noticable that there has been a lot of traffic heading North up the M74 and A1 in recent years, but much less heading south and I think that is a major factor in the overall poor health of our national game.

I think we've the most transparent club out there. The club are forever interacting with fans and explaining reason for decisions they make.

You develop by matching up against better players, not weaker ones. Case in point, Nicky Law when he went to League Two Rangers. Compare that to McGinn when he ended up at Villa rather than Celtic - now there is talk of a move to Man Utd. I'm not picking on Turnbull specifiically, but there is a general lack of ambition (or confidence) in Scottish players that is a symptom of our overall game. And it's been going on for years. Even players that go down to league one or two and scurry back home after a season because they can't hack it. Our squad would be pretty thin if English players didn't take the step up (and the journey in the opposite direction) to the Scottish Premiership.

The disappointing thing to me (outside of the surgery issues) is that another Scottish talent felt that Celtic was a better option than taking a shot at the EPL.