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What the fallout was about is irrelevant its the fact that there was one that's important and GA'S stubborn refusal to resolve it and play a senior pro, who was still getting picked for the international squads ffs at a time when we were struggling big time. So yes Alexander deserves all he gets from the fans for his shocking man management and the state he got the team into.

Stop talking shite , out of order, a player of his status .....he was the club captain ffs it was exactly his job to speak to the players and find out their views etc, so if that's what happened it was well within his remit. God knows why you and others have this love in and obsession about defending Alexander and trying to convince folk he was hard done by the fans players and club, wake up and smell the coffee ffs and have a look at what state he left the club in

Tell you what, if every time a player had a howler or series of howlers he was dropped, we’d be struggling to put 11 players onto the park. In that respect, O’Donnell was far from the worst culprit - Carroll, Mugabi, McGinley, Ojala and Solhom to name just a few, were way ahead of him on that score so I’d venture to suggest there was more to it than that. However if we can afford to keep a player on the bench who has 25 international caps we must be awash with talented defenders and from what I’m seeing that most certainly is not the case. Barring a handful of players, our present squad is shite - Stevie Hammell has recognised this however he has couched it in much more diplomatic language than that.

No he didn't the wotds used were maybe GA was right big difference, the article confirms what we all suspected that Alexander was prepared to leave out a senior pro and international player when we were struggling to win a game for weeks on end, over some no doubt petty argument, a shocking way to manage a team.

Why would Mackay or McInnes leave their current positions to come to us? Kilmarnock are a similar size of club as us with a similar size of support but a wealthy benefactor supporting their attempts to become fan owned. Ross County could be argued to be a smaller club and living outwith their means, but they too have a wealthy benefactor who shows no sign of stopping any time soon and has backed Mackay to the hilt. They would be mad to jump ship in the hope that they could sort us out. Its not like we would be paying them any more money or that we have any greater potential.

I would actually be delighted if Stevie Hammell got the gig tbf, I'm probably not adding anything thats previously been discussed in this thread but players that he has helped nurture are coming through the academy that he has worked beside so I think that will be a massive plus for his application as we have always had that emphasis on youth players breaking through, it was nice to see he had the confidence to throw a young lad in for his debut, Hammell made his 'Well debut as a 17 year old and was always in the squads after that so it was nice to see him also go down that road and show belief in someone. I seen a few posters saying a few pages back it'll be too soon for him but the likes of Alex McLeish and Billy Davies took the role around the age of 34. I know times are different as the decades have moved on but the likes of St John and Hay had no previous managerial experience either and were both highly thought of but admittedly the likes of Malpas and Black were on that boat as well. I like the idea of having someone that truly has the club at heart but whoever gets the role has their work cut out for sure. The club have made appointments out of left field before, most of the names mentioned via the bookies are quite underwhelming but I will admit I felt like that when McCall got the job but in all fairness I was proved wrong as in the league he done really well for the best part and enjoyed a Scottish Cup Final like five months after taking the reigns. Looking at some past managers Harri Kampman was intriguing but massively underestimated the quality required, Gannon had a great eye for a player but like Alexander it was his way or the highway and with Baraclough, it was refreshing to see his approach to the Rangers playoff games, he brought us Moult and despite seeing the return of the likes of Pearson and McDonald his side struggled in his first full campaign and was promptly binned. Even going further back than any of them mentioned, the likes of the experienced Jock Wallace and Ally MacLeod proved to be a mixed bag. It's a massive week ahead, it'll be interesting to see what road we go down.

A wee trip up north to the oil capital of Europe. Will we blow it? Or cap it?

I've no wish to get involved in the convoluted rights ands wrongs of the O'Donnell/Alexander saga, but here's a slightly different take on the issue. SOD seems a decent and sensible sort of guy to me, although I've never met him. However I think some of comments were "inadvisable" shall we say. We all agree that we need to bring fresh faces in to strengthen the team. Very few will argue about that. However, he should not have said that publicly. That will do little for squad unity. Some of his playing colleagues might think "Is it the strikeforce/defence he's referring to. Is he having a dig at me in the press?" What will that do for their confidence? In his position as a senior player, he'd have been better to omit that particular comment.

As one who supported GA longer than most on here, I find it perplexing that given the information that is leaking out now, that people continue to defend him. People need to pay attention to the nuance of the language being used. Its clear to me from the things that Steven Hammell has said and now SOD, that things behind the scenes were far from perfect and that players and staff alike werent happy with what was going on. Usually these things remain unsaid even once the manager has gone. The fact that they are not speaks volumes to me. I have no problem with agreeing that SODs performances for us were poor and that he could have no arguments about being dropped. But it did mystify me when I watched him play for Scotland. Particularly at Wembley when he was outstanding. Of course we dont know what really happened behind the scenes, but with Slattery disappearing for months, SOD being benched, so many players seemingly low on confidence and now comments from Hammy and SOD in the press, it appears that the working environment created by GA was part of the problem.

It shouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility to maintain our Premiership status AND not do shitty things.

That’s a shell of a bad joke - awe ffs, it’s contagious !

Again, it is not the fact Alexander dropped O'Donnell to the bench. That was justified in most folks eyes but perplexing when others were just as poor but retained their place regardless. So let's get that straight. What is being highlighted is that in our time of dire need, when his chosen replacement at right back was becoming a liability and rapidly losing confidence, Alexander refused to use O'Donnell off the bench...... or to even start a game. And that continued into this season even after our home performance against Sligo. Being on the bench, we have to assume that O'Donnell was fit enough and performed well enough in training to merit that place. O'Donnell's recent comments suggest he did just knuckle down and get on with it. So why not try him as the situation on the field became more and more depressing? No wonder most people believe it was personal and that O'Donnell was being made to suffer. Refuse the Bench position and he could have been suspended by the Club. Credit to O'Donnell for not going down the Declan route.

: head shake emoji :

Heavy loss and we will be sending an Esso S !!

Alexander stripped all the enjoyment out of going to FP for me. It was fucking diabolical, even when we won. I'm happy he's been papped. He's the first manager we've had in a while I just could not deal with and I'm generally sympathetic towards our managers. It was heaps worse than Robinson, McCall and even dare I say, McGhee at times. He sold our only attacking threats, played CBs at fullback, loaded the defence from 60 mins onwards, ostracised our best remaining players, built a team with zero attacking prowess and no width, didn't prepare for the euro legs well enough, brings in no competition for Van Veen who is far too lazy, different line ups every week, clueless subs every week, gave out long contracts to average players willy nilly... The list is endless and he's left the club in a bit of a state I saw a big of an enough response on Saturday to reaffirm my views that GA was the problem and not totally the players underperforming. I'm happy O'Donnell has come out and indicated that there's been a problem, I think the fans need some inclination into wtf actually went wrong, and coming from a good pro like SOD, I tend to back him. Alexander used to have a nosebleed when SOD, or anyone for that matter, ran forward. SOD had a downturn in form, but that does not make Mugabi a better option at RB, and quite frankly, everyone was rotten for a large period of time. It's bonkers making a player captain, and then instantly losing faith in him. I have no idea on the next manager, but we need someone who can bring some positivity and enthusiasm to the club. That's why I'd patch Lambert, he's far too dull and arguably as arrogant as GA was at times. Simo could be a risk, but so is anyone from the current suggestions His enthusiasm in applying three times, and club experience is something that should hold some weight. We can't appoint anyone who thinks they are too big for the club

O’Donnell is a really strange one with our own support and also the Scotland support in general. I had a conversation with a Celtic fan during the Euros where he stated that SOD should be nowhere near the Scotland Team and that Patterson should be playing. When I asked him if he had seen Patterson play he answered no. That was a Celtic fan backing a Rangers player he had never seen play. Stranger still, there were Motherwell fans arguing the same thing. At a time when we should have been proud to see a Motherwell player in a Scotland shirt, we seemed determined as a support to undermine our Captain. Having not backed him in a Scotland shirt and having been almost vitriolic in their criticism of his performances in a Well shirt it is all the stranger that SOD being dropped from the starting 11 is now used as proof positive of Graham Alexander’s poor man management skills. If SOD has suffered a crisis of confidence that has impacted his form in recent months there is a very obvious reason for it that could have nothing to do with Graham Alexander. The beauty of being a football fan is that we get to absolve ourselves of all responsibility, no matter how badly we behave at times, whilst pointing the finger at anybody and everybody we whimsically wish to blame instead.

It is not really about O'Donnell though. It is about Alexander and his style of management. O'Donnell is just an example of that style and also Alexander's stubbornness and refusal to do what might have been good for the Club during a spell which at best can be described as poor. Slattery, Woolery. Lamie and to a lesser degree Tierney could all be substituted for SOD as players who were sidelined at a time when others were performing poorly but retained.......Goss, McGinley, Carroll, Shields, Efford, Ojala as examples. And you keep saying that folk are insisting O'Donnell should not have been dropped. That is just not true, no matter how often you repeat it. What people are saying is that when we were in freefall, Alexander for some reason totally ignored a player who he deemed good enough to sit on the bench and who represented his country. Not even worthy of a try at a time when his preferred selection was becoming a liability with confidence shot to pieces. And is still suffering. So instead of deflecting to the rights and wrongs of O'Donnell can you please comment on Alexander's performance from January to season end, including his team selections and formation? I say end season, but you can include this season's brief venture into Europe if you like. Clearly those factors were enough for the Club to get rid of him. No matter that " he avoided relegation and got us into Europe".

Re SOD my take on it is SOD said and did something that annoyed GA that he dropped him . GAs way or the highway and suspect Watt , SOD, Slattery all felt the pain of this . of course a manager can drop a player for not playing well . Given SOD played all through the euros and straight into the season without a break - at some point he’d need rested . Yes SOD made a few howlers and could have been dropped for a game or 2 . The point being this wasn’t consistent , just look at others who was ever present ,that didn’t get dropped putting everything about ability to one side be always found SOD a decent bloke , who makes sense , who’s balanced in his view and accepts criticism bottom line is a club like Motherwell can’t afford to drop international players for sustained period of time .

From that article. Alexander says. “He’ll embrace and introduce new ideas to how we work, using all the tools the modern game provides." Don't really know what that means but regardless, it failed. He recruited players who couldn't even do the basics.

Is that when he was still Captain. I'm sure that happens at many clubs going through a bad spell. The captain calling a meeting that is.

I agree 100% re the level of our wages. We are never going to be able to compete with a good number of the teams in our league. And many lower/non league English clubs are financially ahead of us also. We are limited in the quality of player we can recruit from "the usual sources" so that heightens the need for a fresh approach and a strong youth development programme...notwithstanding that some will follow the route of Bailey Rice and a good few others. In hindsight I wonder if our strategy of working with an expanded squad for CoVid reasons hamstrung us to a degree, especially as various contracts were then extended....using up much needed resources over the following one or two seasons. How does the actual size of our squad compare to the likes of Livi, County, St Johnstone etc? I wonder if they are working with smaller squads enabling them to offer higher wages, within the same overall budget that we work to. If that is the case it will likely take time for us to reach an effective balance. I really do believe we have arrived at a time where the Club will need to look at their entire strategy moving forward. A new Manager is only part of that. I sense the Board have much thinking to do.

It seems like once a season we gift wrap a win for them deep into injury time. I'm getting nightmares of Tam Scobbie of all folk now. Still plenty of work to be done but I felt the second half was much more positive, we seemed to change formation to a 4231 when Tierney came on so again that added with the half time subs it's actually great to see Hammell identify that things needed changed and quickly, Alexander was alway reluctant to use many subs. A draw would probably have been a fair result but we all know what footballs like, you don't always get what you deserve as St Mirren would probably argue about a week earlier. I actually thought St Johnstone were quite jammy at times, one of the main instances being a clearance that ricocheted off Shields I think it was right in front of the goal and the ball went over the bar, then you have the defender that miscontrolled the ball and it goes through Efford's legs, if he intercepted the ball he would have been bearing down on goal. He had actually done something similar a short time earlier and McGowan got in front of him, with the defenders options either to kick it out for a throw or play a risky ball to the keeper, Efford decides to volley him. I know Mr Ponytailman is a horrific finisher for the best part but it was criminal defending for their winner even he wasn't going to miss for that close in, plus it was even more galling as they never had much of a sniff in the second half.

Take what you want re ODonnells comments but it is hardly news that a Manager does not get along with some players. Happens in every workplace. You get on with some and not with others. What I would say if he was a great Man Manager then this possibly could have been managed a bit better but it appears and was reported that he was quite a stubborn man. I trust the Board to make the right appointment for now. Say what you want about Alexander he got us away from relegation and into Europe. Yes he has left us with a bit of a mess in terms of current squad. But he did what he was paid to do. In fact probably overachieved based purely on eventual outcome last season. We still need to try and move a handful of players on and bring in minimum 4 to 5 players who will add quality to the team. I suspect this may be a major factor on who gets the job. Whether someone can come in and say I know players that can come into CB, LB that Motherwell could afford. Not saying this necessarily rules Hammell out but it probably cannot help his cause. I still see someone coming in and Hammell becoming assistant. The defence needs sorted pronto. The winning goal on Saturday is all that is wrong. Unable to deal with a straightforward lump into the box. Not only that making the situation worse. Then you have SODs rushing towards a player when the ball is head height and the likes of Mugabi ball watching instead of picking up St Johnstone key and most dangerous striker. Genuinely a video on how not to defend !!!

Said it before McKay a local lad might be tempt to move back down to the central belt.If the club are not sounding him out and on the blower to Ross County then pretty disappointing if you ask me. He turned Ross County last season from an awful start to a team that never gave up.Be perfect for us I think.

I didnt read that article as him being ostracised, he was on the bench , so hardly the case. He wasnt made to train with youths or anything.Sod , as good as says in interview that maybe the manager was right to drop him, so that is fairly honest of him. I am still glad ga has gone as it clearly wasnt going well but things are seldom black and white

But can he make a difference in a 3 week transfer window cos God Almighty himself wont turn that dross we have into an effective unit.

Sorry I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Was he playing well enough to retain his place in the team ? Not according to many on here who felt he should be dropped. I personally would have kept him in the team but even I was fifty fifty on that. Dropped player is unhappy shocker is all that says to me.

Do you know what the disagreement was about, like? I didn't see it mentioned? There's every chance the disagreement was about O'Donnell not being good enough? Which many of our fans were saying week in and week out on here, on social media, and in the stands. But hey, you can use it as another reason to bash a guy who's no longer even here.

Nothing to read there that does not happen at every club up and down the country, he even states Alexander was right.

Nick Daws is a pal of Alexander, and I would argue that he owns some of the serious problems we have with our current squad. Perhaps (or hopefully) we'll see him mutually consented soon too. https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2021/06/11/nick-daws-appointed-head-of-recruitment-operations/

Personal view is we’ve signed far too many very ordinary players. At their best they work hard but they offer v little else . Ordinary players at best will be very ordinary teams . we managed results due to having some flair/guile with Watt and KVV. i don’t expect a turnbull to arrive every year but it wasn’t long ago with similar budgets we had people of the quality of ainsworth and others like him . Not world beaters but had some skill and craft . Even likes of Jim Obrien were far better than the dross we’ve had in recent years from seedorf , amaluzor. Now we have guys like Morris, spittal , shields , efford - it’s simply not good enough . I’m not impressed with the recruitment team at FP. The manager rightly took flack but what is everyone else accountable for .

Of course they can. I thought we were very poor yesterday but we still hit the post and should have had at least one penalty. I don't think we can have any complaints about losing but on another day we could have won 3-1. There are very small margins and as bad as we are most of the rest aren't miles ahead. Just cutting out basic defensive errors could transform things.

I've stated elsewhere that this squad plus Tony Watt and Kayne Woolery showed itself capable of winning games in the SPL last season (I know O'Hara, Donnelly and Grimshaw were also here but they weren't exactly crucial). It shows the difference just two or three of the right types of player makes. Personally I reckon an organiser at the back or in midfield and some direct pace up top so teams don't feel they can defend as high against us, those two would improve us hugely. But the next manager's biggest task is getting guys playing to their best. Take Mugabi. He was never Beckenbauer but last season looked solid for the most part with the occasional howler thrown in. In other words, an average SPL defender. Yesterday he, along with most of the team, looked terrified. Not an ideal mindset for playing football. Talk of 6 or 7 new signings is fanciful. New manager, whoever he is, needs to identify 2 or 3 to address problem areas, yes. But also has to remind the guys that are here how they can play...

Livescore had it as 2 bookings not that it matters but good to see Gallagher keeping up his consistently bad form since leaving us, as for Robinson I don't he will last till Christmas on their current form, failing again with a lot of the players he failed with at Fir park you've got to laugh.

What baffles me Is why don’t we in Scotland start our season earlier and benefit from being 20 games into our season lots of Scottish teams get pumped year in and out - I’d be a fan of finishing the season on Jan and starting back March /April summer football - yes please downside is the risk on international tournaments - I can live with that risk

We've had clubs poach or try to poach our managers in the past and it's a shitty thing to do. I'd rather our club didn't go down that route.