Goggles & Flippers

As I said in the shoutbox, social attitudes and behaviour has changed, there's no way enough revenue can come in over 5 hours every fortnight and from £5 an hour from a snooker table for the club to come close to even give it a thought. Sorry to see a host of people lose their livelihood but market forces brought about it's downfall.

I'm sure he does, but our precarious financial situation may require us to lose a wage before handing one out. That's based on: 1./ Players he doesn't fancy wanting to leave rather than see out their contract 2./ Another team being interested and when few in our squad are performing it doesn't make them an overly attractive prospect I'm sure his aim is to get to mid May, retain SPFL status and rebuild then when he has scope. I think our best bet is to get players on loan with their parent clubs happy just for them to get game time rather than us covering a percentage of their salary. But then again there's probably 50 clubs throughout the UK looking for the same thing.

OK, list her prior experience then.

I would expect like any other business, he has no right to attend as he doesn't hold an executive position, but I'd be very surprised if he wasn't invited to attend every one.

So you're unhappy with his appointment in the first place. Is there any way he could risen to the post from within the club in your eyes or would he have had to leave to then return when he gained necessary management experience elsewhere? Or should he never be considered? Now don't focus on how you perceive how the club has transpired since she left but in Leanne's tenure were you happy in general with what she implemented and how the club progressed in her time? Like her or not I doubt anyone can claim the club changed immeasurably under her stewardship. If your answer is negative you can't deny she was successfully headhunted by a competitor with a larger purse. Lot of issues you cite include Alan has been promoted to GM without an executive function. I'd suggest to you the same was the case when Leanne was appointed. She gained the "Executive" to her title as time progressed and JB's regular involvement diminished. However her CV before coming to Motherwell was hardly dazzling and a lot less impressive than Alan's. Being promoted without voting rights does seem to follow your contention that there was caution from those who appointed him to not make the jump too much but I'm sure as time progresses that may change. Finally onto the fact he still does the interviews. I'm sure you will know the job was advertised in the summer, there was a thread on here about it. Eddie Munster applied (allegedly) however the money on offer didn't make it attractive. Therefore safe to say the club couldn't find someone on their terms. Therefore Alan no doubt does it either because nobody is able or wants to do it. However if you'd rather have him upstairs in the boardroom chewing the fat for an extra 10 minutes with the Thomson's and Petries of this world then I understand your ire. I just don't know what the catalyst for the criticism that you claim he's entitled is born from. Regardless, he was appointed by Weir/McMahon/etc., he has their respect and is well thought of by the hacks and TV personnel. I've yet to see any criticism by anyone who genuinely has any daily dealings with him. All the detractors are those on here with limited knowledge of his role, what's he's had to deal with off the radar, how he's performing and what he has planned. But blame has to be attributed somewhere, so he's now moved into your sights.

Reading your posts occasionally makes me wonder if you are yoda and the riddler's lovechild, regardless that was right on the money.

When we sold him for what seemed like a decent amount I was genuinely surprised at the amount we got for him. From what we could gather he had an in auspicious time in Norway with his previous club, I think the Ojamma connection alerted him and us to the possibility of a loan move initially. He scored 1 minute into his home debut against Aberdeen but they went on to win 3-1. He's a runner, not always easy to quantify how much that stretched defences to allow others to find space, so maybe not given enough credit. As pointed out I was surprised you're going for him, as others have said, I suspect you've got better players already. The pace and delivery he'll get at Utd should mean he'll have plenty of ammo. Was injured for quite a while and I was personally happy to see him go to free up a wage. Only issue is we didn't invest it properly.

Well then do it and stop being evasive. If I thought you were so sensitive I wouldn't have called you names, diddums

Agreed, just hope a long term injury at such a formative part of his career doesn't hold him back and not realise what we saw glimpses of before.

Yeah what bits exactly, if I'm working on a higher comedy plain than I even recognise myself I need to know. Where I sit is of no consequence. By I'm guessing you're attempting to belittle me than address the questions I asked you to answer shows you are intent on peddling you're bile.

I'm not gonna deny, when he left and for the amount he left for, it left me scratching my head. I thought that was our first piece of decent transfer action for a couple of years.

As per Weeyin's post, Steelmen Forever was created in the aftermath of the Ranger decision where the club explained if this is what they wanted us to do then there was going to be a financial shortfall. Just because you were unaware of it Waldo, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Think some of this heat is a tad unfair, I think the behind the scenes people were responsible for not selling our assets for top dollar. For that they are certainly culpable. However the £1m operating loss over 3 years thing could have been wiped out if Stuart and the team managed to beat Albion Rovers and Stenhousemuir would have been a game at Ibrox, 9 months later beating Stjarnan would have resulted in Lech Poznan and potentially Inter Milan. 3 games against much lower opposition (on paper) and therefore definitely winable. However lets not ignore we all dined out on the success that this perceived short termism funded. I don't think its right to call the budgeting idiotic to plan for top 6 and a decent cup run when you are among the top 5 performing teams in the country. Losing key games and failure to sell have been our downfall.

OK, do you think Leeann was good at her job and would you be happy if she was still at the helm? If so, tell us what you know of her business background before she was appointed. McMahon and Weir determined he was good enough, I have a lot more trust in their business acumen than some keyboard warrior with as OTF points out, a degree of jealousy with half arsed reasoning. So tell us, what capabilities is Flow lacking? What errors of judgement has he made? (make sure your accusations fall within his remit). You're confusing a poor run on the park with inefficient administration of the club.

Yet another idiotic statement in the days after a poor result. I'm looking forward to your reasoning for such an ignorant statement.

2 decent points among a mountain of bullshit

Nail, Head, Hit Andy

I've ran out of +/- in the past 24 hours, otherwise you would have another + mate. While I'm happy with Bara's appointment I don't fully agree with the Gaag comments star sail. Tony Pulis has shown you can arrive somewhere and have an almost immediate effect (talking Crystal Palace, but WBA look like they have something about them already). We won ugly against St Mirren and Partick however many a league winner has managed that and if we're all honest that's how we finished second last season. However I agree I don't think his appointment over Bara's would have been some sort magic wand, can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear with the mindset and ethic currently exhibited by too many. Our players started the season unfit, that's lead to our horrific injury situation and not competing physically. The first few results lead to a malaise and we've been unable to lift it. The initial things Baraclough can address in my opinion is mental. Yesterday the first goal went in and it was a deflection, OK it was 3 minutes in, there's things happen and there's not a lot you can do about freak happenings like that. Difference is you recognise it as a fluke and disregard. But too many did and the second went in primarily due to the fact Stewart didn't give up, granted the ball could have rebounded anywhere and he was fortunate it fell in his lap (or onto his napper for accuracy). At this point too many gave up and that's where I have an issue. I was encouraged when we got one back but the Ojamaa appears to let frustration take over and walked. I think Ojamma, Faddy and McManus are guilty of thinking they were better than Motherwell at stages in their time in C&A. A few lack the mental toughness, a few don't have the tools and a few I'm sure would have contributed but are sitting on the sidelines due to injury. We've also had no consistency, how many games this season have the same back 4 lined up week to week? What's key is get to May intact and wipe the slate clean, 2015-16 is a fresh start. It can be done, we've seen it twice in recent memory when a competitive team has been built in a summer.

Baraclough Reaction He's not hiding his anger

Why's that exactly? Dundee and Hamilton were on fire last season, that's why they were promoted and with the extra cash available for being in the top league they've strengthened. They have consistency and cohesion. There's absolutely no reason they shouldn't be pasting a team who have too many with no fight any more. Not going to deny the lack of goals is awful but that is down to Stuart not recognising that in this league you need pace to have any effect. That was overlooked and we're now paying the price. Regardless my point still stands, as bad as we are, SM and RC are equally if not worse.

Bloody hell, geez peace! 6 points clear of RC and SM and they are rank as week, difference is we have a buffer. While far from safe no need to be jettisoning fuel and throwing anything heavy out the windows. If we're going to get shite threads like this every time we get a defeat between now and May I sense my time on here will be coming to an end.

Neither were the best candidate now looking back with hindsight which is always easy. Based on their league form on paper they were suitable to do the job. In reality, Burley's drinking and losing the dressing room and Levin's negative tactics and malaise cost them their jobs. Motherwell don't have the luxury or budget to pay off people to walk, so the quicker we understand this and realise Bara has to make a silk purse out of a sows ear the better.

Time will tell on that front. However I'd welcome a return of the Managers email. It's something that McCall did early on that became less and less frequent until it petered out. I don't know how much McCall was involved in writing it or if AB did a fair bit of ghost writing but it was a welcome addition and looked upon favourably here. McCall's reasoning behind his tactics for the 2011 Cup Final certainly went a way to make the result outcome a smidgen more palatable.

Take it we talking McGhee's first season and not his second?

We've scored 13 in 20 games (1 goal every 1.5 matches or 135 mins). A lot due to a lack of foresight in our assets and personnel we required in pre-season. Our league thrives in pace and we have been deficient. On paper we now have pace between Ainsworth and Ojamaa (of course both have issues with an indifferent work ethic in the former and decision making with the latter), trickery if Thomas' display today is anything to go by and big bruising strikers in Sutton and Erwin. We will eek out results, however its not going to be pretty. Despite Baraclough's suggestions of possession and building from the back, I wouldn't be surprised if we go a little route 1 going forward if it helps him get to mid May, mop his brow and maintain our status. However, impending apocalypse stuff on here tonight as a reaction to this one game is woeful .... the best team in the country beat us 2-0, get over it. 7 points from 15 in the past 5 games most would have probably taken. I accept the manner in which we conducted ourselves in those games leaves a lot to be desired but .... reality check, we're not going to dominate games with exhibitions of free flowing football as we did 2 years ago. This season won't be defined by how we perform against Aberdeen, Celtic and Dundee Utd and regrettably Accies. It will hinge on our performances against the likes of Ross County, St Mirren, Partick and Dundee. While we won ugly against a couple of these recently, we still won. I do think our shrinking fanbase will use this season to excuse apathy and finding alternatives for their Saturday's next season.