dennyc

Usually try to avoid posting immediately after games to give me time to clear my head. But yesterday was too much. in no way do I condone any of the irrational abuse aimed at some players which others have highlighted earlier in the thread. Maybe having to put up with some of that stuff is the price we have to pay for playing the attractive football that has seen a sizeable increase in the number of fans attending games? But I do think fans are justified in calling out our Manager after performances like the second half yesterday. He rightly has had plenty of praise for changing our approach and making football fun again. But he must also expect criticism after days like yesterday. It's not all down to the players. He has the power to alter things if needed. My view leading up to half time was that Katroumbis was done, having been injured when fouled and then seconds later further aggravating the injury with a block tackle. He battled through until the break but did not look like he had recovered. He was kept on regardless and really struggled in the second half. I consider that a managerial error. I mistake which Falkirk exploited time after time down that wing. I lost count of the number of times they got in behind and should have punished us. Team selection wise I had hoped to see Welsh return at CB, pairing up with Gordon. I am not Gordon's biggest fan but have to admit that he and Welsh have been great as a pairing. Welsh seems to have helped Gordon regain his confidence and composure. McGinn may be Club captain but for me he finds it challenging playing centrally given our new approach. Even panics at times. If he cannot make the team at right back then he should not be squeezed in out of position just because he wears the armband. I thought our central defending was poor yesterday and I believe Askou's team selection played a part. Up front I thought Hendry did ok, and was perhaps a bit more mobile than Ap Stam. But he was no better in the box. What was the reason for starting Hendry ahead of a striker who was excellent at Celtic Park and who at last looked to have found his goal scoring touch? Unless Ap Stam was carrying an injury being dropped will hardly have helped his confidence. Admittedly he did miss a chance when SOD put in one of the few decent balls into the box that we saw all game. On that front both Katroumbis and Langelo wasted too many opportunities. So! Frustrated but not bailing ship yet. I love our style of play and find it refreshing and enjoyable. I took along a couple of Falkirk fans to the game and they thought we were fantastic, more so first half of course. The drive back to Fife was a tough ask! Still relatively early days, but we need to start winning games we dominate and our Manager has a part to play in that. He also has to reflect on his own contribution when things do not work out. Evidence suggests it's not only the players that have things to learn.

I was told St Mirren do not use Ticketmaster which we do. The SFA are linked to Ticketmaster so in our case the seat option was available automatically. St Mirren were given a work around which have given a seat choice up front to their fans but they opted not to use it. So seat allocation to follow for them in due course. Cue one set of unhappy fans. That's what I heard anyway.

Might be the St Mirren fans that panic. The fear being that he cracks a few jokes to keep them entertained.

Yep that's it. I used a transfer ticket for the Scotland game last night and had no issues. Even the scanners were straightforward and user friendly. Took seconds to get in. Easy. Just remember the QR code will not activate until the morning of the game but the ticket will show up in the App well before that. You'll know when the code is active because a wee line continually circles it. Proves it is the original, valid code and not a copy. You can transfer a ticket before the code is active. I have one sitting waiting on activation on Sunday morning.

Needs to be confirmed officially but a Scotland supporting mate tells me that any tickets not transferred out of the original purchaser's App remain available on his/her phone and can be scanned at the gate to allow multiple entries. To cover kids mainly but also for those without a smartphone. That is how it has worked for him at Scotland matches anyway. But as I said, that needs to be confirmed officially to ease concerns and to limit issues on the day. The digital scheme was introduced as tickets were being copied in an attempt to allow multiple use. In fact, some purchasers were denied access as their ticket had already been scanned. Copied either with or without their knowledge.

It really is a simple question. Can a phone with the App hold multiple tickets? To cater for Groups and families with young kids? I have not read anything official that confirms one person can 'sign in' others. If the answer is Yes, then that solves most issues. I suspect MFC have not got the answer either and will be seeking advice from Hampden. Hopefully common sense prevails.

Still hurting then😀

The Club need to let folk know how to deal....officially...with a situation like this? Also the Society should be pushing the Club to provide some clarification. If, as mentioned earlier, folk are being turned away and told to find someone with a smartphone then that is a disgrace and does not reflect well on our ticket office. You would think that every effort would be made to ensure anyone wanting to attend the game can do so. I get this is being driven by the SFA but our Club and our Society should be addressing the issues that are clearly of concern to fans looking to go to the final. The info that was provided in the press release and the off the cuff advice from the ticket staff seem to be at odds. The instructions do confirm tickets can be transferred but only to people who have also downloaded the App. No mention of one phone with multiple tickets being acceptable. No mention of children.... or others...who do not have a smartphone. Lessons to be learned here.

I downloaded the Hampden Ticket App last week so a mate could send me tickets for the next two Scotland home games. He bought the tickets and then was able to send them to me via his App. Appears to have worked ok as both tickets now show when I open my App. All he needed was the E-Mail I used when setting up the App after download. He said it was easy enough but it is yet another complication fans could do without. It would help if MFC could explain to folk how a Group can make sure they get tickets together and if each person needs their digital ticket on their phone. And can confirm that tickets can be transferred to others in the group once purchased.

And that'll be a Bair hat trick then. Not bad against the team 3rd in the League whereas Lausanne are at the other end of the table.

And two goals for Bair in the first 12 minutes for Lausanne

Yep. Loan with option to buy. After 2 goals in 30 appearances for Auxerre it appears they are looking to get rid. Shame. Clearly only your mate Kettlewell could inspire goals from him. 😀

At least if called up the games are in Europe so no silly distances travelled. Friendly games as well so if he plays he can be used sparingly as coming back from injury. Might actually benefit us. It's only the likes of Scott Gemmill that ignores Club wishes and fields players no matter what the Clubs say. ( Bowie of Hibs as an example....out for months immediately after returning from injury).

I take you have not been to any away games this season then? If you had you would have seen how well they have supported every player and been a credit to the club. No more so than last Saturday where they drove the team on from start to finish. Well done Bois. Perhaps to back up your claim you could give some recent examples of what you are talking about. I have been critical of the them at times, or at least some of those that attach themselves to the core group, and will continue to call out stuff I disagree with. But his season I have seen nothing to complain about. The opposite in fact. Even at Paisley which is usually a concern.

And in that 'over a year', how much time did Stama miss through injury? He has not had a full year on the pitch. And on top of that the entire team is learning a new system under a new Manager with numerous new players being introduced.. My point re Bowman was that he played his full part in the team scoring. As has and is Stama. Although I accept Stama is looked upon by us fans as the main striker. But is he? Maybe Maswanhise is looked upon as the main goal threat. Could Stama do better? Of course he could. So could everybody else in the team.

Looked to me like he was heavily involved in both goals v Killie. He was in the right position then so an obvious improvement and a decent contribution. Given his price tag he certainly needs to score more. But if others are scoring off his work then that helps. Only Hearts have scored more league goals than us up to now. I think he deserves a bit longer before he is deemed a failure. We have had other strikers who were not prolific goal scorers but contributed. Bowman springs to mind. He had a poor goals return. The rest of the team made up for his lack of goals and so far that is what we are seeing with Stamatelopoulos. But could he do better? Yes.

Had a wee search and found this posted in reply to the same question re Loans. Ties in with what I understood to be the situation. The Partnership agreement with Stenny and Cowdenbeath regarding young Scottish players falls outside the normal Loan terms. Quote "Clubs can now only make loan deals during the two transfer windows between July/August and January and players can only be brought into clubs on either half season or full season loans. The changes mean that players can no longer be brought into clubs outside of the transfer windows on short-term deals with many clubs often bringing in players on a month`s loan during the season. The changes also mean that clubs cannot recall a player until the transfer window reopens, the only exception to this is with goalkeepers. Parent clubs can recall a goalkeeper with just 24-hours notice if they do not have two fit goalkeepers at their club. Clubs can still recall players to feature for their development squad during the loan period." So on that basis, Wilson returning before January is a non starter. I guess new rules were introduced to stop clubs abusing the system by swapping players back and forward, sometimes for a month or less at a time.

A goalkeeper under an emergency situation. Stricter rules for outfield players. My understanding anyway

I think a return clause can be in any loan deal but that any return can only be made in a transfer window. So January is the earliest Wilson could be recalled. There can be an exemption for goalkeepers if SPFL authorise emergency cover. But that does not apply to outfield players. Scottish youngsters can now move back and forward as long as they are loaned to a lower league Club under the new Partnership scheme. Raith are not our 'partners' so that rules out that possibility.

Since you mention money I came across some figures when I was trying to find out exactly what European success for us and others meant financially. Also worth noting that Uefa altered things to ensure Clubs do not incur a loss as I believe we did visiting Russia. Will not change folks view but it is a factor. Others may know differently but here is what I found. Our embarrassing exit to Sligo was horrific but we received £434k from Uefa for our 'efforts'. Maybe that helped to ease the pain, at Board level anyway. Reaching the Conference League Group stage guaranteed Hearts £2.6m before they kicked a ball. Surely reaching that stage is a target we should aspire to? The season Celtic had a decent run in the Champions League our payment as a result of their success totalled £1.6m. Almost 25% of our total Turnover that year. It used to be that the rewards for Scottish teams' success were shared with lower league Clubs who supported qualifying youth set ups. But now all the cash is shared between only those top division teams who meet the youth criteria. Like us. I understand some top tier clubs don't qualify. All the more for us! The dilemma for me is that enjoyable as it was watching Celtic and Rangers crash and burn in the qualifying round, it cost us dearly. Hibs, Hearts and Utd as well but to a lesser extent. I accept that success for those Clubs in Europe adds to their Bank Account but the impact on us is massive. Given the financial gap that will always exist, irrespective of who progresses in Europe, I believe Motherwell are in a more competitive position if all Scottish clubs progress as far as possible, or even better if we are one of those clubs.

Contracted with Celtic until 2027 and reportedly on £8k a week. Doubt we would match that and the player would be crazy to give up a years salary at that level to join us permanently at the end of this season. I'm guessing Celtic hoping he does well with us this season so that they can sell him elsewhere for decent money at season end. They are keen to move him on but nobody is willing to meet the fee demanded. Scared Mechelen off.....twice. Yet another example of Celtic signing players on daft wages and then finding they cannot hold down a first team place or be moved on. Trusty on £30k pw, Engels 15k, Yang £10k as other out of favour players with years to run on contracts. Hilarious how poor their transfer dealings have been. Everyone is not a Virgil VD it appears. I would rather we looked elsewhere for a player on a permanent basis but it could be we are struggling to secure anyone Askou regards as suitable. Still time but this is might be the only upgrade we can achieve. I hope not, but I think Welsh might improve us. On that basis I can live with him joining us.

Just play our own game, support our team loudly and win the game playing the football we have seen all season. That will be enough of a statement to Kettlewell. No need to fire their team and supporters up by having a go at him.

Beat me to it😀. Agree fully.

I don’t think you are warped at all and I get where you are coming from. In many ways I agree. Any time those clubs you mention…especially Celtic and Rangers… get beaten domestically it brightens up my day. My take on Europe is different though. For various reasons I prefer the Scottish clubs to progress… but if any are to fall out early I would preferred it to be either OF. It is Scotland after all. My logic… flawed or otherwise. 1. The better they do the more Motherwell FC are rewarded financially by Uefa. And we are talking a lot of money here. It helps keep us alive and assists growth and investment. 2. I appreciate progress will provide Millions to those clubs. But the huge financial gap will exist regardless of whether they advance in Europe or not. As an example Celtic and Hearts could miss out on Europe entirely for a decade and they would still blow us out the water financially. 3. If the co efficient improves we have a better chance of qualifying and having a pop at the millions available, even for relative failure. Gone are the days of making a loss because you visit Russia and lose out first up. Guarantees are now in place to avoid wee Clubs like us being out of pocket. It also helps the National side…. Clarke aside. And I enjoy my European trips! 4. Qualifying for Europe means something. Not as good as a cup win of course, but it is a win. A success. Just like achieving top six. It is a feel good experience when it happens. Something for fans to celebrate and boast about. And it is refreshing seeing ‘different’ clubs visiting FP. Even a pre season v Hertha was a welcome change. 5. The financial adjustment that needs sorted is the League/TV payout. But Aberdeen scuppered any possibility of fairness. Greed talks and the OF will never support change. Regardless of the fact that such change might just provide Celtic with the domestic challenge they say they need to compete in Europe. The flip side is how enjoyable it is seeing Rangers and Celtic outclassed by average teams from countries that most folk could not find on a map. The upheaval we have seen in their fan base this week is a delight. And I say that having good friends who are ST holders of each of them. My view. It helps Motherwell if Scottish clubs do well. Although I accept that financially it may strengthen our rivals.

We can only hope. The ban would be worth it. I'll even pay for the statue.