weeyin

Deleting "Herald" cookies also resets your free article count.

Dog racing fans that got their dates mixed up?

4 (randomly scheduled for TV) extra games in June won't stop us going extinct. We need a league sponsor, less live games on TV, more predictable kick off times, more equitable split of revenue between clubs, bigger league, play each other twice only, winter break and cheaper gate prices. Summer football elsewhere has shown it has no positive affect on attendances.

We also struggled to sell on Randolph. We virtually put up a For Sale sign when he had a year to go and we couldn't find a buyer. Very promising that we are giving longer term contracts to these guys though. If we can sell them on, we get a better deal, and if we don't sell them on we get another 3 years of their contributions. Good work all round.

So clubs are going to have to invest in a few weeks training abroad every season? How does that work for East Stirling or Livingston? Or do they not matter. If you don't want poor pitches in the winter, a winter break would help that. We typically start playing in July and run through until May. So June is the only extra slot on the summer calendar. It will no doubt be warmer then, but not necessarily drier. So if we do 'summer' football we will play from say March - December. Pre-season training then friendlies in mid Feb etc. For me, a bigger league, play each other twice and a winter break makes more sense.

Summer football is an easy fix if you don't look at the leagues that tried it. They didn't increase attendances. So, if that is the aim, there isn't anything to suggest it would work. Pre-season would be fun too given it would be happening around now. If we struggle to find facilities to keep players ticking over Jan/Feb imagine how difficult it would be to get a full preseason in during the height of winter. Unless your team makes it into Europe, in which case you'd be playing in the winter too. And June is pretty much the only summer month without games, so we wouldn't be adding much to the schedule. Especially World Cup and Euro years when you need to shut down for 4 or 5 weeks. Winter break has always made more sense to me.

Islam Feruz - signed for Chelsea after coming through the Celtic youth system and currently on loan with Blackpool. Although he played at Scotland youth level too, rumour is he knocked back more recent call ups and possibly looking to play for a different nation at senior level.

Don't worry. He's still only as clueless as you thought he was yesterday.

It is going to be a dogfight, but if we can pick up 3 points in the next game, it might just make some of our rivals a bit more nervous.

I was lucky enough to watch the Skippy Sunday game on a Celtic TV stream. The commentary went from celebratory to concerned after Skippy's first goal. After the 2nd goal the commentary went dead for the rest of the broadcast. Good times.

Breakfast with the Dossers - ye can't beat it.

On the plus side, it prepared me for the heartbreak to come at a young age.

Graham and Pettigrew for me. When I was kid I thought Wullie P was just how strikers played. You often look back and realize nostalgia has made you overestimate the quality of some players, but I'm always happy to see that these guys still live up to their reputation. Graham only kept out of a great Liverpool team by Ian St. John (who was smart enough to bring him to Fir Park), and Wullie P with a burst of speed over 10 yards that left agricultural defenders (on agricultural pitches) in his wake.

One of these days someone will be able to explain to me what is so upsetting about a guy kissing the badge on the shirt of the team he is playing for. I still don't get it. I remember the fairly in depth interview Skippy gave on Radio Scotland (I think it was Tam's show) a few years ago, and he had nothing but good words to say about Motherwell and how much he enjoyed his time at Fir Park.

I'm old enough to know who that is (and his fish and chip diet).

Or, if you're Paul Quinn, make him captain.

Can he? Yes. Do you think a top class 19 year old 400m runner eats chips? Unlikely. It's not the fact that chips will do any harm per se. It's just the mentality of footballers in general compared to competitors in other athletic pursuits. The guys that make it to the very top are the ones that are always looking for an edge.

Given that he had 277 senior appearances to his name before he joined us, he must have some basic skills. Not to say that he will perform for us, of course. If even 4 of the new signings hit any level of performance this season that will be a pretty high % success rate for any team's transfers (epsecially January signings when the market is a lot thinner).

Kudos for being able to go on holiday.

Not directly, but they certainly aren't peers.

Of course we're getting the MFC Official version, but if getting interviewed by your boss about your poor performance doesn't make you modify your answers in some way you must be an idiot or a sociopath; especially when you are a new employee and don't have a track record to fall back on.

He talks the same shite because his boss's questions are framed to elicit exactly that kind of response. And he obliges because he wants to please his boss. That's where the conflict of interest kicks in.

I just can't see how sacking the manager and waiting another 4 weeks to hire a new guy who then takes 2 or 3 weeks to settle in is going to help us climb the table. Bottom line still is the players need to player better. As I said in another thread, it's simple - but not easy. I never understood why people on here thought Hughes was useless. I guess they were basing it on the way he speaks rather than his track record. Tough game and would be delighted with a point here.

Football is a doddle compared to most jobs. Especially at our level. If you can't hack picking up 2 or 3 grand a week for 5 half days of training and 90 minutes at the weekend, then step aside and let someone else have a chance. Maybe it's just me, but being booed by 2000 fans would be much less upsetting to me than getting bollocked by one of my clients. Because I know how fickle fan are.

I get that it's not easy. It's simple, but it's not easy. Leagues across the world are full of teams who battle with this problem every season and it's hardly alien to Fir Park either. I do still think, however, certain players became complacent, and once you fall behind, losing is a difficult habit to break.