Well-Made

I tell you what I am majorly disappointed that we've let Neilsen go back to Blackburn and we haven't got in another backup keeper yet or more players. C'Mon McGhee the transfer window has been open for a few hours now for f'sake. Too busy celebrating Xmas and the New Year and taking your eye of the ball have you? Thought i'd say it before someone else came out with it.

Happy New Year when it comes to one and all wherever you are.

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee has been in touch with his former Aberdeen team-mate Alex McLeish, the Birmingham City manager, for permission to take goalkeeper Artur Krysiak on loan. Ironically, the 19-year-old Pole made his senior debut against Motherwell while on loan to Gretna last season, one of four first-team appearances he made for the doomed Borderers. McGhee has moved swiftly to provide competition for first-choice Graeme Smith after Faroese goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen returned to Blackburn Rovers at the end of his loan period following Saturday's win over Inverness. Krysiak has also played for York City in the Blue Square Premier League and Swansea in the Championship in loan spells during this campaign.

Looks like this game will be a formality for the 'Well now. McPherson has just won the Manager of the Month award

I have merged another thread started on the same topic. This time the post from The Sun.

A lot of investment he got then eh?

That's what I get for not spell checking

Sorry folks but he does have a point, we all thought he was the messiah last season. He guided us through Phil's death. He took us to 3rd place and UEFA Cup. Some may feel he touted himself for the Scotland job but it was McLeish and Strachan that said he was the man to lead us in the media. Once in a position for being considered I'd think that any manager with ambition would look at taking it. The Hearts job, would folk really feel the way they do if he turned around from the plane door that was flying him down to the Portsmouthjob or any of the clubs in the EPL or top teams in the Championship? I think we'd all agree he needed sectioned if he had. So why do we feel this way about Hearts, because they are one of our rivals. The thing is that even Pre Romanov Hearts are a bigger club and a bigger job that Motherwell are. We should be saying he needed sectioned for staying as well. Okay the reason he stayed was because he was made an improved deal by his current employer and yeah that showed loyalty to McGhee from JB, and McGhee returned that loyalty by staying. Just a shame that JB didn't show a little more loyalty by making sure we had a deeper squad and one that may have helped us reach the group stages but we've all felt that affects of administration so I suppose he can be forgiven for not freeing some money for one ompetition. (Doesn't mean I forgive him for everything else) He could be sitting with a side capable of challnging the Old Firm, more money in his back pocket, enough players available to him that wouldn't mean he was sweating over losing the likes of Crags, DC, Quinn, Hughes etc. If Motherwell were as big a club as Hearts we would be able to make sure players had a chance of renewing their contracts with us. Hearts under Romanov maybe are running huge debts but look at the prices being quoted for teams that teams are supposed to be making for players like Berra, then look at the prices being quoted for ours. Berra for £5M, we didn't even get offered £1M for Reynolds. Even Faddy didn't command that high a fee. So lets get real here, he did show us some loyalty and I am pretty sure that at some point in your life, if you're good at your job, and went to your employer and said to him, I'm leaving I've had a better offer from one of your rival companies you'd be offered a better deal. I know I have been on more than one occassion. I haven't always accepted it but I have at least twice. It depends on if you're enjoying not just the job but the challenges in that job as well. So Yes he does deserve the loyalty as do the players which he also asked for. How can we be loyal to Porter, IF he has signed a pre contract with Forest? Easy!! Remember he scored the goal that secured us 3rd Place and the UEFA Cup and that hsi other goals last season got us there. There is only one Mark McGhee. Hope both Mark and the lads turn it around this afternoon. it can't be easy for the team hearing us booing them off he field after last seasons heroics, yeah we aren't playing as well as we were last season but it's still the same players. C'MON THE 'WELL!!!

This comes at the end of a story on the year in the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...t-has-been.html

Was always willing to get a photo taken with my lads (same as anyone elses I suppose) and always got others in. His smile in the centre circle at Fir Park on that fateful day will stay with me forever. All the best to his family over this time. Phil will NEVER be forgotten. R.I.P

Hope you all have a good Xmas tomorrow and that Santa is nice to you. The latest rumour I've heard is that JB has asked Santa for money for MFC. Unfortunately Santa has said he's in Iceland at the minute and there's no money there. JB has asked him to try Tesco's B) Merry Xmas

I have deleted posts here referring to Delboyd. It was that or bin the thread to HOTD. If we're calling heated arguments in the dressing room a tiff, then what was Derek Adams at Ross County over the weekeend? Papers reported yesterday that he landed two punches on one of his strikers.

If I was the owner the one person that I'd want to stay is McGhee. Porter, Hughes, Smith and Malcolm would be told that they had until the 31st December to sign a new deal. If they don't, I'd take the best offers for them during the January transfer window. McGhee would then get this cash and the wages that have been freed up to get new players in. It's unlikely to be freebies as it's January. The only problem with this is that it means that we may pay slightly over the odds to get someone in. I'd also be asking what players he is looking for in July. Bearing in mind that some of these players may be out of contract then and if a pre contract is signed it might be easier to deal with their clubs for a January move. If no bids came in then funds would have to be found to allow loan moves, first one would have to be Lappin. Possibly one or two permanent signings.

Closing this thread as pointed out there are threads on this.

Well Done to the U19's. Hope they can beat Rangers in the next round.

The thing with playing Boab in midfield is we have cover when his pass goes astray to one of the opposition. If we're going to play Boab at CB then we need to find another free kick expert as he isn't the fastest at getting back into position. In fact during the Hibs game he was still halfway inside Hibs half when they had the ball in our box.

Obviously Crags has been out long enough for you to forget how many times he has to recover. Or how often his headers end up in our own net

I can't say I am against O'Brien BUT he made us worse last night when he came on, I know would that have been possible? But yes it was. Once he came on we had nothing coming in from his side and we lost the crosses from Saunders on the right when McGarry moved over.

Reading through this thread and I can see where some people are coming from reference McGhee and the performances being like a Malpas team. However I believe it's the players that need to take a look at themselves here as much as if not more than McGhee. I believe McGhee will turn things around but it has shown how thin our squad is. Is this down totally to McGhee or are the Board at fault here. I can't honestly see McGhee taking Kennedy to Austria with us unless he had assurances from the Board about backing him with the funds to bring him in. Then you look at the players he did have on trial, fair enough a couple of them may not have been up to the job bu what demands did the others have that Board wouldn't match? Is it possible that Boyle was happy to renegotiate McGhees contract to keep him because he thought there'd be offers fo players during the Summer and the only one that seemed to transpire was for Reynolds. Of course McGhee knocked this back and may have lost any chance of having any cash because of it. However we were all of the same mind at the time, that a) the offer wasn't high enough and B) we'd be losing the best one of our central pairing. How many of us now would have taken the cash and ran? Reynolds hasn't been the same player this season and I'm not saying he's the only one but he was one of our most consistent performer last season. I have to admit I expected to see more of Hughes and Porter especially as they are really putting themselves in the shop window at the minute with their contracts due to expire. Folk have been going on about McGarry's performance last night but him and Saunders were the only ones that were getting decent crosses into the box and still our 2 tall strikers couldn't get on the end of any of them. There was a commnt earlier about McGhee's substitutions, can I ask who else could he have brought on last night? O'Brien for Malcolm - I believe he was right to take Malcolm off but he should've brought on Fitzy or Dairylea. As soon as McGarry moved to the right side he never got another cross in and O'Brien did hee haw. Murphy for Sutton - Don't think it mattered which one of the front two he took off it would've still been the same result. Dairylea for McGarry - I'd have taken O'Brien back of and shoved on McHugh and went 4-3-3 with Murphy and McHugh running at the defence and Porter as the target man for them. Anyway c'mon McGhee show that you can turn this lot around.

I actually thought he done quite well last night and should definitely get his loan extended. He may not be tall and able to win a lot of headers BUT he let their attackers know he was there on more than ne occasion. He knows when to hoof the ball out of defence and when to play it out. He also showed that he can pick a pass as well. His ball juggling is also good and actually provided at least a bit of entertainment last night, however his overhead kicks are a bit dubious I think him and Craggs might make a decent pairing.

So anymore news on this "Irish Consortium" or is this just another rumour without substance?

The hint was dropped last week. Hopefully it was taken, they look really smart.

Killie and Hamilton are reported to be interested in Winters according to the Express today. It reports that Winters is on trial with accies this week.

Can you not just arrange the meeting to take place in the DC?