Ya Bezzer!

Josh Law was included in the new 2016/17 First Team Squad page on the official site and was included in the squad list for next season with the number 18. If he was off down south at the end of last season why is he still here? Don't see a player like him giving up a year of his contract without being paid off and the fact that he can play in a number of different roles also makes him useful as a squad player. Maybe there is something in the pipeline but I think people are jumping to conclusions here.

A late penalty prevented Cowdenbeath from beating Hearts at the weekend. What the result does is really reinforce my point about when teams are not up to full fitness and playing every few days, when there are new players in the group and when there is no settled line up surprise results can happen. Take that on board before we go into these League Cup matches would be my advice. But too many around here are happy to criticise other teams for arrogance and yet only too happy to indulge in the same when we play smaller teams.

Only 4 runners up from 8 go through to the next round so if we lose a match, most probably against Rangers, we are far from guaranteed qualification. I've already had this argument but I don't think Motherwell have any divine right to get out this group, although of course, I hope we do. Also remember there are no drawn games and they go to penalties after 90 minutes. We could pummel a minnow draw 0-0 at 90 minutes and then lose on penalties.

I seem to recollect that it was Porter. We may have done it more than once though.

Players aren't at full match fitness, we are trying into integrate new players into the side and generally everyone is a bit ring rusty. Most likely with 4 games in two weeks there will also be lots of player rotation between matches, no settled line ups and we might not even have brought in important first team players who will figure for the rest of the season. All these things mean we won't be up to speed when we are playing these matches and because of these reasons all of these ties are potentially slippery, never mind Rangers. We saw a 2nd string lose at Arbroath yesterday. The beginning of the season brings unknown qualities, we can't even really judge what sort of level Rangers will be since they have brought in a lot of new players and are stepping up to the top league for the first time in a while. What sort of answers do you want from the manager should we lose to Rangers or fail to qualify from the group?

Even weaker? You seem to have forgotten we were one of the better teams in the league in the last third of the season. We won 7 matches out of 9 going into the split.

Henderson would be a great signing if it happened. Quite frankly I don't understand why he isn't in and around the Celtic team. Apparently Johansen is possibly on the way out, he if went Henderson might step up a place at Celtic.

Football is all about results so there is no sentiment to it. We got better results with Lasley in the team than without. That's just a fact. You are entitled to your opinion on the player of course. The day we get better results without Lasley will be the day he steps to the side. Maybe it will be next season but it hasn't happened yet.

I've said it before but I think Cadden, Johnson, Moult and McDonald are nailed on starters next season. Stick Lasley in there as well and we are only really looking at a midfielder for a first team place. Probably need another midfielder as competition/rotation with Lasley. That should be it. We need anyone else then give kids a chance.

Let's hope it wasn't a frappucino.

Last night two of our top clubs played in Europe and 15 of the 25 players used were non Scots. It's going to be disastrous for the Scottish game and the Scottish leagues if we continue in the way we are going with 60% of the players being foreigners. Kilmarnock just brought in almost a whole team of non Scots and teams like Inverness are already mostly non Scots. We have to develop more younger players instead of filling up squad places with jobbing lower league mediocrity from elsewhere. It's not going to be uncommon next season for most teams to be fielding 3 or 4 Scottish players. We are part of the problem and although we've got some good players from down South for every Louis Moult there is a Wes Fletcher, a Josh Law, a Theo Robinson, a Tony Straker. I honestly think our domestic game is skirting very close to disaster right now in terms of development and recruitment.

Hammell signed up yesterday although I don't see any mention of it here. 2 year deal. Could go past 500 league appearances next season if he can keep clear of injuries.

It will be one or other surely as we don't need 5 first team strikers. El Bakhtaoui looks a decent prospect but I'd rather have last seasons player of the year and one of the best players to wear the shirt in the last 30 seasons.

Well he's been offered a contract and he's at the club doing physio so I think he'll be there next season. I also think McFadden will play in midfield, if he does play. He's not going to play wide or upfront with the personnel we have and I don't see why he can't play a similar role to Pearson supporting the forwards, playing just behind them and getting into the box. Yeah, I keep thinking Paul Tait, must be one in football somewhere!

We are still pretty short in central midfield, think we need at least 2 in. Also if McDonald is gone, we'll need another striker. That gives a 22 man squad with two players in every position. GK - Craig Samson GK - Dean Brill RB - Paul Tait RB - Josh Law CB - Ben Heneghan CB - Stephen McManus CB - Louis Laing CB - Kieran Kennedy LB - Stevie Hammell LB - Joe Chalmers RW - Chris Cadden RW - Lionel Ainsworth CM - Keith Lasley CM - CM - James McFadden CM - LW - Dom Thomas LW - Marvin Johnson CF - Louis Moult CF - CF - Jacob Blyth CF - Craig Moore

I see Blyth as an option rather than an automatic pick. Moult, McDonald, Johnson and Cadden all have their places nailed down in my opinion.

Hearts fans don't like it.

RIght back was a priority so good to see someone come in there, hopefully Tait can make the position his own and improve us down that side. Heneghan seems to be quite well thought of at Chester from what I read so it will be interesting to see how he does and also where it leaves Laing/Kennedy. Blyth seems to be one of these 'possible potential' type signings.

My Morton connection says he was poor in the Championship last season.

Hardly a backlash if Motherwell avoids being swamped with zombies. Rangers fans tend not to turn out in big numbers anyway for cup games (unless its a final) but the fact that its the first game of the season might bring more out than usual.

Very disappointing that the polls now shows that the majority of voters want to voluntarily confer a special status on Rangers the minute they are back in the top league. Fairly clear now that all the same mistakes will be made all over again and that nothing changes - at Motherwell, at Rangers, at whatever jumble of letters runs the league this year...

Have we though? And where does it all end? Maybe Kilmarnock gets Aberdeen and Hearts on a midweek and we get them on a Saturday meaning an extra 1,000 away fans turn up. Or maybe Dundee have a crucial relegation tie against us and they bring a huge support down or maybe we get Celtic in the Scottish Cup instead of Montrose. Or maybe it pisses down for three home matches in a row in January and a couple of hundred people decide to stay in the pub or the bookies while its sunny in Dingwall and a couple of hundred decide not to sit in the house. Trying to calculate all the permutations and situations across a season is impossible and there will always be teams that benefit and teams that don't. The idea that everyone is entitled to the same level of income over a season is ridiculous. I know this though, you don't lose £120k that you never had in the first place. We got a tough break with the fixtures, sup it up and move on. The fact that we play Rangers in the League Cup partially makes up for the league game anyway.

Classic sour grapes from us. We knew the system and presumably voted for it but when we are disadvantaged instead of someone else we cry foul. There is no symmetry in the fixtures and we've known that for about 15 years now, it's hardly news. Our wounded yelping is actually a little bit embarrassing. I thought we were actually moving towards a sustainable financial model and here we are banking on the horde-in-blue turning up.

Don't think Rangers and Celtic should be used as cash cows for provincial teams, they should be treated as having equal footing as all the other teams. Fans can't complain about OF bias on one hand and then insist that their away supports be milked for our financial benefit. To be as fair as possible the fixtures should be entirely random with no manipulation. We seem to have lost out to an extent but we should not be basing our finances on away fans. As for the imbalance in fixtures, I think the current league set up is as good as we are going to get (although I'd change the play off system as we need more turnaround in clubs competing at the top level) so you just have to accept it's the cost of a system that I think has worked fairly well up till now in terms of keeping the league exciting over the season for most teams.

Wouldn't it be nice if this was the actual fixture list that's actually played?