Ya Bezzer!

Maybe we are running out of ex Bradford players that we can sign...

I'd just like us to be LINKED with someone. It doesn't have to come off. Oh for the exciting days of yore when David Clarkson was training with us!

Hutchinson was an established first team player. Carswell has come in because of the dismal failure of Paul Lawson. Moore and Leitch have been forced on him due to squad restrictions and still only have a handful of starts between them.

We'll bring in a striker before the window. Therefore unless Erwin can make an impression before the new guy comes in he's going to be 4th or 5th choice. Dom Thomas has not made a first team appearance and the fact that McCall has played Kerr twice this season on the wing suggests Thomas has a lot to do before the manager has him making appearances.

Seriously, what makes you think that? Stuart McCall is still our manager right? Maybe I missed a big announcement!

They've only lost on loan James Dunne who was a first choice player in the second half of last season. You could throw in Hasselbaink and Cregg but they were bit part players for them. They are carrying a smaller squad this year than last year but they have kept the solid foundation of the cup winning team and with their Euro money you'd expect them to bring in one or two. Mannus - Mackay, Wright, Anderson, Easton - Miller, MacDonald, Davidson, Wotherspoon - MacLean, May. Prety solid line up, with some experience on the bench and some promising youngster coming through as well like Chris Kane, Liam Caddis and Scott Brown. They aren't miles ahead of us but they are a bit more 'solid' I'd suggest.

I think we will bring in 1 more player. We need 3 for the squad to stay at an even level of competitivness so it's going to be a season of taking steps backwards. Hopefully not too many though.

To be honest it's hard not to predict a 'same again' at least in the Top 6 finishers. I suspect the order will be different though this time. Inverness have virtually the same squad as last season and so far have held on to their best players. Can't see any challengers in the Bottom 6 to be honest. I think Accies will do quite well but won't be good enough to get Top 6. It will be interesting to see how Paul Hartley's Dundee will do but I think they will come unstuck at the top level. St. Mirren are good in some areas but weak in others and that will be their undoing. In terms of squads probably Kilmarnock have the best one in the bottom 6 but Allan Johnston didn't exactly set the heather on fire last season.

I think you couldn't complain too much if we retained a top six place this season but I don't think we will be in the hunt for a European place this time round. Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and St. Johnstone all look to have better teams than us this term. We may of course strengthen our own pool but that's the situation right now. St. Johnstone in particular have a smaller squad this season so it could come down to injuries, suspensions, or signings in or out. Margins are tight in this league so small actions could have a big effect either way, up or down. In the cup competitions a lot comes down to the draw but ultimately I don't see any success there and we all know why.

It's his fault anyway so having a go at the players would be take some nerve. Learn and move on. LEARN and move on.

We have a youth system but we more or less ignore it. It costs the club a fortune by the way for virtually no return. The whole "how many have gone on to better things" argument is hokum. You know very well that a player that does well at one club doesn't do well at the next club, or a player that is rejected by one club can easily fall out the game or have his confidence as a footballer shattered. There is no consistent value to a players worth or performance and it depends entirely on a huge range of different circumstances that is virtually impossible to determine. If we had never signed Dougie Arnott, and Arnott kicked around the club for 3 or 4 years without doing much remember, he may well have trundled around in footballing obscurity all his career. Instead he became a hero and a cup winner but it may well have turned out differently. Players have a potential and unless you give them that chance to show that potential you'll never get it out of them. By the way Lee Erwin is a highly rated 20 year old footballer at our club and last week was the first time some of our support had even seen him.

Most of the problems at Motherwell go way beyond individual player performances so to that end I think it is wrong to criticize Dan Twardzik or question a 2 year contract for Keith Lasley. Motherwell are failing at a strategic level. The signs are there but time and again we do nothing to change it, that is partly down to Stuart McCall but also others in charge at Fir Park. I certainly wouldn't say Stuart McCall is a "poor manager" but in certain regards he has made mistakes and what is infuriating is that he makes the same ones over and over again. We do not seem to be able to learn or adapt. We've had some short term success but what have we actually gained from it as a club except huge debts?

The last two really good footballers our club produced were Jamie Murphy and Shaun Hutchinson. Both those players made their debuts under Mark McGhee. That is simply not good enough. Both those players contributed to a fairly successful time in the clubs history but at the end of it I think we got something like £150,000 for Murphy and nothing for Hutchinson. Again, that is simply not good enough either. We do not produced enough good footballers and when we do they go for nothing. If we do not remedy that I doubt the club has a viable future on diminishing attendances. The financial situation at the club has to be sorted out. We cannot continue to lose 6 six sums every season, that way lies extinction. But more short term, it means we are going into seasons with thread bare 20 man squads, players on short term deals and we are releasing releasing youth players right, left and centre that may have done a job for us because if they haven't made the first team by 19 we can't afford to keep them any longer. But what really concerns me more than most is this; if the level of disillusionment at the club is this high now, what happens if we drop down the league to a 7th or 8th level team or worse? We finished 2nd last season and the crowds went down. It doesn't bare thinking about. Unless me maintain a level of success that is unparalleled in the clubs history and almost certainly unrealistic to expect you fear some kind of death spiral. We have serious individual problems as a club. But we are also part of the morass that is Scottish football and that is out of our control as a single club. It's not anyone at Motherwell's fault that the league doesn't have a sponsor or that the TV deal is derisory or that Scottish football in general is the poor man's version of just about any comparable league in Europe.

We've lost out on a big whack of cash after losing last night but overall I don't buy this idea that our financial situation is down to losing cup games, as disappointing as that is. We've had some big crowds against the likes of Rangers and Aberdeen and we make a lot more money off them than we would winning any number of matches against Forfar or Dumbarton or even a St. Johnstone. Scottish Cup prize money is not enormous and you probably have to get to a semi final to make any money from it, unless you drawn big teams capable of producing a 5 figure attendance. The reason we are skint goes way deeper than just cup performances but certainly last night didn't help in that regard.

I don't think you need to be exclusively critical of one or the other. I think most people are bothered with both. But the fact is, as bad as it was to give away three penalties, especially from one player, we were winning the tie when Kerr came on so it's actually quite an important part of the match, especially since everyone except Stuart McCall knows it does not work.

I'm pretty pissed off tonight as is probably already apparent but I think Twardzik has to be left out of this. Over the tie he conceded 5 goals and 3 were penalties and 1 was a wonder strike. The tie wasn't decided by ineptitude on his part. Our defensive set up is shocking and has been for some time. How many goals did we concede with Hutchinson in the team last season? Without him it could be catastrophic next season which is why I've said over and over again we need to replace Hutchinson with an experienced defender. But no. We haven't even be linked with anyone. It was obvious we had no real intention of bringing anyone in, looking instead to a pay day that will never come now to pay for a replacement. The preparation for the game was shocking, Aberdeen started the season two weeks earlier and have come through two rounds, while we have been blowing out our arses against semi pros. Not good enough and that is down to the manager and no one else. You can point fingers at the players but we played one proper friendly in our pre season. It's also the managers fault for not sorting out our defensive situation and for making the same terrible substitutions time after time. Did anyone honestly think there was anything other than a defeat coming from this when Kerr replaced Ainsworth. I also feel sorry for the guy. Again blame the manager not the player. And we played exactly the same line up and presumably the same formation tonight as we did in the first leg, when it wasn't exactly a huge success first time round. We are so predictable and have no Plan B, we make it easy for the opposition. One thing I will disagree with you about. There is no chance we'd have beaten Groningen. I didn't see the matches but I'm guessing they were more than 50% fit.

"Stuart, how disappointed are you to lose to a part time Icelandic team over two leagues?" Answer "We're gutted. Felt the boys worked really hard tonight, OK we were a little slack at times but overall I was really pleased with the work rate and when we got that early goal BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH!".

Whoever is in charge of Motherwell's media these days has to ask the following question. "Stuart, why are you so shite in cups?". Otherwise it's just some shitty Pravda style affair that I've never going to pay any attention to ever again.

They were lazy and half arsed at that as well.

We needed to win and we didn't even draw.

I wonder if this is some kind of world record for a professional top level club to fail to beat non professional opponents three times in a row?

We drew and lost to non professionals. I think we can skip the travelers tales before coming to a judgment.

If it was a choice between a jolly in Portugal or bringing in a decent level player and getting through this tie I think we all know where the money was going to be spent.

Didn't you know, the boys tried really hard!

OPEN LETTER TO MOTHERWELL PLAYERS/STAFF If I hear one more fucking interview about trying really hard to do well in cups I'm handing my season ticket back in. So just shut your mouths from now on and try to get up to the standard expected of fucking professionals. Signed, Ya Bezzer!