Ya Bezzer!

Half paced, not a lot of contact, typical friendly fare. First time I've seen Nicky Law and my first impression is he's going to be a big player for this season. We'll see how he does against better opposition in a competitive match but I was quite impressed with him tonight. Didn't show blistering pace or anything but definitely has good feet and a football brain. Steven Lawless did quite well in the short period he was on. Looked a bit gallus which I like in a young player. One last thing, I said a wee while back when we were missing all our penalties that Craigan, as the Captain, should be taking them - there's your proof! Now bring on Leeds Utd and can't wait for the new season, I'm feeling positive about it. Oh, and well done Thistle, brought a good support tonight.

Probably about 90 percent of the matches he's ever played for us he's not played as a striker. He started off in midfield, he's played wide and off the front, but rarely as a out and out striker. When he has done his record is a lot better than 1 goal in 6 games. I don't think he'll ever be a 20 - 25 goal a season kind of player but he'll get into double figures if he's consistantly played as a striker I'm sure. I'd compare him with David Clarkson in that regard.

Will always remember one of Crags first every appearances for Motherwell cos I skipped off work to go to the game! It was against Rangers at Fir Park, a midweek match, and although he was just a young, inexperienced player at the time and I fully expected Rangers to hump us, Crags was an absolute rock and the match finished 0-0. I remember thinking "that kid has a future at Fir Park" and then McLeish released him! But I was right in the long run.

I see Patrick Kisnorbo also plays for Leeds. Don't know if you remember him from his time at Hearts but I seem to remember Jim Paterson ripping the piss out him down the East stand side.

I'm not working right now and spent all my savings in Italy so I'm totally skint. I'd like to go to the Leeds United game and then there is the first home match against Inverness. To be honest I think perhaps the testimonial should have been on the Saturday, three matches in two weeks is a lot to ask the pay at the gate fan, even at the reduced prices, and if they are going to miss one out its probably going to be Crags testimonial unfortunately. I'll probably still go though because I make an effort to go to testimonials and I'm looking forward to the new season and want to get back to games!

I think the first time I saw Saunders play was against Llanelli and I said something like "he'd never be a player". He was absolutely rotten that night but I was wrong. I'm not sure he really deserved his Scotland call up but from then on I think Saunders has really gone up a level of performance from a decent but inexperienced defender to someone that you have real hopes for now. It's a shame he had a sort of stop-start season in terms injury and so forth but with any luck he can get a season run at right back and complete the transformation from squad player to stick on, first on the team sheet kinda player. I've said before there are shades of Paul Quinn about the way Saunders has come into the team and learned the hard way, from his mistakes, but like Quinn he's become stronger from them and can go on and play at a higher level by his mid twenties. Hateley's best position is right back but with Saunders looking like he's coming on to his game and the composition of our squad he's probably going to be a midfielder except in emergencies.

Top Six, roughly in order Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Dundee Utd, Motherwell, Inverness Bottom Six, roughly in order St. Mirren, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, St. Johnstone, Hibernian, Dunfermline Ath.

At the end of the day if something is hugely beneficial and possible it will happen. The fact that Motherwell will be playing next season at Fir Park and the season after that and the season after that proves that such a move is either not hugely beneficial or not possible. Someone mentioned it earlier but right now there is a sort of 'Hysteria of Change' around in society as a whole, where everyone wants instant change in everything without actually looking into the real and practical problems that changing something actually entails. For a realistic look at what moving from Fir Park would actually mean forget about St. Mirren, St. Mirren got an unbelievable, once-a-life-time deal on their land which won't be replicated by the sale of Fir Park. Think instead of Falkirk. Falkirk got £9 million for the sale of their stadium, probably at least twice, if not three times, what we would be likely to sell Fir Park for. In that time they have been relegated from the Premier League into the 1st Division and are currently in a perilous financial state, barely able to support a squad of 16 players. The stadium which was started in 2004 is to date still not complete with 3 stands built and one temporary stand. For a number of seasons two sides of the stadium were open. The ground has required bail outs by the local council, the company that runs it has been rumored to be staving off liquidation and the club do not own the ground themselves which means they have to get approval for any plans they want to develop, leading to huge delays and financial mismanagement. Put it simply the club is now in a very serious financial position because of its move, which was more necessary due to the condition of Brockville and at least initially better funded than any move we could realistically hope for. We live in the real world not Sim City. Any plan to move away from Fir Park carries with it huge financial risks that could take 10, 15, 20 years to remedy. If that's what you want for a slightly less scuffed plastic seat, fine, but at least accept you'd be leading the club down a razors edge.

I agree with this to an extent. Outside of the Old Firm and Hearts there is very little to fear for us in this league, I don't see any reason why we can't finish Top 6 again or higher. To me the only team outside the top three that I think are any good are Dundee Utd and they have lost some very important players (Gomis, Buaben, Conway, even David Robertson) so it will remain to be seen how well they do next season - the rest are in the same or a worse position than we are. Of course I'm not so arrogant to think Motherwell will sweep all before them because there isn't huge margins between most of the teams and a player or two can make all the difference but right now Aberdeen and Hibs, teams you'd normally expect to be Top Six don't look any better than last season and the Calderwood saga makes Hibs look a total shambles right now. Inverness have lost their top scorer Rooney so I'd expect them to struggle a wee bit since he got most of their goals. Kilmarnock have lost most of their first team from last season and the rest Dunfermline, St. Mirren, St. Johnstone, etc, are nothing to fear, we are just as good as them if not better, last season suggests we are better. Of course a few injuries could put a spanner in the works but most teams are in the same boat with very small squads and all things being even they will suffer injuries too.

If Motherwell fans had done that the ambulance services would have been over run with slipped discs and hernias.

Bit worried about that last bit with the prospect of an offer coming in for Murphy. I suppose if the offer is a good one we can't really afford to turn it down but in my opinion Murphy and Randolph are the players we can least afford to lose in footballing terms. I'd say our chances of bring in a player of Murphy's quality in the transfer market are slim to none, we either bring those players through the youth system or we don't have them at all and we are already struggling for creativity, attacking mentality and flair, without Murphy we look a bit barren on that score. I've not seen Law yet of course but excluding him I'm struggling to see any player in our squad beat a defender by technique.

This is true. Even before property prices collapsed it wasn't worth much, either in terms of area or location. Other clubs were able to sell land to supermarkets and get a well above average price, that wouldn't happen in our case. More likely it would be sold for housing in which case it would raise much less money. There are large areas of land which were sold for housing close to Fir Park on which barely a house has been built because the market is completely depressed. It's entirely possible the land wouldn't even find a buyer or would have to be sold at a fraction of its 'worth'. A good deal for the land would be something in the region of £2 million pounds if local land prices and a guesstimate as to the total area of Fir Park is anything to go by. So even in the best of all possible worlds the sale of the land would only cover a percentage of the total cost. And a soulless 'flat pack' stadium would cost roughly £10 million pounds requiring the majority of the cost of a new stadium to come from another source. Quite where Motherwell would find an extra £8 million pounds I'm not sure. To build anything more ambitious, than a generic Lego stadium cost much more.

It's fun to think about what you would do if you actually owned the club but in actually reality I don't think I'd want to stop being an ordinary fan sitting in the East Stand. I'd probably donate £1 million pounds each season as anonymously as I could. Oh, the proviso for the donation would be white shorts for the home strip!

For me a year contract is worthless in terms of getting a fee for something. Jennings is a good player but not so good that other clubs will be so desperate to get him they will pay at Christmas when they can get him for nothing in June. He can negotiate a pre-contract with 6 months of his contract to run, if I remember correctly so I can't see us making anything out of this. Just a decent player signing up for another year.

Not trying to be negative but I've seen a few people say this and I don't understand why. It's basically the same squad as last season except it's smaller, has fewer experienced players and we've lost Sutton and replaced him with someone who on paper scores fewer goals, and we've brought in Nicky Law who I've read a lot of mixed reports about (not physical, got talent but goes missing in matches, twice in Division team of the season albeit a lower level than SPL). Far from being the best squad we've had for a long time to me it looks slightly weaker than last season unless Nicky Law makes a huge impact and becomes a star player or one of the younger players does a Faddy/Reynolds.

By this logic we should already have changed the badge because it features a 'Telstar' style paneled football which is no longer used and of course Ravenscraig steelworks!

I remeber towards the end of Alec's Aberdeen career we played them at Fir Park. Aberdeen had a bit of a keeper crisis and had to draft in a young untried goalie - Derek Stillie - to make his debut. We absolutely hammered Aberdeen but Stillie played a blinder saving everything that we fired at the goal. It was 92 minutes gone, looked like it was going to be one of those highly frustrating nights when you totally dominate but just can't score, when Big Eck back headered a cross high into the air and looped it over the otherwise impervious Stillie into the net. Three points for the 'Well! Best thing McLeish ever did for us.

Malpas trio of shite must share the prize. Just woeful, woeful, woeful. I mean Keegan was the best of them and he went on to score fuck all goals in the 3rd division! The worst season I've ever witnessed at Fir Park as well.

Didn't we give pro contracts to some of the U19 players? That could account for some of the cash even if they aren't on huge wages.

Good news about Jennings if it comes about. Less good news that we will only sign two more players. I think we need at least three but that's obviously all we can afford and we'll just have to cope with it.

I think you could say that about the majority of teams in the league.

True. It's a sad day when politicians are criticized for making the right decision but inevitably he'll get pelters over this.

I don't think we've ever sold a really key player for buttons unless his contract was running out. See the Reynolds to Rangers saga for proof, or the fact that we turned down Rangers again when they came in for McDonald. Randolph still has two years on his contract so we have a stronger bargaining position than usual.

I agree with the principle of a second chamber but there is no use in having one if it is filled with nodding dog politicians like the parliament is. That's why I think the House of Lords is a great thing since its filled with highly educated but eccentric chaps who don't give a shit and don't have to cow tow like career politicians cos they are already loaded. Most of them do so in complete anonymity from a sense of tradition and duty rather than personal gain or careerism. Provided they are only ratifying bills I don't see why its important that they are elected and as I said earlier think it is an advantage that, although they often nominally belong to political parties, they aren't any where near as party politicized as members of parliament. As for not wanting independence for Scotland because of knee jerk laws being rushed out that prove to be utter nonsense, well the UK parliament is still miles ahead. The last Labour government introduced 420 laws at Westminster that allowed powers of entry alone, including a law that enables government agencies to check the heights of hedges and confiscate fridges if they do not meet energy rating guidelines.