Ya Bezzer!

I thought our wage structure was between 1 and 2K pw. I'd be amazed if we paid anything beyond 2k pw to more than two or three 'star' players. And then not much more.

As I remember Harri Kampman signed Harri Ylonen on a pre-contract but Kampman was out before the transfer went through and it was annulled.

You don't need great technique to play a ball to the side or out wide, you need that technique to play through balls from the middle. We have neither the midfielders or the forwards for that to work. We've not had a problem getting balls out to Murphy or Humphrey, aside from poor delivery, the problem we have is those players often don't have anyone to hit because no one is attacking the box. There is no point in bringing in Hughes who would have no one to use his greatest asset with. We need a different type of player.

Hughes is a luxury player for a team like us. And he's another midfielder that doesn't score goals. What we need is someone, not necessarily with Hughes technique that is going to run up and down the park, get into the box and actually be a threat himself, not someone dinking balls about from midfield. If we had an attacking midfield player making runs from the middle to front there presense alone would open up defences and create chances for strikers to move and get into space or wide players to cut inside. When he's on form, which isn't often enough, Hughes can spot a pass but who is he going to pass it to? Higdon isn't going to run past defenders, Jennings? Lasley? Basically it's going to go to Murphy or Humphrey which completely negates the point of having a player like Hughes. He's not what we need.

Steve Brill sounds good.

Truth is we aren't going to get better strikers than Sutton very often and certainly not on a season by season basis. You get 15 goals out of one striker (Suttons level) and 10 out the other and you are probably going to be in the Top 6 or certainly very close.

Sutton is a better player than Higdon which is why Sutton has gone on to a bigger club and more money and we've got Higdon. Suttons goal scoring record in Scotland is better and more consistant. But all things considered Higdon has the potential to be a good replacement. He's scored a decent amount of goals for teams that have generally struggled and with any luck he'll be playing in a side that won't be fighting relegation and creates more chances. He tends to score in bunches though rather than being a regular goal scorer and I think he needs to kept in shape by the coaching staff but pretty happy at the signing.

Hughes won't come back to well. He was barely interested in us the first time. He's got talent but he is far too frustrating a player. Capable of so much more than he actually gives out. I don't think I could go through it all again with Hughes playing a great pass every couple of weeks and not much else. Jennings isn't on the same planet technically but give me him every time over Hughes.

Aggression? I don't think its necessarily a good thing for a defender although it depends on what exactly you mean by aggression. But in my opinion most really class defenders aren't aggressive in the sense that they do not run about steaming into challenges and tackles. They read the game, they get their positional sense and timing in the tackle correct and they don't give away free kicks and bookings. That's something Reynold did very well in his first season which was probably his best at the club, although he didn't take it forward and in fact went backwards. Goalscoring? Hutchy scored a few in his first season but I think he and Reynolds both scored one each last season unless I've remembered that wrong. There was a time when Craigan got 3 goals a season, I think defenders just have seasons when they get a few and then they don't.

Good deal getting Hutchy fixed up but he still has a long way to develop. If you put his two half seasons together and contrast with say, Reynolds first full season I honestly think Reynolds, over that period looked the more accomplished. I guess what I'm trying to say is Hutchinson might not get any better than he already is at the moment or might not make the big strides expected of him. But I'm glad he's signed on without getting over excited about million pound cheques flying in from here, there and everywhere a year or two down the line.

Left for Italy after the Final. Can't remember exactly what I was doing on Saturday, I've lost track of the days, but probably something like lying around under a Cypress tree at Villa Borghese, reading, with a cold drink and some water melon, watching the incredibly beautiful women (the ugly ones are 8 out of 10) wandering past in their skimpy summer outfits. Heard it's raining and windy in Motherwell, get it roon ye! But don't be too jealous. I'm sharing a flat with two loud, ignorant slappers from Australia that look exactly like the Fat Slags from Viz. I'd gladly through them out the window if I could lift the sweaty heffers the 3 feet to the ledge!

Don't think the polis would agree! I agree that Airdrie United is basically a different team from Airdrieonians. They have never really had the support of the local fans and most of the guys that stood at Broomfield are long gone.

Don't think Fleck is a striker is he? More a wide attacking player.

Obviously too young to remember the McLeish years!

You should judge managers like players, over multiple seasons and on achievements. McGhee did a good job but his really great spell amounted to no more than half a season. Obviously things came undone slightly with the death of Phil O'Donnell but it never came right again for McGhee at the club. I don't remember any one pre McLean but our best manager after him was Terry Butcher. He worked marvels at the club. People will point to us escaping relegation on a technicality but even so there was some great football played, both the OF defeated and the destruction of Hearts was as good as anything played under McGhee. Butcher, unlike McGhee, had literally no money to bring in name players and yet with his limited squad he managed a Scottish Cup semi final against Rangers were we played them off the pitch and some how lost and two League Cup semi finals, a heart breaking defeat to Celtic and the great victory over Hearts in what was and probably will always be the best 120th minute of a match ever. Butcher also got us more Top Six finishes than any other manager in that time and it should be noted that he left before he was pushed when it was obvious he had taken us as far as he could, never did the dirty on us and is still a top guy. For me he is by some distance the best of Boyles appointments.

Would be surprised if we actually got Higdon, surely he will be on other clubs radar after scoring, I think 14 league goals for a pretty tepid St. Mirren side. Would be a good replacement for Sutton but I think he's the sort of guy you would need to keep on his toes to keep him fit.

Money is a factor but how much more will Aberdeen pay than us and is it worth it? Remember Aberdeen is another couple of hundred miles away from Merseyside and almost everyone at Aberdeen this season said publically that it was an absolute misery with all the pressure, relationship with the fans and board, terrible results and long winless streaks etc, etc. Paul Hartley for one got out quick and reading between the lines he more or less said he wished he'd never signed and couldn't get out quick enough! There is also the factor that signing on at Aberdeen is a step into the unknown, they will have an almost entirely different team next season, at Motherwell he knows who he is working with. I've said it before but if he leaves I think it will be down south not up north.

We were pretty poor in the final and I don't have a problem with a winner steaming into losers and telling them they weren't good enough. However, I lost a lot of respect for Tom Boyd when I saw the Team Captain of the last Motherwell team to win the trophy parading about in a Celtic scarf. I know he is a Celtic man but I felt given the occassion it was disrespectful to the club and supporters.

Personally, for me Gunning isn't a first team player, more someone than can fill in in a number of positions. Therefore I wouldn't pay a fee for him. If we are going to spend money I'd rather we did it in a key position and right now that looks like up front or a more natural attacking wide player.

Don't see much point in keeping Ross. He's not impressed me enough to favour him over Saunders or Hateley at right back and I have a feeling McCall would like to bring Gunning back although I don't rate him as highly as the manager. Jeffers did OK in spells but I'd like to think we could bring someone in on his wages who is fit to play 90 minutes and will get us more than 2 goals over half a season.

We get this 'everyone is leaving' thing every close season. Sutton and Jennings will probably go. Gunning, Jeffers, Ross and Jones can all go and I won't lose much sleep over any of them, some of them have done no bad but not one of them is a stick on first 11 player. Anyway I doubt all four will leave. Murphy, Randolph and Humphrey might attract bids but again I don't see all three leaving. I'm pretty sure big Crags will stay for another season. Basically it won't be any different from any other close season with 5 or 6 out and in. The spine of the team will be much the same unless someone comes in with cash bids.

Between Hammell and Hutchinson for me and Hammell got subbed, so got to go for 'The Heid'.

I thought Hammell was one of the better performers today and I thought it was a mistake to take him off rather than Gunning which is the change I would have made. But facts are we just weren't good enough today. You can't blame McCall or any player. As a collective we just weren't good enough to win.

Got to say I wouldn't have played Gunning, I think he is a bit suspect defensively. I couldn't believe we didn't use Murphy more, especially in the first half. We played about 2 or 3 balls down the wing in the whole first half. Everything was going down the right and nothing down the left. Perhaps that had something to do with moving Hammell into the middle and playing Gunning there.

I didn't think Celtic were brilliant, I don't remember Randy having loads of saves to make, but they did keep possession quite well and basically thats the key to football, if you don't have the ball you ain't going to win. When we got the ball Celtic did not need to work hard to win it back, we made it easy for them. How many times did we win a throw in and then give Celtic possession of the ball from the throw in? We just weren't good enough and while I'm disappointed we really didn't deserve anything different today. There is always next year...