Ya Bezzer!

I hope I am wrong (obviously) but I think we are going to get skelped tonight. 3-0 to Hearts.

The problem for Motherwell and all Scottish football is television. Why pay £18 to watch Motherwell v St. Mirren when you can watch Barcelona on telly later that night from your armchair? Long term I can see it being virtually impossible for Scottish football to operate a professional full time league. We are inevitably headed towards an American model. There are only 32 teams in the NFL with a population over 300 million. Television roles the roost. Now in Europe we are very close to something similar. A sort of televised and media monopoly focused on the elite teams will drive almost everyone else out of business with perhaps a tier or two below them also managing to stay professional. There are also societal changes. People simply aren't as 'local' as they used to be and the idea of community centered pride has vanished. Today due to the internet and modern communications people are as likely to have friends in Chicago as Cambusnethan. People simply do not see themselves as belonging to a town or a community. They have much wider horizons than they did even in the 1990's. When I was a kid we went on our summer holiday to Ayr. Now people fly to New York to do some shopping. That sort of change of mentality affects local clubs like ours. When once someone may have supported the local club because it was locally prominent and they felt an affinity towards it, now they either don't feel the same affinity or are barely conscious of its existence. The future of Scottish football is part time - just as it was for 90% of its long history. Within two or three seasons there will be no full time teams outside the SPL. Already a number of full time teams are preparing to make the switch next season. I honestly can't see how we can avoid the same switch over the long term.

Woke up to the news. We have been shafted. Craig Brown has really made a bit of a fool of himself. He has shown very publicly that he is not a man of his word. He has also shown that his footballing judgement is suspect by choosing Aberdeen over us. I think John Boyle has been a very good chairman since the period of administration however I now look to him and ask "Why have two successive managerial teams been allowed to manage our club without anything legally binding?" In my opinion it worked in our favour with regards Gannon but this certainly does not. I had no doubts whatsoever that under Brown we would have finished Top Six. Now our Top Six finish is at the mercy of whatever managerial appointment we make. There are probably eight teams challenging for the Top Six this season and we could easily slip down if we make the wrong one. The number of managers that have been going through the club recently is unacceptable. It is to the detriment of the club and we will suffer in the long run if we do not find some managerial stability. Four managers in 4 and a half seasons is poor, very very poor.

Gannon had the lure of some money to spend. Our next manager will get hee-haw and in fact will probably have to make cuts. I don't think there is any chance of attracting a 'name' from down south, even an unemployed one.

Good idea, then we can welcome in the John Hughes Years. :wank:

I hope Brown stays and as usual a lot of our support are acting like hysterical women but I agree with the above statement. In future if you manage Motherwell you sign on the dotted line. When we can't sell any players our manager is our greatest asset. Or he would be if he didn't have a gentleman's agreement. Reading between the lines I think Brown is concerned about budget cuts next season rather than anything to do with this season. Our attendances have been poor this year, as I mentioned earlier we really have any players that you could attach a sizable cash price on. Basically next season could see us having no money to bring in any new players, offer new contracts and run with an even smaller squad.

Shit. That was 14 years ago?

Never worried about Brown going to Aberdeen, I suppose there was an outside chance Archie Knox might have wanted to be top man again and he has old links with Aberdeen but looks like Aberdeen approached them both as a team, not either one individually. However Brown won't go on for ever. Will he stay at the end of the season? Have one more after that? He has done a great job but I don't see him hanging around for an indefinite length of time. He'll step down when he thinks he's taken us as far as he can and probably Top 4 or 5 and Europe is pretty much all he can do with the resources baring a cup win.

With snow piled up on the sidelines and an orange ball.

I remember the game but haud on a minute - Harri Kampman beat Rangers? Must have been his only win!

This isn't a joke - The Sun is written so that everything in it should be understandable to someone with the reading ability of an 8 year old. It's considered one of the hardest papers to write for because its difficult for adults to actually write in that sort of very basic style.

Don't get me wrong, I've been laughing my head off at the whole McGhee/Aberdeen situation but I don't get all the serious bitterness towards him. OK, maybe he's a bit of a pumped up fud with a delusional opinion of his own merits and place in the footballing hierarchy but he did a great job with us. To turn that Malpas side round, probably the worst Motherwell side I've ever seen, into probably the best Motherwell side I've seen since the mid 90's was nothing short of miraculous. We lost some very important players and his second season wasn't as good but it was hardly a disaster, we just missed out on the Top Six, actually finished the season with more points than Hibs in the Top Six and qualified for Europe. The guy did a great job for us and even snubbed a huge pay rise from Hearts to stay with us. A lot of this hatred of McGhee seems to me like ingratitude.

If the game had gone ahead the only people at the match would have been people living within walking distance, we'd been have lucky to 2,000 - 2,500 at the match and all of them would have been fucking freezing and probably caught some kind of respiratory illness. Still, its been a while since we got the orange ball out.

Should have tried to get a train out of Glasgow last night. The Russians runs trains over Siberia, we cannae get them over a thick frost in Rutherglen!

Just got up 5 minutes ago, looked out the window and knew there was no way the game would be on. I live 5 minutes walk from Fir Park and it is currently snowing heavily with what looks like a good couple of inches of snow lying on the ground. There is no way the Police would have allowed this game to go on.

I think the only time I've seen Motherwell in a penalty shoot out was against Alloa and we lost it so going by our recent record at taking penalties I'd just go home! For the record I was still at school the year we won the cup and I wasn't allowed to go to midweek matches, so no Morton match, missed the Celtic replay as well.

I'm pro the referee's strike although not because I'm entirely sympathetic with the referee's although they do have a case in some regards, especially regards to the media treatment of referee's and the whole Celtic nonsense. However the main reason I'm pro the strike is that I believe the change required in Scottish football will not happen without an extreme form of catalyst. Fixtures being called off certainly falls into that category. If missing a weekend fixture helps to fix the terrible state of repair our game is in at the moment then I am quite willing for that to happen. It would be a terrible thing if this week turned into a damp squib and everything got back to normal next week.

It's supposed to be below freezing with more snow tonight.

Glad Dallas is gone. He was something of a tyrant and an obstacle to change. Now all we need is... 1) Dougie McDonald fired 2) Points deduction for Celtic 3) 'Well win on Sunday

They are saying on the Bristol City forums they are going to punt him in January. If Gow leaves, we'd have a space, come home Clarky!

Lennon isn't any worse than a lot of managers. Take Jim Jeffries or Billy Reid or any number of others. It wasn't all that long ago that our own manager at the time Jim Gannon was heavily criticizing referees. Don't remember having a go at Gannon when he was up to his tricks. The really terrible thing isn't so much Lennons antics, even although he should grow up, it's the club behind him and its bizarre campaigns and stoking up of paranoia. That's the really cynical side of this.

Our referees are no where near good enough, they behave in a supercilious, pompous and overly haughty way, they belong to an arcane clique that desperately needs to be dragged into the 21st century and now cannot even be trusted to tell the truth to other football professionals in regards to their decisions. But you know what? I don't blame them. The best possible thing that can happen is if the referee's stick to their guns here and have next weekends matches are postponed. The game in this country needs a wake up call and the referees strike might just be the thing. We've had years and years of bickering and self interest for clubs, individuals, organizations but it cannot stand for much longer. Unless the Scottish football establishment can come together and work as a united front it will not survive much longer. Players, managers, clubs all have to have a long hard look in the mirror. So do referees but the mud slinging has to end now, with everyone coming together to work things and and try and build a better game. The alternative is oblivion, its as stark as that.

Sometimes you think the memory is playing tricks but no, that was a fucking monster of a free kick.

No offense to Stevie but this is just proof that Levein has lost the plot since he became Scotland manager. The guy has cracked. What a massive snub for Mark Reynolds.

Be fair to McGhee, right now Alex Miller has the worst record in Aberdeen's history. Not saying McGhee won't eventually take the unwanted crown though!