Ya Bezzer!

Fir Park is mostly a new stadium, the vast majority of it is less than 20 years old. Believe it or not new stadiums also have high maintenance costs. As for the pitch, we could replace it every season (at £250,000) for 40 years at less cost than building a new lego stadium on another site, never mind anything that was good.

I think Coke is a decent enough squad player but he isn't good enough to ever secure a transfer fee that was worth the cost of a long term contract.

No, the current one. And believe me he wasn't amazing.

Or what about the 5' 8 Mexican goalie! Imagine the message board melt down if we signed a keeper the same height as Dougie Arnott!

I think it would be madness not to bring in an other experienced hand in defence. If there is anywhere on the field you can't get away with playing inexperienced players its goalkeeper and centre back. Saunders and Hutchison both have potential but they aren't ready to be mainstays yet. If Craigan got injured I think you'd find we'd be getting absolute rumpings ever week in much the same way as we did in the later days of Gannon.

Poor kid - from Cyprus to Motherwell!

See Scott Shearer is on the list of freed goalkeepers, might want to 'come back up the road'.

The only way we would get Nicky Weaver would be under similar circumstances as Dundee Utd last season, as a short term move while he got himself another club down south. He did well at United though.

We are taking a bit of a risk by giving him a 3 year contract but we've obviously made that investment with the view of selling him on after a year or two. That might work out as I definitely think Hateley, playing as he did for the first four fifths of last season could play at a higher level and would attract cash bids. The doubt lies in whether he will repeat that form. I hope he goes back to right back next season because I think it was apparent he couldn't play in a four man midfield. Right back, yes. Anchor man, yes. Central midfield, no.

Pretty much echoes my thoughts on the away kit collar but that is my only complain. The home kit in particular looks really good. Traditional and simple - the way it should be.

John Ruddy had 1 appearance at Everton and had spent the rest of his career making 5 appearances for Walsall here, 3 appearances for Rushden & Diamonds there. Lukas Jutkiewicz had a grand total of 5 goals in 5 years as a professional and hadn't scored since 2007 when he arrived at Fir Park Tom Hateley was released by Reading without making a single appearance for the team and had 15 games in the Conference South as the sum of his career up to that point. You could have quite easily written all of these guys off on their record before they came to Fir Park but every one of them turned out to be much better than could have possibly been expected from their career stats. Give Hollis a chance before you judge him.

Couple v St. Mirren 1983ish Andy Ritchie Mike Cormack

Always loved this strip but it was the first 'Well strip I knew so probably a bit of nostalgia going on.

I remember early on in his career Fitz played left wing. I can't remember who it was against but I was (unusually) in the Main Stand and Fitz gave the opposition full back the run around. Great skill, good pace, looked like a natural in that position. But he mainly played at left back as cover then got turned into a grafter midfielder. I don't understand why people are saying we 'have' Meechan and Innes when neither has proved themselves at first team level, they might not be up to it, where as with Fitz you have an idea of what you are getting, not a great player but someone who will work for the team. Fitzpatrick is a (relatively) older player now, has decent experience, and has seen it all before so what's wrong with giving him a 6 month deal to prove himself after injury?

I'll take as many wee teams as they can give us. If you keep beating them you'll eventually get your big team anyway.

I heard Duff was one of the few Aberdeen players that was actually putting in a shift up there.

Faddy's 19 was the most I've ever seen a 'Well player score since I became a regular back in '86. Back then we were lucky to get a player in double figures never mind 20! Anyway, I think Murphy came of age this season and if he can improve further over the next couple of years he'll have been a good investment for the club.

Revenge tie versus MyPa 47.

I'd love to say it seems like yesterday but frankly it doesn't! Cup wins seem to be almost a once in a generation thing for Motherwell fans, I just hope the younger fans get to experience in the future what we older fans did in the past.

There aren't many disadvantages to having Brown and Knox at the club without contracts. If things go well, they aren't likely to up sticks and go somewhere else and will most likely keep on doing the job. If things don't go well, they will move aside without any financial compensation having to be paid out. You only really need a contract with someone when you feel you need some form of legal protection. With managers like McGhee or Gannon who were always likely to have an eye elsewhere that would have been the sensible thing to do, but with Brown and Knox who are very unlikely to move on to another club not only is it not required but it actually is to our advantage not to have a contract. The reason there is no contract is because it suits both parties. Craig Brown will leave when he feels he is no longer up to the job and retire permanently from football. He would do that anyway whether he had a contract or not so the existence of a contract is really irrelevant.

As far as I'm concerned if I've not seen them at Fir Park before and they came here in an airplane it's a glamour tie! And yeah, there are unseeded teams in 2nd Q. Rnd that could easily beat us, best not get too cocky.

More like 85%! It's not stopped them sponsoring other sports though, think RBS Six Nations rugby.

Coke is a decent player - some of the time - but I won't be losing too much sleep if he goes, journeymen triers who can run about a bit, put the odd tackle and score a couple of goals a season aren't exactly irreplaceable. Hateley was excellent for most of the season but the abysmal last 5 or 6 weeks when he put in some of the worst performances I've seen in a long time will soften the blow if he goes, which looks likely. Frankly, I think Hateley might have gotten a bit big for his boots. When you are 20 years old and have a professional record of 15 games for Basingstoke Town you don't then turn round and make demands about where you are playing to the club that took you off the football scrap heap. Pretty disrespectful both to the club and to a manager like Craig Brown. That said I'd be happy to see him settle down and sign a new contract.

Was thinking that myself.

Couldn't we have played Steaua game at Fir Park but choose to let the pitch time to knit? I'd imagine since the pitch isn't being completely rebuilt from the bottom up they can get the seed down quicker and, you'd imagine, it will be ready quicker than last year.