Ya Bezzer!

If you exclude Celtic, we've only lost 3 home league matches this season which isn't bad at all. A few draws in there but decent form over all. Kilmarnock are on a good run of form but their away form is exceptionally bad, 1 win and 9 defeats in their last 12. Should be looking for a home win but at this stage in the season you never know how switched on players are going to be.

We played some good football during the McCall/Brown era but lost massive amounts of money. It's simply not an option as a club model in the modern day.

Getting paid at Scottish Premiership wage levels over a career probably still makes you richer than one big move at 18 and then disappearing into a big club youth system never to be seen again. The key is giving youth players first team opportunities and the chance to actually develop a professional career. If we do that we will retain quality youth players, perhaps not all of them but some of them and maybe even most of them. With increasing costs and dwindling support there is basically no long term future without youth development. It should be central in our medium to long term planning at the club.

If we win against Kilmarnock it would be our most league wins in a season since 2018-19. Maybe you just need to find a new team during the close season. If you actually look objectively at our performances over a five season period, under multiple managers and squads, there is very little variance on any metric - wins, loses, goals, goals against, points. It's almost as if what you pay in wages is what you get on the pitch, at least in terms of ceiling. Absolutely nothing to suggest next season we won't win between 10-14 matches, lose 15-17 matches and get 45-50 points just like every other season in recent history.

Well I think the current model of massive player and management turn over every season is a bit broken for a club with our finances. I don't know if we pay loan fees or how much salary we pay to loan players but as an example is bringing in Dom Thompson to play in Ewan Wilson's position really a great financial decision? Or wasteful and failing to develop our own player? Just one example were I think we are basically spending money that doesn't need to be spent and doesn't really show a joined up and long term view. I mean how many on loan full backs have we had in the past few seasons?

I'll renew but I think the club really needs to keep a careful look at the prices. Going over £400 may be a red line for some people. At £22 per game assuming 18 matches I think it's still reasonable value but at this stage it's more about convenience than cost. And while not in the immediate short term future if the cheapest non concession season tickets start going over £450 in the next 1-3 years then I do think a lot more people are going to pause to think if that's a lump sum they can afford. I mean I've been to hundreds of gigs down the years, I just don't go any more because of the pricing. Same with the cinema, haven't been in years. Football needs to be very careful about it's pricing because I do believe we are getting close to levels of expenditure that will turn people away.

I was at the game yesterday but I was feeling ill and for most of the match just wanted to come home and I went straight to bed. Dunno if that was the quality of football, how I was feeling or a combination of both! I know we've had horrendous injury problems all season but to have two weeks prep and then put out the starting line up, formation and tactics just showed to me that Wimmer is miles off knowing what he's doing. Fair play to him he changed the shape during the match but you kinda felt any supporter could have told him that starting XI wasn't going to work. The first half was dismal until St Johnstone had their mad minute. After that you could see us playing with a bit more confidence but it's obvious this team's confidence has been shattered and is still very fragile. It's clear we need the season to end and re-set, get the injured guys back and get rid of the dead wood. Unfortunately there are four games left and with that win almost certainly securing our place in the league you wonder what kind of levels we are going to display, they've not been good enough during competitive matches. Therefore I see the immediate future as a bit of a distraction until the bigger questions are tackled close season. Still I'd be nice if we could get another victory or two before the end of the season.

Well I am entertaining the possibility that we lose all 5 games so it's a weird kind of positivity. 🤣

You know why you shouldn't bother? Because when you have relative success like achieving Top 6, Europe and the later stages of cup competitions our fans throw it back in your face. I'm afraid the kind of football and the kind of success a lot of our fans want only happens once in a blue moon when year and years of work comes together and otherwise is mainly dependent on what mostly makes the world go round - money. Ever wondered why we gut the team every season and things don't seem to get much better? Cos we pay a certain level of wages and there's a level of player that you get for that expenditure. Sure some are better than others but it averages out. It's that simple. So what you call defeatist, I call a realistic outlook. I've been going to Fir Park for 43 years. I've seen maybe 5 or 6 individual teams that actually played good football and a few of them were in a completely different football environment before massive wage increases and player contract rights. The funny thing is players like Ally Maxwell, Dougie Arnott or Jamie Dolan who were developed by the club over 3 or 4 years before they hit their stride would be sent packing by fans these days who have absolutely no patience and demand instant success. And the one trophy we have won in all that time would never have happened if the fans had had their way.

As it stands we have a 4 point advantage, or more, over all 4 teams below us. Even if we lost every match in the bottom 6, Kilmarnock and Ross County would need 4 points at least (goal difference is too close to really mean much right now so I'm not even taking that into consideration), Dundee would need 5 and St Johnstone would need 10. In the last 5 matches those clubs have taken the following Kilmarnock - 4 pts Dundee - 7 pts Ross County - 3 pts St Johnstone - 5 pts. So the worst possible scenario of us getting 0 points and using the others recent forms as an indicator, we still stay up. Even getting 1 draw makes it unlikely we finish lower than 9th. No team in the Bottom 6 has more than 1 win in their last 5 matches apart from Dundee. The chances of three teams leaping over us seems very unlikely.

How is it defeatist to actually acknowledge we got to a semi final this year?

There's been a couple of times in the last 5 or 6 years when were were in deep shit. The post police charge collapse under Robinson and the whole Hammell era which only came into being because another manager was forced out the club. Motherwell fans need to get a grip. In the natural order we are a Bottom 6 club every season and the only time we aren't are when we over achieve and others underachieve. 'That prat' had this team Top 6 all season, achieved a semi final, saved us from relegation once and had us comfortable last season. Sure it's a little bit nervy going into the last stage of the season but the only non city team that's better than us this term is St Mirren and then only by a small margin. Our fans need to get some perspective and stop the doom/crisis/it's never been worse/gut the club cycle.

I think 1 win will keep us safe. Don't see three teams leaping over us with the points advantage we have if we can get to 42 points. However the fact that we have 3 away matches and our away form is absolute garbage does make me feel a bit nervous. Beat St. Johnstone and we'll be fine. Lose that match and it's going to be a nervous end to the season. You have to remind yourself that most of the teams in the Bottom 6 would love to be in our position even if our recent performances have been abysmal. Surely we've got one good performance in us?

Fine today in that he didn't cost us a goal. Our full backs are garbage though, they offer absolutely nothing going forward which has been a basic part of the game for about 5 decades now.

Says a lot of the standard of Scottish football that that dismal fare was served up by two teams going for a Top 6 place. Neither deserved one. Honestly, 96 minutes of one big mistake. The seagulls had better movement. We've had 5 shots on target in the last 4 matches. Only positive is that Ross County and St Johnstone lost so **probably** one win keeps us safe. But even that seems like a big ask the way we are performing.

I'm not going to spoon feed you facts that you'll ignore anyway but I think you'll find both KVV and Spittal scored most of their goals under Kettlewell. I mean KVV literally scored twice as many goals in 1/3 of a season under Kettlewell. than he did in the previous 2. Kettlewell also took Theo Bair and made him a goalscorer and I'll even put my hands up and say he proved me very wrong on that signing. If you think for a minute that Hammell's side wasn't poorer that this one then, well I'll leave it at that., because all the facts are there. And I don't know if we'd have been better off under Kettlewell but your claim is purely imaginary,

With all due respect I think this is a load of rubbish. Hammell's team was worse and in a much worse position, relegation very much on the cards, and Kettlewell came in and not only turned it round but went on a great run. Wimmer has had multiple chances to secure a Top 6 position and not done it. Of course he needs time to mould his own team and no one is saying he won't do a job in the long run but that doesn't mean that he's doing as well as he should be. I alluded to it before but I'll just say it out loud now, the two key players in that squad are Lennon Miller and Tawanda Maswanhise, and so far he's show he doesn't recognise that or how to utilise either player effectively. To me that's a bit concerning. Managers that try to impose their own style over the strengths of a squad usually either have to concede and change or fail.

Wimmer isn't going to be fired. He's not even had a window. However I've not been that impressed with what I've seen so far. As I said when he was appointed he doesn't know the league or the players and I think that's show rather glaringly so far. He's got a lot to learn and I think he's going to have to adapt his own views on the game to suit a Scottish context better. Creatively, I think we've gone backwards, the two key players in the squad he's not utilised properly, we've not keep a clean sheet since he arrived and our away form is absolutely abysmal. This Hearts match is huge. Win and at the very least we go to 41 points, a historically safe number, and potentially a Top 6 place. Lose and all the momentum goes the other way. I don't really think we are any worse than most of the league, the table shows that, but form and confidence are huge at this stage of the season and I do think the situation with Kettlewell leaving has adversally effected the players morale and if we end up in the Bottom 6 I think a lot of the signs are pointing the wrong way.

Honest to God. You'd really rather go into this game as a dead rubber?

If Kettlewell had played Wimmer's tactics and team selections he'd be getting absolutely slaughtered.

It's the good players we part ways with.

Obvious what the issues are. Our away form is abysmal. Last 12 we've won 2 drawn 1 and lost 9. And only 1 win in the last 9 away matches which was at Ibrox. Post Kettlewell we are 2-1-4, never kept a clean sheet and have conceded 2+ goals in the majority of the matches. (2,3,3,4).

St. Mirren have the easiest fixtures,. on paper at least, but I honestly think we are going to have to take at least 6 points to make the top six so if we do that I reckon that probably knocks St Mirren out of it anyway. I mean it could go to goal difference if St Mirren won all three games but they've only won 2 out of 11 so I don't see them winning 3 out of 3.

Hearts could crash and burn or absolutely romp it. It's kinda in their own hands with the fixtures they have. They are in good form but a loss to Celtic might give them the jitters. Dundee Utd are in really poor form and have two away matches. They have 4 points from their last 15 away points. Ross County and Hearts have also been pretty strong at home. I think if we are going to make it it's more likely to be Dundee United we leap. Away to Ross County after a really poor performance against Dundee is a tough one for United. Only Celtic have beaten Ross County on their own patch in 2025. Then they are away to Hearts, who have only lost to Rangers at Tynecastle in 2025, and then they play us.

Physicality is part of the game but Iacovitti was just being a prick today.