Joeboy

Not a slight on Jamie, I think he's a cracking player on his day, wouldn't say in the air is something I would identify as one of his main attributes in such an article. His header against Hearts in the 3-0 game was cracking I'll give him that. The others were more about movement than actual ariel ability. Put it this way, you wouldn't use him as a target man. That's normally what you'd associate with someone described as "good in the air" in a transfer talk article. Edit, I think that should probably be "aerial" ability. Wasn't talking about how good he was at doing the washing!

The standard of the article was only confirmed by the fact it says Murphy is good in the air.

“My dad Jimmy Graham is back home in East Kilbride. “I’ve not had the guts to tell him about it yet because he is a Hamilton Accies fan and he’ll have a field day. “He’s 89 and when he finds out, he’ll have everybody in his golf club in stitches about it. Anyway I’ve got to accept the ‘MWELLFC’ is too offensive for the people of California. He's not had the guts to tell his dad, yet it's in the national press?

I'm going to stick my neck out and say the Dundee game was worse.

Daley being offered a new contract would just be horrid. Can't understand why people want rid of Humphrey to be honest. He's frustrating at times, aye, but he can be a fantastic outball and is unplayable on his day. His crossing is poor, yes, but if a player with his pace could cross he simply wouldn't be at Motherwell. Right enough, our support do expect us to sign a lightning fast winger with pinpoint crossing. As for selling anyone in January, you have to question whether it would be worth it. As long as we offer Murphy a deal which matches what he is on just now, we will at least get compensation for him. Selling Randolph for a pittance could end up losing us money, as I reckon his form could well be worth the prize money of a place or two. Same with Law, 6 months may be better than any fee we would get.

He visibly can't be arsed. End of. I feel aggrieved I'm paying season ticket money and it's going towards paying him. Pittodrie is genuinely the only time I've seen him play and he's been interested in more than one passage of play the full game.

That got postponed as a result of the cup draw mate.

Some of our supporters will finally grow to appreciate Higdon next season when he leaves and is replaced with a player of significantly reduced quality.

Fine overnight trip and great result. World-class save from Randolph when the game could still have swung either way, defence looking far more solid despite one blip and definitely welcomed Hutchy's return. Murphy had his best game this season that I've seen and after performing really well in three of the last four (St. Johnstone, Dundee United and yesterday) we can only hope that's him beginning to show what he can do more consistently. Humph was a great outlet all day despite clearing Murphy's cross in the opposite direction! Higdon and Ojamaa were superb and although a touch fortunate, it was great to see Ojamaa score and get the proverbial monkey off his back. I've had no qualms with our front two of late, I think they complement each other well and hopefully Ojamaa can get on the scoresheet more now. Only downside for me yesterday once again was Omar Daley, surely someone could do him under the trade descriptions act for "professional footballer". Yes, fair enough he scored, down to a big goalkeeping error, but he was only on for about fifteen minutes yesterday and any other time he was involved he just simply looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. The man who supposedly beat Usain Bolt in a sprint was being otupaced by a grey haired, ageing right back who had played the previous eighty minutes whilst Omar sat on the bench. Why not give Hetherington a run and move Law out wide? Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, saying that after a 5-1 victory but it's the same things that annoy me about him when we win, lose or draw. Full effort isn't a big ask.

STV Keith tweets Motherwell have only trained twice this week due to only 4 players being fit enough the other days.

Remember Faddy wasn't a "post administration player", Pearson barely was either. For me it would be: Randolph Corrigan Craigan Hutchinson Hammell Law O'Donnell Jennings Clarkson Jutkiewicz McDonald Seats on the bench for Ruddy, Reynolds, McCormack, Lasley and Porter.

Sums things up more or less perfectly at the minute, although there is some truth in the last sentence it's perhaps a bit drastic. If/When Higdon goes in the summer, we will replace him with a lesser player. He might not be quite as bad as Paul Keegan but he'll be a lesser player nonetheless, unless we manage to pluck someone from nowhere, which I highly doubt. There will be plenty of potential suitors for Higdon, as those who have football knowledge can see what an asset he is to a team, unlike some of the contributors in this thread who seem to know the square root of hee haw about football.

I noticed the club replied to a tweet saying unless something absolutely drastic happened then there was no chance of it. Fabricated nonsensical rubbish.

Craig Brown: I was offered £15m boy Phil Jones on loan while at Motherwell - but was happy with defence 11 Jun 2011 00:00CRAIG BROWN last night admitted he turned down the chance to sign £15million Manchester United new boy Phil Jones for Motherwell. CRAIG BROWN last night admitted he turned down the chance to sign £15million Manchester United new boy Phil Jones for Motherwell. Jones has passed a medical although the deal has hit a late snag with Blackburn and United arguing over his fee.. And Brown, now Aberdeen manager, was recommended the Blackburn rookie centreback last summer. But at the time Brown was happy with his central defensive partnership of Stephen Craigan and Mark Reynolds. The 19-year-old Englishman, who had not played a first-team game at Ewood Park at that point, was offered on loan by former Rovers' boss Sam Allardyce. He also recommended Grant Hanley - now a Scotland cap - and striker Nick Blackman. Brown decided to take Blackman but felt well enough covered to leave Jones and Hanley at Blackburn. The Dons boss told Record Sport: "I was in Qatar with big Sam working on the World Cup for Al Jazeera and he told me all about the three of them. "A year ago they were on the fringe of the first team but we could have had them. "But I decided to go for Blackman because I felt we were okay at centre half with Craigan and Reynolds. We needed a striker, so we went for Nick. "It shows how things can change quickly but at the time it was right for Motherwell."

Aye, wouldn't be sorry to see that change ropy. Again, not too much of a slight on Humphrey as I think he's always a threat, they way our starting line up currently is, we badly lack a plan B. The changes you can almost predict. Daley for Humphrey - a guy who can't be arsed for a guy who is always eager, perhaps despite his footballing shortcomings or McHugh for Ojamaa/Murphy- where despite McHugh's work rate and industry, he just isn't, from what I've seen, the same quality of player as either of them. As for the rest of the bench, Francis-Angol seems to just be a straight swap for Hammell when required and it looks like we won't see Carswell or Hetherington until McCall's ran out of full backs and wide midfielders saying "I want to play centre mid today".

Think you've got the wrong end of the stick. Craig Brown's claim was that he was offered a loan player by Blackburn and they offered Phil Jones but he said a forward was a priority so he took Nick Blackman instead.

Pretty much agree with all of this. Seeing Lawless doing so well while we have an imposter of a footballer and a waste of a jersey in Omar Daley taking up a much healthier wage than it would have cost us to keep him is infuriating. Obviously it's a step down in division but I do think we were too hasty in letting him go, especially when Daley can't be arsed. Never been too critical of McCall in the past, but giving Daley an 18 month contract was complete lunacy. Especially at a time where money was "tight". As for Forbes, I always think back to that missed penalty at New Douglas Park as the turning point in his Motherwell career. By the time Craig Brown arrived, the sting had been taken out of his rich form a bit, but not enough to merit basically not playing another match in his preferred position the rest of the season. Forbes had ability and potential, but was obviously far from the finished product and required a lot of work, I can't help but think if things would have been different if we had used him differently. Obviously his fitness was an underlying issue and that was probably down to the lad himself. Maybe he can get by a bit better without it in the First Division.

I'd say we got by and just with Clancy over Craigan last season. He was an accident waiting to happen in my opinion, whether it be by DVD defending or losing his temper. I don't think anything we have this season is any better however. Cummins has potential, but no player is the finished article at 19 and they are bound to make mistakes and centre half is a place where mistakes will be punished significantly. When Hutchinson and Reynolds broke into the team they had Craigan's experience beside them, talking them through games. That's something Cummins and Kerr have not had when in the team. Hutchinson is a great centre half, but he's only 21 himself and probably not ready to play the "Craigain" role in there. As for Ramsden from what I gather he's spent most of his career playing right back and holding midfield, so he's not as comfortable at centre half as you'd like your most experienced centre back to be. As for replacing Jennings, we are yet to see if Carswell can fill that void. I would give him a run of games in the first team to see if he is capable. As someone said before in this thread Law and Lasley aren't fitting together in midfield. Both are too eager to get forward and we don't really have a balance. If McCall instructed Lasley just to sit in front of the defence that may be fine, but that's not really his natural game. It pains me to say it, but other than Panathinaikos at home I haven't seen Lasley have that good a game this season (although I did miss Perth last week where I heard he was great by all accounts). As things stand I would put Carswell in there beside him and put Law out on the left. I know that leaves Murphy, Humphrey, Ojamaa and Higdon fighting for three spots, but I do think a better balance is needed in there. At centre half, we have exhausted all of our options and there still remains a problem, in centre midfield we haven't. The only real variation in our centre midfield in the league this season was when Hetherington started with both Lasley and Law. You'd think that with our defence being young and relatively unexperienced we would be doing more to offer them protection from midfield, but if anything we seem to be offering them less. So many times this season I've seen passages of play by our opposition in the space that Jennings used to fill and we've done nothing to rectify it.

This thread is an absolute fucking joke and I don't know whether to cringe or laugh when I read the updated version after Higdon hasn't set the world alight in one particular game. Also if you notice, this thread is now thirty three pages long. It was not touched once among those thirty three pages when at the start of October, when Higdon became only the third Motherwell player to win the Scottish Premier League player of the month award. Some folk are in dire need of a grip.

Don't think our defence is watertight by any stretch of the imagination but I think that's a bit harsh on last night. Cummins was caught flat footed/ball watching for their goal, but other than that I can only recall one aimless punt as an obvious mistake he made. Don't think Ramsden did a great deal wrong but I don't think he is imposing enough to play centre half (Cues someone telling me Fabio Cannavaro was only 5'8") and don't know how often he's played there before joining us. Looks like he might be more effective at right back or in midfield.

Nae bother. Ojamaa ran himself into the ground last night, linked well with Higdon, was industrious, very unlucky not score on more than one occasion. I noticed you were quick to berate everyone else's choice of man of the match, without stating yours - so who did you think was our best player? Clearly we are all lacking the visionary analysis that you have. Maybe spelling Ojamaa's name correctly would be a good start.

Ojamaa. Murphy ran him close as did Cummins, although I thought Cummins got done a bit for their goal.

What about the man you constantly slate who's scored 23 goals in 54 games?

I'm going to go for no and no aswell. Murphy can be a frustrating player for us, too lightweight, not consistent enough etc, but not if you look at the bigger picture. Thirteen goals last season was a very fine return for a player who was playing left or right midfield for the majority of the season. You also have to consider that included two winners, the second goal in a 4-2 victory, a goal in a 4-3 victory and a double in a 3-0 away win.... For the Scotland squad, I think he is a no simply because we have better options elsewhere. The fact he can't be defined solely as a forward or a wide player doesn't help either. For wide players we have Forrest, Mackie, Snodgrass and Commons among others who are rightfully ahead of him in the pecking order. Also, as Scotland rarely will play with more than one up front (even with Levein being sacked), you would never play him as a lone striker and would sooner play many others there before him.

Get Carswell in from the start and Law back to the left hand side of midfield, with Murphy dropping to the bench. The only other change I'd consider is Cummins for Kerr but changing the centre half partnership again might be counter-productive.