El Grew

Ah..... Roger Hynd. Those were the days my friends!! Who can remember the chant from the Rangers fans of "Roger, Roger Shut Your Mouth" ? Yuk...!!! Still makes me cringe.

Well done to David. A great personal honour for him and a great honour for the club too. Good luck.

David Clarkson is certainly not the most skilful player we've ever had at FP but when it comes to playing for the jersey and putting his heart into things then IMO he's up there with the best of them. Remember this is a young man who came into the SPL to play for us at the lowest point in our history and due to circumstances, was over-played for someone as young. Although he's now still only 23 he could be regarded as a veteran and if every player that played in C&A put as much into every game as he does then I think we'd all be very happy.

This guy had more money to spend whilst manager at FP than anyone before or since, close to £1 Million if memory serves and blew it. Some of his purchases - Andy (he's my brother-in-law) Roddie...........£100,000 Sean McSkimming.....................................£150,000 Mitchel Van Der Gaag................................£500,000 I think we at least re-couped most of the Van Der Gaag money when he was transferred out.

This guy had more money to spend whilst manager at FP than anyone before or since - £1 Million if memory serves and blew it. Andy Roddie Sean McSkimming Mitchel Van Der Gaag

There has been much criticism aimed at the club, chairman, manager, players etc. this season, and I hold up my hands as one who has added his voice to this on occasions. Having been a supporter for more years than I care to admit, through thick and thin (more the latter than the former) I began asking myself, that all things considered, was I being over-critical of the club. We all obviously have a passion for MFC and want the very best for them but perhaps sometimes, we just expect too much given the limited resources available to them. A little research revealed an interesting, if perhaps already obvious fact which I use as supporting evidence. Since the Premier League came into being at the beginning of season 1975/76 (33 seasons now) the average finishing positions of the various clubs from that time up until the end of last season, have been as follows: 1. Rangers 2. Celtic 3. Aberdeen 4. Hearts 5. Dundee Utd 6. Hibs 7. Kilmarnock 8. Motherwell 9. St Mirren 10. Dundee 11. St Johnstone 12. Inverness ------------------ 13. Partick 14. Livingston 15. Dunfermline 16. Falkirk 17. Hamilton The 6 city clubs finishing 1 to 6. So, is this then the natural order of Scottish football? I suppose the only surprise for me was to discover that we were not 7th and that Kilmarnock occupied that place. Being realistic then, should we regard any finish we have in the SPL above 8th, as a successful season for us? Analysis revealed that we have only done this on 12 occasions out of 33. So I would argue that on the basis of this evidence, the answer would appear to be yes and, that if we manage to finish 7th this season then it really will have been a successful one for us and maybe we should look at things in this light.

I know we are rank at present and a lot of different players have been getting pelters but having watched the highlights of the Falkirk game, we seem to have lost another two poor goals from a defensive standpoint. IMO, one player who should be getting pelters but seems to mainly avoid them, is Mark Reynolds who if memory serves, hasn't missed a game this season. His performances this season for me have underlined that whatever his best position turns out to be, it most certainly is not a centre-back. I believe he was originally a left-back before being asked to fill in at centre-back a couple of seasons ago and has perhaps gained the position by default. He has pluses and minuses. Pluses - he's quite pacy and a decent tackler. Minuses - useless in the air, lacks physical strength and can't pass (not the only one). I truly think MM has to re-think his defence and consider Reynolds for either left back or defensive midfield.

Rumour has it the pitch was to blame - it had grass on it.

I think the silence speaks volumes! Either that or there were not many of C&A persuasion present.

Sorry Jam 20 but I can't agree with you on this one. I really think that those players who won't re-sign with the club's best offer and a reasonable deadline for doing so (one month) should be told to exit stage left so that the manager can then move on and consider other candidates either already at the club or from other clubs. Anyway, I forecast right now, that there won't exactly be a plethora of clubs waiting to take them on with better terms.

Spot on Melvin. Smith wants to play at a higher level and/or with a team that is regularly challenging the OF. Well that means who.... Aberdeen, Hearts, Dundee Utd, Hibs I assume. But I don't see any of these clubs exactly falling over themselves to avail themselves of his services given that they would get him for nada. The only way these guys will re-sign at FP is if they don't get better offers. Well, as I said earlier, I wouldn't wait to be pissed around by them. Offer them the best we can, set a deadline for signing then if they haven't signed ...adios. Put the pressure on them. However, they would do well to remember what happened to Brian Kerr.....

I said it before earlier. The first team players get away with poor performances because they know that there is nobody among the rest of the squad going to oust them. MM knows this and worse the players know that MM knows this. All this pontificating about only wanting players who want to play for the club etc. etc. is just bullshit of the highest order. Every player that is currently or soon to be out of contract should be given a contract offer with the club's absolute best offer, given one month to consider it and sign it and if they haven't done so by the end of that time then they should be told to pack-up and move out pdq. By doing this he will then know the extent of the team re-building that's in front of him. He will to tackle this fast for next season and cannot afford to piss about. Now is the time for actions, after all its not as if he or us didn't know this was coming. Leave Leitch in charge of the team until the end of the season and get out and about and suss out if there's anybody worth picking up from the sides that are destined for another season in Division 1 (Dundee, Dunfermline, Partick, Morton, Livingston) and interested in playing SPL for us. Get in a few hard working reliable pros that can reproduce solid performances on a regular basis - particularly defenders a la Joe Wark/Brian Martin.

To Gazzy B. Go forth and multiply. Meaningless games? - Then why are the fans not being allowed in for free. - Tell the chairman, because every point gained earns the club money. - The club owe it to other clubs in the relegation zone to put up serious performances. - Fans will hardly be swayed into renewing season tickets with kind of garbage served-up. No, this just goes to show Mark McGhee that there is a clear-out needed at FP. Too many players have been getting it too easy for too long now. There is no pressure being put on the first team squad by the fringe players so they know they can get away with this kind of shite.

Wow massive changes in team selection!!! Smith, Lasley, Hammell, Reynolds, McLean, Hughes, Fitzpatrick, Klimpl, McGarry, Clarkson, Sutton. Subs: Krysiak, Malcolm, Sheridan, Murphy, McHugh, Hutchinson, Page. Lets be honest the only reason the youngsters are on the bench is to fulfill the commitment required under SPL rules. Questions 1. Why are Malcolm and Sheridan still be considered for selection? 2. Can we take it from this that Hughes and Klimpl will be staying on then? 3. Why are McGarry and Fitzpatrick still being considered? 4. What happened to O'Brien - not even on bench, on his way? 5. Where's Quinn - also not on even on bench, also on his way?

I wholeheartedly agree - far too much substance abuse going on here. Paul Quinn for (in no particular order) Celtic/the Premiership (Everton)/The Championship (Birmingham)/Russia.

Don't know about a new stand but I had heard a couple of months back that the club might be having to spend around £500K on 'upgrading' the current main stand. Not exactly sure why this was but it may have been a safety issue.

Given the quality of Scottish football these days its good to see four Motherwell players in ANY Scotland squad. Well done to all four of our guys. They are probably our four best, most consistent, and most reliable players. Also our most saleable assets.

Headline in Gazetto dello Sport tomorrow - "El Buzz concorda contratto con AC" Well its about as believeable as him going anywhere.

Easy, I take your point but Craigan's done now and Reynolds is not really a centre back. But I've been watching Quinn since he came into the first team and has not improved one iota and its not just his passing. He ball watches, drifts to close to the centre backs, fails to spot midfield runners and position himself to deal with them. Admittedly he is playing in as poor a back four as is in the SPL but.... well that's another argument.

weeyin, you miss the point. Ever since MM arrived back in Scotland he has gone out of his way to court the media, both written, tv and radio. He was the media darling and they and he milked it for all it was worth but only on the back of us having our best season for years. I'd rather he just buckled down, did the job and let his team and players do the talking as opposed to him - maybe now that we have had a mediocre season they will forget about him and then he can do so. For the club's sake I hope so.

Apparently, Rangers have an 'A' List and a 'B' List of Signing Targets. They will only be able to go for the 'A' List if they win the SPL and get automatic entry to group stages of Champions League. If they don't then they will move to the 'B' List and seemingly Stephen Hughes is one of the targets on this. I'd like to see him stay at FP but wouldn't blame him for moving. Everybody jumps on his back for 'not performing' and 'not scoring enough goals'. Well lets take the second point first - his record before coming to us showed he was not a prolific goal scoring midfielder so why get up tight about it now. MM knew what he was getting. As for the first point about him not performing - well he has hardly partnered by the best of midfield partners at FP (McGarry, O'Brien, Malcolm, etc. IMO he played his best games when Keith Lasley was in the side because Lasley's style allowed Hughes to play closer to the strikers, which IMO is his best position. Klimpl is a wholehearted player but he is a bit of a wanderer whereas Lasley is more disciplined. I think MM needs to play a 4-3-1 (Hughes) 2 in order to get the best out of him. He should not have to expend energy chasing back to defend all the time. We should be looking to build a team around guys like Hughes not punt him.

Wow!!! Well if Quinn had a good game, heaven helps us. The guy's passing is utter pish and has been since he came into the first team!! No improvement = time to move him out. And we did play 3 centre backs - maybe not in the centre of defence but we did play them because McLean, Craigan and Reynolds are all centre backs!!

Boy oh boy. You are one argumentative person. Everybody comes on here and posts their thoughts, ideas and suggestions. People come on and agree/disagree argue, counter-argue etc. etc. But you!!?? You just come on and decry everbody regardless!!

I'm not a hate Mark McGhee merchant nor do I want to see him get bulleted. But facts have to be faced he is a self-publicist. And far too many of you guys don't seem to recognise it. The guy has to talk us up because in doing so he's talking himself up. Make no mistake about it this guy is here under sufferance now. He had his chance for 'bigger things' at the end of last season when his stock was at its highest but knocked back the Hearts job. Only he will know why. There are no other 'bigger clubs' out there just now waiting to sign him up. If he is to 'progress' to 'bigger things' from MFC then he will need to work his socks off to try and duplicate his first season. Hey, and that's no bad thing because it means we will reap the benefit of that. I'd just like to see him buckle down now and do that.