Kmcalpin

Midfield has been anonymous.

I assume all 500 fans didn't come on the same train/bus?

Pay Per View for £12 Matchday | MotherwellTV (motherwellfc.co.uk)

Agree about Watt, but Slattery is suspended for this one game.

I see that David Martindale is at the windup, in the Rancid. This is taken from the BBC website as I don't read that publication. "Livingston manager David Martindale reluctantly let goalkeeper Liam Kelly go two years ago and believes Motherwell will face a similar issue, suggesting Celtic and Rangers may be interested in the stopper. (Record)" Who is it we play again today? Good for a laugh if nothing else. Shades of the Tom Wright/Declan Gallagher scenario here?

That is exactly what United are hoping for and why they probably leaked the news.

I wouldn't be too harsh on the club over the announcement or rather lack of one. We may have known he was moving on but no more. Its possible that Messrs Burrows and Alexander found out secondhand via the media. Our issue should be with Dundee United, Watt's agent or Watt himself. This announcement wasn't down to loose talk in the pub it was quite deliberate.

The club will hopefully know more than we do and I trust Graham Alexander & Alan Burrows to handle this situation well. I don't think GA will be bullied by anyone, as we saw last season. Its important that the club stands firm on this move, again, if confirmed. Pre contract agreements aside, the club will have put a value on Tony Watt if he moves on this month. They should stick rigidly to that. As it stands, each league place is worth about £80K to us, and of course there's the possibility of a cup run. These factors set a financial benchmark for us. The club should make crystal clear to any club that wants to sign Tony Watt that if they want him this month then they have to meet 2 criteria. Firstly, the fee should meet our valuation and secondly, the deal should be done by a set date i.e. not 31 January at midnight, to allow us to source a replacement. The only exception to that is if the bid offers silly money in a good way. As far as Dundee United is concerned, they are heavily in debt but are a bigger club, but not massively so. I'd guess their fanbase is about 1,500 more than ours. They have previous for being ruthless in their transfer dealings and so if true, this tabloid story doesn't surprise me. Can they afford this? Probably not but what has that got to do with it. If they want him this month they'll probably offer a modest 5 figure sum, which should be assertively rejected. As far as Tony Watt is concerned, I've never bought into the badge kissing, after the Simo Valakari days. For many players, though not all, money is the only thing that matters. I've no problem with him signing a pre contract agreement with United or anyone else and moving on for family reasons or more money at the end of the season. What I do have a massive problem with is the way this has been leaked to attempt to bully our club into letting him go early. As I've said, if I had my way he'd stay at Fir Park until the summer unless our criteria are met. If not the ball is in his court as to whether he plays or not. If he shows the right attitude then he plays if not then he sits in the stand.

That would depend on his attitude. If he continues to give his all, and I think he would, then I'd keep him in the team. If not I'd park him in the stand. I wouldn't be selling him to United or any other team this window unless they met our valuation. No leaving on the cheap.

This story has yet to be confirmed. However, if true the leak by whoever may well be designed to pressure us into letting him go now for a paltry fee. Given that I'd be inclined to hold onto him until the end of the season to demonstrate that we won't be bullied. Again if true, United may come up with a reasonable offer but that's unlikely given their perilous finances.

If he's not going to remain with us I couldn't care less where he goes. I think players can discuss pre contracts from 1 December but am not 100% sure. Its not professional though to divulge these things early.

If true that's good news. He was never going to re-sign and that allows us to move on and plan for a replacement. I would however question the leak unless it's his agent trying to attract a better deal from elsewhere.

That puts a different complexion on matters. Not putting my name in the ballot I'll buy a PPV instead.

I see that Aberdeen has requested that the 500 crowd restriction be delayed until after the Boxing Day games have been completed. I know they're doing this for selfish reasons but why should the 6 home teams, including us, be disadvantaged financially?

I don't understand why the SPFL board is taking so long to "rubber stamp" the vote of Premiership clubs which was due to be concluded at 1700hrs. If administrative homework was done beforehand by the SPFL officials it should be straightforward. But then again none of these SPFL processes are ever straightforward.

Thats pretty much it Iain. If Watt wants to chase the big money then he'll head south, however its just possible that he may have other considerations. If he did want to stay in Scotland then surely a club like Hearts, Hibs or Aberdeen might want him. I don't doubt that Dundee are interested in him, as they are in Declan Gallagher, but I don't take that paper talk too seriously. They have a history of shelling out the odd big wage, and don't forget they tried to land Faddy (!!!) years ago. My guess is that they have been trying desperately to offload Cummings for some time and that would free up £2.5- £4 grand a week.

Yes, Covid has touched many families including my own. I agree about the 500 figure, but in fairness any limit is going to be arbitrary. In terms of the reasons behind such a restriction I agree that the actual stadium attendance is the lesser of the 2 risks, but surely the dangers of transmission are far greater in a smaller ground like say New Bayview (500 occupied seats out of 1,980 - 25.3%) than in say Pittodrie (500 occupied seats out of 20,866 - 2.3%)? In terms of the greater risk, that is the effect on public transport, I doubt that 500 fans would make much difference. Most of those 500 will not travel to stadia by public transport; probably considerably less than half will. Of those who do, not all will have the same trip origin. Whilst agreeing that public health must be our priority, I doubt if this restriction to 500 attendees at football matches will make much difference health wise, but it will make an economic difference. However, scale that up to say 20,000 and over thats where a real difference could kick in. 50,000 going to Ibrox or Parkhead would create a huge risk for those travelling by bus or train or underground. All that said, public transport will be much reduced on Boxing Day anyway. In my view this is a very blunt measure which, on balance, may do more harm than good. Thats not to say that some kind of crowd restriction shouldn't be introduced in a more targeted way.

Fair point. I suppose that politically this is about economics. The health risks of travelling to a shopping centre might be similar to travelling to a football stadium but the economic impact of restrictions would be greater and public resistance also greater. Thats an ssumption on my part though as we don't have the data to back these decisons up, as Great Balls of Shire rightly says, only Professor Leitch's comments about the risks of travel on public transport.

If we accept Professor Leitch's argument, which I do, then the capacity of, or the size of the crowd inside Fir Park, is largely irrelevant. Its how people travel to Fir Park thats the problem. Yes, absence of data is an issue.

Not against this in principle, but have issues with the detail. Prof Jason Leitch said a few days ago that he had no problem with crowds at large events, outdoors or even indoors. His issue was with how people were going to get there ie in crowded buses or trains. Now given that public transport will be minimal on Boxing Day, couldn't the restrictions have come into force on the 27th? Maybe not a huge issue you might think but many clubs will be detrimentally affected by that one day's change. In any event, many people are totally disregarding basic laws and advice, like the wearing of face coverings, anyway but thats a wider public health enforcement issue. As an aside, many clubs will find it difficult to ballot season ticket holders in time for Sunday.

It will depend on how long the Omicron variant (sorry about the jargon) wave lasts. If it decreases markedly by late February then there's no reason to keep stadia closed.

Yes, January is a funny month for transfers but I doubt if the club would entertain any offer below £500K. If we were to accept an offer much below that then that could jeopardise our final league position (£80k per place) or a decent cup run.

I suspect that we are a bit less streetwise than our opponents and get caught more often. We're no saints ourselves but the amounbt of jersey pulling St Johnstone got off with on Saturday was unbelievable. Shaun Rooney alone committed about 3 fouls on Tony Watt in rapid succession without being pulled up. When it comes to foul stats I take them with a large spoonful of salt.

Charged on suspicion of drink driving I believe.

Well I think our directors have been proven right to appoint GA opposed to Tom Wright. That was a curious move by the Rugby Park board just after an abandoned game. Presumably they're blaming Wright for the fog? Shenanigans also at Dundee where Jason Cummings is being disciplined. Maybe Dundee are taking the opportunity to force out an out of favour player? It'll be interesting how they deal with Charlie Adam. Yes, in hindsight, our board made a good decision.