Kmcalpin

Absolutely. I think with all other Premsiership clubs its age 65. No brainer.

But, he's signed a contract until 2019. It might well be that he leaves this summer but it would have to suit the club as well.

James Scott signs a 12 month deal.

Might be wrong but suspect all the club's resources have been focused on the cup final.

Ok here's my estimate of where we're at. As at the end of May last year we owed Les £1,468,800 and John Boyle £280,400 (source MFC annual accounts). I seem to recall that the Society raised £180,000 last year and perhaps its raised some £70,000 this year so far (guesstimate based on last year). Given Les's double your money offer thats about £250,000 knocked off his total leaving some £1,218,800 outstanding. In total therefore we would owe £1,499,200. Then we've had transfers, which are hard to quantify precisely. Lets say Ben Heneghan £400,000, Louis Moult £450,000 and Marvin Johnson's add on of around £750,000. So thats some £1.6 m but we'll deduct say £100k due to former clubs, leaving £1,500,000. Our 2 creditors take 60% of transfers fees so that comes to some £900,000. In total therefore we must still owe £1,499,200 minus £900,000 leaving some £599,200. If the Society raises another £90,000 this year then thats another equivalent amount off Les's loan leaving just over £500,000 outstanding. So unless the repayments are staged then if we sell one or two players this summer I reckon our debts will be all but cleared.

Does anyone know roughly how much we'll owe Les and John Boyle taking into account this season's estimated income?

Its more than a single performance. In any event its not what you or I think but what the management team thinks. I have my thoughts on that but I'll quote Captain Oats from Pie and Bovril who has a similar view to me but can express it far more eloquently. Hope thats ok Captain. "Reading between the lines of Robinson's "we need more energy, more pace and maybe a little bit more ownership of the game in the middle of the park" statement then it's difficult not to feel that's laid squarely at McHugh's door. We've just signed Rose and Grimshaw for an additional year each, Campbell's signed up to 2021. By process of elimination it seems that if he's talking about improving in the middle of the park then he's looking at McHugh and Bigi's area of midfield. The question for me is whether that means moving contracted players on or not. It seems unlikely we're going be piling more midfielders into the squad without someone moving on. I'm a fan of a lot of what McHugh does in terms of breaking up play, interceptions, winning headers etc but at the same time the number of times he's caught on the ball or gives away possession in the middle of the park is absolutely terrifying. It's the one position we absolutely need to upgrade. Bigi seems to have the composure and technical ability Robinson's after but not the physicality while McHugh has the physicality but not the composure. Either way a player in that position who could dominate and dictate tempo would be huge for us." From his comments Robinson is clearly looking to upgrade central midfield.

I'll be renewing mine. I've never begun any season expecting to win a trophy and this coming season will be no exception. Celtic will almost certainly win a treble treble but that will in no way influence my decision to renew.

We're still well up overall. Don't forget too that Hibs replaced ICT. Over the past 30/40 years or so society has changed in terms of working patterns and media coverage to name but 2 issues. Expectations have also risen with the English Premier League being the unrealistic yardstick for many. Interesting though that many of these games are pretty boring to watch.

Is Davie Turnbull contracted next season?

Not wholly true. Yes he wanted to try something different by taking off a defensive central midfielder but he could have taken off either Campbell or Grimshaw but chose not to. Instead he substituted his captain. That speaks volumes.

Stephen Robinson quoted in the Evening Times as saying he wants to strengthen 3/4 areas of the team. He wants more pace, energy and "ownership in the midle of the park". So it would seem he's not entirely happy with our central midfield, and of course he quite right. Just a thought....if we can improve our ball winning skills in the middle yet further it makes it easier for creative players to do their thing there. Celtic proved on Saturday that we still have a bit to go yet to match the top sides in midfield in terms of energy, physicality and ball winning ability. Bottom line is that a minor / fine tuning exercise is turning into something a bit more and rightly so.

For next season...finish in top 6 and semi & quarter final appearances.

Fair comment Allan. I'm in no way political with a capital P but the MSP for Motherwell, whoever that is, and if they have any backbone, needs to take this issue up with Police Scotland. I'm waiting.....

Good thought provoking post. I don't know if everything will pan out the way you suggest but its a fair shout and we have to take on board lessons learnt from this season. Worth noting as well that Aldred's lack of pace was compensated for by Kipre's speed.

I can see McHugh and Frear move on and Robbo can be ruthless in that regard as we know. There's a reason Bigi hasn't played but I've no idea what it is. He too could move on.

Its not impossible that some players under contract could be shipped out to clear some space.

Left wing back and strikers are a priority. To me, Main and Bowman are too alike in terms of their type of player. A big question mark too over Carl McHugh. Our captain being hooked after 55 minutes in a cup final???? (Didn't think he picked up a knock).

It was always going to be a tall order to be beat Celtic and so it proved. They were the better team and deserved to win. I did expect that to be honest but I didn't expect the game to turn out the way it did. Lets be clear though the players tried their best and I've no gripe with that. What did surprise me though was that Celtic worked harder and won the physical battles. Thats despite all the pre match hype. That did disappoint me and shows that we've got work to do on the physical side of our game for next season. In the first half the players looked like rabbits caught in the headlights and I just didn't expect that given that most of them had already played 3 times at Hampden this season. They were clearly nervous and allowed Celtic far too much space and time. Our game plan too was a bit out and we suffered roastings most of the game down the wings as we played very narrowly. I won't dwell on individual perfomances but thought that our midfield had a poor game and struggled to compete with, not outplay Celtic. As a result, Main and Bowman struggled on poor service. Plenty of food for thought for next season not least of which was the sight of our captain being substituted after 55 minutes or so. Plenty of questions too for our Police but I've little hope of them being answered. Policing and the criminal justice sytem have to be fair and be seen to be fair. To finish on apositive note the final will have boosted our bank balance considerably.

A few disappointing performances today but rather than dwell on that I'm voting for Bigi. He achieved more as a sub than others did in the entire match. Unlucky not to score.

Where did you see this?

Absolutely. We can't compete with the city clubs in terms of budget and hence the calibre of player they can attract. We have to concentrate on organisation and hard work and being able to compete with them physically. Any real talent in our squad will come, in the main, from young players breaking through not from expensive transfers. I'm glad that Rose & Grimshaw have signed on for another year. Our squad now looks more settled and that will bring consistency. Its also a relativley young squad which will have acquired more experience since this season about to end. However that will simply not be enough. Every club needs to bring in fresh blood perhaps 2/3/4 new faces every year and whatever we do our rivals will not stand still. Teams like Dundee, Partick and St Johnstone will all be looking to strengthen their squads. We have to do the same. We have to bring a bit more creativity and pace to the side. So, its more a case of quality rather than quantity. Assuming that no-one moves on, which is most unlikely, I'd expect us to be on the hunt for a left sided wing back, a centre back (not if Aldred signs on permanently), a creative central midfielder and perhaps 2 strikers (Robbo has already hinted he likes 4 first team strikers). All that said, Robbo and Keef will know exactly where they intend to strengthen and strengthen they will.

I know of two who are going to "support their local team". Both decent guys.

This is the first season that I can recall for many many years that we have had a solid reliable and dependable team that has worked hard, been energetic and well organised. These qualities are reflected in our record number of clean sheets. Next season we should be even more so as the players now know each other better and aware of each others' strengths and weaknesses. I suspect we may lose one or two though like Cedric. This is a great platform on which to build. We've also got a batch of talented youngsters breaking through. So, as others have said, its maybe a case of more fine tuning now. What we do need to do though is to bring a bot more creativity and perhaps pace to the team. We're a bit light up front. As things stand we may ned to strengthen central defence (if Cedric goes and Aldred doesn't stay on) get some cover for left wing back and maybe bring in a couple of strikers. So we're maybe looking at 4 players, more if others like Rose and Ciftci move on. Not a wholesale rebuilding like last season though!

I like Frear but suspect that he just doesn't fit our system.