David

Well, I wanted to give him more time for the reasons I mentioned. As a new manager he should be allowed to at least bring in a few of his own players and actually be given some games to play them in. I honestly believe that this is the least a new man in the position should be given. McCall couldn't get anything from the squad pre-January, so it shouldn't really surprise anyone that Baraclough couldn't either. Being given a fair amount of backing and a load of new players in January makes Baraclough more accountable at this point though, as he's now been given his own players and come the Kilmarnock game he'll have also been given time to play them. If things haven't changed by then questions have to be asked.

There'd probably be a few who'd be happy to do it for nothing in order to get the experience on their CV's.

I agree, the players are certainly at the heart of the problem. Both McCall and now Baraclough are finding it increasingly difficult to get anything from them. Unfortunately, when this kind of thing happens football clubs don't sack the players, they sack the manager, and if things haven't changed by the end of the Killie game I fear we'll be without a manager. Again.

I was one of the people who were pretty vocal about him being given the opportunity to bring in some of his own players before we judged him, saying just that after the loss to Aberdeen. I didn't think he'd get the chance to make any real changes until the summer though, so I always believed he should be given until then to make his mark before we judged him. With the signings in january though he's been given an earlier chance to stamp his own identity on the side, and thus far it's not looking great. Six games on from that assessment, and we've nicked one point from a possible eighteen or something, which is terrible. I also believe the Kilmarnock game will be the decider. I don't see us getting much from Inverness, but no points from the next two will likely result in something being done, which is unfortunate, as it means going back to the drawing board. Who would have thought we'd be in this position after the guys we brought in during January? A 'keeper who's played at England youth level, an Everton midfield prospect and a number of other guys who looked to be good enough to at least play a part in securing us 10th in the table? Fucking hell. I know I wasn't the only one who was optimistic the morning after the transfer deadline had passed. I have no doubt that by suggesting we gave the manager time to at least bring in his own players and put them on the park I'll get the "I told you so" treatment from certain forum members, and I guess that's deserved. If and when we appoint another manager I'll be doing the exact same again, so feel free to batter in.

anyone know if there's a direct link to commentary for this game today?

Anyone hear the guys on BBC radio Scotland shitting all over Baraclough? Chic young and his fake St Mirren fan nonsense.

The fact that the above entry is labelled "Blog number 1" means there'll be more of them, hopefully pretty regularly.

A fair amount of info.

If we get relegated we'll see a load of our top earners leave, that's for sure. The guys who are happy to see out their contracts whilst not offering much return this season would more than likely be suddenly looking for a move if staying meant playing a division down. On top of that we have a whole host of players who are out of contract this summer. Basically, we'd be starting from scratch playing wise I reckon. We'd retain a few old heads, but it would be mainly a new side we'd field on day one next season I think. Sure, attendances would drop a bit, but we'd simply have to cut our cloth accordingly.

Yeah, but the truth is there are clubs in that division who are similar in size to us and they do survive. All I'm saying is that I don't think we'd be going to the wall if we did get relegated. If the new ownership believes in the idea of bringing players through the ranks, not over-paying for talent and cutting our cloth to suit our income then I'm certain we'd be just fine (and by just fine I mean survive). I have a feeling we're going to see some major changes this summer anyways with so many players out of contract. Again, is it ideal? Not at all, but it won't be the end of the world.

Aye, but how many of them went bust because they got relegated? Most clubs of our size are operating close to the breadline the majority of the time anyway, aren't they? If we went down we'd simply have to cut our cloth accordingly, like most other clubs do. Relegation is a real threat though, I agree there. The past few years have been an anomaly of sorts though, haven't they? We're realistically a top six club at best.

Nice one.

The same that happens with other teams like us who've been relegated, we'd cut our cloth accordingly and try to win enough games to see us come back up. It would be very far from ideal, but it would hardly be armageddon. Clubs like Hamilton, Dundee, Dunfermline and so on have bounced between the divisions over the past ten years or so without going out of business. I imagine we'd do the same.

I don't think that the likes of us or St Johnstone would be in the thoughts of the decision makers to be honest. They'll likely be more concerned with what happens when Celtic play Hearts, or Hearts play Sevco, or even worse, when Celtic play Sevco.

As has been said, it works in gigs and other places like cinemas, so why not football? I'd guess that at gig prices there wouldn't be many throwing down 4 or 5 pints a game if it were costing them twenty odd quid to do so.

All of his success was a fluke then, eh?

Absolute conjecture though, isn't it? You don't know anything of the sort. What it suggests is that the whole notion of Baraclough being the easy, cheaper option is possibly wide of the mark, especially given the fact that we've seen considerable investment in the team since he's arrived.

Exactly. Which maybe suggests that the idea of him being knocked back because he wanted to change too much is nothing but nonsense.

I actually believe the opposite to be true. We have fans who have watched us perform very well in recent years (although most of them still moaned like fuck) and who now cannot accept the fact that we're not really very good at the moment. We are mediocre just now, but again, I don't know a single person who accepts it. Not one. No one I know likes it. At all. Trust me mate, I'm no superfan. I neither own a fleece (be it Motherwell-related or otherwise) nor am I on any committee. I'm simply a fan of the club who thinks that a new manager (especially given the circumstances he's arrived into) should be given some time to do his job. We've just seen a new owner come in and he's went above & beyond what I thought he would in the transfer window. The new boys are just in the door. I think they deserve a bit of time to get it together. Certainly more than the 45 minutes or so it took for you to start losing the rag. Again, not superfan, more like "reasonable fan". Okay, what do you think we should do then? Bump Baraclough and his new assistant who's been here for a matter of hours? Rip up the plan we had, take a hit on the fact that we've brought in a load of players that he wanted and just start again with someone new? Aye, "probably" first choice. That's neither here nor there. We've got a new manager in place, he's just been given the backing to get some of his own players in. let's see how he does, shall we? At least give them more than 90 minutes maybe?

What do you mean by "accept"? From what I've seen and from what I've heard talking to fellow fans no one is "accepting" anything. We just aren't being irrational and looking for all and sundry to be sacked and replaced is all. It would be a completely different situation if the manager had been in charge for the duration of the season, but he hasn't. He's only just managed to get some of his own players in (and his own assistant probably hasn't even got his initials sown onto his jacket yet), so lets see how that goes, eh?

Let's hope they aren't quite as kneejerk and ridiculous as some on this forum who also have no experience then, shall we?

My excuse? There is no excuse. There's a reason though, and that reason is that we're shite. There are three pretty dire sides in this league at the moment, and we're one of them. Okay, so we lose this game, get to Monday and sack Baraclough (along with his assistant who will have been here for all of what? 48 hours or something?). What then? Who do we put in charge in the interim? What do we do with the players that Baraclough has identified as guys that he wanted and just brought in? Do we give the new assistant the job during the time it takes to restart the search for a new guy? Or do we simply go to MVDG and say "aye Mitch, ye were second choice, but fuck it, ye want the job now big man?" If he says yes he comes into a squad of players that hardly know each other, and a load of new players that were identified by the previous manager and who may not even factor into how he wants to play. A bit like the guys that Baraclough inherited from McCall. Going down that road would pretty much increase our chances of relegation in my opinion. The alternative? Give the new guy some time. I don't mean 9 or 10 games after he inherited a load of shite that was already looking doomed, I mean a proper amount of time to do his job. He's been given the backing to bring in some new players, some of which actually look exciting and of a decent calibre. Here's a novel idea. Support the team and the manager and let's see what he's capable of. I swear to God, we must have some of the shittest fans in the fucking league. We were moaning like fuck when we were sitting 3rd in the table, moaning like fuck when we were qualifying for Europe regularly, moaning like fuck when we had no money, moaning like fuck about the Well Society and fan ownership, and now we're moaning like fuck despite the new owner putting his hand in his pocket and drafting in some exciting young players to try and help us out of a bind, all because they aren't getting the job done in the first game they've played together.

That's exactly what I mean. The idea of some sort of committee running our club, especially if those on that committee are anything like some people on this forum really does give me the fear. We'd be sacking managers and tearing up contracts right, left & centre.

If said Motherwell fans are the type of business people who would get shot of a manager mere weeks after him coming into a job that is always going to be difficult then the chances are they wouldn't be very successful, yes. Especially when he's only just got some of his own personnel through the door. By your thinking the new manager should have brought a whole load of new faces into a squad in January, trained them for two weeks and have them all gelled and firing on all cylinders 45 minutes into their first match. Don't get me wrong, it would have been ideal if that were the case, but you can hardly look at it not being the case as a sign that he doesn't know the basics. I'm not actually sure what some fans are wanting to happen here. We're shite. We're in a relegation battle. There's no quick fix to this situation. I doubt Pep Guardiola could get us playing well at the moment.

As long as said fans aren't anything like the ones who post on this forum. We'd be sacking managers every few weeks if recent chat is anything to go by.