David

He's played one entire game. From start to finish. Which is what I said. So, calm down.

He's played one game for us. One entire game. Maybe wait until he's played more than that before judging how he's looking in the Scottish game? By your reckoning Henrik Larsson would have looked like he was "struggling with the pace of Scottish football" when he misplaced that pass under pressure to Chic Charnley in his first game for Celtic. He went on to do not too badly. Exactly.

How can you say he’s struggling with the pace of Scottish football when he’s only played one actual match for us? We’ve not really seen him play in Scottish football yet. He’s played one game and 36 minutes when he’s been brought on from the bench. I can understand you perhaps questioning his record up to this point elsewhere, but claiming that he’s struggling with the pace when he’s only played one full game is quite something.

I'm not being patronising; I'm simply asking why you said something that is clearly a bit daft. There's a difference. The club is doing what it always does. They're trying to get the best players they can on a limited budget, while those players are likely receiving similar offers from other clubs and, as they are entitled to do, weighing up their options. The only waiting the club is likely doing is waiting to hear back from the agents or clubs of players they have approached about coming here.

Far from an ideal performance, but it's still early days. Like it or not, we've lost some key players and individuals in the dressing room, such as Blair Spittal and Liam Kelly. We've signed eleven new players, a fair number of whom have been injured before the season has even started. The likes of Wilson and O'Donnell likely weren't considered first-choice players this season, but we've had to rely on them for various reasons. My preferred approach is not to judge until we're about eight weeks or so into the league campaign, as that gives new players time to settle in and gives injured players a chance to come back and make an impact. The bottom line is we're through, and we've got a home game against Killie in the next round, so that's good news.

What makes you think the club are "waiting" until the last possible minute to sign players for key positions? Do you honestly believe the management team are sitting around saying, "We still need to replace Spittal, but it’s fine, we can leave it for a bit longer. No need to worry about it just now"? Yes, we knew Spittal was leaving months ago, but we didn’t know who else was staying or going, so we wouldn’t have known our budget. Also, even if we had identified a player months ago to replace him, what makes you think that player would want to commit to us so early? Any agent worth his salary would be advising his players to shop around and see what other options are available before agreeing to anything. There are many factors that go into bringing in new players. It’s nowhere near as straightforward and simplistic as you like to make it out to be.

Means we can add him back onto the list of potential managers everyone loves to mention if & when Kettlewell goes. Valakari, Davies, Nijholt, and once again Van Der Gaag. the gang is all back together.

Honestly, I'd rather be a happy clapper than a cynical ball of discontent every time Motherwell win. I feel sorry for people like you. It's football. Enjoy it. If it causes you such unhappiness turn it off and go do something else with your spare time.

I'm fairly sure Balmer will be our first choice at the back when the league campaign starts.

Watch the game and see.

What conclusion?

Wells is a winger and Stuparevic is a striker (or potential second striker). Halliday made perfect sense. You might not like the guy, but as a replacement it's fine.

We're already playing with two up front. Paton is...fine... for now. It's still basically pre-season. As I say above, if he's still a regular pick in this position once all our transfer business is concluded I'll be worried. Until then, it's about bedding in new players, getting everyone up to speed and getting through the group.

We're playing with two up front today, so doesn't that represent a change from "plan A" in itself? Paton is there because we have little by way of options in that area at the moment. it's still only July. If the window closes and he's still there? then I'll be annoyed.

Who would you have replaced Paton with?

For those who don't like the current offering, there's these two crackers on the website as well...

Maybe the club will put away some money to cover us for the infamous "10th place finish and no cup run" that has lots of people on socials ready to press the panic button and hand control to Hollywood Erik.

Went with Balmer. I would have gone with young Dylan Wells if he'd gotten more game time today, he was everywhere. Still a bit rough around the edges, but he has some qualities that suggest with time and coaching he could be a good little player. Nice debut from Balmer. Looks solid at the back, and I think he'll be a threat at set pieces.

Pretty standard stuff for this early in the season really, so no surprises there. I'm quite impressed by young Dylan Wells. He's looked good so far this game. Balmer looks good at the back and a threat at set pieces.

I've long said that Kettlewell is an underrated manager. He's still relatively young in the profession, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him go on to carve a very good career out for himself at a higher level either domestically or down south.

If he has pulled the offer i'm sure we'll be hearing all about how the Well society "scared away" an investor.

Considering what Kettlewell has done with Bair and also Moses of late, i'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

It matters not a jot where Miller plays. If you don't think our team, and specifically our midfield, is being built around him you're deluded. The team certainly isn't being built around Harry Paton.

The past eight years he's been employed by Netflix to head up production and distribution of international streaming content for the platform. He's experienced and connected in the streaming media world for sure. If we want to make a docuseries on our club, he's certainly the guy we should be working with. When it comes to actually running a business on the level of a multi-million pound football club on another continent? And dealing with the various aspects of that business that being a major investor and Chairman would entail? I think he's vastly underqualified.

Aside from Wild Sheep sports, which is a small media distribution company, he doesn't own anything. He's someone who's very skilled in media, and has worked as an employee at Netflix. He's not a serial entrepreneur or investor of note.