David

Yeah, I saw the advertisement for the panel night, and was hoping to make it along. From what I heard, it went very well.

I doubt the club would be in the financial position to be able to overhaul the stand anyway, so there isn't much point in looking for something along those lines. Maybe a few small improvements here & there, such as the catering service and a repair to some of the toilets, would be affordable? We could see some improvements without having to completely overhaul the stand, which I agree would take away some of it's appeal.

I'll be there. As soon as you have a fixed date, just let me know the details. A section of the forum would be ideal for keeping everyone up to date with meetings and other goings-on as well.

I'm guessing his view may have changed when Gannon got bumped.

I was thinking more along the lines of an area for discussion such as this, where ideas could be discussed and kicked around by the forum collectively. Maybe it would be worth trying such a section again on a trial basis, see if we can't get more people involved. Twenty odd heads are better than one and all that...

I've seen this phrase used a couple of times now, and was wondering what it's supposed to mean exactly? I'm relatively new here y'see.

There may be more than a few points worth bringing up with the Trust next month then, eh? If the guys running it are serious enough about it, maybe we could have a section of the forum for trust matters, questions, notices etc?

It may be fair to say that stewarding is something worth bringing up at the next Trust meeting...

It's Craigan for me. Being a captain requires more than just what you do on the pitch. You need to be able to represent and be the voice of the players off the pitch, and Craigan appears to have those qualities.

With both Celtic and Rangers being the least attractive they have been in years, and with interest in both clubs waning ever so slightly among all but the most hardcore of fans, I think the question has to be asked; How can a club such as Motherwell take advantage of this? Celtic still charge from £22-£25 for regular league games, whilst Rangers are somewhere around the same I reckon. If anyone knows details of the concessions offered by both clubs for children/students etc, then feel free to fill us all in. The truth is, with the sheer amount of fans who have been leaving Lanarkshire each and every weekend for either Parkhead or Ibrox, it would be useful to maybe try and look at some small ways to try and entice them back, especially with both Old Firm clubs not really being what they once were. I know this subject may have been discussed before, but I thought that the changes to the Trust recently would maybe help any real ideas get some serious consideration at Fir Park. I think it's pretty safe to assume that any fan of either Old Firm club who is over the age of 16-17 is too far gone to be shown the light, so to speak. We need to concentrate on the youngsters, and have to look at better ideas than simply letting them in for free a couple of times. The pricing for family/juveniles at Fir Park looks about spot on to me, so I don't really think pricing needs to be looked at. Under a tenner for a kid, and under £30 for a family ticket is ideal as far as i'm concerned. We need to come up with other ideas to make Motherwell more approachable and recognisable than other SPL clubs. One thing i've picked up on from young family members is the fact that they "don't know who plays for Motherwell". Most Scottish football fans know who Kris Boyd, Aiden McGeady, Nacho Novo etc is, and they can identify with certain players. We need to find a way to do that. Some success could be found in making our players seem more like actual people to younger fans. We should have young fans who want to get a certain name & number on their shirts at the start of every season. How many forum members here who have 'Well supporting kids know who their favourite player is? And if so, why is that player their favourite? We need to think of serious ways to get kids involved with the club in a fun way. I'm already aware of the various support programmes that we have at Fir Park, and I think they are top class, but if we want kids to come to Fir Park on a regular basis we need to think outside the usual area of ticket pricing/free tickets. Any ideas folks?

IWhilst I would certainly like to see improvements made to the east stand, i'd certainly not want it completely changed beyond recognition. Despite the modern aspects of the Cooper stand, the east is still my favourite place to sit.

How can you be so sure that wouldn't be the case at Motherwell too?

I'm not sure there has to be a new ground, more just some revamping of the east stand. The Cooper and the away stand look alright as far as i'm concerned.

That has no bearing on the fact that the East stand is a bit of a shithole though, does it?

If those two manage to get us into the top 6 this season, and maybe even throw together a decent cup run, will we want to see them get punted at the end of the season? I'm happy to see how they do before I start speculating on who comes in four or five months down the line.

To be fair, it is a bit of a heap.

I don't know who he means then. Smith is the only manager I can think of with a contract situation that isn't pretty straight forward.

I assume he's talking about Walter Smith.

It certainly would, although I have a feeling we'll take 2 points from both of those games.

As far as the short-term goes, we couldn't really ask for much better.

I see that no one has mentioned a return for Terry Butcher...

I'm hoping your new avatar doesn't last long!

I'd certainly entertain the idea of someone like McCall to tide us over until the summer.

There are two types of manager we can go for really; There's the guy who has been around the lower reaches of the Scottish game for a while, such as Ian McCall, who knows the game inside and out, and who will probably display the level of long-term commitment and loyalty that some on here are looking for. Then we have the guy who is a young up and coming gaffer, who comes in with some bright, new ideas, and gives the place a new lease of life, such as Gannon did. The problem with these guys is that they are usually more interested in furthering their career than they are in loyalty to a club.

We are never going to get that from any manager who is good at his job. Motherwell are always going to be a launching pad onto bigger things for any good manager we happen to get.