David

It's not really that hard to explain. Tony Watt was offered more money to go to Dundee United. Simple as that. He didn't "suddenly" want a move, he became interested when he realised not only could he move in the summer and earn more than we were paying him, but could leave us in January and start earning higher wages quicker. Same goes with Woolery. He didn't "suddenly" fancy a move to Turkey. He only became interested once the opportunity popped up, and rightfully so, as he'll also be on more money than we were paying him. And are just going to kid on that O'Donnell had been playing well for us and that all of the Motherwell fans were fully behind him getting picked for Scotland? Go back to the start of the year and into March on this forum and see the type of reaction O'Donnell was getting. In fact, just put his name in the search bar above. So let's not kid on that O'Donnell being dropped was a travesty, and was all down to him arguing and falling out with the manager. It wasn't. He was shit. Did he lose the dressing room? It's interesting that we're all willing to buy into rumours and made-up "facts" yet the only noises coming out the dressing room are from our captain and best player who says exactly the opposite. Do we believe him? Or just ignore Kelly's comments because it doesn't fit with the anti-Alexander narrative? I didn't think Alexander was particularly great as a manager, but I'm also not that sure we can expect to do much better. Alexander's record down south is decent enough, with promotion won for Fleetwood Town, took Scunthorpe to the play-offs, and got Salford promoted while taking them to a cup final. I know lots of our fans like to kid themselves on that he was a donkey, but his record says otherwise. Let's hope the next guy we bring in can live up to the lofty expectations of the experts we have in our fanbase.

If we're serious about wanting to rely on our own youth rather than buying in players on a gamble, then Hammell is surely the man for the job? He knows our youth players very well and will know who's up for the task and who isn't.

The thing is, there's context to be had during his run, like most things in life. Did he run out of ideas? I'm not so sure he did. He was embarking on a new season where he was looking to bring in fewer players and run with a tighter squad. He came in and steered us out of trouble, that much is true. But he also had to deal with managing the club during a time of short-notice suspensions and even call-offs due to Covid, which had a pretty substantial effect on recruitment not just for us, but other clubs in the league. Let's be honest, there's a reason why most clubs in the league last season were terrible. Over the season we brought in 16 players. I think most of the league clubs brought in extra bodies to try and help deal with any potential Covid suspensions, but the kicker is that they had to do it without an increase in budget. Basically, we all needed more players on less wages to make up the numbers, which is why I think our squad (and the squads of those around us) were bloated and the quality simply wasn't great. That doesn't even begin to address the issues with training and masks and social distancing and all that jazz. Those aren't excuses, that's just how it was. It was a really tough time to come into a football club and try to successful manage a squad of players. On his record, we finished last season in 5th with a record of 12 wins, 10 draws, and 16 losses. The year before St Johnstone finished 5th with a record of 11 wins, 12 draws, and 15 losses. And in 208/19, Hibs finished 5th with a record of 14 wins, 12 draws, and 12 losses. So, it's hardly as if our record last season is all that terrible. Where Alexander faced issues was in having what was a very good start to the season, followed by a terrible finish. He even snagged a few Manager of the Month awards, didn't he? Flip those around and he'd be considered a managerial mastermind for changing things up. The result at the end of the season would have been the same though. On signings, personally, I think McGinn and Spittal will come good for us. I actually prefer the idea of signing less players, but players who have a decent pedigree in our game, than signing 8-10 new players from down south who are all huge gambles. Spittal made 37 appearances for County last season, while Mcginn played 34 times for Hibs. We know what we're getting from those two. Neither will be amazing, but they could both be good, solid first team players for Motherwell for a good few years. Morris I don't know much about, but last season aside he seems to have a solid reputation in League One down south, playing over 30 games each season in four out of the five he was at Fleetwood and Scunthorpe. In conclusion, I think Alexander will be fine. He'll get another job down south no problem, mostly because the comments from Gary Neville about how they made a huge mistake in sacking him at Salford, plus his record there, and at Scunthorpe and Fleetwood will hold more authority than him being binned by us in what most down south consider to be an inferior league. I expect he'll pop up in League One or Two before the season is out.

Have to love how these rumours just suddenly become fact. It seems we've forgotten the calls for O'Donnell to be dropped for being rank rotten, and are overlooking the idea that Woolery is now playing in Turkey most likely making far more coin than we could ever hope to pay him.

Of course it isn't, but do many other clubs have their best player and captain come out and address it in the media?

At least we won't see any chat about Van Der Gaag this time around.

Something I've always wondered about when I read about situations like this, is what kind of effect it has on future player and manager recruitment? I mean, for most players and managers this is simply their job. Very few are plying their trade for a club they have an emotional attachment to. Also, football players and managers talk to each other. It's a relatively small industry. If you were a manager who had a few options to get back into the game, or to even move up a few levels, would something like this play a part? We've read often enough about how players and managers will pick up the phone to speak to people who know about the club, ex-managers and so forth before they take the job. Alexander reportedly spent a bit of time chatting with Robinson before accepting the position. What will Alexander tell a potential manager if they ask him about his time here? Very well-run club with some great backroom staff and a decent squad, but a fanbase that will hurl abuse at you on the regular if things turn? If I was a player from down south with a few options including Motherwell, i'd be looking at Kelly's comments and the situation with the manager and be thinking "do I want to subject my family, my parents, my kids to reading abuse directed at me and my team mates on Twitter or social media any time we don't play well or lose? Or even worse, have them sitting in the main stand to watch me play only to see grown adults hanging over the side of the stadium to hurl abuse as we leave the field?" And I know that some people will say "well, you're a footballer, you're in a privileged position, you make a lot of money, just man up and accept it" but no one wants to work in a somewhat toxic workplace, do they? Especially if they have options. If any one of us on here had a few different job offers and one of them was known in the industry for being hard work, a difficult environment to work in, would we want to work there? All I'm saying is, most players we sign usually have a few different options available to them in the form of similar sized clubs down south and even up here. The pull of Motherwell lately has been the chance to kick on and progress your career, but if the reports of negativity start to outweigh the positives, we may find that players we target opt for elsewhere where the atmosphere is less likely to turn. I'd hate to see us get a reputation in the game as a place where players and managers actively avoid unless they have no other option.

I don't think anyone is claiming he should be the first name of the team sheet, we're saying it's strange that he's went from being our captain and a regular starter to not featuring at all. That would hint at something more between him and the management team, although we won't know for sure obviously. It's all speculation at this point.

At this point it wouldn't surprise me. Unless things change drastically it'll be a long, hard season. Although I think St Mirren are going to be involved in the relegation battle too.

That's the thing, I think we did organise some games only for them to be cancelled. That's what I've picked up on anyway. Could be wrong, but I don't think the manager would actively not want games under our belt.

This is a point I've seen mentioned a few times. First of all, I don't think the manager is responsible for organising friendly games pre-season. That responsibility sits with other departments in the football club I'd think. He'll have an input, sure, but he isn't making those games happen. And I doubt the club were like "How about games against X,Y, and Z, Graham?" only for him to say "nah, it's cool. It's only an Irish side we're playing in Europe." Also, there's been talk of games being organised then cancelled for reasons outwith our control by our potential opponents. Obviously we couldn't organise any games at Fir Park, so I think we were relying on some away games, which didn't happen. The pre-season hasn't gone according to plan by the looks of it, but I'm not sure that the manager is to blame there. He's to blame for many other things though.

Ordinarily I'd agree, but there's a few weird situations going on. The main one is with O'Donnell.

His contract is likely structured to include a number of factors, but I'd imagine one of them is keeping the club in the Premier league, which he has done. The fact he took us to European football will have earned him some credit with the board. What most fans are asking for is the equivalent of a person being hired as a sales manager with minimum KPIs tied into his contract, only for him to hit those targets at the end of the year then be sacked because he had the equivalent of a bad day at the office early in the next year. As for the number of wins in a calendar year, or whatever way people want to frame it, that doesn't matter. It's where we finish in the league that matters. Teams below us may have had a better run over a pre-determined period of time (10 games, 15 games, 20 games) but if they finished below us in the league it doesn't matter. Alexander will be sacked if it looks unlikely he'll manage to secure us 10th place at minimum this season. We won't know how likely that is until around October or November, which is when I think the decision will be made. If we're sitting 9th or 10th and looking terrible he'll be gone and a new man in by January. If we're sitting 7th or even 8th and there's a bit of distance between ourselves and the teams in 10th and below then I think he'll be given the rest of the season. And for clarity, this isn't me saying what I want to happen. This is how I see it playing out.

I'm actually pretty confident that we'll win this game handily. It's what we do, isn't it? Just when we think there's no way back we put in a good performance and grab a win. How many times in the past have we seen it said "oh, with our form we'll be lucky to get anything from the next 2/4/6 games" only to go out and get a few wins. I think we'll start with three points here. It won't change the mood much with most of the fans, mind you, but still.

This is key for me. Motherwell have been in this position before, but usually the players are still behind the manager, such as with Robinson. It just wasn't working for him. But there's something else behind this I think. Obviously we'll never know for sure, but the team just looked completely disinterested last night. However, with that said, I'd be shocked if Alexander was sacked any time soon. I think he'll get until October at the very least, and if things are looking horrible then he'll be let go.

You think so? Not sure I agree with that to be honest. I think we have the makings of a good team, especially with the "dead wood" that's been moved out. A few additions of starting-place quality and we'll be good to go I think.

I think most fans would rather we brought in quality over quantity, which means we'll have to wait until the right players become available. I'm thinking that once the clubs further up the pecking order finalise their own signings and decide who's being allowed out on loan and let go we might see some more movement.

The thing is, I think he knows exactly what our shortcomings are, he just doesn't seem to let much on in his interviews. Which is fair enough. As I said, I fully expect that his views and discussions behind closed doors with the board and the players are very different to what he's telling the media in pre and post match interviews. I take everything a manager or player says in the media with a wheelbarrow full of salt.

Just out of curiosity, what do you want him to say? With very few exceptions I've found virtually every manager media interview for most clubs through the years to be bland, by-the-book comments. Of course, we all know that what he says to the media in public and what he's saying to the players in the dressing room is entirely different.

7th or 8th for me this season, which isn't ideal as it's kind of no-mans land for us. Means the manager will have hit the targets set (avoid relegation) but failed to get us into the top six, which is less of a target than avoiding relegation, but still a target. If that happens, what then? Some of the fans will likely still be unhappy unless we've seen some marked progress in how we play.

I must be one of the few who isn't really concerned about this game. We've been down this road with Llanelli, where we lost 1-0 at home and went over there to win 3-0. I think we'll do the same again on Thursday. Couple of goals and through we go. Or is it blind optimism?

I don't think either of them will be moved on this summer unless we get a decent cash offer, but I definitely think they need to make it happen this season if it's going to work for them at all. Last season saw both Shields and Efford score 3 goals each, which isn't good enough. They're both still only 24 & 25 years old respectively, so they can still kick on, but I don't hold out much hope for them.

Absolutely no one, that's who. At best there's fans (like me) who simply know that he's going to be given some time to do his job, and who will support him so long as he's in the manager's office. It's been mentioned often enough, last season we did well to secure a European spot, but it's now ground zero again. New season, fresh set of expectations. If we're languishing near the bottom of the table in October or so then he'll be under real pressure and rightfully so. It's on him to get things moving in the right direction and make another few signings before the window shuts.

Exactly. It's a stick-on that what he says behind closed doors to the players is entirely different to what we see on television or hear on the radio.

Funnily enough, what they do is very relevant if it's something successful that some of our fans can point at when they're arguing how crap we are.