David

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.

Surely St Johnstone, Hibs and St Mirren would have qualified from the group stage. Nothing is a gimme for clubs like us.

When you put it like that it highlights that we do have options with the squad we have. Just need to hope the manager can maybe look to change things up.

It could be that he just needs the right environment. We did it with Watt. But you could be right, he may be too far gone at this point.