David

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.

Griffiths is a tough one. If he's on form and motivated he's probably as good a player as we're realistically ever going to get. I wouldn't be against him being brought in to train with us for a bit and give the management team a chance to see how he would fit into the squad, and for the backroom team to gauge his fitness. I'd also make it a requirement that he immediately hand over control of all his social media accounts to the team who do the club social media!

I can quite clearly remember numerous calls across social media and even this forum I think for Mugabi to replace him at full-back. And for the record, I found that thinking to be a bit off. I've always been a fan of O'Donnell, and think he's perfectly fine for our level. He makes mistakes on occasion, but everyone does, otherwise they'd be playing further up the food chain. I also like McGinn though, and certainly think we could look to find a way to play both of them. It's the left hand side I'm a little worried about at the moment.

Well, this subject has arisen following Thursday's game, so we may as well get it out in the open. Personally, I think he'll be given until around October or November and if things aren't looking any better by then it'll be time for both parties to shake hands and move on. Simple as that, really.

Absolutely. It's ground zero again as far as I'm concerned. I've never really bought into the idea that managers should get leeway based on previous seasons, so qualifying for Europe last year doesn't factor into anything. If we don't get results in the first few months it'll be an uncomfortable position to be in, and the board will need to take into account those results, performances, as well as factors we as fans don't see, such as the mood in the playing squad and what Alexander has said privately about what he can do to turn things around.

We could do. It'll also come down to how the teams around us do as well I guess. Simple fact is, if we're looking dicey come October or November then the board will have a decision to make, and it won't just be based on our results, it'll be based on various factors that the fans have no real insight into.

Wait, wasn't there strong calls for O'Donnell to be dropped in favour of Mugabe playing out wide in his position last season? Remember? He was supposed to be terrible, it was a farce that he even got called up for Scotland? Now that the manager has dropped O'Donnell and brought in someone else we're suddenly wanting him back in the team?

Again, look at my entire post and take that comment I made in context. I posted our overall results and accomplishments over the past five to ten years just before I said it, which should have provided the context. Our fans have nothing to complain about in the main. Do they have the right to moan about the football played last season? Sure. That's their call. But as a club we've had more good and even great seasons than terrible. Last season wasn't great, but there have been circumstances involved outwith the manager and clubs control which have been mentioned in the past, but a lot of fans simply don't want to hear about those because it would mean cutting the club and manager some slack. Again, see my point above. How many outright terrible seasons have we had over the past five to ten years? Despite the bleating almost every single year about how we're surefire relegation candidates, how many actual relegation fights have we been in? And yes, much of our fanbase is spoiled. Many of the younger generation have known only the results of the past ten years or so. They didn't live through the administration years or some of the absolute guff we've seen at Fir Park in the years before. They're used to seeing a club that finishes in the top four (even finishing 2nd!) and playing in Europe fairly regularly. And on your final point, I do stand by that. I've seen it said often enough on social media as far back as the start of last season.

No, I'm not saying the fans should be happy about the standard of football last season, but I don't think we have anything to complain about in the main. It might just be me, but I don't actually pay money to come to Fir Park and be entertained by the style of football. I come to Fir Park to see us win. How we do that matters not a jot to me. Entertainment is a bonus. If I want entertainment I'll watch the English Premiership on telly. I'm certainly not expecting to get entertainment from the level of football we see in Scotland. I watch Motherwell because I have an emotional investment in the club and the outcomes of the matches. If I was just looking for entertainment I'd spend my money elsewhere.

I think we also need to bear in mind our budget and the competition. As long as our defence is reasonably solid I'm happy enough.

Or we could do what we did last season, and stumble along spending most of our time in the top six before eventually securing 5th and European football. I'm honestly not that worried just now. I heard a lot of chatter about how clubs like Hibs and Aberdeen wouldn't be as bad again this season, but so far Hibs and St Mirren look like two clubs with real problems. I can see us hovering around the top six and hitting the final batch of games before the split still looking to secure that top six finish, all the while a lot of our fanbase will be moaning like fuck that we're not playing exciting enough football for them.

One thing you need to bear in mind though is a decent amount of our support consists of absolute roasters at the moment for some reason, and as such their knee-jerk reactions and short-term rage should never come into the decisions being made by the professionals who make up our board. We're booing our own team consistently, throwing bottles onto the pitch, threatening YouTubers, singing questionable songs and generally not painting a very good image of the clubs support at the moment. Which is a shame, as we actually have a club that fans of many other clubs would give their right arm for. We're well-run, we have a CEO who doesn't only give a fuck what the fans think, but is actually out there interacting with them on social media, we're fan-owned which gives us a say and insight into the club that other fans don't get, we have a social media team that produces some really cool content that provides us with a window into the club and the players, and despite the rattle-throwing and constant fear of impending relegation we've actually done really well over the past five to ten years. Since 2012/13 we enjoyed the following: Finished 2nd twice Finished 3rd Finished top six five times in the past ten seasons European football of some kind in five seasons of the past ten Reached two cup finals Finished 11th once, and even then it gave us the play-off games against Rangers I know this might not be popular, but in all honesty our fans have absolutely nothing to be complaining about. Even if we do have a bad season this year and finish in the bottom six. I honestly think much of our fanbase at the moment is spoiled.

It's risk vs reward really, isn't it? I don't think that he's good enough to be a starter for us. I'd give Lamie and big Sol time to form a partnership, with Bevis as backup.

Let's be honest, with his physical attributes without the mistakes he makes on occasion he'd be nowhere near Motherwell. The guy is clearly a hell of an athlete, and is the physical prototype for a footballer at a much higher level than us. It's those occasional lapses in focus that are the reason he's plying his trade with us and not down south at a decent level.

My viewpoint on this is that he'll be given until around November or so. If we're not playing well and we're sitting in a relegation position or close to the bottom two then I'd expect we'll see a new man in January. Anyone thinking he's going to get sacked after he's been given the summer to spend money but before a league ball is kicked is absolutely mental. Even if we go over to Ireland and draw and still go out? He's not going to get sacked off the back of that result. Europe is a bonus. And we're not the first club to get caught early in our season by a smaller team who's already further into their season than we are. It happens virtually every season to one of the Scottish sides.

Aye, that was a nightmare. The reasoning behind it was the club sold a load of seats to the left hand side of the main stand, then were told by UEFA that they couldn't actually do that, so everyone who had bought tickets for that area had to relocated. People were getting emails and phone calls from the club on Wednesday and Thursday I believe, and they had to scramble to accommodate everyone. Not making excuses for the way it was done, but I'm not surprised to hear that UEFA were playing funny buggers. They have previous for that kind of thing.

But we're still in the league cup, aren't we? It isn't a choice between playing in the league cup or in European competition. So we still have that slim chance of progressing far into that tournament that you mentioned. It all matters though, doesn't it? Getting a better-than-average crowd will help the club financially, that's for sure. And obviously every single fan has the option of doing that. They pay their money and can (within reason) hurl abuse at the team they supposedly support if they wish. One thing that's for sure is that it does absolutely zero good. Giving pelters and dogs abuse to the players and manager won't improve anything. I take little positive from the actual game itself. The atmosphere, the fan display, the number of people in attendance is something we can look at from a positive slant. And it's something we wouldn't get in the League Cup group stages. I wasn't impressed at all with the team, and didn't leave the stadium happy. I just don't see the point in hurling abuse at anyone in general, much less the team I'm supposed to support. I personally think it says more about the person who's making a bit of an arse of themselves by acting up than it does anything else. First of all, I'd probably rather be a "happy clapper" than a miserable, moaning sod like many of our support seems to be. After all, it's better to be happy than not, right? In all seriousness, there was no "happy clappers" last night. Absolutely zero people in the crowd would have been happy with the result. I don't understand why it has to be one or the other. It seems like you either approve of and join in the embarrassing abuse of our manager and players, or you're someone who is stupid and doesn't recognise a terrible display by the team. Personally, I know we played badly. I wasn't happy. In fact, I was as unhappy as anyone else in the crowd. As soon as that final whistle went I was offski. I wasn't applauding the players, or the manager. They didn't deserve it. The only difference is that I don't see the point in losing the rag in front of women and children and acting like a mentalist. You're right, he does deserve the summer window to add to the team, and he did get us into Europe and the top six last season. This season is ground zero. None of what he did last season matters now. And if we hit October or so in bad form and looking like we're in danger of falling into a relegation battle there will be questions asked and most likely a change made. But he's not going to be sacked now. After a friendly and European game in July? No chance.

Really? Result and performance aside, last night was class. The march to the stadium, the fan display, the atmosphere for ten minutes before the main stand started booing our own team and manager. We get none of that playing against Annan in front of 3,000 fans. But hey, maybe that's what the fans want? I actually heard people behind me in the main stand last complain that there was too many people at the game!

I really hope it doesn't. If we are running the recruitment at the club on a reactionary basis, where we rush out to sign players based on individual match performances then we have bigger problems that I thought. We have a plan in place, and we're looking to fill positions and skillsets identified long before now I hope. Let's stick to the plan and make sure that anyone we bring in adds something that the manager is looking for. McGinn is clearly a replacement for O'Donnell. I think it's clear the manager doesn't really rate him as highly as others do. Spittal is a decent premiership level player, and I think he'll add more than the midfielders we've let go. Morris I still don't know enough about, and we've not seen anywhere near enough of him to judge. I'll cast an opinion on him after ten games or so.

This part comes down to two things, quite simply. Money and availability. It's easy to say that Watt left and we've not replaced him properly, but are we to assume the recruitment team haven't been trying? A club of our size and with our budget needs a few things to fall in our favour to sign a player of Watt's quality. We can't really afford to buy them if they're currently showing the kind of form we'd want. We need to find players who are at a loose end, not favoured by their own club, have talent, are affordable, and most importantly they don't have any other offers on the table that better what we can provide them with. In short, we need to take a gamble. Remember when Watt signed? He'd just left CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria by mutual consent after six months or so. Before that he'd left St Johnstone after scoring three league goals for them all season. The opinion when we signed him was very much split if I recall correctly. He was considered a waster who was still living on a goal for Celtic against Barcelona years ago. Yes, it paid off, but it could so easily have been another waste of money and time. We gambled, and won to a certain degree. So, we need to keep scouring the market until the next potential winning gamble pops up and circumstances work in our favour. In the past we've slagged off the club for just signing any old shite, so we can't get all pissy when they appear to be keeping the powder dry for a player that will fit the bill. The same goes for the other positions you mention. It's not as easy as identifying a position and "fixing it." The right player needs to be available at the right price. Look at other clubs with much more money who still can't get it right. It's not as easy as some people think.

Similar, but not quite the same.

Not that much. To sign players from teams with larger budgets than we have and who we've all heard of, and for a manager who isn't arrogant and who doesn't dress well to have us playing a Liverpool-esque style of football that takes us to regular wins over the Old Firm and into the top six/four every season. So, basically John Lambie with the footballing intelligence and tactical know-how of Pep and Jurgen.

Absolutely. Those who are critical of Alexander's playing style, his results from Christmas to the end of the season etc all have valid points. But there does seem to be a lot of unwarranted anger and dislike based on stupid things as I mentioned above. In saying that, it's a new season. Back to square one. If he doesn't get us off to a good start and we're sitting in 10th or so by November then questions will need to be asked, and rightfully so. I don't think we'll be in that position right enough, but if we are then all bets are off.