David

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.

It's quite simple. Some people just don't like Alexander. Well, the very small part of him that they see in the media and suchlike. Obviously very few people on here actually know him as a person. But yeah, he's far too confident (interpreted as arrogant) in his own abilities to be a Motherwell manager in the eyes of some. I'm guessing that for some people how he carries himself (with a slight swagger) and the aforementioned confidence doesn't fit with the "wee club, rollercoaster etc" patter that many fans associate with Motherwell. I've also seen it said that he "looks too cool" in some fans eyes. The fact he dresses well seems to irk some people for some reason. Maybe if he wore a tracksuit that was a size too large he'd be more loved? I personally quite like him. He doesn't do much pandering, especially to the old firm. We've had managers who are basically gushing over their teams whenever we played them. Alexander doesn't do that. Criticism of his footballing style can be made for sure, it's been chronic to watch at times, but it's hard to argue with his overall results since he came in.

As much as the temptation is there for people to shout about "something needing done" the truth is, there has to be an element of personal responsibility. If someone is addicted to gambling and throws their wages away, they need to seek help. It's not on some unknown force to ban or restrict anything.

The away game is being shown live on Premier Sports here in the UK. The home fixture I don't know.

I know we won't have much chance of going through, but we don't try every year to qualify for Europe so we can get papped out by some team in Israel or Kazakhstan or wherever, do we? Surely if we're going to get eliminated we'd rather play a team that we at least recognise? Sparta Prague have a decent European calibre, having beaten Rangers and also hammered Celtic a few times. I'd rather we played teams like Dortmund, Nancy, Steaua Bucharest, Panathinaikos and Prague than some no-name outfit from a corner of the world it's near impossible to get to. Both of the sides we can get provide a fairly easy journey for fans to attend the away game, which is what it's all about. That's where the memories are made.

Players can respond and play differently in different teams though, remember. Look at Declan Gallagher with us and Aberdeen. Spittal could very well fit right into Alexander's approach and do really well here. The manager knows more about him than any of us do, he's worked with him previously. Let's wait and see him at least play in a competitive game before writing them off.

Written off two of our new players before they've even kicked a competitive ball, eh? Got to love it.

Surprised they didn't try to sign our social media team going by that effort. Zany video indeed.

I see this reaction for 99% of the signings we make, and it makes me ask, what exactly are fans expecting? Household names that we all recognise? Prolific strikers who have been banging them in the season or two before? It doesn't work that way. There has been maybe one or two signings in recent times that we've made where I haven't reacted by saying "never heard of him, let's see what he has to offer."

As has been said before, most teams had to inflate their squads last season due to potential Covid suspensions and issues. That led to a lot of players being brought in who were nothing more than emergency backup in case we were hit with a Covid run. As such, I'm looking at this window as the first time we're really seeing Alexander operating as he would have wanted to, and I'm actually glad we're not just bringing in a raft of new players, many of whom wouldn't fit the bill.

It's a catch 22 situation really. We can say that it's best for a player to stay at Motherwell and look to progress to the first team, but what if that doesn't happen for whatever reason? Injury, loss of form, simply not being good enough. The example a lot of fans use is Jake Hastie, claiming his move to Rangers wasn't a good move for him. I think his level of performance after that short purple patch for us shows he absolutely made the correct decision. If he'd stayed at Motherwell he'd likely have shown the kind of form he did when he returned, which would have seen him slide down the pecking order and eventually get released. I don't think him not signing for Rangers would have seen him suddenly become a quality player who then won a big move a few years later. As things stand, he's playing in League Two. The only difference is he's doing so with a relatively healthy bank balance from his Rangers deal, so he's come out a winner in that regard.

He's got over 1,000 posts on this forum and has never done that yet, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

I know the fans tend to believe O'Donnell is shit and nothing more than an imposter, but if we are in a position to offload a Scottish international for no fee despite him being contracted to the club until the end of May next year then the manager must have a hell of a lot of faith in Johnston. Personally, I don't rate McGinn as being better than O'Donnell, so let's hope Alexander knows what he's doing. One thing I'm fairly certain of is if we offer up O'Donnell for nothing there'll be no shortage of teams willing to jump all over that.

The window has only been open for two weeks, and we don't kick our first competitive ball for another month or so.