David

Yes, but the point is, that's what good players mean to a team. When teams lose their best players, they suffer. That's why teams sign strikers. To score goals. It's part of the whole process, so it's kind of weird to say "ah, but the only reason we won games is because we had a good striker!" Basically, when we were winning games and putting points on the table we were lucky, and when we were losing games it's because we were rubbish. Zero credit to the manager and the team as a whole for the positive results during the season. It was all down to luck, Tony Watt's goals (which he scored in a total vacuum, of course. The rest of the team and the managers tactics played no part at all) and our overall league finish had nothing to do with the team and manager doing better than the teams around us over the entirely of the season, but was instead down to other teams being crap. Honestly, the manager and team can't win when it comes to some fans.

This kind of chat really does my head in. How many fans will be saying that Man City will only win the league this season due to Haaland's goals? Of course Watt's goals helped us, that's his job! He was part of the team! As for "a lot of luck" getting us the finish we got? By the same token, a lot of bad luck stopped us finishing higher in the second half of the season then? Of course not, because the narrative is that when a manager we don't particularly like does well it's mainly down to luck, but when he does badly it's entirely on him and him alone.

I'm not questioning the appointment of Hammell, for the record. I actually think he'll do okay for us. What I am saying is that as a fan base we need to be realistic, and take the positives from whatever kind of approach the manager at the time employs. If we find ourselves in a position where the stars align and we're getting decent results and playing some nice football those are the days to be really enjoyed, as they don't happen all that often. Alexander, for all his faults, can sit there today and point at the actual end results his football attained. Arrived in January with the club in relegation trouble, and took them to a relatively comfortable 8th place finish, followed by a 5th place finish and European football qualification in his only full season. Sure, those who didn't like him for various reasons can point to the five draws, six losses and zero wins we got between December and March, while his supporters (if they exist) can point to his nine wins, four draws and seven losses from August to the end of December in the same year. Along with some decent draws against Rangers. Promotion and relegation isn't decided on an arbitrary period of time in any given season. It's based on the entirety of the season, and if we're going to take into account the zero wins from December to March we have to acknowledge the nine wins between August and December. And everything you said in your post there about Hammell is true. He's made mistakes, he will make more, and there has been circumstances that if they had been different we'd be in a different place today, but the same goes for any manager. I seriously doubt any Motherwell fan wants Stevie Hammell of all people to fail so they can point at the results of a manager who's history with the club lasted 18 months. I certainly don't. I don't think Alexander was anything special, by the way. He was a good, solid manager at a time when we needed a good, solid manager. I just don't think he was as bad or calamitous as some people are painting him to be. Hammell's teams play better football, but do seem to show the naivety you'd expect from a manager just learning his craft at the senior level. He also needs at least three transfer windows. The summer wasn't the best period for him to put his stamp on the team, so I'd personally like to see him given until this time next year or thereabouts before we start making any decisions on him, unless we fall into a tailspin, which hopefully won't happen.

I bet that's what the St Mirren fans thought as well. Thus far in the league they've lost one in ten, scored 35 goals and conceded 6. We have less of a chance of beating them than they had of beating Real Madrid in reality, but it's still a chance. As always, we need them to be off their game and us to be right up for it and on ours in order to have a chance. I wouldn't bet any money on us, but until we go 2-0 down I'll have hope.

I remember the fans crying out for entertainment when Alexander was apparently stinking the joint up. Under the previous manager we got two draws at Ibrox and a draw at Fir Park against Rangers, which is decent going, but none of that really mattered. He came in when we were looking terrible, and guided us to an 8th place finish, then a 5th place finish and a quarter final in the Scottish Cup in his first full season. All in all, a decent record, even if the season was a bit mental with that run without a win from end of December until March. But, many fans were quick to say that they paid their money to be entertained, so we're getting what we wanted. One way to look at it is if we're in 9th or 10th at the tail end of the season it's going to be exciting watching to see if we can play our way out of relegation trouble. That's maybe better value for money than holding Rangers to a draw at Ibrox and boring 5th or 6th place finish. If we're wanting entertaining football which also puts wins on the board then it's going to be really difficult to get that with our budget. I wouldn't bet on Guardiola accomplishing that at Motherwell, never mind Stevie Hammell. As things are we're certainly easier on the eye, but that comes with more risk and a higher chance of mistakes being made that could cost us. Just the way it is.

As with all games against the old firm, it'll come down to three factors: The opposition being off their game to some degree Us firing on all cylinders A nice dollop of luck If we can get the above then we'll see a result. However, if the first point doesn't work in our favour it won't really matter what we do.

He's got almost 50 first team games under his belt now, played across leagues in Scotland, England and Holland. He's maybe not a veteran, but it's hardly as though he's a teenager coming right out of an academy with single digit first team appearances.

While taking anything at Celtic Park is a nice bonus, we have Ross County away the following Tuesday, followed by Hibs away on the Saturday. Four points from these three games would be a decent return in my opinion.

It's going to be tough. Like it or not, this Celtic team are very good. Possibly the best team they've had in quite some time. What they did in that first half against Real Madrid shows that they're no mugs, and that a team on our level should not be able to lay a glove on them if they're on form and up for it.

Hearing that the reason for games being cancelled down south is due to lack of available police, so that may very well be the case up here as well. Not only will there be more crowds gathered in various parts of the country, but the terrorist threat level is automatically bumped up in these circumstances apparently. I guess that makes more sense than the authorities just cancelling games for no real reason.

To be fair, a night at the opera is probably cheaper than paying to see Ross County play Motherwell!

Confirmed as Hammell's assistant.

Will be interesting to see if we do any better at retaining our young players if they see a clear pathway into the first team. Perhaps that disconnect when Alexander was in charge is what led some of them such as Bailey Rice to move elsewhere? Might as well make a decent wedge while not getting into the first team!

I understand the thinking behind this, but when a club appoints a manager they have to support him. Refusing his requests for players doesn't exactly scream "backing the manager," does it? Basically, the board appointed Alexander so they had to either back him, or move him out. If they started refusing his requests (if they were reasonable, of course) for new players and so on then the position becomes untenable. What's to say Hammell won't be a Howe or Neil type appointment? In fact, Howe's first two games as caretaker manager at Bournemouth were defeats before he got the job full-time, and Neil got the Accies job on an interim basis initially after managing the youth team. I'm not saying he'll be as successful as either of them, but there's shades of Hammell's situation in both.

Forgotten? No. But most people have moved past it. He apologised, promised to do better, and most people have taken those promises at face value. isn't that what we're supposed to do? Otherwise, what's the point in him apologising?

Apparently he believes that he has "never quite won the Linfield supporters over" and that online abuse is affecting his family. Let's hope if he is our number one target that he doesn't call Graham Alexander before making his choice!

You're on top form recently!

It's been a while since we gave someone a right good doing, so why not Aberdeen? 1-3 to the good guys.

I think so as well. It was always a dodgy situation allowing the manager to surround himself entirely with his own backroom team. While it may seem like a good thing at the time to back the manager, it also means if and when he goes they all follow. I'd like whoever comes in to have Hammell installed as the assistant, with Kerr moved up to take on the job Hammell had with the youths.

Because it is possible to not be good enough for a starting spot, but good enough for a place on the bench. It doesn't have to be a game of absolutes. But let's be honest, if he did have a huge falling out, O'Donnell wouldn't even be training with the first team, let alone sitting on the bench. What did Alexander do that wasn't professional? Drop a player from the starting eleven who he didn't deem good enough? A player who, by most fans accounts, simply wasn't performing well enough? A player who himself admitted that Alexander may have been correct? I could understand if Alexander took the same approach as Paul Lambert did with Kayden Jackson and Jon Nolan at Ipswich, banishing them to train with the kids and making vague accusations about the player, but he didn't, did he? Did he disrespect O'Donnell in the media? In press interviews? Did he question O'Donnell's professionalism? I honestly think he just didn't fancy him as a player. He didn't think he was good enough. Which is allowed, by the way. He's the manager, it's his job to make those calls. I don't personally think it was the right call, but that's on Alexander. It wasn't unprofessional though. Why would he? Do you think Alexander removed O'Donnell from the team because of what the fans thought? If he did, then he's got bigger problems than might first be apparent! He dropped O'Donnell because he didn't think he was good enough. That's a managers prerogative. Why was it vindictive? Was he banished from the first team? Made to train with the kids? Embarrassed and called out publicly? I don't think he was. He was, basically, seen as surplus to requirements. It happens. He just wasn't good enough, mate. There's no "patching up" to be done. It was on O'Donnell to up his game and prove to the manager that he was good enough to feature. Which he didn't do, and he knows it going by his admittance that Alexander may have been correct. Maybe he got dropped initially and the head went down? He didn't respond as he should have? Hopefully he learns from it. That squad isn't a shambles. We have some quality in there, it will just take a few key signings in certain areas to make the difference. The recruitment thing is a fine line really. It depends who's available at any given time. It's easy for fans to say "get a striker in" but what if there's no decent strikers available within our budget? What then? Just magic one up out of thin air? Or do what we've seen managers in the past do, and sign any old shite as long as it represents a body in the door? Often times clubs in our position have to play the waiting game and see who becomes available on a free or via loan once the bigger clubs have conducted their business and finalised their squads. That's why there's usually always a rush of signings in the last few weeks. I said before the summer window opened that I'd rather we wait and sign decent quality than waste money on players who aren't going to make the cut just to get bodies in the door and keep the fans happy. If that means we're a bit light and not looking great for the first two or three games in the season then so be it. However, we're now in a position where we still need those quality signings, but don't have a manager to rubber stamp them. So, whatever problems we had a few weeks ago are now exacerbated. Which is why I would have stuck with Alexander until around October or so to see how we got on. Or at least until we identified a decent replacement ahead of time. But the fans wanted him out as "it couldn't possibly be any worse." So, let's see if that's true. There's no real outstanding candidate for the job out there at this stage of the season. There never is. We've gone down the crazy road of parting ways with a manager literally days before the season starts, and we have no one who can rubber stamp signings before the window closes, unless we want to bring a manager in a few weeks from now and hand him a squad that may include brand new signings he doesn't like the look of. Truth is, the club should either have got rid of Alexander in the summer, or waited until October or November. It seemed quite simple really. But they haven't, they dithered about until he eventually came to them obviously looking for the club to either accept his resignation or signal their intent to back him for the next few months at least. Let's hope we don't pay the ultimate price for that.

Compared to clubs who can afford to pay higher wages? You mention Ross County and Livingston, but they're clubs who also offer ordinary wages for the most part I think. Ross County maybe offer a little more, actually. But yeah, the truth is that the majority of our squad are going to be ordinary players. That's our level. What can make a difference is a manager who can take a bunch of ordinary players and make them play well, and it also helps if we can get a youth player through now & then who is of higher quality, or can chance upon a good find in the lower reaches of the English game.

Nah, we do what we need to do to succeed. If we have a chance to take someone like Mackay or McInnes from a team around us, we do it. I'd rather we did that and succeeded, than lose our premiership status but retain our status as a club who don't do shitty things.

On the subject of the next manager, I think we're at a stage where we need to either really go for someone of quality, or look at someone like Hammell who can implement his experience of the youth setup and bring some of those lads through. I'd sound out McInnes and Malky Mackay. Hopefully the club have at least got some sort of read on them, to know if they'd be interested. I know both clubs are similar to ours in many ways, but the potential, recent results and how the club is run here may appeal to them? I'd certainly be making moves to see if they'd at least entertain the idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Aye, but surely if there was a system, scout, recruitment specialist or whatever that could sign a lot of players who are better than ordinary but available on our budget they'd be the most sought after individuals in football? We sign ordinary players for the most part, because we offer ordinary wages.

Do you know what the disagreement was about, like? I didn't see it mentioned? There's every chance the disagreement was about O'Donnell not being good enough? Which many of our fans were saying week in and week out on here, on social media, and in the stands. But hey, you can use it as another reason to bash a guy who's no longer even here.