David

Obviously there's "normal" work, but we're talking about when their earning potential as an actual player ends. Rarely will a player finish playing and go on to earn more money as a coach or manager than they do playing. Again, what I'm talking about is at that level of earning power. The whole point I was making was that if a player, of any age, is offered the chance to sign for a club and triple his weekly wage there's a good chance he takes it, especially as it means they're in a better position financially to move into something else when their playing career ends.

Again, an agent who is simply in it to make himself as much money as possible, and who doesn't care about his clients won't be in the game for long. There are agents who are in it to make both themselves and their clients as much money as possible though, and those agents are a perfect fit for a player who doesn't care where he is as long as he's racking up coin. 23 in the footballing world is realistically around 12 years from retirement, so in real-world terms a footballer at 23 should have the equivalent ambition of someone in a regular job when they're 53 years old. At that age you're already thinking about a life after work, and you need money for that. Exactly. It comes down to how much the player is willing to gamble really. For example, Turnbull could sign a new deal, make okay money for a few years and perform really well before winning a big move down south with triple his wages on offer or even more. But, he could just as easily sign that new deal, not hit the heights he hopes (or get injured) and end up seeing out his deal before moving to part-time football further down the leagues. Or, he could get that big offer while his stock is high, make the move and guarantee the cash for a few years. Then he either makes it into the team down south, earns a bigger and better deal and progresses from there, or he doesn't make the cut, and eventually returns back to the SPFL to probably get the deal from somewhere that Motherwell were offering in the first place, except he has those triple wage packets from the past few years in his pocket as well. Personally, even as a Motherwell fan I'd take the deal from down south if it was a substantial pay raise. I have no doubt that, fan or not, if I didn't do well at the club they'd have no qualms about letting me go, so why should I treat it as anything other than a professional relationship? When I'm 40 and retired with cash in the bank I'll come back and support the club as a fan.

I know there's this tendency for fans to view agents as cynical, selfish types who are just out for themselves, but that's not really true. any agent operating like that wouldn't be able to win clients. An agent's job is to make sure that his client earns as much money as possible in what is really a short career. Most players are done by age 35 or so, and having enough coin in the bank to live off and maybe invest and start a business or whatever outside football is the aim. In any line of work, if you're doing well and winning some plaudits, you'd be daft not to capitalise on that, especially when the plaudits can just as easily go away as quickly as they arrived. If a company offers you double or even treble your salary you most likely take it, and any agent worth his salt will advise his client that this is a business, and you do what's right for yourself and your family financially.

Aye, it's a hard balance for sure, because until they've played in the first team we don't know how good they are, unless it's an obvious stand-out talent. Hopefully he stays and signs a new deal, but I wouldn't blame him if he does go. He'll know that if he doesn't continue progressing as he is after signing a new deal with us he could just as easily slip into mediocrity, so the temptation of a deal with good money down south will be hard to knock back if it arises.

It depends what kind of money he's offered, doesn't it? If Swansea offer treble what we can offer he'd have to seriously consider it. Anyone who says they wouldn't is either mental or lying.

The Main Stand isn't much better from what I recall.

This can be taken as relatively good news if we end up in the position of bringing in a new manager in the summer, as it means he'll have a blank slate and some wages to play with.

Nabbed a point against Celtic, sitting 9th and 6 points clear of the bottom two. He's doing his job, regardless of who likes it or not.

Those kinds of figures are exactly why I tend to get a little bit pissed off when our media describe Celtic getting hammered by Man City or a similar club as "an inevitability due to the huge gulf between the clubs, any result Celtic can get is a bonus," while us losing heavily to them is "the rest of Scottish football has to up its game and try to compete."

Yeah, I'm in full agreement there. The only reason we should be looking to ditch a manager mid-season is if it's all going catastrophically wrong. That's not the case just now.

I think Jack Ross style of management also played a part to be fair. It's early days, but he looks like a talented manager.

And could even end up ruining careers. For me, the best option is to get to the end of the season and see what happens from there.

The game has changed a tad since the 60's

We're currently 6 points clear of 11th, and 7 points clear of 12th. Our next six games are against Aberdeen and Celtic at home, and Livingston, St Johnstone, Hearts and Celtic away. St Mirren's next six games are against Hearts, Aberdeen, and Hamilton at home, and Hibs, Livingston and us away. Dundee have got Accies and Rangers at home, and Hibs, Killie, Aberdeen and Celtic away. All ifs, buts and maybe's, but if we're honest we could just as easily end up three or four points off St Mirren in 11th as we could pull away from them. I personally wouldn't risk binning the manager and bringing someone new in to develop the kids when the threat of relegation is still very much a possibility. Sacking a manager mid-season is a last resort.

I don't think anyone is assuming anything, but many of us believe there's a better chance of survival under Robinson, despite the football being turgid and not all that effective against sides in the top six, than there is of removing him and bringing in someone entirely new midway through the season. Personally, I think it's probably time for a change in the summer, when a new man can come in and bring in some of his own players and get the time to bed into the job.

It has nothing to do with last season at all, and everything to do with getting to the end of this season with our Premiership status intact. If and when we do that then we can look at Robinson's record and decide where to go next. But what would sacking him mid-season accomplish? Very little. But it could result in disruption and a tailspin. Under him this season we look like we'll do enough to stay up.

I agree entirely with everything you've said, but for me his job shouldn't be under threat mid-season unless we're in serious danger of going down. Come the summer it's a different kettle of fish though, where he should be judged on a whole manner of things, including performance, results, transfer dealings etc. But barring the potential disaster of relegation I don't support binning a manager mid-season.

I see no need to push the panic button this season unless we drop into the relegation spots. If we avoid that we can assess at the end of the season.

This season we've seen Rangers put five past St Johnstone, and four past Accies as well. St Johnstone then went on to ship six against Celtic a few weeks later. It happens. Personally, I'd have been more concerned had we lost either game against St Mirren or Dundee by a solitary goal than a drubbing by Rangers or Celtic.

I know some may say it's not the game for doing so, but I'd love to see a change of personnel up front. I don't think the Main/Bowman partnership is working.

If Robinson does go we'll more than likely be linked with the usual suspects, won't we? It'll be talk of Van Der Gaag, Valakari, with Nijholt getting the odd mention. And no doubt Edgar Davids will have his CV on Flow's desk before Robinson has even cleared out his office and said his goodbye's.

Any word on who's going to be there?

Oh absolutely, I can understand why he doesn't make the step up, but as a fan I'd love to see it. Don't give up the day job quite yet.

Bigi for me. Looked like the only player in a claret and amber shirt who actually wanted to play football.

If only the manager of this well-performing youth side would entertain making the step up to the first team. That's what's frustrated me over the past few years. And yeah, I know he enjoys his BT gig and all that jazz, but still, he's looking like someone who could step up and do a job in the senior game.