David

We've been gash for most of this season though, haven't we? He scored eight goals in the second half of the season last year when it seemed he was used as a proper striker. The second half of this season he's been as instrumental as anyone in changing our fortunes, but has been used in a position and tactically that doesn't really lend itself to him getting a lot of opportunities to score goals. One of those players who is recognised more by his fellow pros and managers than by fans it seems.

I guess it's a case of each to their own, but for me I desperately want to finish top of the mini-league we'll be in.

I'm not sure why people keep talking about a meaningless end to the season when we're currently sitting 8th, one point behind St Johnstone, and two ahead of Livi in 9th. The difference between finishing 7th and 9th is £120,000, which is a fair chunk of change for a club our size. That's what should be driving us until the last game of the season.

Still doesn't mean they're Dundee by any stretch. We're hardly talking Montreal Impact or Philadelphia Union here, are we? Atlanta reached the playoffs in their first season, then won the thing in their second. They also play to large crowds in what looks like a top class stadium. Any player from Europe could go there and spend an entire career in that league, coming out the other end of it with a very decent bank balance and having lived somewhere that isn't a bad place to be when you've got cash in your pocket. For me it would be far more attractive than buggering off to the English Championship or League One.

The splash of white makes the difference for me.

Reckon some interest from down south has maybe caught his attention. Can't see him staying.

This new retro home shirt looks class. There's a tracksuit jacket as well, but the image seems pixelated for me.

I think for a club our size it's almost always going to be a case of a fair chunk of players leaving in the summer. We deal in one year contracts and loan signings much of the time, so it's the nature of the game. Where we're making progress is in the players coming through from the academy, as we've got most of the current first-team prospects on decent deals. Alan Campbell and David Turnbull until May 2021, and a few others as well from what I've read. We bolster the team with a few more signings on one year deals and on loan, and continue to develop our own. Hopefully a few of those speculative signings work out and we see another Moult or Cedric and we can then benefit from them and cash in when the time is right.

The thing for me is that his lack of goalscoring opportunities can be attributed in large part to how he's being asked to play. He spends 90% of the game with his back to goal, attempting to bully and distract the opposition defence. This opens up the opportunities for the likes of Turnbull etc to get forward and do what they've been doing since January. If we remove Main and replace him with someone who's not as physical, and who can't do the job he's been doing, would we be as successful as we have been? Would we see Turnbull and Hastie get as much freedom as they do if defenders are dealing with a straight forward, regular centre forward? The first half of this season aside, as the entire team was gash, we saw what Main could do when he came to the club in January. He knows how to score goals, he hit something like eight in twenty one games last season for us. With the personnel we have now I reckon he'd get goals for us if he's used as an actual striker rather than as a hold up player who's job it is to annoy defenders and be a physical nuisance. But that would require a change in how we play, and in all honesty I don't see the point in fixing what doesn't look like it's broken.

Or, the club got it right two out of three times in this situation? Or are we operating on the basis that when they manage to get a player to sign a new deal we're "lucky," but when they don't manage to convince them we're "amateur?" The bottom line is, regardless of fans liking or not, that we'll never be in a position to cover all bases, especially when it comes to the unpredictability of youth football. The very fact that we've managed to retain two of our three highest-rated prospects (including the top prospect of the three in my opinion in Turnbull) is an accomplishment. Would it be great if Hastie stayed? Absolutely, but that's how the cookie crumbles. I'd be more concerned if we had lost all three, or if we were regularly shipping out players for nothing who then went on to have great careers elsewhere. The club, for the most part, has gotten it right over the years.

If we manage to slide in and finish in the top six then it's job done for us, we've accomplished more than we thought possible a few months back. We can then look to play some games against the top sides, giving our lads a runout in games that matter. We'd basically be playing with house money, as even a sixth place finish would be great.

I think it's more of a case of some of us having lived through various players leave the club. Hastie leaving for Rangers is disappointing, but its hardly the end of world, even in a footballing sense.

I'm sure I heard that the length of the deals being offered is what was part of the problem for some players. The club wanted them to sign longer deals, while the players wanted one year deals. It's worth bearing in mind that it's not all down to the club, the players themselves have a part to play in negotiations, and if they either don't want to sign at all, or only sign for a year then there isn't much we can do about it.

Tell you what, if half the shite I've read on here is accurate then we've dodged a bullet by not offering him a contract. Seems he's destined to go to Rangers and fade into obscurity, before heading to the lower reaches of the English game and being let go, only to return to Scotland with Thistle or Accies. Sounds like he's pish, better spending our money elsewhere.

Shite game, but a point away isn't too bad at all. I'll be glad to see the end of the Killie chat as well, with all the ticket nonsense.

Aye, it was an absolute debacle of a game really. Looked like two amateur sides.

The co-commentator actually yawning during the broadcast. Tells you all you need to know really.

Weird. It was the Celtic game, then refreshed the page and it's now the killie game.

Anyone's official stream working? I'm just getting a replay of the Celtic game.

Robinson showing some more class in addressing Scott Bain's reaction to the James Scott goal; Like how he managed to get a wee mention of Brendan leaving

It is, if you're outside the UK.

I'm not holding out much hope for this game, but I'm more confident we can nab something than I have been in quite a while.

Christ, you're going back a bit there, are you not? Was the gulf in finances on offer back then as wide as they are now? And didn't McClair begin his career at Villa? It's not as though he was with a club like Motherwell and knocked back a contract to go down there, is it? Or am I remembering wrong? Then surely, if he wasn't that good to begin with, the best option for him was to make as much money early on as he possibly could? Or do you think that despite not being that good he'd have flourished with us and eventually landed a big transfer to a club who could pay him more money? If anything he's a prime example of why you should strike when the iron is hot. He somehow got a chance to sign for Leeds on a two year contract despite not being good enough to play a game for us. The one wildcard factor in all of this is that the majority of young players coming through at virtually any club simply won't make it at a high level. Martin is probably an example of that, and I don't think that turning down the two year Leeds deal with better money would have meant he'd be playing for us or another club of our level rather than fucking about in the lower leagues today. Like you say, there is no right or wrong answer, especially when you're at such a young age. I'm probably talking as an adult, who would be thinking ahead to making sure that I had enough dough in the bank to provide my future kids and wife with a life that I didn't have, where they have far more opportunities than I did. I'd rank those priorities higher than any trophies or medals I'd win in the game. But that's just me.

Lee Erwin left Leeds after two years of a three year deal, earning great money and being given a payout to end his contract early I believe. He then ended up at Kilmarnock, where he played around 40 times and could have remained if he'd chosen to. Despite him choosing to chase more money in Iran of all places, the fact is that he did go away down south, earn a decent wedge, then came back to SPFL level. Slane's problems started with his cruciate injury, which could easily have happened at Motherwell as it did at Celtic. The only real difference was that he had a four year contract at Celtic, which included three years of a good wage and a payout to leave early. He's since been suggested as having pissed away a lot of his money, which doesn't mean he was wrong to make the move, it means he's a walloper most likely, and you can't account for that. He'd likely have been a walloper had he stayed with us as well. A smart footballer will go where the money is within reason, keep his head down, train and act like a professional, and if they're good enough they'll do well in the game and more importantly be able to continue living well after their time playing is up. In all of this discussion my main point is that you strike when the iron is hot. There's no guarantee that a Norwich, Leeds, Celtic or whoever are going to revisit and make the same offer in a year or two. The whole "don't move on quite yet, stay and better your game and learn your craft" chat usually comes from the club and the fans of the club who stand to lose said player on the cheap. If the same player was under contract and the interested club offered a sizeable fee the tone of the discussion would be different. We look at the likes of Hastie's situation as fans of Motherwell. We want him to stay and improve mostly because it will help the team, and because we'd get a tidy fee if he continues to improve and we can punt him at a later date. And if he gets crocked or falls away? Ah well, that's how it goes, right? What he does after his time in the game finishes is of fuck all concern to us unless he's a decent coach and can work with the kids.

Not sure that there's really much of a track record of players leaving a club that's capable of paying 3 times what we could and moving directly to QoS or Falkirk, is there? Even those young players who are considered failures at clubs in the English Championship are offered another roll of the dice at SPFL level. Usually, at worst, they find their way back to a mid-table club in our top league. They may drift after that point, but that'll be down to them not being worth a deal at that level.