MelvinBragg

Should be interesting. Not to see who's leaving. Just to see who's considered one of our top players...

Habit, call it what you will. I still have an interest in what happens to Motherwell. Just wouldn't bother me if I never saw another game again, the way I feel at the moment. I suspect (possibly fear) I may become one of those guys who just looks out for our result in the paper. Anyone who knows me will tell you how worked up I could get at a game, so it's a new feeling for me. As I said, I feel as if I'm coming on here out of habit. .

I'm mental, me. Cos I ain't going. Might watch it on the telly. But right now, even that doesn't appeal to me. Just can't be bothered with it at the minute. And if I can't get motivated for a semi final, god knows when I'll be back...

No show for me. I've missed some cup games over the years but it was always down to work. Sunday, I'm just not going. Fed up with the whole shooting match, not Motherwell. I'll probably have it on the telly in the background but not that bothered about the game at all. Oh, and to answer the question of whether I'll bother should we make the final, not in my current frame of mind. Have already pretty much decided to give the league cup semi a miss. Don't really have the enthusiasm for it, and this thread has shown I'm not the only one...

It is a very ginger management team though...

That would be a strange one... Quite happy with the appointment of McCall. As others have said, we all thought Davies and McLeish were crap in their first management job and both ended up managing in the Premiership. His record at Bradford was not fantastic but there was a great degree of expectation there, being seen as a big club in League Two. A lot of teams raised their game against them. Although he did have a bigger budget than a lot of the other clubs in the division, it doesn't guarantee success... So for gods sake, people, give the guy a chance. Talk of banners telling him to F off already and crowds dropping...

Aye, but with about two replies...

I don't actually mind Hartson throwing his hat into the ring. He's not going to get it. You just have to understand what's happening. He wants into coaching, he knows his CV won't do it for him so he has to keep flagging up how interested he is in every job (did he not do similar for the St Mirren job in the summer?) in the hope that someone takes a punt on him. He's just lucky in that he happens to work for a newspaper who will help him out by making it sound as if he was in the frame when it never really was the case...

Would that be The Sun that John Hartson writes for...?

I would give you that if he'd featured in a couple of sub appearances but to play the guy in a televised game for his debut when there were other more experienced players available struck me at the time as Gannon simply making a point. Brown has been slated here by the Gannonistas for his treatment of our young players. Hutchison and Forbes are the only two I can think of who have gone backwards under Brown. Hutchison has had injury problems which leaves us Forbes, an enigma of a footballer. Can look like he should be playing in La Liga or can look like he should be playing in the Sunday Leagues. Saunders featured regularly under Brown (Brown was constantly talking him up). And Jamie Murphy. My own opinion is that Jamie Murphy has only started looking like a proper first team footballer since Brown arrived. Guys like McHugh and Pollock, for me, haven't shown enough in their brief cameos to be slating Brown for not using them... As I said, Gordon Young can take care of them when they play for the U19s, but we need either an assistant or a manager who can look at a young player and tell whether they have the ability and the temperament yet to make the step up...

Aye, of course. But you want someone on your management team who can bring them through in the right way. Who'll know when they'll burn out, when they're getting too big for their boots, when they're ready for week in week out action. Not someone like Gannon who'll drop Meechan into a game against Celtic and damage his confidence. And I mean no slight on Steven Meechan there, just the way that was dealt with...

Not so much first team and youth team as I assume Gordon Young has got the youth teams well covered. I just remember one of Brown's last interviews with us when he mentioned that Knox did most of the coaching and he did a lot of the other stuff that went with management. Was it now Brown's relationship with Allardyce and Kean that got us Blackman? And Randolph was recommended by Christian Dailly? I think the club are looking for a management team who each bring different things to the table. Possibly also looking for an assistant separately so that when our next manager goes to Aberdeen, the assistant might actually stay to mind the shop...

Given that we'll be going in against Rangers with no experienced coaching staff about the place, might I suggest that most Motherwell fans might want you to tell the gritterman to leave Fir Park well enough alone. Some might be quite happy if Knowetop Avenue is deemed to hazardous for travel on Sunday...

In all the talk, Derek Weir's comments that there were really two posts they were looking to fill has been forgotten. Sbragia ticks a lot of the boxes regards contacts, ability to source players but Weir also mentioned that they were also looking to find someone who could work with and nurture young players. I'm just wondering if he club are taking their time to find the right two people as opposed to finding the right manager and see who he wants as his assistant. Might take a bit longer as they'll need to make sure the chemistry is right...

Not even been quoted this time. Luc's going to one of those "always talked about, never happened" things. Shame, he'd be my pick...

Ask Mitch, he'll tell you I'm actually a h*n Well, I am named after John Greig...

Paddy Boyle...??

Had a quick glance at the Daily Record in the barbers this morning (aye, like I'd buy it), the mention of McGhee in the gossip column is misleading. Weir was asked about McGhee and said something like he hadn't seen his name among the applications but he was sure that most people left Motherwell on good terms with John Boyle... Oh, aye. John Hartson, naw...

For me, it's not about where Motherwell are right now, it's about Scottish football as a whole. As I said earlier, if it was about the level of performance or the situation at Motherwell, I'd have walked away during Malpas's season in charge. I, and apparently others feel the same way, am just fed up with the whole shooting match. And I feel guilty for not "rallying round the club". Which is kind of ridiculous in itself and probably explains a great deal how football has got itself in this mess. People feel obliged to part with their hard earned cash for what is a hobby. People believe "the club needs the money". So does any singer you like but if they start producing crap all the time, you stop buying it (and again here, not talking specifically about Motherwell, more the Scottish Football product in general). As others have said, it's a spectator sport but it relies too heavily on people's loyalty and inability to desert the club they love...

Just as an aside to your comments on Gordon Young, does anyone think we'd have got a better deal from the referee had Craig Brown still been in charge? Or had a manager in who wasn't simply a head of youth development, someone whose interview might have been listened to a bit more? Just that you suggested Gordon Young could have "let rip". Even if he had, would it have registered? He's only Gordon Young. I don't mean any disrespect by that, just how it would have been seen by the media... I said this to a few people on the way out of the game last night but forgot to mention it on here...

I was going to counter there that we're probably at rock bottom in those terms when you look at recent attendances. Those that are left are those who will always go. But previosuly I would have said I probably come into that category and I've had enough so I s'ppose everyone has their breaking point...

I think you're missing the point that Bop made in his original post and a couple of others, myself included, have echoed. I don't think that the occupant of the Motherwell manager's job is going to be the problem. The appeal of Scottish football is getting less and less for a lot of people. I've spoken to Rangers, Celtic and Dundee United fans who feel the same way. I didn't really get it until tonight... EDIT Not that I disagree that a poor appointment would possibly harm crowds even more. But there is something bigger at work here. A general disenfranchisement of all Scottish football fans...

See, none of that even features even in my thinking (haven't given a damn about the Scotland team for years). Actually Brown leaving kind of gave me a wee boost. A wee change, something new is always exciting. To go from that to how I feel tonight, I don't know how that happens. It wasn't the defeat (seen enough of them). I just don't know. Just had enough...

Say what you like about him, but if he hadn't been such a clown we'd struggle to remember this game. The referee should never be the star of any football match but what does it say about the standard of skill on show that the referee was the strongest influence on the game followed by Kevin Kyle...

I have my season ticket for this season but I'll be putting it in the bin. I'll not be back... Hard to put into words exactly why I suddenly feel like this. I was really looking forward to tonight's game, probably down to not having been at a game for a while. But as we went into injury time, I found myself having a wee look round and thinking "Thanks for the memories but I can do without this.". The referee certainly didn't help. Two teams with players with very little or no skill trying to beat each other into submission. At one point in the first half, I turned to my mates and said "You know who I feel sorry for? The ball...". Standing in the freezing cold watching this unfold in front of me probably didn't help. But I've seen games like this before (too many to mention). I don't know if it's simply after the lay off, my excitement going to the game raised my expectations too high and what I saw depressed me. We've lost games and played terribly before and it's never bothered me. Even after that final game of the Malpas season, I never doubted I'd be back. I think maybe because it seemed obvious to me something could be changed to improve my enjoyment of going to Fir Park. If it was announced tomorrow that Guus Hiddink was taking over and making Lionel Messi his first signing, I don't even think that would see me rushing back. Just don't see any point in watching Scottish football anymore. All I know is that as I walked along the road tonight, I tried to envisage when I'd go back. Even thinking about the semi final doesn't interest or excite me. Maybe I'll feel different in the morning. Put simply. I've had enough. I'll always be a Motherwell fan. But I think I'm going to become one of those who simply checks the result on a Saturday at five o'clock...