MelvinBragg

Accurate summation. And who'd have thought two years ago we'd be saying that about Clarkson...

Time for another poll!!!

I don't know enough about Sanchez to say if it would be a good appointment. When his name first came up, I think a few people were simply impressed by the name, the Premiership and international experience. If anything makes him a good candidate for the job, it would be his Wyncombe experience. The only thing about having managed a Premiership side is that it was Fulham, similar to Motherwell in that they were trying to compete with teams with a much larger budget. All in all, it makes him sound like not a bad candidate. He wouldn't be my first choice but I wouldn't be unhappy with his appointment...

Sorry if it sounded like I was having a go. Not at all, just sounded like you knew what you were on about. Some of the "definite, 100%" folk, I wouldn't give two cents for their posts...

Source? If he's being interviewed tomorrow, I would hope he isn't the first to be seen. I would have hoped that the process had started already. And do we take from this that anyone who has been interviewed so far hasn't been up to scratch or has knocked the job back? Or is John Boyle pushing the boat out to find the very best man for the job...?

I like your penchant for understatement, Dave . "Very short up front"??? We'd have John Sutton and that would be it. When I mentioned Murphy and McHugh, I was talking of them being ready to play a bigger part in 2010/2011. Let's be honest here. If Murphy isn't ready to be a regular first team starter by then, his progress will really have stalled...

I think we all know that there is a good chance that Colin Calderwood would be the least popular appointment possible. Including John Robertson. Not for footballing reasons, but fans have long memories and I think John Boyle would surely know better than to alienate a large chunk of the support on such an emotive issue...

I take your point, Dave, but at least in terms of David Clarkson we have to take that gamble. Quinn is a very good player, but I feel we could replace him without overstretching our budget. However any fee received for Clarkson would have to be counted against the cost of relegation. Could we replace him right now with a bosman or loan signing? Frankly no, everything we did the second half of last season went through him and I don't see us being able to acquire a player of his calibre on our budget. We need to gamble that by this time next year, if he leaves for nothing then others such as Murphy and McHugh have progressed sufficiently that replacing him, while seeming difficult, is not the impossible task it seems at the minute... EDIT: Or to paraphrase someone else: if Clarky were to leave, it would be best to place all sharp knives and shoe laces out of my reach.....

I don't think McAllister's record at Leeds was that bad. Expectations are unrealistic at that club. taunton, to me, seems a bad idea. Nothing against the guy and not necessarily due to his lack of club management experience, just my gut instinct telling me that it would be a bad move. Sanchez, I don't know if he's even interested. If he is, he's worth a look. Having managed at Wycombe he would be used to working on a reasonably small budget. But given the general feeling that the club will not have much to work with, my instincts are leaning towards either Craig Brown or Luc Nijholt. Brown's best days were with Scotland when he had to work with what he had, which is what might be the case at Motherwell. He would make us hard to beat and while it would not be pretty, he would probably keep us up. Nijholt has 3 years experience of managing a very small club who had to rely upon youth and very little resources. This counts in his favour. I'm a gambler. I'd go with Nijholt...

This pretty much sums up my feelings in a nutshell. If I believed every rumour that I've heard/read over the last couple of months, then we would have a first team squad of Hammell, Craigan, Fitzpatrick and Sutton going into the new season. So many people have heard so many things "definite, 100%" that as a club we must have more leaks than a sieve. It strikes me that people have heard that Gary McAllister has apparently knocked back the job again and have taken from that the fact that the club will be selling all our assets. Having said that, things are now dragging on. I don't expect the club to come out and refute every story doing the rounds (Flow would have his hands full with half of it) but it's now less than two weeks til our first competitive game and frankly while Europe doesn't bother me that much, I would be concerned even if the European games weren't there. To start pre-season training and be in a situation where 6 a sides is the only match practise that we have enough first teamers for seems alarming. John Boyle knew that in every likelyhood Hughes, Smith, Malcolm and Klimpl would be leaving this summer. He knew Sheridan was going back to Celtic. It was clear to many of us on here, therefore should have been to Boyle, almost a month ago that McGhee would up sticks and leave. None of these issues have been addressed, it would seem. I'm sure the club are working hard behind the scenes to get a new manager in place but as of now concern is spreading withing the support. Were I Gary McAllister, I would have concerns about taking the Motherwell job if Clarkson, Quinn and Reynolds were being sold, arguably depriving me of the 4 or 5 most important players of last season's team while it being unclear as to how they were being replaced. Having said that, again this is all based on internet rumour and a throwaway comment by Sheepy McShovelface on his departure on how we might have to sell a couple of players. Will we never learn not to believe everything/anything he says? I find talk of a cash crisis puzzling. Since the folly of administration, Motherwell have run a reasonably tight ship. I find it hard to believe that we are in such a state that despite a large compensation settlement from Aberdeen, despite the SPL paying out the Setanta money for this past season, despite selling Porter, despite getting three of our highest earners off the book, that we will have to sell our best forward and our best defender and have no funds to replace them. New pitch, new strips, all very nice. All we need now is a team to run onto this new pitch wearing said new strips...

So have we any confirmation from the club that Beevers and Boyle are on their way at all? I've seen nothing from MFC about these guys so I'm wondering if it's the usual rumour season starting...?

I'm not entirely sure why we seem to be attracting bigger names for the job than, say, Falkirk. Big names not always a guarantee of success, but there are experienced managers and coaches applying for our job. From the very outset, it seemed clear that the Falkirk job was either going to May, Pressley, McNamara or McCann. Oh, and Alex Rae threw his name into the ring. Do people in football know something? Is money more tight at Falkirk than it is at Fir Park...?

Allegedly

No.

Caught on the horns regards Foran. Tends never to work second time around, but while agreeing he was never a world beater, he wasn't as useless as some are making out either. Would he be as likely to nick a goal as John Sutton is? Discuss...

I said as much yesterday...

Distinct possibility, I s'ppose. Funny when people talk about our saleable assets (and I include myself in this), they talk about Clarkson, Quinn and Reynolds and forget Stevie Hammell. Part of the reason, I would guess, is that he didn't settle in England and in terms of clubs in Scotland, they fall into probably wouldn't want him (the Old Firm) or couldn't afford to buy him (everybody else). If he was to go to another club in the SPL outwith the Old Firm, I reckon you'd be looking at a swap deal which opens up all sorts of questions. Or as weeyin says, maybe the new guy, Boyle, is versatile...

See I'm working on the assumption that Hughes is away (doesn't seem to be much talk about Graeme Smith, so who knows??). If the guy Beevers, who can apparently play anywhere in the back four, signs then for me we'd be sorted for cover at the back and it'd be curtains for Brian McLean. IF it's confirmed that Boyle has signed then I'll welcome the fact we have cover for left back. But Hammell has a good record injury/suspension wise up until now so I don't know how much we'll see of the guy...

Aye, when I read the list of those "on the shortlist and being interviewed", I thought to myself, well, that's them just taken the name of the two guys who've declared an interest publicly and added in the two guys most recently linked with it. I, like you, expect to be surprised but not only by those interviewed (should it ever come to light) but by whoever gets the job...

He can be interested all he likes. Not welcome round these parts...

Eh, we have two centre midfielders on the books. After Lasley and Fitzpatrick, it's either boys who've never kicked a ball in anger for us, Paul Quinn or Steven McGarry. While I like the idea of more defensive cover, it wouldn't have been my priority...

While I welcome the news that we're apparently improving the depth of our squad, left back seems a strange place to start. Especially since, as others on here have pointed out, Stevie Hammell led us for assists by some way last season...

Yet some would accept £300,000 for him. How much would relegation actually cost us...?

Change 'as' to 'of' or add return after the word squad...

My thinking is that of the names mentioned Boyle was either going to go for Luc Nijholt or Gary McAllister. Given the Setanta debacle is rolling on, I think McAllister will have passed on it, and I reckon when it came down to it, Nijholt just seemed an appointment too risky to Boyle...