Well 4 Europe

I'd say Owain Tudor Jones is the antithesis of what we need. Not because he's not a decent player, he might well be although to be honest he's never really stood out against us that much for me when playing for ICT this season. Probably has something to do with us overrunning them in every game except the 4-3 game. However we already have Lasley who's a ball winning central midfielder. We have Carswell who to me looks like a proper box to box midfielder with a great engine, excellent timing in the tackle and something I love is that he's not afraid to get forward and burst beyond the forwards. He's also 9 years younger than OTJ and probably on half the money he'd be after, would much rather see Carswell get more game time next season. Carswell also seems to be bulking up recently which can only be a good thing as he becomes a first team regular. Add in Paul Lawson who's a sitting midfielder who likes to screen the back 4 and we have enough of these type of central midfielders. If we're going to be signing another midfielder it would have to be someone to replace the creativity of Law, OTJ has just 2 goals and 2 assists in over 40 games for ICT and in my opinion isn't really what we need. A replacement for Law's creativity is required and also some pace to replace Humphrey if/when he leaves. Oh and another keeper, and a striker as well if/when Higdon leaves as well. Busy summer for McCall.

I'd love chance of Well return

Express are reporting that Lech Poznan have made another bid for Ojamaa.

^ What he said. Four years ago this team Lost their opening game of the season at home(well sort of) in the Europa League to a Welsh Pub team that had players such as Andrew Mumford playing for them. We were doomed! We finished in the top six that season an improvement on the previous year and indeed haven't finished out the top six since. We've finished best of the rest twice, made the semi final of both national cups and our first Scottish Cup final in 20 years. Throw in a few more European campaigns and things(outside of actually winning the cup) couldn't have really gone on any better since the last rebuild. People are worried? To be honest I'm quite excited.

Hadn't looked at P & B yet, when I heard the news this morning here was naturally my first port of call. In fairness I did say much the same thing a few days ago on here, I saw the Partridge gif the other day and it does perfectly sum up my feelings on today's events.

So somebody, who has already stated they're leaving has indeed signed for someone else?

From Scott Burns twitter, sounds like McCall wants the job and is indeed waiting to hear back from Sheffield United.

I don't think McCall leaving will have any great impact on players staying because none of them will be staying anyway in my opinion. Higdon today basically confirming what I've been saying for a while that he'll want to cash in on the best season of his life. Hateley and Humphrey will get their moves for more money elsewhere and you just know the whole Faddy thing will drag on all summer again most likely and sadly I agree that we can't afford to wait forever for him to make up his mind. Wish them all luck for their years of great service to the club and move on. If a new manager does come in he won't exactly have a blank canvas to work with but he'll be able to bring his own players in and put his own stamp on the team and he doesn't have to try and make McCall's team his own. He's got a decent base to work with already. Hammell and Lasley are Motherwell legends who've been there and seen it all in their time at the club and should help with any transition. At either end of the pitch you have two of the more promising youngsters in the SPL in Hutchinson and Ojamaa who are also potentially sellable assets if the need arises. And you have a decent crop of youngsters in Carswell, Cummins & ZFA as well as a couple of experienced pros in Ramsden and Lawson. If a new manager were to come in, he'd have a decent enough budget to work with to try and use his 'contacts' to bring in a bit of quality in key areas such as a new keeper, a creative midfielder and 15 goal(ish) a season striker. Do that and we'll be fine. Although if McCall does go it'll bring out the worst in the Steelmen online panty wetters who predict doom before every season. Me, I've long since given up worrying about us losing players/managers in recent years. They come, they go, people worry we can't replace them but we always bounce back in the end. Seem to remember people complaining last summer was a bit low key with not a lot of activity, well this one should be lots of fun. Looking forward to it.

I think Fraser Kerr get's a bit of hard time to be honest. Kerr was brilliant in his first two starts against St.Mirren and ICT at Fir Park, looked really promising. He kept his place in the side and was fairly decent but then had a poor game at Ibrox(although he wasn't exactly alone) and then had an absolute shitemare in the 0-4 pumping from Hibs and he was dropped for a few months and that seems to be the game he's remembered for. However he did come back in and have several good games against Aberdeen on Boxing day and in the defeat at Celtic Park. He's only started 12 games and has had some good games as well which people seem to forget as well as some shit ones. I don't think he turned out as good as some of us had hoped for after his 1st few appearances but I don't think he's anywhere near as bad as some make out. In truth he's probably somewhere in between. He's young, he's cheap, he's versatile and he's got good attributes such as pace, height, strength, good engine etc. He can look a bit like Bambi on Ice at times when he has the ball at his feet but I certainly think he's worth a punt.

Did people really think that Higdon would score 27 goals and that nobody would notice? I've said for a while now I think he'll go, he's 29 years old and just had the season of his life culminating in him being named SPFA player of the year. His stock will never be higher and he'll be getting offers that he might never get again. I think he'll want to cash in on the best season of his career and I for one don't blame him one bit.

Whisper it but I thought the much maligned Fraser Kerr had a good game.

In fairness, despite the stick our youth policy is getting it's interesting to note that 10 of the 18 man squad that played against Ross County last week had played for our youth team at some point. Stevie Hammell Keith Lasley James McFadden ==================== Shaun Hutchinson Adam Cummins Zaine Francis Angol ======================== Fraser Kerr Stewart Carswell Bob McHugh Ross Stewart Misleading slightly as the first 3 all made their debuts over 10 years ago! Of the other 7, 3 were picked up as teenagers from down South but did play in our youth team and the other 4 have all came right through the youth system with the exception of Kerr who was snapped up by Birmingham when he was 16 and has since been loaned back. I think that's a decent number of youth players even if you take away the elder three, also shows some decent scouting to pluck a good few of the scrapheap from down South. Add in Craig Moore, Lee Erwin who'll be pushing for the 1st team next season(although you'd probably be better asking Noah Dosser as I don't get to see a great deal of the youth team), and I don't think we're doing too bad. As hard as it is, we don't owe these boys a living and only a certain number from each age group will make it. It's up to them to prove they're worth a contract and McCall obviously feels none of the boys released are. It must be hard to tell these young boys they have no future at the club but that's his job and we pay him to make these decisions. I say this each year but I can't think of too many if any players who we've released who've went on to prove us wrong..

It's disappointing to see the lads released but that's football. We have a really small budget which will probably be cut again in the summer, we simply can't afford to give contracts to guys like Devlin, Hethrington & Watt if McCall doesn't believe they can contribute to the 1st team. If he wants to try and keep Higdon, or try and lure a decent replacement for him, Law & Randolph etc. then he'll need to trim the squad and every penny will count. I'm sure in an ideal world, McCall would offer some of them a year extension to give them a chance to see if they can force their way into the 1st team but it's simply not financial viable. It was much the same when Lawless left last year. Devlin, Watt & Hethrington will all be in their 20's at the start of next season and if they can't force their way into the team then it will be a waste of time for them as well as the club. They'd be best going out in my opinion and getting 1st team football elsewhere rather than playing in our reserves and occasionally warming the bench or getting the odd cameo. Time will tell if these boys will go on to have good careers elsewhere but McCall obviously doesn't believe they are worth giving a wage to next season in relation to the contribution they'll make to the 1st team. That's the job he's paid to do and we just have to let him get on with it. Not many boys we release go on to make it elsewhere but I hope these boys like the others that will be released get sorted up somewhere next season and get to progress their careers next season.

Sylvan Ebanks Blake? Seriously? We can't afford to keep Michael Higdon but we're going to sign someone who scored 14 goals in the Championship last season? He'll have a long list of suitors down South who can pay him more in a week than we can in a month. Fantasy stuff.

Looks like Josh Watt is being released. Shame, always looked promising whenever I saw him.

Appears Samson won't be coming having turned down our offer.. My link Can't say I'm overly upset to be honest. Although the bit that says we're going to go with Lee Hollis does concern me slightly. I've nothing against Lee and in a way I do think he probably does deserve a chance to prove himself as he's not done a great deal wrong whenever I've seen him. However I remain to be convinced and say he drops a few clangers and doesn't start the season well, then what? Our only alternative is the inexperienced 18 year Ross Stewart. Hope we bring in some competition, whatever happened to the Australian boy Ciask we supposedly had on trial?

I would have been okay with us signing Samson but I don't think I'm alone in saying I wasn't entirely convinced and won't be overly upset if Killie do get him. I certainly wouldn't be getting into a bidding war, I'd stick with our original offer of what we thought he was worth and tell him to take it or leave it. If he thinks he can get more money from Kilmarnock or elsewhere then good luck to him.

Nicky Law won't be a Motherwell player next season, that's pretty much where my interest in the matter ends. He's been a good servant to Motherwell so best of luck to him. I honestly couldn't give a shit where he ends up, it's his career and it's his life. Let him worry about it and let us get on with finding a replacement.

I treated Higgy fine, from his days at Falkirk he was always a handful against us and you could see he was good player at this level. I was delighted when we signed him and defended on here and at Fir Park on many occasions when, for reasons beyond my comprehension, idiots were giving him abuse for doing his job. It was obvious to anyone with a brain he's not a lone striker and needed support, McCall brought in Ojamaa and the rest as they say is history. By the way I think Sunday was again evidence that Higdon isn't as effective without Ojamaa but I digress. The point is Higdon was a good player who I use to dread coming up against, Tade is just comically bad and a complete and utter donkey. To try and replace Higdon with him would be a waste of a wage, Higdon had more goals by the end of September than Tade has managed all season. I'd rather give Moore and McHugh a shot than sign Tade. He's an abomination of a footballer in my honest opinion. You can disagree if you so wish but that's my view on signing Gregory Tade, he'd have my absolute support if he did sign but I'd be very, very disappointed if we were looking at Tade.

Pearson's under contract at Bristol City next season and Tade is utter shite.

Nope, he's defiantly 2015.

Sadly he's only contracted until 2014.

Great video on MFC TV of the fans and the after match celebrations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ja4t5ETSa0

Signed until 2015.