steelboy

saturday was just another example of trying to be too clever. we ended up with 3/4s of the back four playing out of position and o'brien floating about the centre of the park which was mobbed when we could have had him wide to stretch accies.

both games where craigan has been subbed at half time we've gave away far more chances in the second half than we did in the first half. accies caused us far more problems in the second half than the first on saturday and at perth we were very lucky that st johnstone missed a one on one and an empty net.

by making a controversial statement about players then making an ambiguous statment when he was asked who he meant he was inviting speculation. as far as earning their wages only 14 players can play each game but we need more than 14 here. in my book if your keeping yourself in good shape, working hard and your ready to play on a saturday then you are earning your wages. what else can guys like fraser, mcgarry and lasley do? saying they're not earning their wages is an uncalled for slur. it means there due a bit of respect for their past efforts even if they're not going to be part of our future. there's no need for comments like that about anyone, if he feels that way about any contracted players he should let them know face to face and not play games in the media.

to be fair the boy deserved to go. he was very lucky not to get booked for a tackle just before hand and he although he might have had a case with what he actually got booked for he then swore at the ref repeatedly then after getting the red card continued doing. there was another couple of motherwell players who were guilty of dissent on a good number of occasions as well.

some players come and go all the time, but there are other guys at the club who have asscoiations going back 10+ years and have been here through thick and thin. he can do whatever he wants with the squad but there's no need for personal attacks in the media on anybody which is what saying "some people aren't earning their wages" is.

i thought we actually started ok after halftime, we made a couple of chances and i felt that if we kept plugging away then we'd eventually get the goal. accies having ten men worked against us, the players seemed to panic from about 55 minutes and because accies were sitting so deep and letting us bring the ball right up to about 40 yards from their goal our players seemed to get quite confused about what to do as there basically wasn't a midifeld any more so you had mainly saunders coming out with the ball and not really knowing what to do with it. we also suffered because everything was everything was so narrow, it was always the centrehalfs bringing the ball out rather than the (not fullbacks). although reynolds bombed on well we really missed hammell's passing. the most annoying thing for me was that o'brien was running riot during the last 20 of the first half but in the second we only got the ball to him once (and he was fouled straight away). he was playing in a strange area of the park where he wasn't effective at all. i think we'd benefit from keeping it simple sometimes, if he had played out wide we'd have been able to get the ball to him no bother.

hopefully we'll hear from the manager tomorrow or tuesday through the fishal site, he cannae dingy burrows.

they were very unlucky especially pollock and mchugh who are clearly the pick of the bunch. the ball just wouldn't go in for us and dundee united ended scoring a jammy deflected goal. apart from pollock and mchugh no one else really stood out but you need to remember that if they were available hutchison, saunders, slane and meechan could have played in that team as well. as wishywell said it was good to see some of the older players there, i spotted reynolds, tom hateley and hutch.

he can't say anything to the players he's on video on the bbc sport website making the comments.

the comments were clearly aimed at lasley, mcgarry, fitzy, dazza and maybe crags. we might think fuck them we can live without but i doubt their teammates and friends will see it that way. he didn't have to make the comments in the first place and he's an intelligent man so i'm sure his words were considered and he knew how how the press and the players would percieve them. what i'm taking from his backtracking is that it created a bad atmosphere in the dressing room and now he's trying to disassociate himself from singling people out.

it's not about the press. it's about how the players reacted to his comments.

so am i, i just think he's made a mistake this week. from my experience of being in teams no one likes any one being singled out, i honestly believe that he's backtracking because his comments haven't went down well with with the squad. he can't deny what he said because it's on video on the bbc website and to act offended because the press linked names to his comments is pathetic. he was refering to specific players even if he didn't want to name names, clearly that would be the main topic of conversation on friday morning in the dressing room. gannon's done a great job so far but i don't want that kind of atmosphere at fir park. for the last few years there's been a great bond between the club, the players and the fans. since we went into to admin there's been an amazing spirit around motherwell. he's clearly attempted to isolate certain players but the squad have stuck together and now he's backtracking. gannon can do what he wants on the playing side but there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

apparently jim gannon refused to speak to the press today because they linked certain players names to his comments about players leaving the club in january. what did he think was going to happen? i'll paraphrase, but these were some if his comments he's hoping players leave in january some players aren't earning their wages he hopes to keep the players we have with quality to be honest when i heard the comments my reaction where that i wasn't suprised but it seemed like a poor show that he would make comments like that in public without naming names. he was asked who he meant and he said "have a look at the team sheet". my impression was that he was sending a direct message to certain players and although i found it distasteful i've learned to live with gannon's style because i like the results. the fact that he's spat the dummy today suggests to me that his comments didn't go down well with the squad and now he's trying to backtrack. the squad seem pretty tightknit, i doubt any of the players whether they're in favour or not would have liked the comments. at best the comments were extremely naive and at worst malicious. people will say that there's no room for sentimentality but i've heard about gannon freezing people out and being blunt at stockport and for me that's not what's motherwell's about. we've gained a lot from having jim as our manager but i hope he learns from us that there are right ways and wrongs ways to go about things.

thoughts on the game tomorrow. however i hope we never play an away match in front of 800 well fans again. the support in the cup game at st mirren was pish and today people were getting on the team's back from the start of the second half.

last season wasn't as bad as some people remember. third best through the first 11 and the third best record from xmas day to the split. a spell of seven bad games when we had injuries and suspensions fucked us.

my take on our budget this year is that we were well under which is why we were able to afford two fairly expensive loan signings right at the end of the window. i doubt we'll be able to afford to keep any of the three loanees, for all they might be enjoying their football here they would probably have to sacrifice too much money to make it permanent. i don't think we'd have any problem keeping coke on, even on slightly improved terms. however i suspect that the reason him and jennings came up here on one year deals is to put themselves in the shop window and move to a much bigger contract with another club in the summer.

we've only really used 14 players significantly during the season with the odd cameo from humphrey and mchugh and wee glimpses of lasley and jennings. considering 4 of our 14 core players could well be off in january then our squad is pretty thin as it is.

of course! you better phone jim gannon and tell him to get it done... ... but i've got a feeling he's going to ask how exactly he should get the players to sign the contracts.

i think it was two weeks before. i'm sure goram played the next weekend then we capitulated and dropped him for the celtic game two weeks after. i was well pissed off at goram getting dropped, i'd have had harold shipman in goals ahead of woods at that point.

how exactly do you suggest we stop this stealing daza?

mccoist scoring a late pen to make it 3-2 in the game brian martin screamed in a 30 yarder. dubordeaux punching a killie player when he was holding the ball and giving away a pen. 85 minutes into one of the coldest most boring games ever at rugby park. it was our second defeat there in 4 days. the ball bouncing through meldrum's legs against st mirren.

maybe it will be but i think they'll be doing their sums very carefully before they do anything. they're probably both going to be dropping down to the first and i'd imagine any move that's there for them in january will be there for them in the summer. gannon made similar comments in the last window and no one left, i doubt he's going to shame anyone into leaving this time.

there will no be nobody leaving unless they want to. dazza, fitzy and mcgarry aren't likely to get the wages they're on here anywhere else or a move to another spl team. they would be mad not to see out their contracts. i think craigan and lasley have a future at the club, craigan's had a decent start to the season and has grabbed a couple of motm awards for us and done well for NI. lasley played well in wales and albania and in his 20 odd minutes in the spl he's almost scored twice and set up a chance. we had a thread a few months ago where people would have drove hammell to dundee, since then he's been vital for us.

no chance. that's just teuchtars up in inverness talking shite. mcghee might have identified players but there are other people at the club who sign the cheques who wouldn't have let a no mark keeper become our highest paid player.

i'm sticking with the train to pittodrie. would it not be easy enough to just rejoin if your going klm or air france again. just use a different employer or home address? it seemed easy enough to bump, folk were joining it in schippol and getting in for a bev.