The African

Still way too early to make any sort of prediction. If we are honest, the League Cup group matches are pre season fixtures. As it is, a good start to the league and I can see us being safe from relegation. As always, there is hope for better football on the park, maybe a cup run and, if others with more money to spend underperform, a prized top six finish. The reality is probably closer to half of our new signings being unsuccessful and us being a couple of injuries away from a dogfight. But it isn’t even August yet, so let the hope prevail.

Three years later, when it became apparent that he was going to get absolute peters when he came to Fir Park as Hibs boss. I also seem to recall that his apology was somewhat less than complete. Firgive and forget is all well and good, but there really is very little to be gained in interacting with tossers.

I sincerely hope that he was shown the door. After the way he behaved following the death of Phil O’Donnell, the w@nk*r should be banned from Fir Park.

Sports club ownership does appear to be a major ego trip for most. Normally sane and sensible business men with a track record of success in their own sphere of the business world seem to commonly lose all basic common sense when they step into the world of sporting club ownership with generally disastrous consequences. Fan ownership may be less exciting, and indeed for a club like Motherwell it may well prove unsustainable, but it is an interesting route for us to take, so let’s at least give it a go and see where it takes us.

Cool name. Good luck to him.

And there’s the rub. A known entity who didn’t do enough before and so what is the likelihood of him now being good enough? It is depressing to think that this is all that we have to look forward to.

The issue with resigning someone like Frear is that it makes our recruitment look pretty flawed. If the best that we can do is a player who we were, only a few weeks ago, happy enough to see leave the club, what does that say about our squad? If he wasn’t really considered good enough before, what does he offer now? If it is a question of numbers, perhaps we should be bold and look to give a youngster the opportunity.

Turnbull now has a decision to make regarding a new deal. He can see from what has just transpired that the club are not going to stand in his way when the next big offer comes along. A new longer deal will simply give him a deserved wage increase while we go through the process of getting him fit and healthy before showing what he can do when back in the first team. The deal means that we do not have to rush anything in that process. It basically gives us the upcoming season to get through the operation and get back up to speed. It is also worthwhile noting that he is still only 19. After the disappointment of the deal falling rough, it will do him no harm to realise that there is a club that still wants him and is prepared to put our time and money where our mouth is, and support him as his career develops.

Understandable that there is interest from other clubs. Robinson has done a decent job at Fir Park. You just have to wonder how he sees his career developing and whether a League One side is the next stop for him.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. I like the cut of his jib, that Mr Webster. Don’t really follow an English team, but might keep an eye out for Norwich next season. As. For this whole saga, I really don’t get the perceived criticism of our club over any of it. We agreed a fee with clubs that were wanting to sign the lad and now we are waiting for that to happen. It is obviously dependent on a medical and thatis nothing to do with us. If Celtic come back and say they want to pullout because he failed the medical, fair enough. If they want to renegotiate based on the medical, they should be told that we already have a deal and that any further talks would be along the lines of “take it or leave it”. We should then contact the player and his representatives to see where we go from there. The two issues then would be to help the player get over the disappointment at the proposed move falling through and, most importantly, getting the required medical procedures in place as quickly as possible to help the lad get his career back on track. He is our player and,as such, he is our responsibility until he signs for someone else.

Enough! Or I may have to rethink my prejudices.

This, though in my defence, I'd still contend that very little good can come out of St Mirren. Paul Lambert and John Sutton also notable exceptions to this rule.

Okay, so feel free to step in and tell me if I am talking rubbish because it is Friday night here in NZ and I have been drinking, but joining them, and they are a rival however you wish to spin it, is just sh*t when there are options to go elsewhere, as he will come back to show us how good he has become with monotonous regularity and there is something distasteful in hoping that a guy you loved watching turns out to be cr@p. We really just shouldn’t do it.

Polo shirt idea is inspired. A football shirt on someone my age looks a bit desperate. Of course, I suppose I could always go on a diet.

As other have said, the way kit is simply splendid. I would have said magnificent but the meaning of that word has been sullied in the last few days. My one quibble would be that, in my opinion, the band would look better if it were claret above amber rather than amber above claret. The home kit looks good too. I’d prefer to see a hoop rather than a band, but appreciate that the rules regarding numbering would ruin this on the match day shirt.

Took a little while for Gorrin to adapt to the speed of the game here, which is hardly surprising given the change from the A-League. Once he found his feet though, and stayed injury free, the only thing you could criticise him for was the regularity of mistiming in the tackle which resulted in too many bookings. Pity he couldn’t be persuaded to hang around for another season. He will be hard to replace. Cadden is a tough one. Great servant to the club, and a decent player. However, injuries at the wrong time and his versatility leading to him not having a settled position in the side conspired against him and he consequently hasn’t got the move up in the game that he deserves. Best of luck to the both of them

I used to love Joe Miller. When I say Joe Miller, I obviously refer to his childlike persona which used to appear regularly on Off The Ball. Right up there with Barry “ the bully” Ferguson and the Frankie Howardesque rendition of our own John Boyle. Happy days. The real Joe Miller was shite.

I suppose that, should any club fail to meet our valuation, then we would decline permission for them to talk to the player and his agent. He is still currently contracted to Motherwell FC.

Am I alone in thinking that a “bidding war” is now unlikely. Given that all and sundry are now fully aware at what price we are prepared to deal?

I suppose it depends when the madness begins. You can either swim against the tide or join in the flow of general nonsense. I would add that I am a big fan of the theatre of the absurd and have also just returned from a funeral where I may have partaken of a little too much whisky.

Cillian has just finished with the Wellington Phoenix in the A League this season. He was sensational. okay, he was pretty shite, but that is the standard here.

Sometimes you have to be ridiculous to make your point.

Of course it is possible to plan for an eventuality before it actually happens.

If we can get £3 million from Celtic, surely to God we could get it from someone down south?

Didn’t see the Cyprus game, but watched the Belgium match. I thought that we were organised but offered little going forward. Turnbull probably better off not being included at this stage really.