Swello

Said when the St Mirren rumours were doing the rounds - if we get 2 good years out of someone and then they move on freedom of contract - I'm absolutely fine with it.

I'd imagine it's close to the ideal move for him - probably double his wages and doesn't need to uproot a young family to some English League 1 hellhole.

St Mirren will be raging.

With that goal, Higdon's and Humphrey's - we've probably seen better goals at Tannadice than a lot of United supporters.

Someone usually pops up - probably a VAR supporter - and says "Ah - but he only did that once every couple of months, he was lazy"

Another reason that I hate VAR - international breaks on this thread was just a week of Lionel Ainsworth goals and now we talk about VAR.

Totally sensible but this is precisely what the SFA & SPFL have a reputation for not doing - they are completely deaf to this sort of stuff - and arguably, the more resistance there is, the more they dig in. We're at the sunk cost fallacy stage now where they think "we've spent the money on the wee office with all the tellys, we've put other tellys in all the grounds, we're going to use this b*****d even more than we planned to!".

Technology to help with objective decisions (ie - goal line tech or offside) is completely fine - but we now know that having multiple people using technology for subjective decisions makes things actively worse - the assumptions around what VAR would be useful for were completely flawed from the outset and the promises about how it would be used (clear and obvious) were naïve or dishonest. And for what it's worth, I think the offside rule is miles better than it was. The idea of interfering with play can still be subjective of course but it's *so* much better than the older, much stricter interpretation of the rule. Handball has been fucked beyond all recognition - but a lot of the changes over the past couple of decades have been pretty positive I think. I want VAR gone - but if there was a compromise proposal to massively pare it back so that it was only used for obvious stuff and with strict time limits, I could probably live with it.

I think you're partly right - but what we have now is a situation where the rules and VAR are completely intertwined. The main contention at the moment generally is handball, which is the best example. The rule itself has been *completely* mangled to game ruining levels by IFAB, with defenders now running about with their hands behind their back and penalties given for a ball being blasted off someone's arm from 10cm away. No matter how absurd the handball rule now is, it simply couldn't reach the level of genuine farce we're at without VAR - things are now being given that are practically impossible for referees to see with the naked eye and are 100% reliant on (a badly flawed implementation of) technology and an offsite referee. It's worth actually thinking back to football of five years ago (or watch a Championship game on a Friday night) to really appreciate how bad things now are.

I seem to remember that they said the majority of responses they got were actually in favour - but there was nothing even slightly representative about the whole exercise. I think the point to concentrate on now is that we've all seen it in action for a sensible period of time and lots of people who (naively you could argue) believed that it would end "wrong" decisions and fix the standard of refereeing would now look at it differently if asked.

Not voted on - members consulted by email 3 days before the clubs voted and with no information

Reads like it was dictated directly by Kettlewell. It's the type of statement that I laugh about when other teams put them out - and it's really weird timing but I at least nodded along to this part

Given the high-handed way that Arsenal dealt with us over Biereth - I can't say I fancy us actually formally signing on for multiple years of that. Obviously I know where we are in the food chain but the idea of prostrating ourselves in front of an EPL club and hitching ourselves to that fucking horror show doesn't appeal in the slightest.

I'm going to write to the 'Well Society today on this. They did a half-arsed consultation very late in the day (about 3 days actually) before the vote - but there was never a sense that anything would change based on that. In our "fan owned" setup, we bizarrely have minority voting rights on the club board despite the 71% shareholding so in reality it was already decided, which still fucking annoys me honestly. For those that want to see the "consultation" text: And for those that *really* want to see it, my response at the time (it's longer than a normal email as they asked for it ) In terms of practical steps - Sponsors aside, the SFA listen to no-one other than themselves and the SPFL only act when practically all the top-flight clubs (and two in particular) are in agreement and tell them to. The only way to get clubs to listen is to threaten season ticket income as other stuff doesn't really affect them and will be brushed off easily (and it gives me no pleasure to say that). I'm not sure the strength of feeling is enough presently that folk will give up season tickets (and hurt their own clubs in doing so) over VAR. I think the best/most realistic option is to first build consensus for a "Sunset Clause" to be added to VAR. This means that there would be an agreed point where VAR is formally reviewed and clubs vote on whether it continues or not. This is something that is (a) a reasonable request and (b) should have been there in the first place and it would give supporters something to campaign against and give everyone a chance to get out of the current fucking mess without losing too much face. The sunset clause would be timed for the point where the initial investment in the VAR assets is covered/contracts are up for review so that no-one feels like money has been "chucked away". The only practical shortcut to this is that the league is decided this season on a bad VAR call - it would be dumped by mid-june.

This. Neither were close to being fouls in any normal interpretation - but this is what we're reduced to with the current handball rule with added VAR.

I actually thought Aberdeen were decent today - they were sharper than us and seemed to want it a bit more - and they basically looked like a team that has the budget they do. That out the way - it was still a close enough game and a point each wouldn't have had too many folk complaining. I think our main problem wasn't formations or anything that exciting - it was just that players who have been brilliant for us recently, weren't. Bair was like St Johnstone guy, Spittal was out of sorts and no-one really had a decent game. VAR continues to be a Saturday ruiner - in the olden days of two years ago, no-one would even have mentioned a "handball" in that situation. Not really a day to be pressing the panic button, even if our super slim hopes of making a fight of the Top 6 are down the toilet.

Apart from the hilarity of a NEW FIRM playoff, or Utd losing to Morton in the semi final - Raith, as a team with similar/less money than us would be a welcome replacement for Livi - Utd would be outspending us as soon as they were back. Also - watched/enjoyed the game last night and Moult still looks like he can't really run any more just as he did when he was last with us. Not sure he would have been the answer at the top level. Also big gun to the heid was absolutely shite, which was nice.

Oooft.

He did it twice I think - I'm sure that's what put us ahead in the Stevie Woods Game.

Normally I'd agree - but making chances and scoring goals has never been a problem for us this season, regardless of who we've had up front - instead we've been treated to the classic sight of Motherwell forward with hands on hips looking back angrily at the defence and goalkeeper on a weekly basis. However we end up this season - this has been a good attacking Motherwell team (with the most infuriating defence for about 20 years)

Given where we've been this season and everything that's gone on - any of us would have been massively fucking delighted with 7th place a couple of weeks back but now that we're more or less in touch with 6th - it might feel a bit anti-climatic when we don't make it. Both Hibs and Dundee are picking up points at a decent rate and seem in reasonable form - so it would need to be a pretty unbelievable run from us (which we haven't looked capable of this season) to do it. I'll stick with being happy with 7th if we can do that...

Apart from the cash - having Motherwell players at successive Euro's would be brilliant - so I hope he gets in. Having a good game at Ibrox probably came at a good time for him too.

The chances of actually using your 3rd choice keeper at a tournament must be astronomically low - even for teams that routinely get to semi's/finals - so taking Gordon may be as much about his presence in the squad/non footballing reasons (although Clarke never strikes me as particularly sentimental for stuff like that).

I've become convinced that's actually Obika's full name.