Caley Stan

Robbo was saying on Sportsound tonight that the ICT board deserve great credit for investing in players during this window. Unfortunately, nobody pointed out the imcompetence of allowing the previous manager to bring in the majority of those players the week before he got sacked, or the fact that we started the season with a squad that always going to be too small and too young to stomach a relegation fight. I'm all for sticking together until this relegation fight is over, but as soon as that happens it's time for changes at the top.

Radio Scotland are reporting that we've signed Kerr.

Going by Butcher's comments so far, it looks like the days of P1ssing aroung with different formations are over. We'll play 4-4-2 every week, with a spine of Pavels and Grant at back, Blackie and Duncan in the middle of the park and Imrie playing just off the main striker with the freedom to roam as he did yesterday. Simplicity, organisation and stability. Now, if only Butcher could conjure up a striker before 5pm........

What with Kerr being unattached, i suppose we're able to sign him outside of the window if need be.

It sounds like Imrie's going to be playing through the middle now. We've got a spine that should be playing every week, with the wide positions and one striker position up for grabs. I really hope one of our strikers can step up and take it - that's still our weakest spot ESSON TOKELY PAVELS MUNRO MCBAIN MORAIS DUNCAN BLACK VIGURS/FORAN ROONEY IMRIE

And may you play every week until we're safe.

We've gone on a good run in each our seasons in the SPL. And we don't need every other team close to us to go on a bad run, just one of them will do. It's too early to say how good the squad is. We've signed a lot of players in this window, and we won't know for a while yet how much of a difference they will make. Things look a lot more difficult after yesterday's results, but i don't think the situation's as impossible as you make it sound.

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Caley100's becoming a bit of a media slut.

He was very good on the right side of midfield last season. But this year, as Brewster fiddled his way to the bottom of the league, Cowie's been playing on the left a lot, sometimes off the striker, sometimes centre midfield, and has generally beeen less effective. Some people have questioned his committment but i think he's just been p1ssed off with not knowing where he's going to be playing from one week to the next. I'm sorry to see him go. He's one the few players we have with genuine quality and will be missed.

"Butcher makes McBain captain after mass clearout at ICT"

Here are a couple of quotes from Motherwell fans on P&B just to provide some balance, given what we've heard from Brentford on this thread:

No. Yes. I'm liking the belief on this thread.

I think that's one thing we won't have to worry about. It's not just the future of ICT at stake here, but the future of Terry Butcher as a football manager. I know some people have their doubts, but i'm sure we can put them aside and focus on supporting him as he tries to get us away from the bottom of the league. He's got a nightmare start (Celtic home, United away) but we have to stick with him and the team regardless of what happens in those games and support them like never before for the rest of the season.

What's with all these nice Hearts fans? How come i never meet any in Edinburgh?

Very good Krishima. I think they should be relegated instead of the team that finishes bottom. Or even a points deduction may suffice. Say, 40 points?

While you're at it, could you check how that compares with his post-ICT record? We all know that he did very well with us in the First Division, but it's what he's done since leaving that concerns me.

No doubt about that, but the new man should be chosen on the basis of his previous record and suitability for the job, not emotion.

The above has been cut and pasted from Wikipedia. The language used in the article serves to persaude the reader that Robbo's managerial record has been successful. However, the cold, hard stats show that since leaving us in 2004, Robbos's record is variable and the jury is still out on Robbo the manager. I'm not saying that facts tell us everything, because the context of those stats are very important, but phrases like "the prestigous Setanta Cup" and "a good season in Europe", don't provide that context, they simply cloud the issue further.

He was having a very poor game yesterday until we equalised, he's got absolutely no positional discipline and a he's a cheeky wee sh1t. I still love him though.

Spot on. If he's ours enough to be on the bench then he should be playing. Would we be sitting bottom of the league if Blackie had played in the last two games?

Hastings at Telford Street in the 6-1 win over ???? Albion Rovers maybe? He later admitted that he was going for the opposite corner to the one he scored into, but we still had to endure a further two years atrocious free-kicks from him afterwards.

Maryhill - can you remember the content of that text message from Butcher's son? I think it was something along the lines of El Tel not wanting to take over because Brewster had left us in such a mess.

Well done gillian, you were almost right - was Thierry's injury part of John Doc's masterplan? I would love to know why Blackie wasn't playing today - we could've won if we was. Come on gillian, why was he humiliated again? Anyway, not quite the line-up that saw as torn arpart. Rosscoe as midfield enforcer? Some of us have been calling for it since 1996. John Doc was there......

Did we look fragile and lacking in self belief today? IMO we just need a manager who knows how to pick the team, bring it together and play them in the right places. Archie Knox is that man.