capt_oats

And Just Like That... His eligibility is the talk of Canadian Mens National Team Twitter (a pretty niche corner of the internet tbf).

Nah, I wouldn't think so. Last week's was Cornelius after his first league start against Hibs he was on the bench the next game (not necessarily a surprise), week prior was Tierney who's not even eligible to play yet. Scott Fox and his goalkeeping school before that and Tony Watt's Foodbank think prior to that. It's more where there's a "story" than who's going to be available to play. That's not to say he's not back fit more that the videos aren't really indicative of anything either way.

I can see that for sure with KVV but I kind of get the impression that his wings are maybe being clipped a bit in playing second fiddle to Watt. Which isn't a criticism of either player, it is what it is and in the form Tony has been in you can't really argue with other players having to accommodate him. KVV's another who arrived having had a fairly lengthy lay-off (and serious injury) last season, picked up another injury early on here and since then has bounced in and out the team. Clearly I've no idea if this is the case with either player but you could maybe draw comparisons with Woolery who's also making a step up from EFL L2 level and has taken a while to find his feet. On a Cole loan, I agree it seems unlikely but on a broader point I don't know if January will be different but it seems a conscious decision that we only have one player loaned in at the moment on a deal that's up in January (and even he had already been at the club last season). I mean, our first January signing is a boy on a 3.5 year deal.

Aye, our home form is actually alright. The 3 we've lost were against Hibs in the first game of the season then Celtic and Rangers. Even the draw was potentially heading for a win before Bobby Madden decided to get involved. The only home game we've failed to score in this season has been against Celtic. With the sort of form Saints have been in this definitely feels like one of those games we've seen where we f**k it and complacency is an issue. However given the nuclear level rage from Alexander after the Dundee game you'd like to think that is still fresh in the mind. As @Desp says this wee run of fixtures up to New Year feels like it has the potential to define the direction of travel for our season.

I've no idea of the credibility of *Football League World* but they have Birmingham, Bristol City, Blackburn and Preston all interested in Watt. Which sounds about right tbh. Championship clubs, Championship wages. Fwiw, my take on the whole "talks break down (but amicably)" story was that our top boi has offers on the table that we can't even get close to - the club knows that, he knows that and his Mr 20% knows that so why bother going through the whole charade.

Still at it. He's some boi.

We were heavily linked with him in what feels like at least 3 separate windows. Who can forget...

Prescient.

Aye, related to the point about us looking quite good going forward and given people have had opinions on him since he's signed (on a shree year deal) I thought Woolery had another game where he was showing shades of the sort of thing we'd see Marvin Johnson do yesterday. Which is a good thing, I'd say.

Feels quite small time but I'll admit my reaction when I checked the score was "Oh, we didn't ship 7? Cool." Going into the game without our culturally Scandinavians and the Bathgate Maldini, as someone mentioned yesterday we've went to Parkhead with better defences than the makeshift one we put out yesterday and lost 4 or 5. So *small voice*..."Yay." Granted if Forrest had scored that chance early on it could have been a different game, if Edouard was still at Parkhead it could have been a 4 goal game but he isn't and it wasn't and that's equally the case if Slattery's ping is a couple of inches lower or Sean Goss actually knew how to put his laces through a ball. Chaos Theory and Butterfly Effect. Could, woulda, shoulda. I had a watch of the full 90 on MFC TV and the first half was...different. A few on here picked up on Alexander talking after the United game about having changed the way we're trying to play that rang true yesterday as well...it was all very front foot, pressing - going to Parkhead and trying to do that is...bold. Yesterday felt like we were continuing to trend in that direction following on from Hearts, United and Hibs. For all it was a bit of a "meh" game it still feels like we're moving towards the sweet spot between Murderball and Football. Which is nice. Mentioned this in the relegation thread but I can see January being pretty big for a bunch of clubs for a bunch of different reasons tbh. It's true for a pile of teams in the middle section of the league as well (including us) eg: if United lose say Fuchs and/or Siegrist how does that affect them? What happens with Hibs as it's looking increasingly the case that they've just binned off Ross without anyone lined up?

'Utterly inexplicable'.

I started rewatching last night on Netflix off the back of this thread and having kind of forgotten about it when I threw my original post up. I'd also been listening to an interview with Edgar Wright on the Ringer's 'The Big Picture' podcast recently as he's been doing press for 'Last Night In Soho' so it's an interesting one to re-visit.

Most of the early seasons come in around 30 mins or slightly less by a couple of minutes but aye the last couple of series are 30 mins+. Can't believe I forgot to mention Arrested Development as well. That would and should definitely be in my Top 5. Aye, I read the Watt thing last night and if nothing else it confirms that yes, we have been speaking to him about extending (shock). So hopefully all the usual suspects on Motherwell Twitter can pipe down and stop embarrassing themselves in the club/Tony's mentions. Hyperbole about "talks breaking down" aside there's absolutely nothing in the story that isn't what we all expected to be the case and absolutely fair fucks to him if he's able to get properly paid off the back of this season. I mean, if @superward's info is correct and he had a move South lined up for August then arguably this current season has been an unexpected bonus for us.

(Gilmore Girls runs over 30 mins so isn't eligible by Tony's criteria but is absolutely one of my favourite shows)

Not angry. Just disappointed.

The fact it's best "short episode TV" means all the best prestige TV isn't eligible but even then...off the top of my head these are in the conversation for my Top 5: Seinfeld The Simpsons 30 Rock Curb Atlanta Also, shout out for Party Down. To add, big fan of The Thick of It here as well.

Genuinely curious as to what makes up the rest of his Top 5 now.

Dull post so feel free to ignore. I'd been thinking about Alexander's MoTM award in a slightly broader sense and it turns out that even with the scudding by Rangers and the Dundee game, our points return in R2 is actually up on the corresponding R1 fixtures. R1: 01/08 - Hibs (h) 2-3 (L) = 0 28/08 - Dundee (h) 1-0 (W) = 3 11/09 - Aberdeen (h) 2-0 (W) = 3 19/09 - Rangers (a) 1-1 (X) = 1 02/10 - Hearts (a) 2-0 (L) = 0 23/10 - Dundee Utd (a) 2-1 (L) = 0 Total = 7 - P 6 W 2 D 1 L 3 F 7 A 8 R2: 31/10 - Rangers (h) 1-6 (L) = 0 06/11 - Aberdeen (a) 0-2 (W) = 3 20/11 - Hearts (h) 2-0 (W) = 3 27/11 - Dundee (a) 3-0 (L) = 0 30/11 - Dundee Utd (h) 1-0 (W) = 3 04/12 - Hibs (a) 1-1 (X) = 1 Total = 10 - P 6 W 3 D 1 L 2 F 7 A 10 So, that's nice.

Aye, looking at our November - 4 games, 3 wins, 5 goals and 3 clean sheets against 3 current Top 6 sides is a good return. By contrast of the other teams Rangers and Celtic only played two games. Hearts only played 3 they won 2 but we beat them in the game they lost. United played 4 but lost 2 (1 against us) and drew another. The Dundee game though...fucking hell.

I'm another one of the late 80s/early 90s lot so my formative experiences supporting Motherwell were around Celtic's biscuit tin era at a point where despite the large support and having players like McStay et al they...weren't actually that good (relatively speaking). 'Splitting the Old Firm' was seeing Celtic finishing 4th. At that point probably the 'budget' point would have been more relevant when talking about the discrepancy between us and Rangers given they were chucking their money at Laudrup, Gascoigne and the like yet we were still capable of scudding them on occasion. I think everyone on this thread can enjoy these: It's a bit tomato/tomato but I'd say that the difference now is as much apathy as defeatism and @Swello sums it up well in the post above.

FFS! That's us going another month without a win then. (Feeds quite nicely into the Alexander: How do we think he's doing? chat from the other day though)