It would have been a good time to have a crack at a seemingly weakened Inverness team but not playing does guarantee a 100 per cent record over the festive period – an astonishing run of results.
Indeed, those in the Fir Park boardroom now have some devilishly tricky decisions to make as a result of this improvement. Last month cutting costs in a nothing season to prepare for next year seemed inevitable – goodbye Hutchinson, Anier and Ainsworth, for example. Now Ainsworth has been retained, talks are ongoing with Viking, and the asking price on Hutch has gone up.
Willie Pettigrew summed it up well in the Evening Times. He said: "Anier has done very well for Motherwell in recent weeks but the bottom line is that football is a business, and without the luxury of revenue coming from a run in either cup, the club must cut their cloth accordingly.
Even if we do secure his services until the end of the season then Motherwell will be back in the same position as they are now when Anier moves on in the summer.
If a deal can be done and it doesn't cost Motherwell anything extra then great.
If not, then I think we have got to be looking at giving youth its chance because we have more than enough talent coming through the Youth Development centre."
The problem is that the material reward on offer is so precariously poised. The expense of this trio is far from a guarantee of a European spot and even then a bad draw sending us to the far east of the continent would guarantee an early exit and no profit. Now that our appearance in UEFA competitions is pleasingly commonplace, some are questioning the reward if it costs the club money.
Sometimes it's much easier to complain from the outside without having to take the responsibility of decisions!
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