IT goes without saying that everybody with a connection to Motherwell was delighted that Louis Moult didn’t leave the club in the summer, but Alex Fisher may be the one man within Fir Park with something to gain should he be lured away.
With the scintillating form of the Steelmen’s top scorer so far this season, scoring nine times already, and the fruitful partnership he has formed with Ryan Bowman, Fisher has been restricted to cameos from the bench for the most part.
That’s not to say that the former Inverness man wants to see his team-mate leave, far from it, but he has seen enough within the Motherwell squad already to know that they could cope with his departure.
And should that eventuality come to pass, he believes there is the talent waiting in the wings to continue the promising start that manager Stephen Robinson has made at the club.
“What can you say about Louis Moult? The man is a magician,” Fisher said. “His record speaks for itself and it’s very useful having someone around who delivers those sorts of results.
“But there are also good guys around about him who put the ball in good areas for him or keep it out of our net, and it’s a credit to everyone involved how things are going.
“Louis is a top lad as well, he’s one of the first in and is always working on his body and making sure he is fit.
“Sometimes when you have a bit of success on the pitch it can be easy to take your eye off the ball and take things for granted, but he leads by example.
“It’s great to be able to play alongside him, but there’s a lot of guys in the dressing room that I feel have really exciting futures ahead of them.
“When I was brought in, there was no mention of Louis’ future, but I knew if he stayed it was great competition, with a proven striker, and if he went then it’s a slot for someone to take his place.
“I can imagine [the speculation] will start all over again in January. But I think the quality of the players who could take his place will shine through.
“We have strong personalities in the dressing room who will relish the opportunity, should that arise.”
The international break has allowed the Motherwell camp a pause to reflect on a hugely satisfying start to the campaign, with the side sitting in fifth place and in the semi-finals of the Betfred Cup.
Fisher believes that two wins in that tournament in particular have helped to bring the players together, and if they can show the same levels of performance, he sees no reason why they can’t shock Rangers at Hampden towards the end of the month.
“It helps when you are successful and there have been a couple of key games,” he said.
“For me, when we played Ross County away in the cup – down to ten men – and went on to win 3-2 in extra-time, that was the first time I thought ‘hang on, there’s something here’. Then we had the Aberdeen game and that wasn’t a shock to us because we felt we had that performance in us.
“When you play a team of that stature you can take huge confidence from that. When we have another tie like that, we can say ‘we’ve done it once, why not again?’”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here