AS opening gambits go, it really was quite something.

Ian Baraclough wants to do what with Motherwell? Win the SPFL Premiership?

When the 44-year-old Englishman took over the helm at Fir Park, the team was two points clear of bottom spot after eight defeats out of nine with the future altogether more likely to involve exiting the top flight than topping it. The whole, sorry mess had driven Stuart McCall, a largely sane and really quite chirpy sort, to the brink and beyond.

Baraclough's first address to the public on the official club website, of all places, had to be checked and checked again to make sure the message hadn't been misconstrued. It hadn't. He really does think he can lift the league title.

Perhaps he had been listening to Barry Hearn talk just a matter of days earlier at a Hampden convention about the need for Scottish football, as a whole, to stop looking down at its shoelaces and "wallowing in self-pity". If he has some spare time in between plotting this claret-and-amber takeover, he might like to find it a sponsor, too.

Whatever one may think of Baraclough's ambitious mission statement, he has certainly started in promising fashion with two wins out of two against St Mirren and Partick Thistle and left a favourable impression on his seasoned left-back, Stevie Hammell.

Hammell has witnessed the decline and fall of Scottish football from close-quarters. He came through at Motherwell as John Boyle was burning his way through a good chunk of his personal fortune in the forlorn hope of catching Celtic and Rangers and now sees the club heading towards a frugal, downsized future of fan-ownership under the prospective new owner, Les Hutchinson.

The money that had the game riding along on the crest of a debt-supported wave when he broke through in the 1990s has most certainly gone and so have a number of the supporters who regularly went to matches back then.

Hammell sees no need to give up on dreams and ambitions as well, though, and believes Baraclough's commitment to the power of positive thinking is something we need a lot more of in such challenging times.

"I don't think you can criticise him for his positivity," said the 32-year-old. "When you look at people who have achieved great things, they've all been told that it can't be done.

"He hasn't actually stated that we're going to win the league, but that's the positive mindset he's trying to put across to everyone.

"The idea is never to be happy with what you've achieved because you should always be trying to improve.

"Obviously, we twice finished second in the Premiership and people might say that's the best we ever could do, but you should always strive to be that little bit better.

"I agree with him in the sense that not everyone has that mentality, especially here in Scotland.

"When you do well, people can be content with that, but the top players are always striving to do that bit better. In Scotland, we could maybe be a bit more positive than we are."

There is clearly method in Baraclough's madness, too. As Hammell reports, he has brought a measured, focused regime to the club, geared towards producing peak performances on matchday.

"He has exact times for each drill," said Hammell. "It's all planned and he knows exactly what he wants us to get out of every session.

"Everything is done for a purpose and it starts with our cool-down sessions after the final whistle."

Of course, Baraclough will hardly need warmed-up for his first taste of a Lanarkshire derby against Hamilton Academical at New Douglas Park today. Alex Neil's side have already knocked Motherwell out of the League Cup on penalty-kicks and racked up an impressive 4-0 win on league duty this term.

"I think we're due something against them," said Hammell, back in the team after a season damaged by a recurring adductor strain. "I wasn't involved when we lost 4-0, but it was tough to watch from the stand, a real low point."