ANYONE glancing at the Premiership table for the first time this season might notice a couple of things that cause them to do a double-take.
Hamilton Academical in second? Inverness Caledonian Thistle tucked in just behind them? Celtic only in fourth? None of that would have been widely predicted.
They may then allow their finger to scan down the division until reaching the teams in the lower reaches. Partick Thistle, St Mirren and Ross County all struggling may not induce any major feelings of shock but Motherwell? Just what are they doing down there?
It is, in a strange way, to the credit of manager Stuart McCall and his players that the sight of the Fir Park side languishing in 10th place in the table after eight matches will likely elicit a yelp of surprise from those who have not been monitoring the Scottish scene too closely. For most of the Noughties, Motherwell were a mid-ranking Premier League team. There was the occasional deviation in that time - spared relegation under Terry Butcher due to Falkirk's inadequate facilities in 2003, a third-place finish under Mark McGhee in 2008 - but by and large anything between fifth and eighth was perceived to be Motherwell's natural position in the pecking order.
Under McCall, however, they have outperformed that expectation, and consistently too. In 2011/12, McCall's first full season after succeeding Craig Brown halfway through the previous campaign, they finished third. In the two subsequent seasons they have been runners-up to champions Celtic. They have also qualified for European football in six out of the last seven seasons, and have done so with McCall having to effectively rebuild his squad each summer. What was thought initially to be a team punching way above its weight has, of late, been accepted as the norm.
The expectation again ahead of this season was that Motherwell would be among the main peleton trying to keep in touch with leaders Celtic. The reality has been somewhat different, however, and not just because Celtic are currently off the pace. Motherwell's struggles have been even more pronounced, recording just two victories in their opening eight league games. A draw at Celtic Park offered promise before a League Cup exit to neighbours Hamilton Academical and then a 4-0 home defeat by the same opposition last weekend further confirmed that Motherwell's form could no longer be considered simply as a blip.
What, then, has gone wrong this term? Has it simply been one summer of chopping and changing too many? Ironically, compared to previous years, the upheaval at Fir Park wasn't too extreme this time but it was apparent from early in the close season that there would be little money for McCall to spend.
The manager revealed he expected any signings would likely have to be loan moves, or players who would not command large wages. Shaun Hutchinson, a key defensive figure, and striker Henri Anier moved on, while a number of injuries early in the campaign have also not helped the Motherwell cause.
"You have to be tight with your budget every year; you will lose good players and you will look to replace them with those of a similar standard," Pat Nevin, the former Motherwell chief executive and now an erudite analyst of Scottish football, told Herald Sport. "But eventually there comes a year when it doesn't quite happen for you. Maybe a certain group of players don't work quite as well for a number of reasons; you might make the wrong choices, it might be the chemistry or something else.
"It's almost through no fault of the manager but if you keep re-jigging it, instead of building something, then it might not always work. If you look at most teams that are successful, it's a continual build. But in recent years at Motherwell it's not been rebuilding but massive damage repair after a bomb has hit the place. It's not a controlled build.
"It's not really anyone's fault, that's just the finances of Scottish football. Eventually you have one year when it seems like you just don't have the right materials."
Despite the poor start to the campaign, Nevin felt McCall should be considered above any criticism. "He has done an amazing job there for so long," he added. "In some people's eyes he's maybe become a victim of his own success, but I would say he's just been successful [in previous seasons] and now he's suffering a bit as often happens.
"It would drive me nuts having to rebuild my team every season, which is probably why I've never been a manager. But there's so little between most of the clubs in that division that there is no reason why he can't get them back up the table before the season's out."
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