Busy week ahead for McCall.

Stuart McCall will take charge of his first full week at the club, and it is one full of challenges for him.

I believe he has four challenges ahead of him this week before we take on Dundee in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

Out of Contract players – he has three of the current squad out of contract before the middle of January and will therefore have to decide what to do with them. Nick Blackman’s loan period is already up and he has returned to Blackburn, this could be his first priority to sort this out, unless of course he doesn’t want to keep him.

Then he has Alan Gow and Marc Fitzpatrick out of contract on 15^th January, personally I would let Gow go, too much of a luxury that we can’t afford. While Fitzpatrick isn’t everybody’s favourite I believe he should stay as he is a flexible squad player.

Players to bring in – If Gow goes out that would free up a decent wage that could possibly be used to bring two people in! Hopefully the contacts he convinced Boyle, Dempster and Weir that he has will come up trumps.

Find an assistant – As yet he is working on his own, and I am sure he will want to quickly appoint a second in command he can trust and use on the training ground. This should be someone who knows the Scottish game, hopefully this can be sorted this week as well.

Restore confidence in the side, and shape it in his own image – we need to see belief restored in the side after the last four poor performances, and at the same time he now has the opportunity to work with the squad for a week and pick his own eleven this Sunday.

Welcome to the Fir Park roller coaster Stuart…..hopefully there are more ups than downs.