capt_oats

I'm very much of a "game's gone soft" view of the red card tbh. Am I raging about it? Nah - it is what it is. Although is it annoying that *that* is classed a red card? Very much yes for me. He's not deliberately tried to do him or anything. I'm not even sure there's "excessive force" It's not like he's Schumacher'd him or anything. Just give the free kick, book him if you must and play on FFS. Things really were better in the 90s.

I'm kind of with @Busta Nut in so much as I don't necessarily see another win but I think there's a decent chance we draw a couple.

From memory Kelly, Slattery, Ojala, Johansen and Efford were all under contract when we signed them and as I say we'd have had to pay Bohs a development fee for Tierney (and maybe even Mahon).

Aye. Until 5 posts ago I don't think anyone's ever claimed Kelly is our most expensive signing. Plenty of folk have claimed he's our highest paid player at the moment (and Aston Oxborough's our second highest ) Either way, the season Kelly signed permanently the accounts showed we spent £542k on players and we paid fees for a few along with a development fee for Tierney. So you'd assume that whatever we paid for him was less than £542k and in all probability less than we paid for Spencer. Anyway, I'm away to watch AVFTT now.

I'm not sure there should be any great surprise in that. For better or worse, Kelly is currently our captain and if nothing else has been entirely present over the course of his contracts with the club (loan and permanent). I don't think there was ever a chance that we wouldn't speak to him/offer him a new deal and just bin him off. As it stands he has 149 appearances for us, which counts for something when you consider the context of him having arrived at the club in the Carson/Archer/Chapman season and the litany of injuries for Carson (which wasn't helped by Robinson rushing him back).

On the Kelly point I noticed this from McGarry in his weekly mailer: I know that it's a general opinion piece but it's interesting to read that it's likely Kelly's away. I mean, I think it's the right choice for him if he is as tbqh a fresh start somewhere would do him good but still...

Presumably it would need to involve Callum Butcher being very much launched first.

Both are Pitch Perfect alumnae (not Benji Siegrist of course).

Aye. This feels very on the nose. I see it's been *liked* and re-posted by Barmack as well. He's liked Dee's post about the ST video too. Although he's also 'liked' a Tweet by one of the many Motherwell Twitter accounts I have on mute and I've just cringed myself to death when I saw the content.

I've just realised that the script at the start is erm...echoing Friday Night Lights. And I for one am absolutely here for it. Clear eyes, full hearts... Texas forever.

Can I just say, last year's season ticket video got a fair amount of pushback (probably not helped by the hike in price) but I really like this season's. Well played everyone.

The interesting thing with McAlear was that it was implied that he'd told us he wouldn't be signing a new deal - so we went ahead and accepted whatever it was Norwich were offering. He was 17 when we accepted the deal. Related to Rice, I noticed this yesterday. In other news, Season Tickets.

Sligo finished 8th (in a 10 team league) last season so unless you're just wanting to visit I'd hold off.

Aye, from what I can tell when it comes to loaning out their good players (as opposed to the dross that fills the Academy system) the clubs take a holistic approach as to where they place them. Which is kind of my point. Qualifying for Europe isn't really going to level you up, it's not going to unlock 'access' to a *better* quality of player which a lot of fans assume to be the case because *Europe*. And again, that's not a dig - it's just that whether or not a club is playing a couple of European qualifiers in July/August isn't really going to factor into the thinking of that sort of club if they think that you're a good place to send their players to develop. Broadly speaking the "access" you'll have to players will be the same if you finish 6th and don't qualify for Europe as it would be if you finish 5th and get dropped into the qualifiers. If Liverpool like what you've done with Beck then they're going to be open to sending you similar players regardless of whether you're playing Sligo Rovers or whoever in mid-July or not. On the point about the success of your loans, Kettlewell has been exactly the same with us pointing to James Furlong, Brodie Spencer, Georgie Gent, Jack Vale and the most obvious of the lot Mika Biereth. It stands to reason if you have a track record of developing players (both your own and loans) rather than just parking them on the bench or freezing them out then your reputation will probably open doors for you.

I think this is probably one of the biggest misconceptions fans have about "qualifying for Europe" at this level. Which isn't a knock if you do end up qualifying but if you look at the various peer group clubs who have qualified for Europe in the time since Dundee last competed in European competition (us, St Johnstone, Killie, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, United etc) how many of them can you honestly say had access to any "high quality" loans as a direct result of qualifying for Europe that they wouldn't have had a decent chance of getting anyway. You've got your tie in with Burnley and you got Beck through the door when you were a newly promoted side. The prospect of playing a few qualifying rounds in the Conference league isn't really going to make much difference in a club like say, Liverpool, deciding on whether Dundee is a good destination for their player to develop.