capt_oats

I guess with Danzaki confirmed that frees Shields up to confirm any loan move. I see the news story on the official has him as a 'forward' rather than a midfielder. Here's the contract situation: 2023: O'Donnell (30), Carroll (31), McGinn (32), Johnston (19), Cornelius (21), Goss (27), Efford (26), Mandron (28) 2024: Kelly (27), Oxborough (24), Lamie (29), Mugabi (27), Johansen (27), McGinley (26), Maguire (24), Spittal (27), Slattery (23), Van Veen (31), Morris (31), Shields (25) 2025: Blaney (24), Danzaki (22), Tierney (21), Miller (16) Loans expiring 2023: McKinstry (20) (Leeds United - 2023), Crankshaw (24) (Stockport County - 2024)

Hammell talking about Danzaki and recruitment. I wonder who those "familiar faces and coaches" we went to for character reference were. Tough one.

When Penney's situation was up in the air last week Hammell said they were looking at alternatives as well as speaking to Ipswich so to take him at face value - we'd be looking at a left back minimum. So far it's pretty much been like for like in terms of the business we've done but looking at the movement out along with the players we seem to be actively trying to move. Ojala, Aarons, Moult, Penney, Maguire plus potentially Shields...that's a chunk of the first team squad from the start/first half of the season. From that list we've not replaced Penney and Maguire. So far we've brought in Blaney (for Ojala?), Mandron (for Moult) and Crankshaw (for Aarons) with Danzaki seeming to just be cutting about ML1 waiting for clearance. It's hard not to look at the lack of game time for SOD and Morris and raise a question there but it'd be pretty fucking bold to trim 8 first team players from the squad in January eh? In Morris' case I guess it's a question of how much appetite there is from either a) the player or b) prospective clubs to do a deal. Also, as far as CBs go I get we have numbers in there but Mugabi is currently injured and it would genuinely beggar belief if Hammell's been stood on the touchline week in, week out watching us ship a whole manner of nonsense goals and coming out with his patter post-match but is thinking: "Yeah, this is totally fine. No changes needed.". Absolutely fucking wild.

When Hammell got the job his first point was that our forward area didn't have anywhere near enough depth. The implication was basically that we were starting guys like Shields and Efford who weren't actually good enough to be nailed on first picks (he wasn't wrong). He brought Moult, McKinstry and Rolando Aarons back to the club, the former as cover for Van Veen and the other two were/are wide players. In theory that would have seen Shields bumped down to the bench and used more as a squad player. Which is probably the role he should have as he's kind of struggled with the step up from QotS to the Premiership. We got a grand total of 50 minutes out of Aarons before his knee exploded. Efford has been out since the start of October. The result is that we've had no alternatives so Shields been getting played week in, week out regardless of form, in a shape that doesn't really suit him and his confidence seems to be absolutely fucking shot. A loan back to the Championship could do him the world of good tbh.

From the sound of that he's signed but just not officially announced. Which is fine I guess? It'll just annoy the #announce crowd. "Close to one" doesn't rule out others I suppose. If the window closes at the end of the month that gives us what 4 days to bring in another 3? Maybe? With Maguire already away and Shields looking like he's heading for a loan "one in, one out" feels right? Again, that's totally fine on the basis that we've managed to shift a couple.

Oh aye? So...Shields out, Danzaki in then?

Based on players who have either left (Penney, Maguire) or are injured (Efford, Mugabi, Carroll, McGinley) plus Josh Morris having apparently disappeared this is what we look like (IMO) - including Danzaki.

The general discourse around Danzaki has just been quite a laugh tbh. On one hand you've had "analysts" on Asian football surprised that we're signing him because he's not as good as the other Japanese players who have arrived in the league. Lads, consider me shocked that we're not signing players at the same level as *checks notes*...Celtic. Also, same guy...6 months ago "we saw what Danzaki can do in the ALM". Then you've got the simps in our support taking the "good to see Motherwell not signing players from the English lower tiers in England" line as if some of our best signings haven't been precisely players from the lower leagues in England and for every Ojamaa we've had a Casper Sloth and Christian Ilic.

I don't know if it was just because the window was *slamming* shut but we announced Johansen before his work permit had cleared. I can see why it'd maybe take a while to sort things out in this case but we don't necessarily have to have the permit cleared in order to announce. Equally, he can sign subject to a work permit being issued.

Were you not one of the other teams (along with us and Carlisle(?)) who were taking a look at Rudden last year when he was still at Thistle?

This is kind of it. He's pretty much the definition of a squad player for this level. I think it's probably unfair to say that he's proven that he's not Premiership level IMO. It's probably closer to the truth that he's proven himself to not be consistently at that level. You can drop him in off the bench or cover injuries and he'll be absolutely fine. Put him in a midfield with the right mix and he'll probably hold his own but he's not someone to build your midfield around and right now he's not really the answer to whatever it is we're missing in the middle of the park. If we're clearing decks a bit to allow for some movement then the move makes complete sense.

cc: @Ludo*1 Here are couple of bits of Barry Maguire #content

Said it before but I've muted more Motherwell fans on my Twitter feed than any other demographic.

I have absolutely nothing against the bold Baz but the current "Barry Maguire didn't get a chance at Motherwell" discourse on Twitter is fucking wild btw. "One of the best young players at the club"...he's 25 in April.

All our business so far this window has pretty much been like for like and with Maguire away to Dens it only leaves us with Goss, Slattery and Cornelius for the 2 pivot spots in a 4231. You'd kind of hope that an actual #6 is the plan. Like, I don't see Danzaki signing having any bearing on Maguire's loan.

Fair play. I was waiting on that. With Maguire I think I think most comments on him here a few pages back are pretty accurate. @Handsome_Devil, @Swello and @well fan for life have summed it up far more succinctly than me above. He's very much a 'tidy' player. He's got two good feet but he's never really done enough to cement a spot in our first team. He's also slightly unfortunate in that his peer group at the club happened to be the likes of Turnbull, Campbell, Cadden etc and he's not any of them. IIRC he started at the club as a midfielder but was shunted about the park trying to find him a position. We tried him at CB and Robinson pretty much ended that after St Johnstone won 5-1 at FP. After that he went back to midfield. As I say he actually has all the tools, he has a good physique, has good feet, he's not a bad player but as @Swello says he's just doesn't seem to have an outstanding attribute at our level. Except beep tests. He's fucking brilliant at those. The fact he's moving to a similarly sized club whose fanbase actually have expectations of promotion is a good move for him as equally there will be expectations on him to actually perform. Posted this the other day but of all his managers Alexander used him the most (he also missed the 2nd half of our season where things went completely sideways so none of that is on him):

There's yer Barry Maguire to Dundee on loan confirmed. That seems like a really good move for him tbh.

On the whole Danzaki thing. I mean, it's not like the A-League is exotic. Devlin, Atkinson, Rowles, Baccus, Cancar, Birighitti...some have been better than others but it's become a pretty well tapped market for teams at our level in recent seasons. Fair play to @thisGRAEME for calling it as a market we should be looking at in a post last year...

Ah right, Companies House is still only showing your accounts to 31st May 2021. As I say it wasn't a dig at Saints it's just you're a club that's an interesting comparison for us in terms of strategy and the fact that from the outside looking in you seem to have moved away from the sort of approach that established the whole "well run club" tag. Like, we signed Jordan White but we didn't chuck £100k at ICT for him (we also emptied him after 6 months).

Cheers. That was the section I had picked up on but wasn't 100% if I was misreading or not. Basically I wasn't clear on whether it was actually a payment that was included in the accounts or not given that it's talking about it in relation to an increase in Non-current assets:

Lads, we're fucking #massive

Aye. It's mentioned in the Strategic Report that: So that's nice. I also noticed that we had more cash in the bank at end of year 22 than we did in the previous set of accounts. Again, "Yay!" I don't know if it was mentioned at the AGM but was there a first instalment of payment on the pitch included in the new set of accounts.

It's an SNS photo so it'll have been an agency thing.

It'll be interesting to see St Johnstone's numbers this year for comparison given their last published accounts for their cup double season showed a £507k loss. They had a drop off in league position last season and by all accounts they've been running a huge squad and chucking fees at players. You'd think having crowds back in would mitigate things a fair bit especially as they've (very publicly) handed over stands to the OF plus selling Ali McCann and Jason Kerr but still...

What interests me about the Maguire link is that so far the trend we’ve seen this window seems to have been like for like: Aarons out, Crankshaw in Moult out, Mandron in Penney out, ? Hammell’s already suggested publicly that we’re looking for an alternative left back in the event Penney went elsewhere. The fact that the Connor Shields loan story surfaced around the time that Brisbane’s manager all but confirmed the Danzaki deal suggests we’re swapping a player who’s been used out wide for an attacking midfielder who plays across the supporting 3 behind a #9. Looking at our numbers for the 2 pivot roles in a 4231 we only have Goss, Slattery, Cornelius and Maguire so you’d think if one of them moves we’d be looking for a replacement coming in. Beyond that the only two other players who are only getting limited game time are SOD and Morris.