capt_oats

Here's the Hammell interview.

What a series btw. (Well Season 1...that's all I've seen and all I needed. f**k.)

Quotes from Hammell's press conference.

Hammell's confirmed it's a real thing.

Here's Greg Marshall's Snodgrass report.

The fact that Burns has at least put his name on the story means that there's enough to suggest it's a real thing rather than some dweeb in on work experience with a tab of 'free agents' open on transfermarkt and an active imagination churning out some content for clicks. Which is nice. Still sceptical it'll happen but if we're chucking an extra wedge at bringing a few more players in it feels like the club/board acknowledge that some extra investment is needed. Which, again, is nice. As far as 'fringe' players go IMO it's likely to be players whose game time is going to be limited. In that respect it doesn't seem too difficult to make an educated guess given the areas we're openly looking to strengthen.

Scott Burns reporting on it. Saying we've chucked Hammell extra cash to try and get it done. Also, 3 or 4 more.

The Van Veen chat was just a weird thing to say. I mean, can you imagine Hammell rocking up to his press conference tomorrow and coming out with "Livi will be lucky to keep Nouble this window? I'd be shocked if he's still at the club."? Tbh, that was just one of a few chippy things he's said - the main one that caught the attention of a few of us was when he predicted a raft of teams who he expected to finish in the Top 6. A friendly reminder of the league table when he made that comment: In fairness, it's really just a bit. I don't think anyone's seriously suggesting he has a deep-seated hatred of Motherwell.

Maybe that's why he seems to really fucking hate us.

Aye. The STV Sports article headline is we're 'reportedly' in talks and cites The Sun as the source. It's pretty speculative. Also, f**k The Sun.

Nah, there were a few outlets. No BBC or STV mind you.

Ah, sorry. I stand corrected. I assumed he'd been at Luton all last season but looking at the page the minutes he played (or didn't) in the first half of the season were with West Brom - Edited my post to reflect that. That table I posted is cumulative minutes played all season. Here's his first half of the season with WBA - which I suppose supports the argument that he might find game time limited at another Championship club.

Aye, my feeling is similar to @Desp's post above - like the Davis story I can absolutely see a scenario where we've maybe sounded him out and asked a question. Whether or not it's anything more than that who knows? I didn't hear precisely what he said but I suppose the fact that Hammell apparently suggested that he'd hoped to have a couple of players signed when he was talking pre-match on Sportsound means there's a chance Snodgrass is/was one of those players. Fwiw, Snodgrass played 1096 minutes for WBA/Luton last season (actually fewer as 116 of the minutes listed below were in the u23 league). To put that in context it's less than Ojala managed for us. I've no idea if that was down to injury or whatever but it's a fair assumption to make that he'd get significantly more game time with us than he (probably) would at another club at Championship level.

Here's Greg Marshall's profile of McKinstry. As for Snodgrass, the fact that no one's put their name to the story means I'm entirely with the sceptical crowd. That said, Hammell's implied that we need known quantities and Snodgrass is certainly that. He also plays in areas that we need improving. I mean, I'm all for it in principle - it's just difficult to see it as anything other than an agent flying a kite at the moment.

In fairness Livi have no significant weaknesses either.

I see Scott Burns has posted in the Express. It's just a copy/paste of the news story re: McKinstry but there's a wee bit tagged on at the end.

I mean, he had a choice of working with Stephen Robinson or Marcelo Bielsa... In McKinstry's case he has actually developed at Leeds. He's still only 19 he's been a regular for their u23s pretty much since he arrived at the club 3 years ago when he was 16 and Bielsa gave him his first team debut last season as well as being fairly regularly included in match day squads. @thisGRAEME posted it up on Twitter earlier but if you've got a spare 15 minutes it's well worth having a listen to this podcast with Phil Hay and Stephen McManus giving some detail of McKinstry, what he's about and how the Leeds move happened.

Lads, this is wholesome #content.

Found this, here he is scoring for the Reserves in the same team as Deano. If you squint you can see him scoring here against Accies after being set up by none other than...Ross McCormack.

There he is.

As it stands the first team squad is 25 bodies, which sounds a lot. However it includes Fox who's doubling as GK coach for the interim at least, Carroll who's out for the season along with Connelly, Johnston, Devine and Mahon (a couple of whom you wouldn't be surprised to see loaned out) plus you've got the obvious question mark over McGinley. That's before you get to the question of whether or not there are any in the group who might be open to moving on. Given our sales pitch to a lot of our signings is that we're offering a platform to develop their career there may be a couple who might see the change of manager and the direction he's looking in going as an opportunity to explore other options. All of that is just a long winded way of saying that despite the 25 bodies we probably have a bit of flexibility and I agree with Hammell when he says that the squad is 'thin'. Not least in the fact that we have only have one out and out centre forward but 10 listed defenders (albeit one is ruled out for the season). McKinstry would be a step in the right direction if he signs but he's 19 and it's a big ask to expect him to have a Turnbull style impact on our season. That's a lot to put on his shoulders. Hammell's already said that we need to add to our attacking options and he's on record about a left back. As far as that goes my essential shopping list would be a left back, a wide option (McKinstry) and a centre forward/wide option (not necessarily him exactly but someone who'd offer the same options as Jimmy Scott ie: has potential to develop as a #9 but is effective wide). I've said it before but it feels like we know KVV is our first pick #9 and for all he's susceptible to picking up knocks/suspensions/dips in form a back up striker at Motherwell is a tough sell if we're only playing 1 up front. After that it's just dependent on what happens with the squad - a centre half would be nice but we already have 4 (5 if you include Devine) so that would be contingent on someone moving on, if we're sticking with this style/shape then an alternative to Goss in the quarterback role would be good as Big Sean hasn't been blessed with consistency.

Small victories and all that but in the wake of Alexanderball the whoscored.com match summary is a laugh.

Add me to the 'Calum Lang will be class' list as well. In fairness, it was a really weird season but while he was fine he also felt like another of the long line of forwards/strikers Robinson signed that he wasn't really sure what to do with. The fact that he seemed to be scoring every other week at Wigan when they recalled him kind of supported that (he scored 9 in 23 for them in the 2nd half of that season vs 5 in 21 for us). Cheers for that. It's helpful as we're kind of in a slightly odd position since beyond the limited interviews and the 3 games we've seen I don't think any of us really have any sort of handle on Hammell and what he wants from a player or his team. Regardless of whether or not we sign Reid it's interesting to see if there's a thread in terms of the qualities we're looking at. I mentioned it yesterday but it feels like SOD, McGinn and, until his knee fell apart, Carroll are closer to the type of full backs he's after compared to someone like McGinley. Even setting aside his serious injuries - Moult was at his best playing as part of a pair, whether it was McDonald or Bowman. He was largely ineffective playing on his own as a focal point - whether it's needs must or because he has no other options that's pretty much how Hammell has set us up so far. IMO we're looking for someone who is able to replicate what KVV does or to take it to an ideal - we're looking for another Higdon rather than a Moult.

Let the record also show that yer man was playing directly against Jake Hastie.

This is pretty much it. Like, if we shifted to a McGinn on the right of a back 3 and O'Donnell at RWB then it opens a LWB spot but since Hammell seems to be going with this 4141 it's a moot point. If SOD is fine with playing left back then just go with it IMO since as a short term fix it gets 2 players you'd imagine we want on the park, on the park. Without knowing the back story of what the script is with him looking at the what Hammell seems to want from his full backs (albeit in a limited sample size) it feels like McGinley is toast either way. @bunglebonce what's the deal with Josh Reid? What type of full back is he.