capt_oats

Well...that's interesting. FYI: He scored 20 in a season for Alexander's Scunthorpe side in 16/17.

Bigi's world tour continues apace.

The End. It's been quite the rollercoaster through the day...

Is Burns not saying that the total deal is €4m including add ons rather than €4m up front? Fwiw, the bold Fabrizio has it as €2.5m + add ons. Depends on which 'Italian journalist' you trust.

Only another 2 to go after this. Also, "Fucking brilliant McGinn"

He missed a penalty anaw.

Scorers confirmed. Also...it's #Grezza Burrows dropping knowledge on the reply guys.

Yer man was there. Finished 5-1 apparently.

First episodes on Apple TV+ today - Taron Egerton and Ray Liotta (with a score by Mogwai in case that's of interest).

See with the Carroll/McGinley chat yesterday it's only just occurred to me that as far as I can remember big Toby hasn't been in any of the pre-season #content bar the 1st day back and even then he was just cutting about in that video rather than doing any hard yards. Basically what I'm getting at is, is he still injured or rehabbing? Coincidentally, I was surprised to see that despite being right footed Jordan McGhee's TransferMarkt profile has LB listed as 'other position'.

Absolutely lost it at this btw.

There's the Bathgate Maldini and #Grezza

Aye, but they're listed as "Slim" fit on your store so it shouldn't really be a surprise. Fwiw, I bought our away shirt at the weekend and the L is pretty much the same size/fit as our home and away shirts last year. The Saints store has the same Macron size guide as ours so make of that what you will. https://www.stjohnstonedirect.co.uk/pages/macron-size-guide https://motherwelldirect.co.uk/pages/macron-replica-sizing

SPFL admin, thank you.

"we have still got some business to do."

Just a nice classy salted caramel for me.

Agree with this. The other thing, specifically about Carroll, is he's actually shown himself to be a perfectly serviceable Premiership level full back in the past and someone who has above average delivery. Taking a cursory glance, he had the most assists for a non-OF full back in the league (5 in 25 games, behind Tavernier - 13 in 35 and Ralston - 9 in 28). There's an argument that our issues in the full back areas last season were as much down to the way the team was set up as it was individual players so there's a fair chance that an alternative played in that position would have been equally exposed.

I think there's a natural process when it comes to the academy stuff. You hope to be able to keep as many of your best players but in any cycle there will be divergent paths, some develop at different rates from others, some get opportunities quicker than others in both career progression and first team opportunity terms. On one hand, you've a Turnbull who was a unicorn in both ability and the fact that he was reportedly kb'ing Celtic, Rangers and other clubs on an annual basis from the moment the joined the academy. The flip of that is a Bailey Rice who's jumped at the offer from Rangers before he even signed pro terms. Between those extremes you've got your McKinstry, McAlear, Semple - so on and so forth. In McKinstry's case I absolutely can't knock him for backing himself and taking an opportunity to join Leeds and work with Bielsa. Without wanting to make it a #narrative in developmental terms it'll be interesting to see what happens with both Rice and Lennon Miller given both are Scotland youth internationals from the same group and one jumped ship while the other stayed.

Aye, I think your point the other day about how even the most successful Motherwell sides over the years have been littered with "do a job" type players touched on what I'm getting at. Over the recent seasons there's been an argument that we shouldn't be recruiting from the lower leagues in England and we should be focusing on the Scottish leagues. I mean, it's expectations but I'm genuinely curious who folk are anticipating us to signing from the SPFL if not your Polworth, Gallagher, O'Donnell, Shields, Spittal or McGinn types. Even Tony Watt was hardly at an apex in his career when he signed up on a short term deal. There are folk falling over themselves on Motherwell Twitter wanting us to sign Moult yet at the same time if Alexander was to sign a Not Louis Moult with his sort of injury record over the past 3 years they'd want the manager and recruitment staff chased. As I say none of that is intended to be obtuse or arguing that we shouldn't have expectations or want to sign *good* players but I'm curious as to exactly what players the reply guys in Burrows mentions think we should be signing when they're voicing their concerns about the lack of signings (despite us have signed 2 and a squad of 22 contracted).

This will sound snarky but it's genuinely not meant to be but what players would cut it? Like, for frame of reference. Yes, it's up to the recruitment department and that but it'd be interesting to know. As I said earlier, the one player we've been credibly linked with so far that stood out for me was Davis.

Aye, to be clear I'm not in any sort of hurry to know what #Grezza's favourite dinosaur is or find out which member of the squad is most likely to sacrifice a goat - I'm absolutely fine with a handful of photos and some nice drone footage but what we've generally been pretty good at in the past and there seems to have been far less of is putting out some broad strategy stuff so everyone has an idea of where things stand. Like it doesn't need to be a deep dive into how we're going to try to recreate Tony Watt in the aggregates or anything just a general we were happy with X or Y, this didn't work as well as we'd like and so on and so forth.

I get that it's a bit (and fair enough during the Jan - May 22 period) but the flip of that was that Alexander had been pretty consistent in his team selection from the point he got the job in Jan 21 through to Dec 21. Kelly literally played every game, Watt, Van Veen and Woolery were a fixed front 3 and I'm pretty sure @crazylegsjoe_mfc pointed out there was a run of 9 or so games where he played the same midfield 3. On top of that Carroll was largely his first choice left back up to the point he was sent off against Dundee at which point McGinley got the jersey until his injury.

Tbh, I think that's fair. One of the more curious aspects thus far is that we've not actually heard much from anyone about our plans - granted last season marked a shift in our approach but by this time last summer we'd had an interview with Alexander in May and Burrows had appeared on the MFC Podcast talking at length laying the groundwork and very much highlighting that we were aiming to be patient and aiming for "better" targets. This summer though it's been tumbleweeds. That's not necessarily a criticism it's just how it looks from the outside there's been a bit of an information vacuum. As it stands we've only been credibly linked with a handful of targets (if that) everything else has had the distinct air of agents on manoeuvres and flying kites for their clients. I mean, even this McGhee chat is coming from a guy on Dundee's TDBF saying he's "been told" and as @Ludo*1 says while it's unlikely the guy is a WUM there's nothing about his posting history to show he's ITK - in fact I noticed a post from a guy who seems to be a bit more ITK saying that McGhee missed their game due to injury and the manager isn't aware of any approach - it's a bit of an ITK-off on that forum. Of the couple that we've been *credibly* linked with ie: Scott Burns type links we've signed Spittal and McGinn while Steven Davis extended his contract with Rangers. For me Davis fell into that bracket of showing some "ambition". Who knows if we have plans beyond that though. If we're to take an objective look at it there were 9 first team players out and we've signed 2 and those we've signed are pretty fair swaps (IMO). Justin Amaluzor Liam Donnelly Liam Grimshaw Mark O’Hara Cody McLeod PJ Morrison Victor Nirennold Darragh O’Connor Jordan Roberts Liam Shaw (end of loan – Celtic FC) From that list I'd say Spittal replaces Roberts and McGinn replaces Grimshaw. I'd guess if it comes to pass McGhee fills the "versatile" spots vacated by O'Hara/Donnelly.