capt_oats

Who's that over Shaw's right shoulder?

aye. It's probably a bias on my part but reading he's a midfielder I just assumed that meant a centre mid but watching his clips and doing a wee bit of reading it looks like he plays wide and centrally which opens up options for him in our squad. Interestingly (not really) he shares management with Marvin Johnson and Rolando Aarons. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/colossal-sports-management/beraterfirma/berater/3692

Hmmmm.....out of contract in the summer. Similar profile to Slattery I guess. EPL academy player, he was loaned out to a L1 team last season. Played 21 games for Accrington Stanley. In fact we were linked with Luke McCormick through the summer who was a Chelsea u23 that ended up at AFC Wimbledon. Gotts falls into that bracket as well (except Leeds academy obvs). f**k it. Make it happen Burrows.

Aye, I mean I don't know enough about random United Twitter accounts to know whether this guy is a total shitehawk or not but this is where I saw the £100k thing and it just seemed to be unquestioningly accepted by (some) fans. To add a bit more context on top of the Moult thing, this time last year we knocked back "substantial bids" for Allan Campbell because it wasn't in our interests to sell and we'd rather keep hold of the player. I don't see that our position would be any different now with Watt. The obvious difference is it's public knowledge that Watt's signed a PCA whereas with Campbell it was just an open secret that he was heading south at the end of his contract (and we were protected by development comp). As a general point though I'd say Alexander laid things out pretty well when he spoke to the press the other day.

The £100k was also just plucked from thin air. It seemed to be United fans on Twitter reading the 'six figure fee' that was being reported and rounding down as far as possible. I mean, £999,999 is also a 6 figure fee. Your point about making that money back (£100k) is also precisely why it's unlikely that would be a figure that would be enough to incentivise Motherwell to sell. We're not in the position where we'd be falling over ourselves for £100k and handing over our top scorer to a direct rival would be an obvious risk to our league placing. As Alexander was saying in the press the other day any fee would have a premium. To put it into context, when Moult agreed to move to Preston with 6 months left on his deal he eventually went in the January for £500k. Are United going to offer us £500k for Tony Watt? Probably not but the principle is the same, it would have to be an amount that would justify us selling.

Aye, I'd be surprised if we're even thinking long term - it's a case of him having somewhere to go until his Hearts deal expires and he probably suits our needs more than them. It's clear he has no future at Hearts whereas, at worst, he gives us good cover for either Woolery or Watt and has enough about him to start if needed. Assuming we're only chipping in for his Hearts wage then he's probably a better value player than we'd otherwise get for that money (I say that having no idea how much we're contributing). I'd imagine he'll be looking at heading back south when his deal at Hearts is up in the summer tbh and from our POV it gives us 6 months to line up a permanent option in the summer.

It's inexplicable.

No massive surprise here given Roberts' whole 'already played for two clubs' situation.

It's pretty standard chairman spiel, especially after a manager's contract extension but I thought this point from McMahon rings true: I've mentioned it a couple of times but when you look at the number of staff additions that have been made since Alexander got the job (most of them having had a previous connection) it's fair to say that he's been backed and it seems like there's a mutual buy in at the club between board and manager. Also, I guess if we're making a pitch to players to sign up on longer term contracts it's probably an easier sell if they see that the manager has a similar commitment. I know Alexander's not been for everyone but if you take his first year as a complete body of work rather than focusing on individual games or results then it's difficult to argue with the job he's done and the rebuild he's overseen.

Tbh, I was scrolling through my TL the other week and genuinely had to double take wondering when he made a film with Alana Haim.

Tbh, I'd be inclined to put the 'leak' at United's door. Both Asghar and Courts seem like absolute worstcunts and the whole thing has had the feel of them trying to put a heavy lean on the situation. I said it the other week but the fact that Scott Burns broke the story just before we had a game feels like it was designed to be disruptive. There's an argument that United would have potentially benefited if we'd dropped Watt and lost against Livi. If it had just been about leverage for him to potentially move in January 'leaking' after the Livi game would have had the same effect.

He was brought in as cover for Carson last season but picked up an injury the ruled him out for the season on pretty much the first day of pre-season and aye, he's been back up to Kelly all season. The only football he's actually played was that emergency loan to Morton at the end of last season. He played with Miller at Thistle so if he's wanting games it wouldn't be a massive surprise and I don't think we'd stand in his way. I'd imagine he could still keep his GK school thing going if he wanted.

New series starts on Sky Atlantic.

I see the story is that we're just "interested" rather than having put a bid in as yet. Tbh, I definitely don't see Rudden as any sort of Tony Watt replacement but he absolutely has Conor Shields vibes (in profile rather than style of play ie: someone having a good run in the Championship). So in that respect I'm not surprised we're having a look.

From the BBC Gossip page. I wondered if we were one of the other teams McCall had been talking about. Link

I had a look at that as we were/are in a similar situation with Jordan Roberts. He's played with both Hearts and ourselves. This is from the FIFA rules dated August 21 (page 12).

Maybe I'm just being unbelievably naive but the fact we held off until Crawford had been announced at Thistle before announcing Shaw suggests that's the switch? I'm not sure why there would be an assumption that it impacts Cornelius. With Crawford out and Shaw in, as far as I can see Cornelius' place in the squad hasn't really changed. As @Busta Nut says there are people who are closer to Cornelius who will know exactly what the deal is. To me, while I realise he's had an injury, Crawford hadn't kicked a ball for us since the Airdrie game (he had been an unused sub 10 times though, which says a lot I think). Said it before but it felt like a few players had their cards marked after the League Cup games. *waves at Steven Lawless*. We've had Alexander talking in the press about wanting a competitive squad and having cover for injury, suspension and the 'vid - if O'Hara's still injured then as is we've 7 players playing for 3 positions - that allows for cover and rotation IMO.

Yeah, that was the story. It was Hartlepool rather than Morecambe though. He had a move lined up to go back there as it suited his family situation. He spoke about that and the fact Robinson accommodated him when he signed his extension with us in 2020: This was from an interview just after United 'swooped':

There he is...

He was brought in as cover after Donnelly picked up his injury last season and Robinson was apparently obsessed with signing players from Livi. He bounced around the squad from that point on. My view is that he was tidy enough but @Gianfranco sums him up well in saying he's not the worst but doesn't really have any stand out qualities (certainly at Premiership level). I get the feeling he got his extension really because it was an easy deal to get done to give us a bit of continuity through the summer as we were changing up our recruitment and needed bodies in early doors. From what I can tell he played his best football for McCall when he was at Ayr, so your manager knows what he's getting which is a plus point for you guys I'd say.

Robbie Crawford - OUT