capt_oats

Oh...

Was cash plus Kirk and McGrillen for Eddie May the last player swap we did?

Nixon has their back-up goalie going to join Robinson at Morecambe.

That's the only player I'd have thought might even be of vague interest. He plays "across the front 3" and is out of contract in the summer. He turns 23 in March so they've missed the boat for development money and could walk for free. This is really the only point where he still has some sort of negotiable "value" (unless he signs a new contract) but he's only started 4 league games, subbed on in 8 so there's an argument we'd be able to offer more game time. He's one of those where there's potential but it's not like he's a nailed on starter for them. You'd think he'd also fit in our budget in terms of wages as well. In this scenario I'd imagine Roberts would probably extend his loan but it could be more about replacing Amaluzor in the summer.

The other thing is even minus Watt it still leaves us with a squad of 25 players. Unless others are planning on being moved out in this window we don't actually need any more bodies. Even then, while I'm sure we'd be looking to replace Watt should he move I'd imagine we'll have our own ideas of who we want to bring in without having to limit ourselves to whatever dross United have on offer.

So with the bold Mich'el away this is how the squad looks at the moment. O'Hara and O'Connor seem to be long term injuries. O'Hara's last appearance was 6th November against Aberdeen. There's an obvious question mark over Watt and Roberts' loan is up this month albeit his options are limited to either Hearts or us (or moving to a club on a different calendar). Also:

I mean, aye, in the sense he never actually played a minute but I think there's probably a bit of context. Whether he was here as a favour to an agent or just someone we wanted a look at I get the feeling that we "signed" him largely because you can't play trialists and we needed bodies for the Betfred groups and to fill out the squad in pre-season through to the end of the summer window. The short term deal said a lot and when you look at his profile in contrast to the majority of our other signings it feels like it was only ever intended to be the shortest of short term as cover - Donnelly was coming back from long term injury, neither Slattery or Goss had signed yet, Tierney was still in Ireland and the bench was literally school weans.

There's yer #Grezza confirming the Watt pre-contract with United. Link

I don't know if it's from the same press conference or if it's a different interview but he's talking to Alan Temple in The Courier:

Aye, going by fivethirtyeight, as it stands, there's a <1% chance of Motherwell being relegated.

What a team lads.

Is that through to the end of the season? Motherwell finished above Dundee United.

Some laugh that. They've literally just recycled his interview from 25th October. These are the quotes from October: Here's "Football Scotland" with scoop on 31st December.

The interesting thing about the Lawless interview is really just that he confirms what a lot of us suspected in so much as although Alexander was in place when he signed the contract is was Robinson who had wanted him/put it in motion. There's nothing else he says that should really come as too much of a surprise. After Roberts signed he'd have been about our 6th choice forward. At the time a number of people called it as a lazy signing and while you can mitigate it to a degree that we wouldn't have been a massive draw given our league position at the time and also a Pandemic January window is as tough as you can get to recruit - he was really just a terrible fit on every level.

There's yer Steven Lawless "opening up" about his time at Motherwell...

I think you said it the other day, it's weird how your brain can simultaneously be thinking if he signed up on a deal relative to our budget and how we value him then it'd be magic but equally thinking a 3 year deal on the sort of money United are reported to be paying him plus signing on fee etc relative to his form over his career feels like a massive risk. I've seen a few posts on the dumber side of Motherwell Twitter from folk who seem genuinely raging, chucking toys everywhere because we're not trying to match United which is absolutely fucking wild.

Incidentally, to speak to this point, I noticed this write up on the Sky Sports website. It's an interesting comparison between the two. The context they don't give is minutes played: Watt is 1,598 mins in the league, KVV is 1,194 mins. Link

Aye, without knowing the ins and outs the timing of the 'leak' feels like it was designed to be disruptive. Coming shortly before we play our final game before the winter break, not that I expect Scott Burns to sit on a story but if it was just about leverage to expedite his exit in January it could have leaked this week and still had the same result. As it turned out the story blew up and Watt's benched for the Livi game. Not that it mattered in the end with Van Veen turning up to ping them in top bins but still, it's probably fair to say that had that story not ran on Christmas Eve Watt would have likely started on Sunday. I know Burns will have an in with pretty much every club in the country but I seem to recall reading that he's tight with Asghar (United fans will probably know better if that's the case or not). It's been mentioned elsewhere but the club have done a pretty good job of navigating players/agents acting the c**t in recent years so ultimately I'm inclined to trust them to handle things appropriately.

Have you logged in/subscribed? The full game is definitely there, I watched it on Sunday night.

In terms of the position/role I think we could use a bit of cover but would be hugely upopular with everyone (except @YassinMoutaouakil)? Step forward Vigz it's your time to shine.

In the wider scheme of things I think it's kind of went under the radar a bit just how good a job he's done. We were bottom of the league, had a huge squad riddled with players who either didn't want to be here or had largely chucked it. We ended up safe by a reasonable distance. He's turned both Devante Cole and Tony Watt into 1 in 2 goal strikers, overseen an overhaul of both squad and back room with a decent success rate in recruitment, we're sitting 4th at the break and have the 3rd best points return outside of Rangers and Celtic for the calendar year. That's some turnaround and before you even get into the improvement in players like Lamie and Mugabi, even Maguire is finding his feet in this squad with Cornelius having been dropped in a couple of times and not looked out of place as well - so he's beginning to tick the 'development' KPI box as well. I mean, through the summer there were "fans of other clubs" who were giving it "he's out his depth". How'd you like them apples now lads? I've generally given SO a massive swerve as (like most single club forums) it's never the place to go if you're looking for nuanced views with a bit of perspective but having dipped in and out recently aside from a couple who are either obvious WUMs or wildly thick things generally seem pretty sanguine. Folk seem to be taking the Tony Watt stuff in their stride as well. It's really just Twitter where you have the ultimate 'bald men fighting over a comb' discussion with United dweebs about that particular situation. There's probably an argument that when Watt goes it maybe leaves a space free for Roberts in the starting line up (based on the squad at the moment). Given Roberts can only play for either us or Hearts in the 2nd half of the season (unless he can get a move to a club on a different calendar) it wouldn't be a massive surprise to see his loan extended. In that respect I'd say that some sort of cover/rotation option for KVV would make sense. Albeit as @Gianfranco says a like for like who can do both doesn't seem the wildest shout. It's a question of who's available and what we actually need though. It feels more like nip and tuck rather than actual surgery that's needed. Generally our transfer business over the summer seemed to be fully focused on the longer term, the number of 3 year deals we were chucking about speaks to that. I'm not really sure that January is the window where the same applies so it'll be interesting to see how we approach things in that respect - Tierney on a 3.5 contract follows the trend of the summer I guess. I still feel a midfield alternative to Goss would be quite nice as to me we're heavy reliant on him to do that job and while I don't think Tierney is the same type of player, even if he was it'd be unfair to put that on his shoulders while he settles in.

Big ups to the SPFL Twitter admin for acknowledging we picked up more points this calendar year than anyone outside Rangers and Celtic. What a club lads.

I think the fact that we launched him from the club in early October with the best part of a year still to run tells you a lot. Without knowing the ins and outs it doesn't take a genius to work out he wasn't an Alexander signing. GA got the job on 7th January a week after Robinson resigned, Lawless pitched up on the 15th. It seemed like one that had been in the pipeline and was just completed anyway. He wanted to come back up the road, we were looking for players. It was a transfer of convenience. In the end he picked up an injury after 20 mins as a sub against Rangers and he pretty much disappeared. This season he was given chances in the Betfred games but, goal against Queens Park aside, at no point did he look like he was even close to being able to make an impact. He just seemed an absolutely terrible fit for an Alexander side and getting caught on camera at Ibrox while we were still operating under restrictions and his complete refusal to take any sort of ownership of it when he was called out about it by fans just seems to sum him up. The final nail so to speak was when he started against Dundee in the LC game. We lost 1-0, he was never seen in a Motherwell jersey again. As @well fan for life says above he was absolutely fucking miles off it. To the point that it's genuinely wild to think that he even started the season with the club. Reading between the lines he was more than happy to leave and we were more than happy for him to f**k off and to be honest I think most of us were delighted when he did. The comments on the post about him being mutual-ed are something else.