capt_oats

Aye. There's that and also we can loan players out to the lower leagues through February as well.

Given the whole pandemic situation loaning him to Cove was a fucking daft move in the first place (especially as he was one of the only other creative/attacking midfielders at the club). I mean, I understand and agree with the principle that with no Reserve League the Young Team needed to go out and get competitive minutes but parking him at a club at the other end of the country was wild.

Unless one of our signings is a right back and we're waiting to announce that (and O'Donnell fucking off)

Aye, I was at that one as well. The only thing I had wondered was whether or not he might fancy moving back south to be closer to family given everything that's going on. Also, I wasn't sure whether or not him being back involved at training meant he was actually an approximation of fit in the way Tanner was. I have zero problem with us doing the right thing so to speak and as @well fan for life say's I can't imagine we're making him rich. It's a slightly different circumstance to keeping someone around who's not going to be getting a game.

Cheers. Tbh, "nice touch and can pass it" is a start. One of the main issues we've had this season is that between the likes of Campbell, O'Hara, Crawford etc we've got plenty of grafters but no one other than an at times wildly out of form Polworth to actually pass the ball (although Barry Maguire turned up in that role in Dingwall the other night). Given the sort of window this is I'd be pleasantly surprised if we brought in anyone who's actually good but failing that an option who's a vague approximation of Polworth to bring on now and again (or fill in if he's suspended) would be nice. As I say, the rumour itself feels like it needs a fucking truckload of salt as they're claiming Rangers have been "monitoring" him as well.

Next season will be the first season in which the player reached 23 though. He was 22 at the start of this season.

Aye, it was mentioned a couple of posts up the page (via a different source). It seems a nonsense as they're saying Rangers are also interested. I know little of him other than Dundee loaned him from Sunderland and he's now at Blackpool but I think he falls into the "Polworth alternative" category. In former players chat...do we have a sell on for big Herbalife?

I'm less surprised, in fact I was half-expecting it, given that Alexander seems to have been fine with playing him and, as you say Donnelly's injury and O'Hara having been McHugh'd means an extra body in midfield isn't the worst idea. If he'd been heading back to Livi I'd have expected us to have announced it after the County game last week. As @Busta Nut says though he's tidy without necessarily being game changing.

Yer man was at Dundee and scored in that 4-3 game. On first thought was he not a midfielder who operated in a Polworth-y sort of area or am I projecting a bit because that's kind of what I think we need? @Ludo*1.

They paid us £350k cash for Hastie mind.

Update from Flow Updates on O'Donnell, Crawford and Charlie Dunne due today as well.

Yeah that's correct. The development comp is calculated up to the season the player turns 23 - which in Wright's case is this season as he was 22 when the season started. It's the same with us for Campbell, he's 22 just now but turns 23 in July (after this season finishes) so if he'd been contracted until next season we wouldn't have had a development comp claim. It's precisely the reason that when Campbell signed his new deal the expiry wasn't extended. The actual wording is on page 68 of the SPFL rules

Aye, it's the: 'You know what it’s like with a new manager sometimes, they bring in their own signings and if your face doesn’t fit, that’s football.” bit that gets me. When you actually piece that timeline together it's pretty brutal: Robinson resigns > 24 mins against Accies > Alexander appointed > 18 mins against St Mirren > unused sub > new manager signs another lanky striker > not in squad > not in squad > left in the car park in Dingwall. Yes Jordan your "face didn't fit". That's exactly what happened there.

Aye, I should probably say, I used to post on SO regularly and there are a handful of genuinely really good posters there who offer some great insight and balance. IMO it just suffers from the same one eyedness that most single club forums do and it can really be a drain to read as a result. As @mwellhighland says the general foaming at the mouth is something that I really don't miss at all from my Motherwell forum experience.

Definitely not for you guys as he'd just literally handed you an equaliser.

That photo man...Robinson in the background.

I had a dip into Steelmen earlier for the first time in a while and in a way it's comforting to see it hasn't changed. It still melts my brain though. I'd imagine this would be the quote from the bold Flow: As I said the other day, I'd imagine we're in a place where we're not going to be making the sort of 'marquee' signings that some folk over there seem to expect (though I've genuinely no idea what they do expect).

I think that's a bit harsh on Campbell in the sense that for all I agree there are games he's gone missing in the last few seasons there's generally been some context eg: the season he played straight through the summer with Scotland u21s at the Toulon tournament he hit a point with us where he just looked knackered. This season he's been asked to carry the midfield. Given his style of play it's not a huge surprise if we end up seeing signs of burnout. Also, I wonder how much Donnelly missing has had an impact on Campbell's form. Looking at last season for example he had 6 goals by the time the season was called and he looked like he was developing that knack of breaking into the box and getting beyond the forwards - take the security of Donnelly away and (with respect to both) replace with either Mark O'Hara or Robbie Crawford and I'm not really sure he can play the same game. Really the only goal he's scored this season like that was the 2nd against Livi - his only other goal this season was the one against St Johnstone where he picked the ball up far deeper.

It was different, less "unprecedented times" but the club have already been in that position when Celtic chapped us up for Carson after Gordon picked up his injury. Whether you believe we'd accepted the offer but couldn't get someone in (Woodman?) or whether we kb'd it because it was too late in the day, either way I'd like to think we'd be holding the same approach. By my count, all in from the first team squad (as it stands at the moment, minus the injured goalkeepers as they won't fit on the line up) this is how it balances out: Fwiw: assuming there are no key outgoings then we're still short a creative player and I'm not entirely convinced we don't need another centre back.

It's not something that we do regularly but I think the general approach would be a mutual consent to allow the player to find a club outside the window. IIRC Laing and Kennedy ended up with that sort of situation. Although Kennedy was effectively released (in March) well after the window closed but ended up signing for AFC Fylde where the 'window' didn't apply. Laing was released 31st January but didn't sign for ICT until 16th February. I've no idea of the actual mechanics of that but I'd guess there's a partial lump sum payment of the remainder of the contract that's beneficial for the club and also allows the player to f**k off and do whatever they want. Looking at the squad in general there are still a few question marks eg: O'Donnell's option, Crawford's loan expiry, Charlie Dunne's deal being up. I've been trying to get a handle on what Alexander's approach to the squad is in so much as in one of his earlier interviews he was saying he felt it was a big squad and his preference was to have tighter numbers that meant there was more involvement. Having read Alexander's comment about White being moved on it sounded like he had basically told him that he wouldn't be playing much: His line about wanting to keep our better players at the club just now was a slight and subtle change to the "we're a selling club, we won't stand in a player's way" narrative. The implication there is "we're just looking to get rid of the dross tbqhwy". Which is nice.

It was the bold @Busta Nut I think. The wording of the original news story says the deal is until January but has an option to extend. So it could easily be a version of that I guess. Semantics like.

I didn't really see much about the comment to take exception to. The quote was: I mean, he's literally saying he takes the blame for it.

Listened to the podcast last night. Tbh I was just expecting a 5-10 minute interview I didn't expect him to be on for the full hour or whatever it was. In saying that I don't think there was anything in it that was particularly surprising. Without wanting to turn Robinson into some Tommy Wright/St Johnstone figure despite him no longer being manager this is still his mess so some of what he was saying still seems relevant. Absolutely don't blame him for not fancying another rebuild and even the stuff about players looking at pre-contracts at other clubs or having said they're planning on leaving in the summer - that's not really news is it? You look at the number of players who left/moved on during/at the end of the 18/19 season (Rose, McHugh, Aldred, Cadden etc) and it's kind of to be expected given the whole "we'll give you a platform to progress your career" sales pitch. I mean, fair play to guys like Tait, Kipré, Dunne, Bowman, Grimshaw, Carson, Donnelly, Carroll and especially Turnbull who did actually extend their contracts after having been first team regulars. Flat out saying "No" when Currie asked him if he regretted his criticism of the players was a LOL. I can't imagine who he's talking about in saying that "for some players Motherwell was their last option" and that the lesson he's learned is that if a player doesn't really want to be at the club then don't sign them. His point about the club having never asked players to take a pay cut over the last year wasn't surprising as if they had it'd probably have been public but it was kind of new information to have it clarified (granted they had been furloughed but still...) All in all everything about this season seems to have been a shite time for everyone concerned.

He scored their 4th in the cup game.