capt_oats

I don't care we already have 9 contracted forwards. Bring him home.

Signed Jamie Semple on a season long loan with recall clause for January. Genuinely interested to see how he gets on as he's been a name that's been known around the club for ages on account of playing for our u20s when he was 14 and being invited to Liverpool and Southampton for training. He seemed to lose his way a bit when Craigan was taking the u20s and was nominally shoved wide but since Mo Ross has been taking the Reserves he's been moved into a #8 role - but with Turnbull, Polworth, Campbell, Donnelly and O'Hara having been first picks in midfield he's not had much of a look in. Hopefully this loan's what he needs.

In fairness, it's doubtful we actually made anything out of a sell on for Kipré due to Wigan's administrators punting him for £900k. The general train of thought was that we might be looking to waive any nominal fee but try and make Lang's loan permanent but there's been nothing further on that. Either way, depending on how much faith you have in reported transfer fees in the media then our pivot to the player trading strategy when Les Hutchison got involved has brought in close to £9m. For a bit of context during McCall's time as manager (2010 - 2014) we brought in £800k. Fully aware I'm posting this with us sitting bottom of the league so I'm absolutely not giving it the big "look at us" but it's really just to support your point about the difference a change in strategy can have with that sort of thing.

It could obviously just be entirely coincidental or he just loves our #content but it appears he recently started following our official Twitter (assuming that is his actual Twitter). Aside from the fact our transfer strategy seems to be signing Declan Gallagher's pals there's a fair chance we might be in the market for a midfielder since Liam Donnelly's injury means he's out until the new year. We play with 3 CM and have just loaned out Jamie Semple to Cove. So our current list of fit midfielders amount to Campbell, O'Hara, Polworth plus Barry Maguire and Dean Cornelius (who may end up loaned out himself). We've already paid a 'nominal' sum for O'Hara so I reckon we could probably stretch to a bag of balls for Byrne. That's heavy 2+2'ing but all the parts kind of fit given the type of midfielder he is and the Donnelly shaped hole in our midfield.

Aye, I saw Livingstone, Leighton and Watson are up there. Also...

Semple loaned out to Cove. Season loan with recall break in January.

Bring him home... In other news Semple away to Cove on loan. That surely puts us in the market for a midfielder?

I see the official site has brought the Team News page back. Saying October/November for Carroll. Also, apropos of nothing...it looks like Shaun Byrne is now following the club on Twitter (assuming it's not a really niche fake). I mean we do great content and we've a few of his former team-mates at the club - why wouldn't he follow us? Interesting in light of the Donnelly injury and fat Charlie arriving at Dens though.

Someone did earlier on Twitter... Going by the replies it seems genuine rather than a "could do a job" bit.

You've probably already clocked this but the boy I was talking about (Dougie Wright) did an in depth interview with Joel on The Terrace last week.

I'm no expert but it all depends on the category of club he signs for. I'd guess that the fact Erwin moved to Leeds meant that the comp was higher. Using Cadden as an example IIRC the story was that had he moved to a club at the same category as us (Cat II I think) the compensation due would have been somewhere in the region of €600k. According to McGarry the club advised Oxford that the compensation due were they to sign him (a category below us) would be €300k. FIFA's schedule for training compensation for 2019 is here so that's where you'd imagine the €600k and €300k figures were derived. Based on the below presumably, had he moved to a Cat I club, it'd have been €900k: Unless there have been significant changes you'd think the same would be true for Campbell (or any other product of the Motherwell Academy).

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Happy to be corrected but I have a feeling that the compensation rule up here is u23. I'd imagine that would be why he got a wage bump last year but the expiration date of the contract remained the same ie: we're still protected by compensation rather than him being able to walk away for nothing when it expires. In fairness my initial reaction was to cite Turnbull as an example but really they're not exactly comparable. When Turnbull signed his 2nd extension (1st as a 1st team player) he was 19 and had played fewer than 30 games for the club. The 3rd extension was when he was coming back from his knee surgery. Right now Campbell's 22, in his 5th season as a first team player, has played 127 games and providing he stays injury free (and there's no further shut down) he could be realistically looking at having made 150+ appearances by the time it expires. The deal he signed in 2017 was 4 years. I mean ultimately it's coming from the same place in so much as you're asking the player and his Mr 20% to do you a turn but it's definitely problematic if it becomes the expectation that every player should follow suit. The club can put something on the table for the player to consider but ultimately it's his career and he should be allowed to make his decision without a guilt trip The club have done their bit in ensuring they're protected by training compensation at worst (unless he fucks off to USA, USA, USA! like Cadden), he signed a 4 year deal and has been a stand out since. He's more than done his bit whether he extends or not. Having said that, I've a feeling that this is Campbell's breakthrough season ie: the one where he becomes our profile player in the same way Moult and Turnbull have previously and there's every chance that he can develop his brand beyond simply being perceived as the ten-a-penny "terrier" midfielder you mentioned and pivot to a rebrand as an ML1 John McGinn. Maybe I'm just more aware of it but there definitely seems to have been a conscious move to shove him to the front and centre recently (which has been helped by his scoring goals and being really, really good) - he's no longer standing in anyone's shadow.

Tbh, it feels like this perception is largely why he's still at the club. However, again I'm ripping off @thisGRAEME's Terrace chat, what will probably define his next move is his goal return. He was on 6 for the season when the league shut down he's now sitting on 2 from 6 league games - if he adds goals to his game and is hitting 10+ from midfield Turnbull/Donnelly-style then that's the sort of thing that's going to catch the eye and take him out of the 'he'll tackle his gran' pigeon-hole he's (unfairly) found himself boxed in. I've always felt that the 'Allan Campbell brand' has kept him under the radar - however in the same way that the Turnbull hype train got into full effect in 18/19 this feels like it's Campbell's season in so much as he's dragging our team through games and scoring goals so with Turnbull gone he has the platform to himself and is legitimately our best player.

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Aye the other thing is that a 2 addresses the whole 'Long isn't a central 9 in a front 3' issue. Either way, by my count, there have only been 2 games this season where we've had the same forward line b2b (and we didn't score in either): vs St Johnstone (W - 1-0): Watt/Lang vs Celtic (L - 3-0): Watt/Long vs Glentoran (W - 5-1): Lang/Long vs Accies (L: 0-1): Seedorf/White/Lang vs Hibs (X - 0-0): Seedorf/Lang/White vs Livi (X - 2-2): Seedorf/White/Long vs United (L - 0-1): Seedorf/Hastie/Long vs County (L - 1- 0): Hastie/Long/(Turnbull - wtf? etc) I mean, clearly there have been issues with other areas of the team eg: Not having a fit left back, Donnelly's knee exploding, our only right back's form going off a cliff and Lang's suspension for kicking Gardyne's leg off but it's difficult to imagine that amount of switching players in and out has been helpful.

It felt a bit of a throwback to the 'just fucking win' sort of performance when Robinson took over from McGhee in so much as the performance really didn't matter as long as we got a win. Which is fine - we won. It was a fair distance from the sexy Motherwell 433 but at the same time we're in a position where we're having to draw up new plans since the number of largely redundant wingers filling the squad suggests we didn't go into the season with a view to playing a 352. The '2' part should probably be the next part we're looking to address. Watt and Lang feels like it probably has most potential but if we could settle on two from the three of Lang, Long and Watt and give them a run in the side that would probably be a step forward. Fwiw, I thought both Watt and Lang knocked their respective pans in. Having said that, other than Lamie trying to sell the jerseys we seemed largely comfortable. The only times St Johnstone really got in behind were the Lamie mistakes. I'll admit it hits slightly different when you're watching the full 90 and already know the score though so my experience of the game is probably pretty different to those who were watching it live. Sitting on a 1-0 for 86 mins is pretty fucking bold given some of the goals we've chucked in this season and the 'where is a win coming from?' crew would have had plenty to say if we hadn't seen it out. I know big Bev did a bit on the socials the other week talking about the benefit of getting a run in the team and I'm sure that's a thing but similarly it's surely no coincidence that his relative upturn in form has come with us going to a back 3 and the only distribution he's being asked to do is either right and left 5-10 yards to Gallagher and Lamie or back to Carson. 3 points though. Fucking yaaaasss!

I suppose the thing with Semple is that we've tried to turn him into an #8 so going by the rough balance of our midfield that makes him Polworth's understudy, just as Cornelius appears to be Campbell's. Neither are going to be a fix to the Donnelly problem. As it stands with Donnelly out until the new year it looks like the burning question is, whether we can get away with O'Hara playing as the anchor and if not whether there's enough faith in Project: Barry Maguire Midfielder. Alternatively is Robinson prepared to switch Campbell into the holding role and letting O'Hara run wild box to box. Fwiw, I like Semple and prior to his injury last season from the limited amount of coverage we got he was starting to "affect" games at Reserve level as Craigan would have put it. He was chipping in with goals and although there were a myriad of factors the results seemed to dip without him in the side. I was at the win against Dunfermline where he scored two - the first half he was playing wide left (cutting in) and 2nd he was playing as the 8. The fact that we've not even seen much of him on the bench, even with the extended numbers makes me wonder whether he's one of the ones earmarked for a loan.

Donnelly out til the new year apparently.

Aye. Stevie Hammell's cursed amulet is back in a big way. We almost got a full season out of Jake Carroll - who had been low key v.good but he popped his achilles in the cup game against St Mirren and is still rehabbing. Charlie Dunne hasn't kicked a ball since last summer and McGinley lasted one competitive game before his groin knack. Liam Donnelly was supposed to have been our Tait-like option for cover in emergencies but he's now out for months as he's fucked his knee and is currently cutting about with crutches and a knee brace - which has also meant O'Hara's having to play as a holding mid that doesn't really suit him. The only fit left sided defenders we have are Ricki Lamie and Yusuf Hussain who's 19, never played a first team game and is a centre half anyway. Max Johnston played a few of the bounce games at left back but not only is he 16 he's actually a right back. All in all it's pretty frustrating tbh.

Depends on McGinley really. The only reason we've been playing a right footed player in there is because he and Carroll have been injured and having Lamie at left back meant playing a right footed CB (Mugabi) on the left side of the CB pair which caused him all sorts of problems with distribution. It's not been some wacky tactical wheeze on Robinson's part. McGinley played left back against County, looked alright and was promptly ruled out with a groin injury. He made an appearance in the footage from the training ground that was posted on the socials the other week. Whether that means he's actually available though....who knows?

I think it was @thisGRAEME who was talking on The Terrace the other week about Hibs start to the season echoing us last season in so much as fine margins games were going their way. Winning a game like their 1-0 against United that would otherwise have been a draw (see us up at Perth for example - Cole misses a sitter, scores a tap in and St Johnstone miss a penalty). There's a lot in that IMO. It feels like our season so for is very much the flip of that. We've not necessarily been awful, we've controlled large parts of games, passed the ball but teams have sat in and we've not really been able to break them down. Cue Accies scoring with one of only two shots on target while David Turnbull's pinging as many shots on their goal himself as the entire Accies team combined (8). In terms of sliding doors moments we've seen Donnelly miss a penalty when we're 1-0 down, White had an equaliser ruled out against Utd and a goal that would have put us 1-0 up against Hibs called off because Seedorf was 'interfering with play' - goals change games and all that. Meanwhile Gallagher and Lamie are conceding utterly needless penalties in fine margins games and giving the opposition a helping hand - literally in Lamie's case. Then add in injuries to McGinley and Donnelly plus Lang's 2 game suspension after his sending off in the opening game along with the David Turnbull Distraction and it feels like not only have we not been getting the breaks we were August - January last season we've also had to be putting fires out all over the place. That's before you even get to players brought in to play a very specific system wildly underperforming. Even the fact that we finally win a game 5-1 and our next fixture is Celtic at Parkhead seemed like a karmic boot in the baws. Ultimately Robinson's got the the point where he's ditched the 433 and changed shape which is at least acknowledging there was an issue with teams easily shutting us down out wide. That's something I suppose. McGinley making an appearance in the training ground footage the other week was unexpected and might mean that the Grimshaw at LWB experiment doesn't need to be a regular thing (albeit I thought he was OK against Celtic). All that said is really just a long-winded way of saying "a win and some goals would be nice please".

You can add Stuart McKinstry (17) to that list. He moved from us to Leeds last summer and he's just signed a new 3 year deal with them. Reece McAlear (18) moved to Norwich at the same time and he was playing for their u23s in the EFL Cup win against Plymouth tonight.

Allan Campbell sclaffs Scotland to victory for the u21s.