capt_oats

Aye. I'd thought at the time he'd be the most likely 'former loanee' seeing as we wanted to extend his initial loan from Wigan and he was only on a short term deal with Doncaster. Cole's brand is #44 innit. As it stands we're probably two forwards away from being done... Burrows with a wee update on Twitter.

It was true of Turnbull and it's true of O'Hara but I'm not sure how I feel about a centre mid having the 7 shirt. cc: @crazylegsjoe_mfc @Desp #numberpolis. Leaves #9 and #11 for the forwards.

There he is. 2 year deal not 3 as yer man Fry was saying.

In all fairness to TW I'd say something that might work against him is pretty much all the other candidates are either working in the IFA system at the moment or have worked with them in the recent past. Baraclough's the current u21s, Magilton's their elite performance director, Robinson's worked with the u19s, u21s and was O'Neill's assistant at the Euros. From what I can tell Wright's last involvement was back in 2013 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/22991952 If they're looking at "continuity" then the fact he's been away as long may harm his chances more than the idea that he didn't focus on youth. Back when it was announced O'Neill was stepping down there were NI players who identified Robinson as their preferred choice:

Doubt it. I'd imagine if Robinson gets the NI gig it'll be Lasley who will take over with a minor backroom reshuffle.

Hmmmm... I'd be a bit surprised if we've explicitly said "No" to him speaking to them. The way that tweet is worded it sounds like they're interested in interviewing him but haven't formally asked. At the same time we've now signed 4 players who have all talked up the manager selling the club to them and we've also literally signed up his son so it's felt like there's been some sort of commitment from Robinson for next season. The NI job has been in the background since last year so I'd have thought Burrows and Robinson would at least have had a conversation about the position the club would take.

Declan's the new captain, Carson vice-captain. Not really a massive surprise.

Bara's done a good job with their u21s and the story seems to be that they're keen on that continuity. He also wouldn't need compensation. I just looked it up, he's currently got a 47.37% win rate. Robinson lost all of his 10 games with the u21s although Magilton only managed to win 1 so it may have been the group of players.

The thing about Robinson/N.I is that if it happens then it's something that's been on the horizon for fucking ages. O'Neill took the Stoke job in November last year and at that point Robinson was odds on to replace him after he stood down. He's always been open about that job being an ambition of his so you'd like to think we've at least done a bit of succession planning in the event that he's offered it. Whether that person is Lasley or someone else (third time lucky for Simo?) IDK but given our whole model is based on being a platform for players and coaches you'd hope we've given it a bit of thought.

It's also difficult for a lot of folk to dissociate the notion of sporting "fairness" with something being lawful or unlawful.

He played for them in this game as well. I think Caixinha used him as their "Cup" keeper. This is clearly the highlight: He makes a few decent stops though.

I'd heard the same from a Thistle supporting pal of mine. In fairness, he's been brought in as a back-up. We needed someone with a bit of experience who's happy enough to come in and sit on the bench and take a wage that's less than Gillespie was on. That's a pretty shallow pool we're fishing in. I mean, even the wee quote attributed him said "I'm 100% here to sit on the bench and pick up a wage lads..." What's surprised me are tweets along the lines of "Guess that means Carson will definitely be the starter." as if there was ever any doubt about that. Carson's an international goalkeeper who was first choice in the season we broke Randolph's clean sheet record and signed a 2 year extension in January with Robinson saying "Trevor will be my #1 next season"...it's been clear since he signed his extension that he'd be our first choice.

One year deal for Fox. Contract offers still open (or at least, we've not confirmed they've been rejected): Christopher Long Charles Dunne (short term)

Nina Simone - Strange Fruit

I should probably learn to read things properly rather than just skimming. I hadn't realised it was the previously rejected offer he's supposed to have signed. I'd taken it that they'd negotiated after the initial rejection - that doesn't seem to have been the case. I mean, there's an argument along the lines of 'an offer remains on the table' until the club withdraw but given the circumstances around this whole shitshow I don't really see that the club have done anything improper. Either way, there were a few interviews with Burrows and Robinson around the period of uncertainty where they were explicit in saying that the 'rona had meant that all contract discussions were on pause so it's not like this was some covert operation.

Pretty much. I'm happy enough with both sides positions tbh. Tait's every right to be annoyed since the crux is he negotiated with the club to arrive at a deal both parties were happy with then the club came back and said 'actually, can we change that?'. Tait's 30 and presumably hasn't made a fortune from the game so I can understand why he'd not be happy with that and tell us to do one. From the POV of the club it was to be expected and I'm genuinely not sure why anyone would be surprised at this. You've got clubs cutting costs left right and centre; wage cuts, wage deferrals all over the shop - it's quite weird to see some on Motherwell Twitter clutching their pearls and getting pissy. It's a bit embarrassing for the club that Tait's made it public but it's the result of a global pandemic rather than us acting in bad faith. The clarification the club have put out is absolutely fine and should draw a line under it. Robinson was clear that we'd have to review things once we'd confirmed the budget and you'd have to be naive as f**k to think our budget hasn't taken a dunt. Hartley had a deal on the table then he didn't, O'Hara's confirmed that the club have had to say to him that while they're still interested a deal isn't do-able at the moment. It's entirely consistent with the landscape in Scottish fitba' at the moment. It's definitely not worth a public back and forth or any real ill will. As an aside I was listening to the bold Tony Watt on the What The Falk podcast the other day and he was saying that his contract negotiation with the club basically amounted to him saying to the manager to put the number the club can afford on the contract and he'd sign it. Good lad.

Here you go.

The Guardian's golf correspondent is at it as well.

100% It's not a great look especially given our whole "do the right thing" policy but Robinson highlighted it in May when talking about contracts. Totally no issue with Tait telling us to ram it. He's taken the mystery box option and ended up with a 2 year deal, first team football and presumably a salary comparable to what he was originally on with us. Fair fucks to him.

That's not a huge surprise tbh. A bit shite from our POV as Tait was/is a popular player and we've got the whole "do the right thing" policy but Robinson did an interview back in May where he suggested that we may have to review the offers we'd made as our budget was changing. As you say Hartley was another one who had an offer but ended up released.

He did, aye. He actually talked about it when @RiG interviewed him for The Wyness Shuffle pod. IIRC the gist was that it's not really his preference. Agree that it'd be worth a go to see if it works - Polworth cutting into the #10 area from wide sounds like something that would be worth having a look at. Another alternative would be going with a diamond and two up top.

Turnbull's extension was announced March 11th Robinson confirmed we'd been speaking to Peterborough and were hopeful of doing a deal 17th April (13:30 mins here). Fry indicated we'd agreed a deal 'in principle' April 15th. So probably not. I'd imagine we'd have made a decision in May when Robinson sat down with the board to work out the budget. O'Hara said himself that “It is not doable at the moment but I hope there’s still a chance that it will happen." That suggests to me it's something we'd be likely to re-visit further down the line once we've seen how the re-start pans out and also the squad shapes up - which is probably why Fry's been flying a kite in the press as they're desperate to get shot of him.