capt_oats

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to imagine Fox will be cheap. I see Lasley's confirmed our interest as well (and also had a wee bit of chat about Lamie): Fox left County for Thistle when they were in the Championship so I'd have thought he'd have been one of Thistle's higher earners. I'm not sure what Thistle's budget's been like in the Championship. I'd hope he'd be cheaper than Gillespie so ultimately there's going to be a trade-off somewhere and there's going to be a slight drop off in terms of who we're able to bring in. It's about finding a middle-ground between a Carson/Gillespie level and someone who's completely inexperienced at our level like Morrison (should he extend his deal). Also, it's 2 out and 1 in as both Gillespie and Ferguson are away so there's a potential budget saving in that respect. If he's a bit more cost effective for the squad role compared to Gillespie then fine - he's a 'keeper that's experienced and has worked with Hinchliffe before. It's clear what the role is too. The chat seems to be it's a 1 year deal so it's probably not worth folk losing their minds over on Twitter. As an aside, if he does sign up that's another Lanarkshire boi in. I'm genuinely curious if this is a conscious thing with the recruitment this summer.

I see there's a footnote about big Yussuf signing his 2 year extension in Scott Burns story about Fox. I had been wondering when we might hear about the extension offers. That would leave Dunne, Long, Maguire, Morrison and Robinson still outstanding.

Tbh, this is what I thought had come into play. The way the reconstruction discussion has panned out there's never been anything other than discussion papers raised. Unless there's a concrete proposal with specific detail as you say there's not too much you can survey on beyond the general stuff. I suppose in the absence of specifics even a broad survey would have been instructive, even if it was just for the optics. The statement did say that the WS were planning on a consultation "shortly" and that was almost two months ago and it just seems to have been dropped from any subsequent updates from the club.

Glad you asked that as I'd been wondering the same thing but didn't really want to be that guy. The statement was 20th April: I mean I trust Burrows and McMahon implicitly in terms of governance but yeah I also have thoughts on reconstruction. So if they were planning on asking I'd have been happy to share them. Aye. I'd been getting Samson vibes from this as well. The difference is as it stands we only have two 'keepers contracted Carson who's been out since 2018 and Matty Connelly who's 17. Morrison's been offered a new deal but it'd be a risk to go into a season with a 22 year old who's got lower league experience but has never played a first team game for us as our only back-up. In the end Samson didn't make his debut until almost 8 months after he signed. He arrived on 15th September and his debut was the 1-0 win against Hearts at Fir Park on 23rd April. He made two appearances in total that season - which was weird given he left Killie because he wanted first team football but entirely befitted his squad role of "another goalkeeper who isn't Dan Twardzik". McGhee deciding to replace Ripley with him and making Samson #1 seemingly just because he'd been hanging around was where things fucked up. I've said it before but back-up goalkeeper at Motherwell is a pretty niche role. Someone who's experienced enough at our level but content enough to come and just sit on the bench behind an established #1 is a difficult circle to square on our budget. Tomas Cerny's gig at Aberdeen is the dream I suppose. We've been spoiled having Gillespie and Carson on the books at the same time but equally we'll have been paying two first team wages for the privilege. If we're able to get Fox in on less than we were paying Gillespie and Carson continues as established #1 then aye...fine.

So going by this bit of the paper if the indicative vote doesn't show support they're finally drawing a line under this utter shitshow and sticking with the status quo? Friendly reminder of Ann Budge's comments on 10th April. It's what the community of football clubs believe is right lads...

Coincidence? I think not. Pal of Declan.

I'm usually the same re: white shorts but I'm v. into the aesthetic. Along with the 50s throwback element it's a much cleaner version of the 06/07 one by Xara. Agree re: Macron on the whole they've been smashing - the double denim and massively tempting fate white kit with the cup winning names on it aside. Even then they were more ideas that just didn't quite work in practice. The cut and fit of their stuff is great (for me at least).

The official blurb has us paying homage to our original colours: In terms of the shade I'd guess it'll be pretty similar to the 13/14 3rd kit.

I see O'Hara's done a wee bit with the Motherwell Times discussing his situation. That seems to make a bit more sense tbh.

2 year deal for Lamie. Presumably him taking #4 means Grimshaw will be #2. Genuinely interested to see how our new transfer strategy of signing pals of Declan pans out tbh.

That's yer Ricki Lamie announced

FWIW: That's White just said his goodbyes to ICT via his Twitter. Today is the last day of his contract. I seem to remember reading that the 9th June is a standard expiry date this season (though I could be wrong) so I take it those who we've offered new deals to will be free agents as of tomorrow as well.

I was wondering if it was something to do with the dates for the transfer window opening not having been confirmed. According to Robinson in that interview with Craigan a while back the deals were agreed we just had to register them (or something like that). The Robinson interview is here btw: https://sport.bt.com/sport-hurts/stephen-robinson-football-without-fans-isnt-football-91364441427700 His quote is around 12:00: I noticed that St Johnstone fans were talking about them not having made any official announcement re: Rooney (even though the player's confirmed it himself),

Looking at who's been offered extensions: Dune (DF), Long (FW), Maguire (MF), Morrison (GK), Robinson (FW), Hussain (DF). For me the CB position really hangs on what happens with Charlie Dunne. If he's fit and sticks around (a big IF) then we don't really need another - from reading Livi fans comments Lamie is more a nominal 'left sided defender' than a CB. I agree that the priority is another wide forward. I see that's yer EFL League 1 & 2 curtailed. I know we had an agreement in principle with Peterborough re: O'Hara, I wonder if their season being officially called means there may be movement on that given they're not involved in the play-offs (LOL). Same with Doncaster, Cole's deal with them was only short term until the end of the season.

Not transfer related but Andy Boles is speaking to Joel in one of The Terrace pods that went up the other day. There's a fair bit of credit due when you look at the difference at all levels at the club since the Sports Science & Strength and Conditioning dept was set up and Boles came after Gordon Crawford's brief stint in the role. It's a long way from footgolf.

Tbh, I'm not hugely surprised that we're looking at two senior keepers. If the Fox thing is real then presumably he'd be on a chunk less than Gillespie was and if Morrison's new terms are less than/equal to Ferguson then that's a net saving on last season's budget right there. Thinking back to Robinson's first season proper the run of poor form that fucked our top 6 chances coincided with - amongst other things - Carson picking up that shoulder injury and us having to run with Griffiths for a bit (and sign big Gennadios). I can 100% see why we'd be mindful about getting caught out by only having one senior 'keeper though maybe not as a priority signing. The question I'd have had would have been who'd have been available in a pretty niche role.

It's been a while since I visited SO but that was absolutely worth checking in on. I know most single club forums are dumpster fires but there's an own brand snideness towards the club on Steelmen that's really quite something. Pretty much. Unless we sell one of our saleable assets I think it is what it is. It's about not getting relegated and the core of the squad is actually alright. If we can get folk like Cornelius and Semple dropped into the side then all the better. Robinson's said that we're not in a position to take "gambles" which is fine. Our punts on trialists like Manzinga, Ilic and Petravicius hardly paid off. I'm curious to see how our strategy shifts in that respect though and whether we end up going for more known quantities - Lamie, White, O'Hara would definitely fit in with that. Going back to the SO thread, where's the chat about interest in Donnelly coming from?

Why would we have a tonne of trialists? We already have 12 first team players contracted plus Devine, Semple, Cornelius and MacIver in the reserves. Robinson's already confirmed 2 players have been signed on pre-contracts. If he's true to his word then we're probably looking at 2 or 3 first team players in at best.

First team back in for pre-season next week then...

I take it this is the programme we're talking about? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000js72/sporssport-series-1-12-motherwell-fc

Aye, we moved the 20s games away from Airdrie that season for some reason. I don't think it was ever really clarified why. This season the Reserves have been playing at Broadwood. Fwiw: there were 170 at the game against Spartans in Airdrie last season.

There were definitely over 1000 at some of the games at FP.