capt_oats

The chat on The Twitter amongst (verified) journalists, as opposed to Agent Scotland or the like seems to be that we're holding out for £500k which is wild. IMO the only disappointment is that he's leaving just as we seem to have found a defensive set up that suits him where all he really needs to do is head the ball and chuck himself into tackles. As part of a back 4 he's still far from convincing, if you look at that chance Schalk had for County the other week that he put over the bar it's exactly the sort of chance Heneghan was shipping week after week last season. Good luck to him, the past few weeks have shown that in the right sort of set up he's got something to offer but he's definitely not without his limitations. Then again, in a world where Grant Hanley's just moved for £4m then I hope we get ourselves sorted with a decent sell on % again as it seems anything's possible in that market.

We're on the Sky Sports News BREAKING NEWS ticker lads. Apparently Motherwell have rejected a £250k bid from Blackburn for defender Ben Heneghan. The clubs remain in discussions according to their Twitter though...what a time to be alive.

Factor in that last summer we took in the best part of £1m in transfer fees alone (£650k for Johnson, £230k for Hall, £100k for Pearson = £980k) and it's not too shabby at all. If you believe the Record's TRANSFER LIVE (I know) the derisory offer we kb'd from Blackburn was £250k.

Johnson sell on % HENEGHAN MONEY! Alan Burrows right now:

I've no idea if this is the case or not but I get the impression that we had kind of decided early on that Heneghan was going to be the "asset" to move on this summer. Both McHugh and Moult were very publicly offered new deals, Heneghan (as far as I can tell) wasn't. I know the narrative seems to be that Heneghan has "refused" to sign a new deal but was he ever actually offered one? Robinson's quote re: Heneghan was "Ben will probably look elsewhere at the end of the season too." It suggests to me that there's maybe been a cursory discussion as to his thoughts going forward but no more than that. I seem to recall Robinson basically saying that given finances we were really only in a position to offer a couple of new contracts at a time. McHugh accepted his, Moult's presumably still sits on the table until he signs for someone else. I took from that we'd prioritised Moult and McHugh, which is understandable as Heneghan's for has, being kind, been patchy to say the least. It's quite annoying that it looks like he'll be moving just as we seem to have found a position for him though. Still £s for a guy we got for nothing and don't owe any sell on % is good work. It'll help pay off Boyle and Hutchison too, I'd imagine the money in should Johnson move will go some way to doing the same. As far as the turnover of the squad goes I think it depends on how we approach things. If we're only looking to move on one "asset" in each window and we're organised about it in identifying who it is then it probably doesn't make too much difference. In fact it's probably a large factor in why we were able to tell Aberdeen to do one when they asked about Moult. It'd only really be if we put up a massive neon sign saying "FOR SALE" and started accepting bids for everyone that it'd start to be a problem IMO.

Wild number of rumours about Heneghan today. So far he's been linked with Sunderland, QPR, Birmingham, Bristol City and Norwich. Now it seems there's been an actual off from Blackburn. If we're able to get a reasonable wedge for him with a decent sell on then with the % from Johnson's inevitable move from Oxford it'd see us quids in and another win for "the strategy".

I'm in pretty much the same place. Shake It Off kind of had a similar thing, initial reaction was "Really?!".

Aye, Hammell being injury prone but around the squad just seems much less of an issue when the alternatives aren't Joe Chalmers and Zak Jules. He's definitely still got a contribution to make IMO but him not being the only competent player in that area of the park gives us a bit of depth and means we're not just rushing him back out onto the park as soon as he's even vaguely fit. Presumably it'll make things a bit more pleasant for him as well as it means he can make sure he's back to being fully fit before he's being considered. Another point on the academy, I just remembered that the club are currently advertising a (full time) Head of Academy Sports Science position. It definitely feels like we're sorting out more infrastructure in that area just now and meeting criteria.

He's already involved with coaching the u-15s (going by his interview in the MFC Podcast 2 book) and is about to do his Pro Licence (according to his Twitter bio) so I'd imagine there's a fair chance of that being the general plan though the question's obviously there whether he'll just see out his current deal before that happens. I thought he looked very comfortable on the left side of the back three before he inevitably picked up his injury, the problem for me was always that we seemed to be far to reliant on him and him being fit. Him being involved as a squad player seems to make much more sense and in his own words he already spends a lot of time involved with the Academy. IIRC part of the whole "Project Brave" criteria was that there had to be a certain number of full time coaching staff within the Academy set up, I'm not sure if that number has been modified or not but going back to the press release about McManus retiring it was interesting that PB was directly referenced: "McManus played once during the Betfred Cup campaign this year, but has decided to call a halt to his playing career to take up a role within the Academy as the club prepares for the new era under the Project Brave initiative." Given how vocal Burrows was about the whole thing last year and the "threat" if the club wasn't part of it, that comment seems significant. I'd imagine we'd be hoping/expecting Hammell to be one of the coaches involved. In other news; it seems Oxford are holding out for £3m for Johnson, apparently they've kb'd £2m from Middlesboro already...which is nice for us as there's surely no chance they're not selling him if his maniac agent has anything to do with it, a Championship club are interested and they're being offered that kind of cash.

That's 2 games B2B we've switched Tait to LWB in-game as well. It gives us a few different options if, for example, it's not working for Frear, cover for injuries etc. Takes a huge amount off our over-reliance on Hammell in that area of the park as well. I've been keeping track of the squad in the pinned thread and by my count we've pretty much got 2 players for each position and a decent amount of versatility in there as well when you consider Dunne and Plummer can play left back/left wing back and Cadden's an option at right wing back or a last resort right back. GK - Carson, Griffiths (2) DF - Tait, Hammell, Heneghan, Plummer, Dunne, Kipré, McMillan (7) MF - Bigirimana, Cadden, McHugh, Frear, Rose, Campbell, MacLean, Tanner (8) FW - Moult, Bowman, Fisher, Petravičius (4) That gives you a first team squad of 21 including 4 academy players (McMillan, Cadden, Campbell, MacLean) and assumes that guys like Gordon and Newell are in that sort of grey area between first team and u20s. Providing no one leaves you'd expect there's room for 1 more defender, which is pretty much in line with what we've heard from Robinson and Burrows.

Here's another article on the same subject from the same guy though from the start of last season. It should give you a bit more context. https://thebackpassrule.wordpress.com/2016/08/04/a-quick-delve-into-keeper-stats-in-the-spfl-premiership/comment-page-1/

Kanye West ft. R Kelly - To The World

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Will Smith ft. Dru Hill, Kool Mo Dee - Wild Wild West

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie And Clyde

Big Star - Ballad Of El Goodo

The Byrds - One Hundred Years From Now

Here's the gist.

Big Star - Feel

The Chiffons - One Fine Day

Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane

Outkast - Ms. Jackson

Mogwai - Tracy