capt_oats

Posted about the Lucas question on Steelmen. I'm of the opinion that given he's started the last 3 and been involved in the last 5 (XXLWX though the last draw is largely down to him getting sent off) I'd be surprised if we binned him just as he seems to have got a run of games in the side. Granted he's not hit the level of the Ross County game but equally by all accounts the time he was on the park at the weekend our midfield has looked decent with him involved along with the return of McHugh. Assuming he's not going to suddenly going to be asking for dramatically increased terms then I wouldn't be against extending his deal until summer and seeing where we are. If he comes on to a game there's a realistic chance he could be a longer term option then great, if it's more of the same then summer seems an appropriate juncture to say "thanks for your time". The impression McGhee gave was that the budget was such that we'd be able to recruit without others going out so given how patient we've been with Lucas, and the fact that using the Ross County game as a benchmark there's a feeling that there's a player in there then if extending for another 6 months isn't going to be restrictive then I'd say there's no harm keeping hold of him. As high hopes as there are for Campbell, Turnbull and Fry they're 18, 17 and 19 respectively. There's an argument that Lucas fits in with players around an age-group we've actively been trying to recruit (mid-twenties) as well to try and balance out the gap between senior experienced pros and young guys breaking through which leads on to the biggest factor for me which is the decision that the management are going to have to make about Lasley. His deal is up at the end of the season, he's 37 and he's increasingly been the player to be sacrificed when we've been chasing games (which has been quite often this season). I like Lasley a lot but given the way the season has been going thus far it'd be a big ask to expect another season out him. For me McHugh is his obvious replacement but after that in the short term, based on the players who are here you're looking at Campbell. Long story short, if extending Lucas' deal isn't going to be restrictive then I'd keep him about until summer.

2 year deal with what now seems an incredibly optimistic option of a 3rd for Blyth too. I suppose hindsight is a wonderful thing but of all the summer signing Blyth seems to stand out as the worst fit. It just doesn't really seem to be working out, whether it's fitness/injury, he's not what McGhee's after or the player himself just doesn't fancy it IDK. For all Belic hasn't played if reports are anything to go by he wasn't costing us anything and was only here for 6 months, Bowman has a solid goal scoring record behind him at a similar level to Moult, Lucas seems fairly low risk for a 6 month deal and has a good Academy background along with international caps through the u-age groups while Heneghan, Clay and Tait haven't missed a game. Even at the time when we were initially linked with Blyth his record hardly stood out, 35 goals in 117 gams and 17 of those goals were for Leamington in the Southern league, take that season out and you're looking at 18 in 80. I mean, it's not the worst and you'd maybe take a punt but hardly warranting a 2 year +1 option. He seemed to bounce around lower league clubs on 'emergency loan' deals when he was at Leicester, who knows maybe a side at a similar sort of level would be willing to take him off our hands, even on loan. FWIW: I've only seen Blyth play once, in a u20s game against Thistle at Firhill and he was alright, genuinely nothing more. He held the ball up, missed an absolute sitter of a header at the back post, fell on his arse a couple of times and generally looked a bit awkward.

I posted this on Steelmen a while back but I think this series of tweets from the MFC twitter feed on recent u20s games is quite illustrative of the 'problem' (such as it is) with Thomas; vs St Mirren u20s '67 | 1-1 Hastie links up with Thomas down the left, the latter charges at the defence, shimmies on to his left, strikes it, but it's saved. '70 | 1-1 It's nearly brilliant from Thomas. He picks up the ball on edge of Saints box, beats his man with a cruyff turn but shoots over '72 | 1-1 Thomas is at it again, beating his marker with ease & charging towards the box. His effort is better this time but Willison saves. vs Falkirk u20s '51 | 0-0 Nearly a wonder goal from Thomas. He beats his man, cuts in from the right and goes for power with his left, but it's inches over! '63 | 1-0 'Well sub: McFadden is off and he's replaced by Hastie. '66 | 2-1 'Well pull one back instantly! Campbell crosses towards Hastie who makes no mistake and fires it past Mehmet. Lively few minutes! Invariably with Dom it's a case of "so close", "nearly brilliant", "nearly a wonder goal" etc. Whereas in the Falkirk game Hastie's on the park 3 mins and he's made an impact. Off the top of my head in recent games Hastie has had goals against Thistle u20s, Cumbernauld Colts u20s, Falkirk u20s, Sevco u20s and in the 9-1 demolition of Aberdeen u20s. He also won the 2 penalties against Morton u20s. Tellingly that record is from the same wide attacking role as Thomas has had in the past. Hopefully this loan spell will give Dom the chance to become a more efficient, clinical player.

Yeah, he broke through (to a point) in the season we ended up in the play-off. He's made 33 first team appearances so it's not like you're getting someone straight from our youth team who's never played a competitive game. However as I alluded to earlier he had Johnson and Ainsworth as first choices on the wings as competition and in the past year Cadden has emerged and made the wide right spot his own so Thomas's appearances have been limited to 15 min cameos from the bench and even when he's had longer on the park he's struggled to make an impact the 2nd half against Aberdeen the other week being a case in point. Invariably when he's had that chance he's looked like a player who hasn't had much first team football, hence this loan I'd imagine. Edit: I was at this u20s game against Thistle and he was absolutely outstanding playing wide right (he's #7).

I've watched him a fair bit for MFCs 20s over the past couple of seasons and he has no problem going by players, that's pretty much his game. As I mentioned above it's the final ball that's been the persistent question mark over him along with the physical side of the game. MFC have 5-10min highlight packages up on their YouTube channel if folk want to check them out, you should be able to get a more comprehensive idea of what he's about from there as opposed to the short clip I posted earlier. Whether he can translate that to competitive football Championship level rather than having dev league full backs on toast is a different matter and I suppose is what McGhee's wanting to find out.

100% agree. If nothing else it should be a decent gauge as to where he realistically fits. There's definitely a player in there, he's been plateauing playing dev league football though and the occasional 15, 20 mins he's been getting at first team level haven't helped in any way. I'd have thought the 45mins against Aberdeen the other week where he completely failed to make any sort of impact probably confirmed that. It's really up to him to work at it and develop in competitive games.

His final ball has consistently been the aspect of his game that's let him down, if he can get that right and develop physically to allow him to compete then there's definitely a player in there. MFC's twitter feed on u20s games is actually quite illustrative. Invariably with Dom it's a case of "so close", "nearly brilliant", "nearly a wonder goal" etc but not quite, whereas to use the example below Jake Hastie, who plays a similar role, is on the park 3 mins and scores. vs Falkirk u20s '51 | 0-0 Nearly a wonder goal from Thomas. He beats his man, cuts in from the right and goes for power with his left, but it's inches over! '63 | 1-0 'Well sub: McFadden is off and he's replaced by Hastie. '66 | 2-1 'Well pull one back instantly! Campbell crosses towards Hastie who makes no mistake and fires it past Mehmet. Lively few minutes! As I say, I genuinely hope he can do a turn for you as there's a talented player in there. Hopefully getting games and playing competitive football will allow him to become that bit more efficient and clinical.

Here's the wee highlights package on him. Genuinely hope a proper run of games allows him to kick on as he's been caught in a kind of no-mans land between being a level or two above dev league (he played in the Youth Cup winning side last season) and not being able to establish himself in the first team, especially when we've had Marvin Johnson, Lionel Ainsworth and Chris Cadden as options on the wings ahead of him.

FWIW: he's naturally left sided, it's only really this season that he started getting a run of games on the right.

There's yer Dom Thomas finally getting loaned out. Off to QoTS til end of season. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2017/01/01/thomas-joins-the-doonhamers/

Just recently been taken over as well. Seems there was a winding up order in place. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/dec/22/notts-county-takeover-alan-hardy-ray-trew

Fair point. I'd kind of just assumed he'd end up staying with County til the end of the season but looking at the state they're in it's debatable whether there would be much appetite on their part. He came off the bench on Monday in their 1-0 loss and seems to have been bumped around between centre half and right back, they're sitting 21st in the league and I don't think he's really made much of a difference to them. Certainly compared to his first stint.

Quite possibly reading too much into it but watching McGhee's press conference earlier his mentioning that Faddy has already been speaking to Pearo and the club plan to sit down with him next week makes you think there's an arrangement of sorts there. McGhee's whole line re: January dealing was quite a change from the summer where he was very much labouring the point about "budget". Apparently there's flexibility there. We're in the market for a couple, possibly loans or possibly permanent. We don't need to move players out to bring others in them though if one or two who may be surplus were to move that would help but our business in the window isn't dependent on that. Does make me wonder who in the squad is actually viewed as surplus and what interest there would be as most that you'd think would fit in that category seem to be perma-knacked; Blyth, Kennedy, Chalmers for example. Dom Thomas out on loan to someone would be to everyone's benefit, I'd be surprised if we moved Ainsworth on in this window unless it was to a side down south and it'd seem that if Brill actually wants to get some sort of game time then he'll need to move. Alan Burrows was also on Twitter replying to a guy saying that there are a few targets we're looking at. Genuinely curious as to who/what areas.

Well. Apparently McGhee's saying at his press conference that he'd "definitely consider" bringing Pearson in during the January window. I for one am SHOCKED at this news.

There's a loop hole for cross border transfers but that's negated as long as a contract offer is on the table 60 days (Article 6. Clause 3 of FIFA's guidelines) before the current deal expires. We got something like £210k for Ben Hall from Brighton and (I think) £350k from Leeds for Lee Erwin whose deals had expired. MFC exploited the loophole in signing Ben Heneghan in the last window, picked him up for free on a technicality. Sevco did the same with a couple of their signings as well. If that's not what the question is about then feel free to ignore me. Edit: Here's the FIFA rule. Article 6 1. Special provisions for the EU/EEA For players moving from one association to another inside the territory of the EU/EEA, the amount of training compensation payable shall be established based on the following: a) If the player moves from a lower to a higher category club, the calculation shall be based on the average training costs of the two clubs; b) If the player moves from a higher to a lower category, the calculation shall be based on the training costs of the lower- category club. Inside the EU/EEA, the final season of training may occur before the season of the player’s 21st birthday if it is established that the player completed his training before that time. If the former club does not offer the player a contract, no training compensation is payable unless the former club can justify that it is entitled to such compensation. The former club must offer the player a contract in writing via registered post at least 60 days before the expiry of his current contract. Such an offer shall furthermore be at least of an equivalent value to the current contract. This provision is without prejudice to the right to training compensation of the player’s previous club(s).

Yeah, Appleton said himself that in order to make the deal work for MFC Oxford had to go back with a "creative" package; "There's all sorts of things in the contract, like all contracts. There are certain bits that have to be met." http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/SPORT/14715643.Marvin_Johnson_impressed_with_Oxford_United_s_determination_to_do_deal/?commentSort=score Though it doesn't explicitly say a sell-on % was part of the deal it'd be surprising if we were as stubborn as we seem to have been in making sure the deal is right for the club but pass on having a sell on.

Not directly MFC related but given there was a sell on fee as part of the deal it's worth mentioning that it seems Championship sides are interested in Johnson (who's been playing left back for Oxford). Free money etc. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/14980798.Michael_Appleton_on_alert_amid_Championship_interest_in_Oxford_United_players/

Wait. What?! I'll preface this by saying it's "according to The Sun" but apparently Barnsley, Brentford and Wigan are looking at Ben Heneghan? I know 'tis the season for transfer rumour and speculation but he's been here since June and has been decent enough but genuinely surprised to hear his name being touted as a possible move. Edit: here's another link http://the72.co.uk/69934/champ-trio-scottish-defender/

This is something I did know and also found difficult to process.

This probably deserves more than being hidden away in the Development league thread.

Fair play to Thistle for trying to engage but is it not a bit...early to be doing that sort of thing? I'd have thought you'd want to be rolling something like this out at the end of the season/during the close season not in December.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if the SFA's reasoning is that it's been the presentation that's the issue, not that their ideas are awful. The fact that we seem to be seeing the same proposals trotted out as solutions suggests that they really have no idea what the problem is or how to address it. It's utterly desperate.

I'd genuinely be interested for the SFA to show their working as to how they ascertained Mackay's credentials as "the outstanding candidate". According to Regan “From the start of the recruitment process, Malky was an outstanding candidate and by the end of that thorough process he was the outstanding candidate." A manager with limited experience; 2 years permanently at Watford, 2 years at Cardiff, was binned from his last job at Wigan after 6 months, has been out the game for a year and a half due to his largely toxic reputation, he has a well publicised scandal on his CV, a potential high court case upcoming...let's revisit that, "the outstanding candidate". Really? It's almost as if they'd already decided Mackay was getting the job from the start. [emoji848]

He just looks like a natural footballer. He's got a great first touch, is composed on the ball and can pick out a pass. He's started adding goals to his game too. His goal for the 20s against St Johnstone last season was superb. It's him that starts the move off picking the ball up in his own left back area. It's at 1m 40secs below, he's #8:

There's yer David Turnbull signed a new deal. That's a fantastic bit of work tbf, one of the stand outs in the 20s side. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/12/16/turnbull-extends-contract/