capt_oats

not sure it the link was posted on here but McGhee was saying in the local press that he didn't expect Laing to be back and there were a couple of English clubs interested. I'm genuinely curious as to who's interested as by all accounts he had a bit of a nightmare at County. http://www.motherwelltimes.co.uk/sport/football/motherwell-fc/mcghee-i-don-t-expect-louis-laing-to-return-1-4331993 As it goes I quite like Laing, or at least I like the idea of him i.e.: a ball playing centre half who can carry the ball out from the back, but at the same time with Kennedy also here (though I'd imagine he'll also be away in the summer), Ferguson having acquitted himself reasonably well and Barry Maguire having made the bench recently then there's more than enough cover for Heneghan and given you'd think Laing will be on a decent first team wage it's no real surprise we're trying to move him on. It's notable that Laing had already dropped out the side long before McGhee arrived. The roasting he got against East Fife really seemed to mark his card. He only made 1 start (vs Killie) in the 6 games from the East Fife cup game and McGhee's first game in charge against Celtic where he tried him as a holding mid. It's unfortunate it hasn't worked out for him as there probably is a decent player in there.

Ah. Fair enough.There are a couple of his goals in this montage (once you get past all of Dele Alli's) and he scores against West Brom here Edit: Further to BigTamMuller's post it seems he's played a fair bit on the left wing, Westley made that point when he signed him for Peterborough so I'm guessing that's where he'd probably have been earmarked to fit in; "Manager Graham Westley said: "I first saw Shaq when he was on-loan at Southend United and he played in a wide left role, but he had played a lot of his football at Tottenham as a number nine. I used to watch him every week when I was at Stevenage as Tottenham under 21s play their fixtures there and he had phenomenal pace off the shoulder, a great ability to get in behind and an eye for goal" http://mobile.theposh.com/news/article/coulthirst-2913771.aspx Also worth mentioning he's contracted with them until 2019 and only signed with Peterborough a year ago.

I wasn't really sure how to take Barry Fry's comment tbh. “Mansfield also bid for Shaquile Coulthirst and we accepted that one, but Shaq wants to stay nearer his family in London. Motherwell also showed an interest, but he won’t go up there for the same reason." http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/sport/football/posh/transfer-news-premier-league-club-chase-leo-interest-in-forrester-offers-for-strikers-nabi-deal-collapses-2-5-million-bid-for-maddison-1-7771966 Does "showed an interest" simply mean we've enquired about his situation in a general sense or does it mean we were actively in for him and he kb'd us? Not to judge but looking at his career thus far he's hardly been prolific unlike say Bowman who has at least scored a fair number of goals at the same level as Moult and he's not a target man in the same way Blyth is.

Looks like the boy has deleted the original tweet now.

Fill your boots there are a few ex-Milan players out of contract: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/vertragslosespieler#ath If it's full backs Accies are looking at Taiwo's recently without a club.

I was genuinely surprised by how little income Aberdeen seem to have had recently from player trading in recent years. Looking at their season wiki pages (I know) it looked as if the last income they had from a player was an undisclosed fee for Fyvie in 2012. Is that right? It seems absolutely mental given the relative success they've had over the past few seasons. It also kind of bucks the trend for the business model Celtic have had success with and Motherwell are attempting to adopt on a much smaller scale of recruiting with a view to selling on for profit. I mean it's a good position for Aberdeen to be in, they seem to be posting operating profit year on year without relying on selling players but it seemed quite surprising that they hadn't cashed in at some point.

Your trialist is, according to Graeme McGarry, Niall Keown. Son of Martin.

This is obviously true to an extent and absolutely bang on the money when it comes to the influence on a UK-wide basis. That certainly has an effect as does the Ratnering of the league by those in charge of the Scottish game. That doesn't help either but is, of course, a different story. By the same token, it was only 6 months or so ago you had John Hartson insisting that Oliver Burke would be better served joining West Brom rather than going to the Bundesliga and of course there's the infamous "could Messi do it on a wet Wednesday night in Stoke" line so there's an element of derision aimed at other leagues through Europe, not just Scotland. I seem to remember in the 90s the English being particularly sneering towards Serie A "slow, boring" etc. I'm sure you could find plenty of examples of similar instances and attitudes. The difference I suppose is that when comments are being made about those leagues they're easily dismissed, absolutely no one takes them seriously and ultimately what John Hartson thinks of the Bundesliga makes no difference to anyone other than Hartson himself being shown up as an idiot. However up here we actively seem to take them on board and view these comments as evidence that "Yes, our league is indeed shite" and in the case of Nicholas and his ilk an agenda being pushed that has the "Old Firm" as the only thing that makes Scottish football credible again, something that wasn't helped by Regan, Doncaster et al effectively getting on that train in 2012.

On the whole Charlie Nick thing and his pals on Soccer Saturday laughing at the Scottish game; have the English media ever rated the game up here? Not being overly sensitive about it but my recollections of Saint and Greavsie when I was growing up were habitual references to "Jocko land" and digs about Scottish goalkeepers (fair enough tbh). Not that it bothered me, I rather enjoyed the show but surely the idea that the English media sneering at the Scottish game is anything new seems a bit misguided. The fact that their eyebrows were raised when Souness started signing the likes of Butcher, Woods et al was surely precisely because they didn't rate Scottish football and nothing has particularly changed in that regard. Of course a one horse race in the league isn't a good look. To argue otherwise is "everything-is-awesome"-type delusion and let's face it a two horse race isn't much better as far as a viable competition goes but the idea of using some sort of approval from the English media to validate the Scottish game is just demented.

Genuinely not sure where to post this but here seemed as good a place as any given the whole "Journalists talking the game down" narrative. It's an interactive site set up by UEFA on the European Football landscape. Covers revenues, job stability, attendances, wages, squad costs etc. Worth a look if that sort of stuff is of any interest to you. http://reports.uefa.org/

Drake - Wu-Tang Forever

Prince - Cream

re: Lucas, I'd imagine that if the rest of the season goes the same way as the first half then, not unreasonably, it'll be a case of "thanks for your time, all the best with the rest of your career". However given that he'd been involved in the last 5 and completed the full 90 against Aberdeen and ICT without being broken, McGhee clearly likes him and we waited to sign him up on his initial deal then I'm not surprised that we've given him another 6 months in the hope that he can kick on if the manager along with the physio and strength & conditioning departments and the player himself feel that he's now at a level where he can be reasonably considered match fit. As others have said I can't imagine he's taking up too much of the budget or him being part of the squad is impinging our ability to recruit otherwise he'd more than likely be gone. Similarly there's probably a question of whether or not we'd be able to get a better option in, either as cover or a first team starter, on the money that we're likely to be paying. It's a case of stick or twist I suppose. I totally get the argument for chasing him but ultimately given the nature of the January window we could just as easily release a player who seems to have some sort of potential and end up scrambling around on deadline day only to end up with a Morgaro Gomis-a-like. As it is we keep him around the squad and, hopefully, it allows us to focus on recruiting in other areas. If Pearson comes in as well then great but having Lucas on a short term deal to augment the squad doesn't seem like the worst option, if he's affordable of course. In terms of midfield options Pearson himself is 34 and no stranger to an injury, Lasley's 37 and has been getting subbed off with increasing regularity indeed there's probably an argument that this might be Lasley's last season given how off the pace he's looked at times. If Campbell can step up into the first team and perform to a high standard then that's bloody brilliant news all round, I don't really see Lucas extending his deal for another 6 months necessarily preventing that happening though. For what it's worth re: Lucas and injury, so far it looks like he's missed 7 league games because of injury, in context Lasley's missed 3 injured + 1 suspension and Hammell has missed 9 through injury (his 2 year deal is, of course, another story). Lucas has been available for selection in 13 of the 20 league games so the sick-note claim, while both reasonable and understandable to a point, is possibly a bit distorted on account of his previous serious injuries while he was at Swansea and let's face it a fractured back and 2x ruptured ACLs will keep anyone out for a while. It clearly doesn't alter the fact that he's only been on the park 8 times since he's been at the club and equally he was one of the players on the bench when McGhee suggested he didn't feel he could bring on at Ibrox but by all accounts he seems to have won him over.

I think that's it, the fact that he had started the last 3 and had been involved in the last 5 without (as far as I'm aware) being broken made me think a deal was always going to be likely. it'd be quite mental to wait the best part of 6 months for a player to reach fitness then bin him as soon as he starts getting games under his belt. as others have said it's pretty low risk, the january window is pretty weird. McGhee seems to like Lucas and thinks he has something to offer so i genuinely don't see the harm in giving him another 6 months especially as it doesn't seem to be impacting the scope for bringing a few in. if nothing else, it's worth mentioning that our results with Lucas involved are fairly decent and by all accounts prior to him being sent off against Accies we were the better side by far.

That's yer Lee Lucas extended his deal to the end of the season. No real surprise there tbh.

The Clay to Burton Albion one was the one that stood out for me tbf. #ITK There was also the McDonald to Australia thing. http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4389205/jones-confirms-strikers-on-radar/?cs=305

Is that not the crux of the problem though. The entire culture around Rangers for literally decades has been based on chucking money around (whether they have it or not). It's all they know. It's almost Pavlovian in so much as their response to a problem is simply to throw cash at it. No one should be in the least bit surprised at this tbh. In truth I just hope that when they go out of business next time that it's for good.

Not to go off on a further tangent but it was interesting to read that the SFA have apparently drafted in an outside (foreign) agency with the Project Brave stuff. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sfa-draft-top-euro-performance-9582531 The cynic in me thinks that it's more about covering their arse as far as claims of accountability and vested interests go however I'm genuinely curious how it'll play out if Double Pass's appraisal of their plan is at odds with the agenda they want to push. Essentially they seem to be independent auditors. http://www.doublepass.com/assessment/ For what it's worth their credentials are more than solid. http://www.doublepass.com/our-clients/

Sticking my devils advocate hat on, I genuinely understand the logic of the "natural order" argument that the likes of Willie Miller are fond of. In an ideal world then yeah, you'd hope that the top league would have the biggest, best supported and (crucially) best sides in it. It's difficult to argue that in theory that should make the product easier to sell, promote and market. However, that's not the reality. Having Dundee United in the league didn't make the league any more competitive last season regardless of how big their stadium is or because they won the league in 1983. And there's the rub. The attitude at the moment isn't "how do we promote what we have in a positive way", instead it becomes viewed as an inconvenience, a reason to be down on the game and becomes a case of "everything's ruined, what's the easiest way to get us back into our comfort zone.". On top of that there seems to be a genuine failure to connect the dots and understand what actually makes games appealing. Which is actually a huge problem as it suggests that those running the game in Scotland don't actually understand it. As has been pointed out, the Hibs v Dundee United game sold out because it meant something rather than simply the fact that two city clubs were playing each other. The problem is that it's a completely myopic view. The only real frame of reference is what they know and are comfortable with and even that is a complete distortion of reality.

Pretty much. Hibs attendances against United at Easter Road the last time they were in the top flight were: 9,171 and 9,608. The competition aspect is something that it seems the broadcast media and those running the game have difficulty getting their heads around.

In fairness Pearson got on just fine with us when he came back from his first stint in India. I'm fairly sure Hughes would be fine. There are some really weird names in that league, just having a quick look Diego Forlan, Florent Malouda, John Arne-Riise, Bernard Mendy, Didier Zokora and Mohamed Sissoko were all playing over there this season. Pearson was playing in the same side as Helder Postiga. From the sound of things it's just a really easy and well paid short term gig as the league itself only runs for about 3 months.

There's no guarantee that league expansion would result in more youth dev players getting a game either. It's probably quite inconvenient for the SFA but is there not the chance that some managers simply don't see youth development as a priority? If that is their position then is it likely to change regardless of whether there are 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 teams in the league? That, for me is kind of where there's a problem in so much as you can have as many papers and reviews of how to improve youth development but unless that is actually a priority for the club and their management is willing to action and implement as a point of policy then it's really just rearranging deckchairs on the titanic. Management and coaching staff really only have an obligation to the club they work for. If their remit is simply "finish as high up the league as possible" then how they achieve that is up to them. Equally though if we (rightly) see a competitive league as a desirable thing then managers taking an "any means necessary" approach can't really come as too much of a surprise and tbh I can't see any sort of review or proposal that Mackay will put together that will change that.

Some absolutely superb wind-ups on the go tbf. Burton Albion "moving closer to signing Craig Clay". Source: an "ITK" account with 245 followers. I know I'm enabling them by posting this but still LOL.

The report suggests that his agent has let those interested know that there's a buy-out fee or they can get him for nothing at the end of the season. I don't really understand the A-league rules tbh but from what I could gather they don't pay transfer fees, which is what the stumbling block was with the move earlier in the season. I'd have thought given the way things seemed to be resolved previously that it'd be a case of him being free to go at the end of his deal.

I think everyone probably saw this coming after the late approach last window. McDonald's apparently looking for a club in Australia and a few clubs are supposedly interested.