capt_oats

If a top half Championship club wants to take a punt on a player at c.£1m then generally speaking, they can, in that respect the fee quoted in the press isn't necessarily prohibitive. Whereas for a League 1 club, for all the chat about money in England, they won't pay that sort of money. Oxford's record transfer is £470k from 1998 and of the teams in League 1 last season I think the historic record spent by a club in that league was something like £600k. I'd imagine that in quoting a £1m price at the moment both McGhee and Motherwell are fairly safe in the knowledge that the player would seem unrealistic to League 1 club and would be enough to put them off but at the same time wouldn't see Championship level clubs completely dismiss it. Equally it's not a figure that's totally mental like Golac and his £10m for Jerren Nixon. As Desp says, a player is worth what another club is prepared to pay. I could be miles out but looking back at McGhee's press conference yesterday it seemed very much a sales pitch to Championship clubs, with Oxford helping out as useful idiots in giving him the opportunity to make the pitch and further put him in the shop window. Realistically given what a League 1 club would probably be willing to spend on a player and the feeling that, as McGhee has gone on to say, Johnson is a better player than League 1 level then I'd say it's a pretty fair assumption that there's no actual appetite from the club to sell to Oxford, given the relative worth of Johnson to the team at the moment (especially with Moult out) it's not a great stretch to say that it's not too much of a risk for Motherwell to knock back £500k from a League 1 side (the difference in prize money between 5th and 8th last season was what? c.£300k), especially if the player is settled and the club have already received income from both Hall and Pearson's moves. Similarly if Motherwell and the player/agent have an idea that Championship sides are interested then as McGhee says why would Johnson "settle" for a League 1 move. Having said all that the club seem to be happily exploiting the interest. Agree completely that (barring injury) he won't be any less desirable come Christmas and the fact that he can add to his value in that time but nevertheless it's is a refreshing change to see/hear the club/manager taking this sort of stance and be willing to actually use the media. With his "I'd be amazed if Oxford could afford him" line McGhee's not only trolling the club he's also making sure people notice the statement and the discussion about the player. He gave them their headline right there. Indeed, that's McGhee speaking to the Evening Times today saying that the "minimum" level Johnson should be looking to move to is a Championship club. For me that's what's interesting about this whole discussion, it seems to very much be about ensuring that if/when Johnson moves then it's to a level that's reasonably considered a step up rather than just Motherwell being seen as having cashed in on the first offer that came in. It'd seem to be the case that it's very much about further establishing the idea of the club being a platform for players to develop their career.

Ooooft! That's a belter of a press conference from McGhee. Unusually for him hits the right tone. Basically says that Johnson's better than League 1 level in England, bid was well below MFC's valuation and he doesn't see it being an issue for Marv. Points out that if the right club comes in and it's a deal that suits all parties then the club can't reasonably stand in the player's way but it has to be a good deal for Motherwell. As others have said it's been incredibly refreshing to see the club adopt this sort of stance.

McGhee sticking the boot into Oxford at his press conference it seems. Bid must have been pretty low if he's comfortable saying that. Tie this to Scott Mullen's story re: £1m valuation along with the general sort of fees paid in League 1 then it's pretty much Motherwell telling them to sit down.

So there you go, it'd seem that's the club made the sort of figure they're thinking about for Johnson public. http://m.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/14660490.Motherwell_knock_back_bid_for___1million_rated_Marvin_Johnson/?ref=twtrec Given it's being reported by Scott Mullen you'd imagine it's accurate. I still have my doubts that we'd actually get £1m cold hard cash but equally for the market you'd think we'd be wanting to sell to (top half English Championship) it's not totally prohibitive, so the club are hardly pricing him out the market. In that respect it's a fair position to take. If nothing else you'd hope it'd at least stop teams like Oxford disrupting things with low-ball offers. Interesting to see the Evening Times still reporting it was a formal offer MFC knocked back which is slightly different to how it's being reported in Oxford. Definitely explains why from the Oxford side of things they were saying it was "unlikely" they'd be following it up though. Very much enjoying this "if you have to ask, you can't afford" stance from MFC.

Craigan seemed to be saying in his wee pre-game interview that there were a few they were looking to get out on loan. I agree, it's a sensible approach. Another thing that I noticed was that we seem to have been actively recruiting for the 20s squad, the boy who scored the 2nd last night was brought in from Bristol City and there's a left back arrived from Sheffield Weds. I know we've brought in the likes of Hutchison and Hall from other clubs in the past there are loads of them but the fact that we seem to have been picking up players from English academies for our 20s was mildly surprising.

I'd be surprised if he was involved. As you say the Celtic game was a shambles, he was all over the place. Having said that he played most of the 2nd half of last year's 20s season (cup final excepted) at centre back so you'd think that long term that's where we're looking to play him. He absolutely strolled that game last night and was a massive part of how the Motherwell team were playing, building through the back and playing across the back 4. Looked totally assured. Obvious next step IMO would be a season's development loan as we're reasonably well serviced for centre halves and Laing seems back in the picture given he's popped up on the bench the last few games. I'd think there's probably an argument for guys like Campbell and Turnbull going out on loan as well. Both looked more than capable last night, Campbell in particular was smothering everything in the midfield and picked up all the second balls in the 1st half. I doubt they'll actually gain much playing in the 20s league this season but other than 10mins off the bench I doubt they'll see many first team starts.

Agree on the possession based game. Thought they moved the ball well and showed a fair bit of composure. A couple of really good goals too. I'd have been interested to hear the possession stats for the first half. Thought Campbell and Turnbull were standouts (despite the latter fading in the 2nd half), Luke Watt showed up well at centre half again, a big part of us being able to recycle the ball and play that sort of game.

Yeah, it's an interesting one as Mullen's article goes off on a slightly different tack saying that a further approach is expected while the Oxford Mail are saying it's "unlikely". Even Appleton seems to have said they're not expecting to do any further business before the start of the season. The only real difference with the stories running today vs the "bid rejected" one that ran yesterday is the clarification that there was no formal offer.

Oxford_United_declare_interest_in_Motherwell_winger_Marvin_Johnson Scott Mullen reporting it as well. Interesting that it's an "enquiry" and not a formal bid. Edit: Just read the Oxford Mail story Casagolda linked to and I suppose this part is quite telling: "But sources at United this morning made it clear while a polite enquiry had been made about Johnson's availability, no formal approach had followed. They are monitoring the situation, but the chances of securing a move for a player who would command a significant transfer fee at this stage was described as "unlikely"."

Thing with Oxford is they've already spent money on Hemmings, Rothwell and Nelson. They've increased their wage budget by a reported 50% and they've signed 10 players in total (including the 3 mentioned). Also, they posted a £2.4m loss last year and £1.4m the previous year. Given their club record fee paid is £470k, I'd think they'd have to be breaking that to get us seriously interested. Even more so if the reported interest from Championship clubs is true. Having had a look at some Oxford fan sites there seems a fair amount of doubt as to whether they would or should pay £500k+. Worth noting that for the most part League 1 transfers are frees, out of contracts or figures in the low £100k's.

I watched Robinson's interview when he took over at Oldham and the gist was pretty much as Desp says; he feels he's a good coach and will bring a "positivity" to things. He also pointed out that they'd never worked together prior to him coming in at Fir Park so it wasn't an old pals act.

Add Craigan to that list as well. Was he not away with the Northern Ireland u19s too?

Agree completely that it's certainly not just limited to Dundee though in fairness, in the case of Accies it's difficult not to feel they stayed up in spite of Canning rather than because. I'm not even sure it's down to exposure to elite level stuff like Barca etc and more just that people are fucking idiots. My example is our cup game against Cove last season we were 5 (five) up and an old boy say behind me was absolutely seething that we weren't in double figures, apparently it "wasn't good enough Motherwell". Having said that there's a weird immediacy and entitlement about sections of fanbases these days that I've definitely noticed, context goes right out the window.

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Full disclosure: I didn't read the article, for all I know it could have been some insightful musing on the nature of post-truth/post-fact culture on Scottish football. IDK. As headlines go though it's utterly baffling and seems preposterous that it's even remotely being suggested that a point of conversation that was made up and was at no point either credible or believable. As I said in my post earlier this morning even Warburton was pishing himself at the story. Utterly desperate stuff. Edit: I've since read the article and it's every bit as bad as I suspected it'd be.

Da fuq?

Absolutely this, Sky ran the clip on Twitter. Warburton spends a minute and a half basically laughing at the idea then some poor sod, presumably on instruction from his editor, pipes up with "aren't there positives to be taken from this though?" It's a totally made up story m8, even Warburton is pishing himself at the idea people were taking it seriously. Positives? Fucking hell man.

Indeed.

"not believed to be close to the club record £470k", no?

Other than him being desperate to get away from Sutton I really can't see why Craigan would want to give up his BT gig. As it stands he's got his involvement in coaching via the MFC u20s and Northern Ireland u19s combined with his pundit work with BT. Seems like the best of both worlds to me. No real results based pressure on the coaching side of things and a comfortable role on the telly. He'd have to be mental to wilfully disrupt that IMO.

Lucas has signed a short term deal (2 weeks apparently) so yes, we've signed him but only to allow him to play in these cup games as you can't play trialists in official matches. Seem to be doing the same with Craig Clay as well. On the point of Faddy, I wonder if him taking the assistant wage frees up playing budget given he's had an offer on the table since May. It could explain how/why we're able to take a look at Clay as well as Lucas now.

Makes a fair bit of sense tbh. He's doing his badges, there was a lot of chat at the end of last season about wanting to cultivate a boot-room mentality in terms of the infrastructure at the club. The fact that he's registered as a player means that there's cover there without us necessarily "wasting" a wage on a striker sat on the bench and we're not totally reliant on Mackin as 4th choice striker. In honesty, short of Gordon Young who got his jotters at United I'd struggle to think of an obvious candidate for the job anyway.

Worth pointing out that Clay has been at the club since last week, so it's not as if we've just got on the phone this morning like we're a man short for 5s. He played with Tait at Grimsby, in honesty he looked much more like an all round midfielder and a box to box player in the Pearson mould, certainly moreso than Lucas who as Casagolda points out looks to very much fit the bill of a deep lying playmaker. In Lucas' defence it's been serious injuries that have kept him out rather than your run of the mill knocks and strains. He missed a year with a fractured back and the best part of 2 years with a ruptured anterior ligament in his knee. It says a lot about him I suppose that he's been able to come back from both. Also I think he's got a fair few games for Swansea's u21s under his belt since he recovered from his knee injury and he was regularly completing 90 mins for the Wales u21 side when he was captaining them. Having had a quick check it seems he returned to Swansea's u21s in February this year after 19 months out with the knee injury. Lucas has been on trial with us since the start of the month which to me suggests we're seriously looking at him, it seems a long time for a player to commit in the "hope of winning a deal" to use that cliché. As I posted over on Steelmen I wonder if it's more likely the case that the trial is fitness based and whether it's the case that we've provisionally agreed a deal with him subject to his knee not falling apart. If you look at the timeline McGhee was on record as saying after Pearson left that we were light in midfield and looking at 2-3 midfielders but that we wouldn't panic. We then brought in McHugh and Lucas arrived on trial, at which point the official line changed to McGhee saying we'd spent our budget and he'd be working with what he has. In hindsight it may well be the case that he was including Lucas in that. I guess as far as the logic of a deal goes when it comes down to it we'd be trading off the injury risk against the potential that we're getting a better player for the money we're offering as a result of that risk. We'd be offering a player viewed as having potential a platform to get that first team experience he's missed and get back in the game. For all the Wales international aspect brings back horrible memories of Jake Taylor, Lucas came through their Academy as player of the year and Swansea saw enough potential in him to offer a 3 year deal through a period they've been at Premier League level. A year deal with realistic basic and bonuses and an option in favour of the club would seem worth a punt. Even more so if we were actually in a position to bring Clay in as well. It depends on just how reliant we'd be on Lucas I suppose.

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