capt_oats

Tbh, this feels a bit reductive. It's all very well talking about what moves a player should/shouldn't make but it overlooks the human aspect of it. I'm not advocating young players sign for Celtic (and definitely not Rangers) but Turnbull was 19 and had played a total of 36 first team games for Motherwell when the original "magnificent" offer was tabled. When he eventually signed he was 21 with 41 first team games after rehabbing from a serious (knee) injury. In contrast Lewis Ferguson was 18 when he signed his pre-contract with Aberdeen from Accies and was 23 with 169 games under his belt for Aberdeen when he signed for Bologna. It's not really a like for like comparison. In terms of career trajectory Turnbull's Celtic Era is the equivalent of Ferguson's time at Pittodrie. Fair fucks to Hickey for taking the risk but given he moved to Italy at the same point as Turnbull moved to Celtic it's not as if there was this well established track record of young Scots moving to Serie A. To that point, I've always thought it was pretty clear why he opted for Celtic and regardless of how it's panned out it was a relatively sensible move given the circumstances - and one that's still seen him play over 100+ games for them and get Champions League fitba out of it. As @Desp says he wanted to stay at home and wanted a realistic chance of getting games. IIRC the suggestion was that when he spoke to Norwich their plan for him was to start in their u23s whereas Lennon's pitch was for him to be part of Celtic's first team - he subsequently won PFA Young Player of The Year and both Celtic's POTY and YPOTY awards in the season he signed. Obviously the fact that they fucked The Ten casts quite the fucking shadow and his face not fitting for Ange is just one of those things. As @'WellDel says it feels as though Celtic fans have made their minds up on him and a clean break would be the best for both parties. Desp touched on it earlier but it'll be interesting to see if his experience at Celtic (for better or worse) has changed his perspective on things as far as his next move goes.

McKinstry confirmed by Queens Park. Good luck to the laddie.

He was still QPR manager while he was cutting about doing that as well, right?

He predominantly played as a winger for us last season as Hammell was completely wedded to playing a 4231. He lost his place when Kettlewell changed the shape to a 3412 and that was that - he only played 5 minutes for Kettlewell (literally). Tbh, there's no reason why he couldn't play as more of a #10 IMO. In fact it was a topic of conversation in our thread the other day. Anyway, I just replied to @qpfc over on our thread...

There's a bit of discussion about him a couple of pages back. This is also a good listen from Phil Hay who's the Leeds correspondent for The Athletic and is worth your time (assuming he signs - otherwise you've just spent 16 minutes listening to people talking about a former Motherwell and Leeds youth player).

Tbf, I'd be surprised if Ferrie and Wilson going out on loan makes any material impact on us bringing anyone else in and going by what was being suggested on here McGinley is on a relatively modest deal (I guess there's a chance we might still be subsidising part of his wage while he's at Thistle as well). Getting Efford off the books apparently got us to where we want to be budget-wise. The noises that Kettlewell was making were along the lines that we're hopeful we'll see Butcher, Biereth and Obika back involved in the coming weeks so in terms of bodies in and around the squad the injured players coming back really replace those who have left. I mean, I'm not against the idea but from everything SK has said about not wanting players around who won't be contributing he's looking to run with a lean squad so if he's confident of players coming back relatively soon I'm not sure he's going to have much of an appetite to add a free agent at this stage. Going by our First Team we're sitting on 22 players: I mentioned it the other day but I guess the problem we have is that we were scoring goals when we were going with the 2 up but the 4 of Miller, Slattery, Paton and Spittal with Bair as the focal point gives us better ownership of the game but less threat. Regardless of anything else Oli Shaw isn't like for like with Bair so we're not going to get the same thing from him.

Just posted this reply to you over on our thread.

@Busta Nut has broadly covered it but he's...fine. He was a Robinson signing in the Covid season, the PCA had been agreed then the Pandemic hit and we brought him up anyway. By all accounts he had a fairly shite time settling through that period. He was supposedly brought in as a left sided centre back but due to injuries he ended up just playing at left back. He's one of those players that a section of our support just don't like. His face doesn't fit. He's not in any way a sexy player, he has an awkward style of play and tbh he looks more like an accountant than a fitba' player. Despite that he became Alexander's default LB and in turn became a bit of a lightning rod due to the fact that folk didn't much like Alexander's style of play and he essentially played in a way that followed Alexander's instructions ie: a centre back playing as a defensive full back. It felt like that everything was just doubled down on when Grezza gave him a two year extension. He picked up an injury shortly after then just seemed to disappear and only really appeared again during the summer. Like others I genuinely hope he does a turn for you guys as he seems a nice enough lad and he could do with getting a fresh start and games under his belt All the best Toby.

I mean, at least it wasn't Turnbull who scored the last minute winner.

Kian Speirs signs for Caledonian Braves.

I thought the same tbh. We only have 2 games in October anyway so I'd be surprised if we risked anyone at that point but November sounds fair. His comment that "we might see them getting close to the first team in two to three weeks" or words to that effect puts the timeframe pretty much during the international break. Like, Biereth was projected to be back in November and that...sounds about right if we're able to get him back training during the break.

A wee report on the u18s draw with United.

@RandomGuy. has already mentioned it but hopefully he gets himself sorted. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on wherever he turns up.

Assuming you're talking about Miller? I mean, you're right in a broad sense but it's probably worth mentioning that there's a bit more context in so much as we were giving him minutes off the bench last season (when he was 16). He made his debut against ICT in the LC, he came off the bench at Ibrox, Parkhead and Almondvale and started in the last game of the season against United. Even this season, he got the LC games to give us a marker of where he was in terms of his levels - it's not really been a sink or swim situation of just chucking him in and seeing how he gets on.

Yes.

Ketts saying that a couple of the young players who have been involved with the squad recently will be going out on loan. Also saying that "hopefully in the not too distant future, maybe the next two to three weeks" we'll see Butcher, Biereth and Obika appear closer to the first team squad. That's exciting eh?

Aye, for avoidance of doubt, this is very much my position as well.

Some laugh after Spencer was pulled up on Sunday. f**k.sake.

I'd imagine we're tied with Aberdeen. They last won the league 84/85 which coincidentally is when we won the first division and neither of us have been relegated since. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aberdeen_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Motherwell_F.C._seasons

I'd imagine Slattery was sold the pitch of "come up here we'll give you a platform and won't stand in the way of a decent move". I'd be surprised if he had any designs on staying longer than the duration of his contract. Which is fair enough tbh - depending on where things stand in January it wouldn't be a huge surprise if we look to cash in on him Moult-style assuming his form keeps trending as it has. I'm pretty sure he'll be a known quantity down there given his CV. Agree with others that Spittal feels like someone who might stick around given his circumstances (he wanted to move back to the central belt after County, he's got a wean on the way, his form has been excellent pretty much since he arrived). Kettlewell was in the press a while ago effectively saying that he wanted to sit down with Kelly and discuss a new deal. I'd wondered if the fact that he's spoken about Kelly might mean that we'd be looking at contract extensions as the next item on the agenda in a broader sense now that the squad has been trimmed as it has. Clearly whether or not the players sign up is a different story but given how vocal he was re: protecting our assets in the wake of the Johnston affair it seems like the sort of thing he's aware of and would want sorted. Given the way he seems to have got the squad back on an even keel post-Grezza/Hammell you'd hope that the board would do him a turn. Fwiw, here's who's OOC: GK: Kelly, Oxborough, Connelly DF: O'Donnell, Mugabi, McGinn, Lamie, McGinn, McGinley, Wilson, Campbell, Butcher, Souaré MF: Maguire, Spittal, Slattery FW: Obika, Mahon, Ferrie Here's who's contracted: GK: N/A DF: Casey, Blaney MF: Paton, Zdravkovski, Miller, Tierney FW: Bair, Wilkinson

The lads.