capt_oats

I think there's a distinction to be made on that point tbf. Is it not more the case that the #9 was available and he picked it rather than us giving him it? Ketts clearly seems happy to dish out some home truths to folk but I'd be surprised if he'd have actively blocked a player just back in the building from taking an available shirt. The obvious comparisons are Wes Fletcher taking the #9 and Moult being left with #20 when they signed and Jordan White taking the shirt leaving Chrissy Long with #99 when he eventually bothered his arse to re-sign.

I had wondered about this when we signed Obika. Like, it feels like Wilko is, in an ideal world, KVV's replacement but as others have said Obika's injury record doesn't suggest he'd be a starter. With the way Kettlewell seems to be finessing the squad it doesn't seem that wild a shout to think that we might be in a position to bump Obika to a squad role - which given his age and everything else probably sounds about right and that being the case I don't think anyone should really have a problem with? Similarly I'm wondering if Miller is going to take Tierney's spot in the squad now that Zdravkovski is in the building. I'm all for seeing as much of Miller as we can but he's 16 and putting it all on his shoulders in the Premiership seems an ask. I could be wrong but this kind of feels like where we are just now and based on the below you'd maybe think that the likes of Maguire, Lamie and Mugabi might have expectations of regular first team games:

I'd imagine the club will publish the full presser later for a bit more context but there are some additional quotes in this piece and he kind of clarifies that it's players who he's spoken to about not actually getting as much game time as they might want. Framed like this you probably get a better idea of who he's spoken to. Also, I'm not sure that the higher staff costs mentioned there are necessarily the cause of the c.£1m loss. Ultimately we were coming off the back of a £3.5m profit so it stands to reason that we'd have spent some of that money on capital expenditure. Tbh, the way Kettlewell seems to be approaching this window feels like it's pretty much in line with the way that most have been arguing in favour of for ages and if he's trying to maintain a sensible squad size and getting away from the scenarios that Alexander inherited with 35 odd players on the books and he had to deal with after Hammell's January trolley dash then absolutely fair fucks. Crack on Ketts.

More chat from Ketts.

It's an unfair game...

It's quite a vibe.

This might be more legible? @eliphas has already answered but seems like the levelling of the pitch was a contributing factor and to answer the question as to how why the stand was open last season - the club were given an interim certificate on the basis that the work was done to fix the issue in a reasonable timeframe. This actually kind of ties in with what @Al B was saying a while back about work not having been completed in time last summer.

See below. It's acknowledged in D's thread.

The work was required to get a safety certificate. Without the certificate the stand doesn't open. Dunno like, that seems pretty necessary to me.

Almost 2 hours ago and Sky were reporting from Edinburgh Airport yesterday as he was about to fly out so it's not like it should have taken them by surprise. It doesn't need to be War & Peace, just a short bit of prepped copy to publish in sync with Sturm Graz. Then again, it took them 24 hours to acknowledge that Aberdeen were appointing our CEO so...aye fair comment I guess.

The club not bothering acknowledging the Johnston move then? Like, I know he's out of contract and technically no longer our player but presumably our contract offer was still on the table to protect our development compensation. Dunno, I'd have thought they'd have offered some clarity off the back of the Sturm Graz announcement this afternoon. I know Campbell had 160 games compared to Johnston's 21 but we ran a story confirming the situation when Wee Al moved to Luton. https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2021/06/15/allan-campbell-signs-for-luton-town/

From the desk of Scott Burns.

Nick McPheat picked up on this from Kettlewell the other week. I mean, it's possible Kettlewell just didn't feel the need to distinguish between interim-CEO and CEO.

AFAIK last seen being linked with Harrogate.

Good for him.

Confirmed.

I like Tierney a lot and he's absolutely someone I'm rooting for but ultimately with the team set up as it is the only realistic spot that he's a shout for is the Spittal role and on current form that's not happening. Another season of Rossi being parked on the bench isn't going to do anyone any favours either. I'm pleased it's a loan as he's still contracted to 2025 so as @well fan for life says above this should, in theory, give him an opportunity go get a run in another team (who aren't league rivals) and we can take it from there in terms of how things look going forward. I mean, it's not like we've Danzaki'd him. It's interesting to hear the Efford rumours as aside from him being listed as a "doubt" last Monday he's kind of disappeared after the bounce games in the Netherlands and I thought his name was kind of conspicuous in its absence with Kettlewell and Frail's chat about wanting to add attacking options.

Well...

Riku confirmed by Western United.

From a development POV this makes a lot more sense for Brighton given the new rules in place. "They will invite loan offers from clubs in the English second and third tiers."

Fwiw: here's a much longer (13 mins) video than the one posted yesterday. Again, it's broadly Zdravkovski receiving the ball taking a couple of touches then playing the pass with an additional 'tackling' section. Given the busts we've had in terms of Sloth, Danzaki etc it's reasonable to be cautious but there are definite similarities to the likes of Gorrin and Goss IMO. At the very least you can see how/where he might fit in the Kettlewell shape.

Thanks RG. The passing profile was probably the aspect I was most interested in as it was a big part of what Goss offered to the side and instinctively felt like it would be one of the most difficult things to recreate. From looking at the comparison it seems like he's been brought in with a view to him being 'in the style of...'. It feels like him being described as a "defensive midfielder" on his Wiki and Transfermarkt is possibly going to skew some expectations of what he might be. As I mentioned in the earlier post there's an argument that Goss would have been bracketed as a "defensive midfielder" under Kettlewell which wouldn't be how a chunk of our fanbase would have seen him. In terms of him being suited to being a deeper CM that checks out as pretty much all the available footage has him receiving the ball in the defensive third and playing passes. Surprising to hear about the decent aerial figures as he's supposedly only 5ft 9". His YouTube clips have him looking quite robust though, which is where I'd guess some of the Allan Campbell comparisons earlier in the thread are coming from.

I know everyone's talking about the railings at the front but the (what look like) blackout curtains at the back seem like they're deliberately there to obstruct people's view. @Busta Nut already flagged this ages ago as one of Boab Park's ongoing crusades.