capt_oats

They did a Fontaines D.C one anaw. €70 for this one. https://www.shop-bohemianfc.com/collections/replica-kit/products/adult-2021-focus-ireland-fontaines-dc-jersey-regular-fit

As far as I can see the news that we're being blown out the water by Bohs hasn't reached the usual suspects yet. Give it time though.

I mean, it's not a good look but equally I'd imagine based on where we are squad wise at the moment our priorities in terms of how we allocate our budget will probably be directed at other areas of the park rather than a 7th centre back. Basically what @Al B said above.

There was mention that Brighton had taken up their option on him but I don't know if they ever formally announced it. I'd imagine if they're talking about his development they'd want to give him a run at a Championship club or something next. The story was that Penney fucking hated it up here. I think it was confirmed at the AGM that both Motherwell and Ipswich had agreed a season long loan for him but the player insisted that it only run to the January window. Which is why it seemed fucking insane that Hammell didn't seem to take the hint and was still talking about hoping Penney would stick around while we were asking Paul McGinn to play left back through January.

Aye, I don't think Paton's a back-up by any stretch. Kettlewell seems to fucking love him but given Goss started pretty much every game it feels like there's definitely a gap there in bigger picture terms.

Boring post but after signing Wilko this is how we look. There are still obvious question marks over Shields, Danzaki, Maguire, Mugabi and Mahon in terms of whether or not they'll get game time they want/need etc. 24 bodies as it stands.

Aye. To be clear I'm of the view that SOD is now our first pick RWB for precisely those reasons but I kind of felt that we'd maybe be disinclined to move McGinn out of the back 3 as it's a unit of the team that worked well for Kettlewell so some sort of RWB cover would be nice but I agree it feels like as it stands our budget should absolutely be being focussed elsewhere. Vaguely related and I could be wrong but did we not give Barry Maguire a run out in the back three in one of the friendlies the other week?

I'll be honest, I'm not sure we'll be looking for a replacement for Casey. I think we're keen to keep him around but if he was to sign up that would give us a numbers problem that we'd need to solve - to that point if he doesn't re-sign then I don't see us being in a hurry to go and get someone else. Blaney plays the position Casey was covering and he's here until 2025. Campbell is also a left sided centre back - do we just bump him out on loan and recreate the Max Johnston situation where we've got a highly-rated young player with a year left on his contract and everyone's up in arms if he turns out to be good but fucks off to Liverpool or whatever other club wanted him when he was 16? It seems clear we're sticking with the 3412 shape then as it stands we've 6 centre backs on the books for 3 positions (McGinn, Butcher (inj), Blaney plus Mugabi, Lamie and Campbell as back ups). If Casey comes back in then (IMO) we probably need to move someone on. Even in the case of replacing Johnston - I'd say that in the meantime SOD steps in there although we clearly need a RWB of sorts unless we have another prodigy kicking about the Reserves.

Aye. I think this is very much where I am. I mean, I'd like Fletcher at the club but I'd also be nervous about making him our main #9. Wilkinson feels like the sort of signing we do well, Fletcher less so. To rewind back, @Casagolda's OG post on the 21st June had us hoping to bring in a striker (later revealed to haven been Wilko) from down south that week (ie: before we shipped out to the Netherlands). At that point Fletcher was still a United player (he didn't officially leave until the 27th) and the Nixon story about our apparent interest only appeared a couple of days later on the 23rd. I suppose what I'm getting at is that while we might have had a chat with Fletcher it still feels like Wilkinson was probably one of our original targets to get in and one we'd already been working on to replace Kev (who was confirmed as having left on the 20th June). Which is nice.

I know they say never read the comments but tbh these are quite heartening really. (Well, aside from the injury stuff obvs). Welcome to our great wee club etc.

Aye. Fair play to @Casagolda with the scoop. Also, I just realised that's Craig Clay in the background of the thumbnail on his YouTube reel from Orient.

Mentioned it the other week but it kind of feels like there's been a conditioning towards the expectation of entire squad turnovers every summer (and again, it's not just a Motherwell thing). Looking back to Alexander's first (only) full summer window and Flow was very publicly trying to explain our pivot away from that. Whether there's actually been any value to that change in approach IDK but it feels like we're a fair distance away from the likes of Ilic and Manzinga type signings to pad out the squad and/or try and win a watch. Mileage may vary on the players but looking at the squad now there's still a healthy chunk of players who were either already in the building or signed during that window - Kelly, O'Donnell, Mugabi, Lamie, McGinley, Slattery, Shields, Maguire with Tierney, Efford and Mahon signed in the January or thereabouts. That's 11 and currently of our 23 man first team another 4 were in our Academy (Connelly, Wilson, Campbell and Miller). Realistically we're maybe looking at scope for bringing in another 4 or 5 rather than the, at times, double figures turnover we were seeing previously. The proof of the pudding is in the eating but I guess giving ourselves several months to find half a dozen players and convince them to sign is a better position to be in than trying to replace an entire squad.

FifteenEleven - https://www.1511management.com/ A lot of their business is based on working with lower league/non-league players in England. @Ludo*1 asked about that back in 2018.

22/23 21/22 18/19

Aye - granted it's not exactly Woodward and Bernstein but on a micro level it's mildly interesting if we start to see some sort of movement given the timing. The manager has just had a week away with the squad, we're clearly in the market for a couple of bodies, beyond Fletcher we've not really been linked with anyone and there are still unresolved questions over a couple of players from last year's squad etc.

Oh…

In a broader sense it's worth re-visiting the signings we made the season Tait signed as I think he shows up well out of that particular class. Interesting to note that Carl McHugh also joined the 100 game club and would probably have had more appearances if his head hadn't exploded early on in his time with us. I have a suspicion that Les bailing from his 5 year plan early may have impacted on our business and it's also possible that we leaned a bit too heavily on the idea that we could just pick up players from the National League and replicate what we got from Moult and Johnson. Either way...

Who's his competition? Reid, Kerr, Hateley, Josh Law, Grimshaw, Cadden, SOD? Do Johnston's 16 games get him in the conversation vs guys who played 100+ (albeit not all at RB)? It's a weird one because as @crazylegsjoe_mfc says on the other page he actually played a fair chunk of his Motherwell career at LB/LWB so it depends on how you're actually comparing. To add, he's definitely up there for me either way.

FWIW this was our line-up

In fairness his IG post says he's retiring from *professional* fitba. There's a flexibility there I guess. There were plenty of posts about it on here at the time but I think you really noticed what Tait brought after he left. When we went from 3rd* to heading for relegation and Robinson eventually resigning it felt like there was a massive shift in our "culture" when the likes of Tait and Hartley left the building and we were left with the likes of Gallagher et al as the key figures in the dressing room. He was probably the best captain we've had since Lasley and he wasn't even officially our captain.

Oops. 3 posts in a row. Sorry about that. Anyway...I see that's Tait announced his retirement.