capt_oats

Moult was 7 (SEVEN) years younger than Van Veen.

Tbf, it's pretty much what most rational folk were quoting/expecting. £500k + add ons for a 32 year old with a year left on his deal (who we picked up on a free with no expectation of trading for profit) probably shakes out. I mean there were folk on Steelmen taking the line that we'd be lucky to get £200k for him or whatever. Assuming it's £500k up front and the add ons are achievable and not daft then when you factor in us having already bumped the move to China and he's been pretty open about him wanting the move then we're not going to haggle over a hundred grand - we'll shake his hand and say thanks very much.

In fairness, it's worth pointing out that pre-pandemic our record ST number was 4,488 in 2019/20. All things considered if we're up around that sort of number again then we'll be doing quite well IMO - I mean, we're on 65%-ish of last season's total and we've literally not announced a signing or the like. The numbers for the 'pandemic era' sales are kind of difficult to make a reasonable comparison given there was an obvious artificial inflation. This was posted 3rd September 2021: The flip of that is that there's a quote from Dempster in 2013 indicating that our STs were 2500 in 2008.

They're obviously reading your posts. For context we apparently sold 4807 last season.

Tbh, I thought Carroll was broadly fine in his first season - the curtailed 3rd* place one. I've always felt he got a lot more grief than he probably deserved given we've tried to fill that position with Joe Chalmers, Stephen Hendrie etc and the most successful turn we'd had in there until Furlong turned up at LWB was Richard Tait getting swapped over from right back. Carroll missed most of 2020 with injury and by the time he was back Robinson was gone and Alexander was in. He clearly didn't endear himself with that daft red card against Dundee and in hindsight it was pretty clear that he wasn't the type of full back #Grezza was after anyway. Fundamentally he just seemed to want his full backs to sit and defend which is why Mugabi looked a better fit in there than SOD and McGinley got the nod over Carroll. It's also why, if we're being honest, Max Johnston was probably as well out on loan to QotS while Alexander was at the club. Either way he's had a monumentally shite time with injuries so hopefully he gets sorted out with a club soon enough.

He was here on loan so he's officially "returned to his parent club". He's one of the many Morecambe released after their relegation so he's a free agent same as McKinstry. https://www.morecambefc.com/news/2022/may/retained-list-announced/

Actual player update: https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2023/06/14/players-departing-2022-23/ So that's the following all officially away: Jake Carroll Jack Aitchison David Devine Corey O'Donell Daniel Hunter Kian Spiers Logan Dunachie From the original list that leaves: Matty Connelly Max Johnston Ewan Wilson Dan Casey Dean Cornelius Sean Goss Mikael Mandron Harry Paton Connelly and Wilson have supposedly already signed, we've just not announced this. Johnston and Cornelius have effectively said they're away in the press - which leaves us with Casey, Goss, Mandron and Paton as those we may still be in discussion with. Still genuinely confused as to why we've made this seem as convoluted as we have.

It seems he's an agent these days. I'm guessing it's this agency as Wilson's on their books along with a few others - Charlie Reilly who's just signed for Dundee being one of them. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/451-football-consultancy/beraterfirma/berater/10631

As things stand, I think this is how it looks based on the sort of line-up we saw at the end of the season, apparently Wilson and Connelly have re-signed but f**k knows...we're still in the Season In Review on the Motherwell socials: Also, that's McKinstry released by Leeds. https://www.leedsunited.com/news/team-news/31546/leeds-united-2023-24-retained-list

Cheers for that. I wondered how they'd compare. I suppose the caveat is that Turner has been playing at a level below and Cornelius has also had half a season with an inexperienced manager who, it seems, didn't really know what to do with him. Speaking about him broadly; Taking a quick look at his record in the 28 games Hammell was in charge; he made 22 appearances of which he started 10 was subbed on in 12 and was an unused sub 6 times. Compare that with the fact that he started 8 of SK's first 9 games in charge and only really lost his place after he picked up an injury. I find it weird that anyone would argue that he hadn't established himself as a first team regular though. In honesty I think he's unfortunate in that a lot of what he's good at (beyond the fact that he's clearly a good enough player to hold his own at this level) and probably one of the main reasons he's valued by someone like Kettlewell is intangible stuff that just flies over the head of your average punter in the stand. Basically, this thread was littered with folk complaining about the balance of the midfield when Hammell was relentlessly chucking Goss, Slattery and Spittal out on to the park asking them to do whatever the f**k it was he was up to. Kettlewell's first game in charge had Cornelius dropped in and he played the full 90 - long story short, you can argue about whether he just added legs/energy/whatever but on a basic level he was able to execute in the way the manager wanted and I'd imagine that's why he became a fixture for Kettlewell. He was a part of the midfield that helped get the best out of both Goss and Spittal in a way that Hammell's attempts simply couldn't. That's not to say he's irreplaceable or anything but similarly it feels churlish to just dismiss him. As I say, absolutely fair fucks to him if he's got other options that he wants to take up. Looking at the report linking him with other clubs from the start of April the clubs quoted were Charlton, Bolton and Barnsley - would I be surprised to see him rock up at any of those clubs and do them a turn? Tbh, no - if Nicky Cadden can get a run in the Barnsley side then there's no reason Deano couldn't kick on in a similar way.

Took 20 mins yesterday and had a nice time watching this and I'll tell you what, watching our goals from this season taken entirely out of context paints a weird picture. Like, setting Kev and Spittal aside, it's interesting how *involved* in stuff players like Slattery, McKinstry and even Tierney feel in terms of chipping in with goals, assists, secondary assists and what not.

I know the #Dees on here have him tapped as the next in their Supermarket Sweep trolley dash of a summer but it'd explain why we might have had a chat with Kyle Turner if we've known about Cornelius' vacant midfield spot for a while.

His agent is fucking relentless eh?

I like Deano. I think there's probably a slightly higher ceiling for him but I'm not sure he'd necessarily hit it with us so if he's got opportunities in England (as has been suggested) then absolutely fair fucks. I got a laugh at someone in the club's comments talking about how he'd be better served staying and getting first team games given he's already made 52 appearances for us - it's not like it's a Reece McAlear situation - we've got a turn out of him. I think that in a similar way to Johnston he's kind of been a victim of the pandemic fucking with the development side of things for that sort of age group (I get Johnston's 19 and Cornelius is 22). It's a slightly unfair comparison but Cornelius is the same age as Campbell when he left (Wee Al had 160 games) so it feels like an entirely reasonably point in his career to want to try something different. Here's his breakdown of appearances by coach, it's interesting that he got fewer minutes per game under our former Academy Director than either Alexander or Ketts. Average minutes per game: Alexander = 76.6 mins Kettlewell = 64.1 mins Hammell = 41.8 mins

Hammell confirmed at Celtic. Good for him.

Hammell made a bit of a tit of himself about him anaw. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/motherwell-boss-critical-east-kilbride-28966007 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/east-kilbride-boss-responds-motherwell-28978532 I might be miles off beam with this given I'm less familiar with the Young Motherwell group than I was in the Turnbull era Golden Generation, as I was able to get along to those games, but it kind of feels like centre back is an area we've had a tough time developing through to first team level. It feels like a tough area of the park to just chuck someone into. Ben Hall was probably the last one who got a run of games before he fucked off to Brighton. Since then Robinson gave up on Maguire as a centre back, we gave David Devine a few extensions - IIRC Mo Ross was all in on him for some reason - but he had a tough time in his first loan at QotS just before the pandemic hit and he seems to have had a bit of a shite time with injuries. I get that the pandemic and mothballing of the Reserve leagues has fucked up development for a shitload of our weans but it's hard to think of a centre back that we've had hyped recently in the same way as Max Johnston, Lennon Miller, DT, Jimmy Scott etc. I know Alexander had Sam Campbell on the bench towards the end of the 21/22 but given he's missed almost all of last season with injury and there's been no update on his contract it's probably still up in the air as to whether he's someone we're investing in.

Logan Duncahie signs for Clyde.

Assuming none of the OOC players re-sign then based on our regular starting XI over the Kettlewell Renaissance that leaves us shy of what? RWB (Johnston) LCB (Casey) LWB (Furlong) CM (Cornelius) CM (Goss) ST (Obika/Mandron) We currently have 17 first team players contracted (18 if we include Miller). Another 7 would take us up to a squad of 24 assuming none of those contracted leave. Mildly interesting that, as far as I can tell, we've not even been vaguely linked with anyone by your Scott Burns types. For context our first signings/announcements in previous seasons were: 22/23: Blair Spittal (27th May) 21/22: Connor Shields (27th May) 20/21: Ricki Lamie (10th June) 19/20: Declan Gallagher (11th April) 18/19: Mark Gillespie (5th June) 17/18: Alex Fisher (2nd June)

Cheers chief. Kettlewell claimed he doesn't play with a #10 but (IMO) Blair Spittal plays that role nominally for us and has been fucking brilliant since Ketts came in. Looking at a very small sample size of clips of Turner on YouTube and I got strong Ross Tierney vibes (who still has another 2 years on his deal with us) when it came to an eye test. FAO: the Thread in general.

I mean, I've no idea if he is/isn't a good coach - his remit with us felt like it was broadly strategic and his suitability for the management gig here is a dead horse that's been truly flogged (not least by me in this thread) but either was the role he seemingly has lined up with Celtic is the equivalent to the job Ricky Foster has with us so a position within their Academy framework seems a lot more in his wheelhouse. I thought @Onthefringes comment on Steelmen when someone speculated about him coming back here after Archibald's exit the other day was quite instructive though. There's been a fair bit of chat about him on the St Johnstone thread, not surprising given his old man played for them. @jagfox - what's the script?

Hammell to Celtic is it? Good for him.

Tbf, I'm not affronted or scandalised by it or anything I just got a laugh when I read it. Tbh, it helps when you're an establishment club who can finish bottom of the league and still not be relegated.

Am I the sort of sad-sack who dips into other club forums now and again? Yes. Did I get a giggle from this? Also yes. I mean, what's weird about it?

He actually fits with the criteria I had in my head when I threw those names together If they only made single figure appearances then I think they fit the discussion. Double figures over the course of a season felt like enough of a contribution IMO.

I mean, Petravicius made 14 appearances albeit that only translated to 354 mins. I think my cut off was if they made it to double figures on the park. He also has a Scottish Cup and League Cup runners up medals. Some boi.