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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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Summer of 2016 sent our club to the brink of extinction.  £1.7 million in debt, with the worst squad I can remember since Roger Hynd. Even the faux relegation and administration season squad had better players.  Burrows was at that time out of his depth, in thrall to McGhee. The horrific decision to award contracts to eight players over the age of thirty-two defied belief.  The infamous mismanagement by Burrows announcing that we had budgeted for tenth was an error I doubt he will repeat. McGhee's insult to the players "you may as well sign the contracts as you're going to be unemployed on June 1," set the tone. We are all seasoned Well fans, we know the antics that summer were Keystone Cops without the humour.  A year ago we were on our knees, with guys like Zak Jules causing us eye-bleeds, and taking doings every other week while McGhee sunbathed with the Scotland squad.  Has the podcast done a forensic on last season?  It was dire, dire beyond belief. 

How Robinson kept us up was a modern miracle.  What he has done so far this season is well nigh miraculous too. We have two academy players cemented in the first team squad, a third break in down the door. For the first time in years we have a squad with a multi-million pound resale value. We have a manager who has been fast to rectify mistakes. Burrows us far more effective now than before too, he has grown into the job. Top six is on the cards, we're still in the Scottish cup. Our new signings seem to have hit the ground running. 

True, we're not easy on the eye. That wasn't the remit this season, survival was. With the unexpected transfer windfalls we're moving towards being debt free. A few players will leave the club this summer, but the 2018 rebuild won't be a fraught as last year. We're going the right way. And yes, we'd love to see a generational player like McFadden break through, we'd love to see fast, free flowing football. But let's be realistic, we're a Poundland club that's punching above it's weight.  We're doing fine. 

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37 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

He's awful.

So are most of the players we sign.

 Take Curtis Main as an example - according to Portsmouth fans he was shit. 3 games in - 3 impressive performances and 2 goals later......

Take Tom Aldred - shite if you believe Bury fans. 3 games in 3 impressive performances and keeping Hartley out of the team for now. 

I hope we keep signing awful shite players 

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1 hour ago, Patrick Bateman said:

He's awful.

This will read quite snide but it's a genuine question; did Accies actually sell him to West Ham for £1m or was it one of those kid-on £1m deals that's dependant on clauses and really only means £100k in cash?

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Twitter reports of MOH on loan tomorrow? Stephen Hendrie on loan too? Pretty sure that Aldred is a loan,  is there a limit of three loan players at one time?  Anthony Stokes freed by Hibs - yes please. He's a nutter but I fancy Cifti, Main and Stokes being our strike force. They'd do some damage, esp if we can get back to peppering the box with crosses the way we were earlier in the season. 

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Just now, WellView said:

Twitter reports of MOH on loan tomorrow? Stephen Hendrie on loan too? Pretty sure that Aldred is a loan,  is there a limit of three loan players at one time?  Anthony Stokes freed by Hibs - yes please. He's a nutter but I fancy Cifti, Main and Stokes being our strike force. They'd do some damage, esp if we can get back to peppering the box with crosses the way we were earlier in the season. 

Loans from down south are treated differently as they're "international transfers". See The Rangers and their well documented list of temporary transfers (Goss, Murphy, Cummings & Martin).

As far as I'm aware MOH couldn't happen on loan as we already have an over 21 loan from a team in the same league in Ciftci.

 

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For what it's worth, given the number of times we've been linked with MOH over the past few windows (much like Ciftci in that respect) and the fact that Rangers clearly want shot of him I wouldn't be surprised if there's something in it. What *it* is I'm not entirely sure but given Robinson's been heavily hinting at us trying to bring in a striker and has been talking about us needing pace for as long as he's been manager then MOH seems like the sort of option we could use especially given we already have Main and Ciftci on board.

Similarly his pre-Hearts press conference saw him suggest that there was a deal they were working on that was taking a bit of time and wasn't exactly straightforward. I may be reading a bit much into what he said there mind you.

I'd have thought it'd depend on whether Rangers would be willing to cut him loose or not or (ironically) whether they'd be amenable to some sort of structured payment. We've been known to chuck limited sums of cash about for fees over the past few windows.

Edited by capt_oats
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Serves them right for handing out mental wages.  They've been guilty of that for decades. Plenty of former players saying they couldn't believe the money they were offered, and they would have signed for less. Anyway, deadline day, let's see what happens. 

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Carson still had 2 or even 3 years on his deal still to run at Hartlepool when we signed him. It has always seemed unlikely to me that they just let him walk away for 10k tbh.
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1 hour ago, capt_oats said:


Carson still had 2 or even 3 years on his deal still to run at Hartlepool when we signed him. It has always seemed unlikely to me that they just let him walk away for 10k tbh.

Local press in Hatlepool saying the fee was £20,000, with 10k up front. They also have the 40% sell on clause. 

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/football/hartlepool/15908774.HARTLEPOOL_UNITED__Could_Celtic_help_save_Pools_/

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