capt_oats

He posted on June 12th that he's got a second kid on the way. Wanting to move closer to home in that context would seem a genuine enough reason IMO. I'm sure the increase in wages that a Championship side would offer would also be helpful.

It'd seem they're in the market for wingers anyway. Apparently "a number of potential signings are being considered." http://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/qpr-swansea-modou-barrow-109623 Mathew Leckie who's also mentioned in that article is a left winger. Johnson was being linked with them earlier in the summer and I seem to remember a mention that Hasselbaink was familiar with him from when he was managing Burton and had a look at him. In truth I could see a club like QPR being enough of a draw to prompt a transfer request from a player. Certainly more so than Oxford. Also after all the chat about him being capable of playing at that level if a Championship club has come in and the club have knocked them back then rightly or wrongly you could understand why the player might be irked by that. Similarly you can imagine that MFC would view a QPR or similar as being able to meet their valuation, particularly after McGhee's somewhat crass observation about the English Championship being "awash with money". It'd explain why the club might feel emboldened enough to dig their heels in (beyond the fact he has 2 years on his deal, is a contracted player and their prerogative is to get the best deal for MFC etc). Edit: from the other day "[Queens Park] Rangers are looking to add a winger", "We are looking at a few. Hopefully the phone will be ringing a lot. Hopefully we'll see a few new faces and look to integrate them straight away." http://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/hasselbaink-wants-qpr-signings-109808

Good statement. While there's an element of "telt!" about it it's fair enough. It's a perfectly reasonable stance to take. He's available and for sale if a club wants to come in and match MFC's valuation.

I note that Flow hasn't actually said the request has been accepted. In truth the club have actively been talking him up all summer and trying to sell him so it's hardly as if he's been "not for sale", it's been the complete opposite he's totally for sale. The whole "hands in a transfer request" thing is really just window dressing on the situation. Semantics really. I can't really see the player/his representative going down that route unless he knows there are clubs interested. I'm curious to see who's in for him tbh. Forest looking to shift some of the cash they got for Burke maybe?

Was having a look about online, the stadium looks tremendous. Some nice #content from the Salford City game too. As I say the story itself seems a bit of a fluff piece and it seems a bit too neat a package to have EPL, Championship, League 1 sides along with a Scottish Premiership team all apparently interested.

They certainly reported Oxford's interest before anyone else IIRC and Oxford did ultimately put an offer in, which was kb'd. I don't recall HITC ever suggesting it was a done deal or anything like that. However they've also variously linked Johnson with QPR, Brighton & Bournemouth in the past which haven't materialised so yeah, like any transfer story in the press it's fair enough to take it with a pinch of salt. Reading the article they've it sounds like there's an element of an agent putting his client's name out there. They've cited a load of clubs at varying levels so who knows if there's anything in it. Given the amount of chat on here about us needing an attacking midfielder it'd be interesting if we were looking at options in that area of the park though.

Another fairly vague and speculative story via HITC but it seems MFC are "one of a number of clubs" interested in this chap, James Hardy. A 20 year old attacking midfielder no less. Plays as a #10/winger apparently. http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/08/25/wigan-preston-motherwell-chesterfield-burnley-chase-non-league-a/ Enjoy some camcorder footage from the Conference North below:

The more I thought about it the more that seemed to be the case. Sure the bench was maybe a bit light but he had McFadden there with what? 48 caps to his name. Thomas was viewed as being worth 20 mins off the bench in the LC game against them, Lucas is an actual midfielder. In that respect McGhee's statement seemed if not disingenuous then at the very least pointed. I took it as being one of two things; 1. an attempt to excuse away the failure to make subs or 2. a point to the board about needing a couple more bodies. In fact it could easily have been both.

+1 on the Laing chat here. I'd have him slightly ahead of Kennedy and Ferguson as well. Inclined to agree with MelvinBragg that it could be as much about wages though equally it may well simply be the case that Laing was the player that other teams were interested in and willing to take.

That's good news about Leitch given the speculation as to whether we did/didn't offer the contract in time and Burnley reporting it as a free transfer (as Leeds did with Erwin tbf).

Depends which Dundee turns up really. The one that took Ross County apart in Dingwall or the one that struggled against Accies at Dens. There's no reason why we can't win this one though. It does depend on us actually turning up. O'Hara is in tremendous form for Dundee so it'll be interesting to see how we deal with him. I'd hope Brill might get a shot here, assuming he plays for the 20s during the week and gets through it OK. For all the result at Ibrox yesterday wasn't the monstering some were predicting Samson should probably have done better with their equaliser. If he smothers the ball and gathers it in to his body we don't concede, instead he tries to tackle Miller from the looks of things and knocks it straight to Forrester unmarked in the middle of the box. It's hardly on par with his efforts vs St Johnstone but it's yet another instance where you look at him and think "he should have done better there" IMO. If we're not scoring many then we need to not be conceding, as it stands with Samson in goal over 11 games (friendlies & competitive) we've managed 2 clean sheets vs East Stirlingshire and Stranraer. Brill has said himself that he's at the club to play, Samson has had a fair run and thus far he's been unconvincing at best.

I thought that as well. He said good things about him in the pre-game interview during the week but that's 3 games in a row he's been an unused sub now and been on "trial" for the best part of 2 months. Begs the question if he's not viewed a viable option to come off the bench at 1-1 vs St Johnstone or The Rangers then is there much point in him being there? Especially when you're subbing midfielders.

Probably Jamie Semple or James Scott

Samson Tait Heneghan McManus Hammell Cadden Lasley Clay Johnson Ainsworth McDonald Lasley in if McHugh's not ready. I think McGhee will show Samson a bit of loyalty and if he chucks one in he can feel he's given him a fair crack of the whip and be a bit more comfortable giving Brill a debut at home vs Dundee rather than an away game like Saturday.

Either Jamie Semple, coveted by EPL sides and beyond or James Scott (came off the bench in both Challenge Cup games) IMO. Bit about Semple here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/14623203.The_14_year_old_Motherwell_striker_lined_up_by_some_of_England__39_s_best_clubs_heads_to_Sunderland_on_trial/ he's been over at Benfica as well from the looks of things.

I do. It's really just habit in my case, in so much as it's the way I've always attended. When I started going to games in the late 80s with my Dad he'd never had a season ticket AFAIK (and he'd been going to Fir Park since 50s/60s). He was always just happy enough to PATG and in turn when I started going along as well it was same with me. I've never really felt compelled to get a season ticket. I've got no real need to sit in the same seat or anything like that. I'm actually a lot more comfortable paying the couple of £ extra for the gate price rather than pitching up out of a sense of obligation because I've already paid for the season ticket. I've a feeling I'm very much an exception though.

If we're just chucking names about I'll nominate Giles Coke. Either he's injured or he's totally out the picture at Ipswich from the looks of things and in the last year of his deal. "Could do a job" etc.

Both Mackin and Ferguson were dev loaned out to Airdrie for the 2nd half of last season. If wiki's appearance stats are accurate Mackin had 11 appearances, Ferguson 9. In his interview before the Edinburgh City game the other week Craigan indicated it'd be likely that a few of them would be loaned out.

^^^ 100% this. There are another couple in that group who would really benefit from development loans at the right clubs IMO.

Enjoyable game. The only real difference was the physical side of things and possibly a directness with the final ball. As others have said, the possession based game Craigan has them playing is easy on the eye. Good to see them playing through midfield and showing some composure in those sorts of areas.

I broadly agree with the sentiment re: the midfielders being similar however I'd suggest that we're 2 league games into the season and already found ourselves short with Lasley suspended and McHugh injured. The upshot was Joe Chalmers being drafted in as a makeshift holding midfielder so I'm not sure that it's necessarily the case that having 3 players with similar defensive traits is necessarily a *bad* thing. I suppose it depends who else is loaned out and what we can afford with the wages freed up. I wouldn't necessarily say that us signing Lucas, who by all accounts seems to be a deep lying playmaker rather than a defensive midfielder, would preclude us bringing in a more attacking player in terms of bodies either, though finance may possibly restrict things. Unless I'm missing someone blatantly obvious then looking at the midfield as it stands you've got: RCM - Cadden (+ ?) DM - McHugh (+ Lasley) LCM - Clay (+ ?) Totally agree that there's not that much pace in the middle of the park outwith Cadden but equally the narrative in almost every window over the past couple of seasons is that we didn't have enough defensive minded midfielders to cover Lasley and that it should be a priority.

I think there's a degree of 2+2 off the back of some of the comments when he left ie: "who knows, one day I may be back for another go at it." in the statement on the official site. It may not have been intended to be interpreted as such but given the short season in the ISL and the fact he'd be available in January then it's a pretty solid hint. Particularly given that MFC released him from his deal to go over to India. Wouldn't be a massive stretch that there would be a quid pro quo involved. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/06/29/pearson-departs-for-india/ There were a couple of interviews with senior players that alluded to him coming back as well I think. Either way as it stands, if a couple of the 20s who have been on the bench of late go out on loan to get regular first team football (as Craigan hinted at in his interview the other week) then with 3 midfield positions available at the moment you're looking at 3 from McHugh, Clay, Cadden and Lasley. I'd say there's probably room (budget allowing etc) for 1 or 2 in the midfield area. Even more so if there are other first team players likely to be loaned out as well. IIRC McGhee had said in his pre-game press conference that there were clubs looking at loaning "one or two" of the first team squad, of whom Laing was clearly one.

In fairness the Nottingham Post ran the story linking him with County first earlier today before yer man posted the tweet with the old photo: http://www.nottinghampost.com/is-former-nottingham-forest-defender-louis-laing-on-his-way-back-to-notts-county/story-29618526-detail/story.html Given McGhee mentioned that there were a couple of clubs interested in some other players in the squad on loan I wouldn't be totally surprised to see some movement this week. Edit: that's him signed. 5 month loan. https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/765164781665980417

They've changed their tune: "Brown said "Unfortunately there was no sell-on clause put in Marvin's deal when he went to Motherwell. He was out of contract at the end of the season and I believe there was a sense that his sale was rushed just to bring in some money at the time."" http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/sport/13329868.No_cash_injection_for_Kidderminster_Harriers_if_Marvin_Johnson_seals_move/

It's Joe's time to shine.