capt_oats

I think the question Lobey_Dosser is proposing is more along the lines of whether or not we met the 60 day rule (Article 6. Clause 3 of FIFA's guidelines) that allowed us to benefit in bringing in Heneghan from Chester and if it applies in Leitch's case going from Scotland to England (you'd think it would as he's changing associations). He was certainly on that list and SPFL rules are such that they only require an offer to be put in place 14 days before the expiration of the contract.

nah, he's still kicking about. Dundee were rumoured to be interested but they've just signed Michael Duffy on loan from Celtic (another that we were randomly linked with ages ago) Edit: Kenny Millar now reporting McDonald's move to Hibs is now OFF.

I clocked that as well. Certainly reads like it's possible.

Club confirm 2 year deal for Hammell. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/06/29/hammell-signs-extended-deal/

On the face of it I'd say that giving the player the security of a 2 year deal is a fair trade off for him taking a (significant?) pay cut. Seeing some seethe about it on Twitter, fact of the matter is that he's consistently been the best left back at FP and to hark back to the pay cut it's fair to ask whether we'd get a better LB on the money we're offering.

This is pretty much my reading of it. Indeed it's the only way I can really make sense of the various mixed messages that have come out of the club about McDonald's situation. Presumably if we match the terms as per the terms of the original contract then he's still our player if we want him, unless of course there's a date by which those terms would have to be offered.

I'm not really sure that replacing one of out most influential and experienced players not to mention our 2nd top scorer last season with a 23 year old whose only experience is at League One level and tbf has only had one good season to date would get my vote as "smart business". In fairness I've not seen much of El Bakhtaoui but regardless of what you think of the overall level of Scottish football it's a massive leap from League 1 to Premiership. With McDonald you know what's you've got and that's a former international who beyond anything else is proven at this level. As much I'd be interested to see us bring a player like El Bakhtaoui in and see what he can do I wouldn't be wanting to be pinning my hopes on him or for that matter bringing him in at the higher end of our pay bracket.

There's Scott Burns confirming Dean Brill has signed and the club are hopeful of Hammell signing a 1 year deal in the next 24 hours. https://twitter.com/ScottBurns75/status/747450916719165440 https://twitter.com/ScottBurns75/status/747451347457409024 Brill confirmed by club: http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/06/27/goalkeeper-dean-brill-pens-one-year-deal/

McGhee's given two different positions in the press re: McDonald though. Initially it was a case that the ball was in McDonald's court, the club had indicated they'd like to keep him but it was up to him whether he wanted to extend for another year. Then, as you say, the other week he was "effectively still under contract" on account of the +1 option, now it seems to have reverted. I'd just assumed the press were conflating his situation with the other "experienced" out of contract players and while I can see why weighting the option in favour of the player could be advantageous in getting him to commit to the contract in the first place (particularly if he's unsure and wants a possible exit path allowing for certain circumstances) but it surely has to offer some sort of security to the club assuming they express a wish to retain the player.

Just DM'd you Andy

You should have my payment, went through ages ago

I'd say it's more likely to be as per the spiel from McGhee on the official site, we don't have someone who can play as a target man. It's not Moult's game, nor is it Moore or McDonald's (assuming he takes up the +1 option) on the evidence of his outings as a lone striker. Blyth would seem to give us that option if we want to go 4411 or 4231 against certain teams. Edit: which obviously isn't to say that if an offer came in for Moult we wouldn't be considering it but equally I don't think you need to correlate one coming in with one going out.

Tait & Heneghan confirmed. The 3rd is the striker Jacob Blyth from Leicester.

I'd have said that a natural right back was almost certainly one of our priorities given the grief that Law gets. Also going by the way ICT fans regard Brill I wouldn't be surprised if Brill ended up our first choice keeper. He's an upgrade on where we were at the start of last season with Twardzik at the very least. If, as rumoured, it's true that Law is away then we may well be looking at Tait and Laing for the RB positions with Watt out on a Dev loan and Kennedy and Heneghan for the CD position next to McManus.

True but does it really make any practical difference whether they've announced a month, 2 weeks, a week before pre-season or not? If the first team squad isn't actually in then what difference does it make? It'd be different if it we were likely to be making a marquee signing that might help shift some season tickets but the reality is that we'll be looking at free transfers and bringing in players at the end of their contracts (hence why the English transfer window is significant). Presumably players, their representatives and the contracting parties will have a schedule indicating when a deal can or can't be announced. The club also, quite rightly, have a policy of not commenting on deals before they're able to be officially announced, to me that's just good practice. As far as I can see there's a general timeline that the club seem to follow where they start announcing incoming players, which is usually just before or around the start of pre-season. They've already announced a few contract renewals and going by the timeframe that we're looking at vs previous seasons then you'd imagine we'll start to see incoming announcements as we approach the English window opening.

For what it's worth last year Clarkson signed 25th June, Fletcher signed 27th June, Moult on 30th June, Laing 30th June, Kennedy 16th July so it's not as if the club is running late. The English transfer window isn't even open yet and MFC pre-season doesn't start until Monday.

I'd buy that.

I heard his aim is true

Fair enough, can't help but think it's just McGhee playing to the gallery a bit.

If only Hall had acknowledged McGhee publicly...oh! "He told SeagullsPlayer HD, "Mark McGhee was brilliant with me. He told me as soon as I played my first game that I would be playing every week, so that gave me great confidence as a young lad and confidence to push on. "This was my first year pursuing first-team football and I got to play 15 to 20 games. "I made my debut just before Christmas and from there I just played more and more games which is what I wanted to do." http://mobile.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/ben-hall-praises-mark-mcghee-impact-3139410.aspx

Genuine question, albeit a hypothetical one: if MFC was one of the clubs who had both CFC & RFC at home would we have heard a peep from the club about "sporting and commercial advantages"? Judging by the fact that that most clubs in the league have hardly been rushing to back MFC & PTFC then I'd hazard a guess at no. They'd be sitting on their hands waiting to count the cash and that's the hypocrisy with the club's stance. The club can wheeze on all it likes about "but that's not how it used to be" however as I've pointed out at length that, in my opinion, is a weak argument. The fact is the SPL folded in 2013 so the league body has changed, the SPFL has an extensive set of rules and regulations so unless there's a clause in the current rules allowing for fixtures in the Premiership to be weighted taking into account two clubs and the size of their fanbase or unless there is a formal agreement between clubs in the top league that fixtures should be weighted in that manner then for MFC to cry about fixtures being drawn in roughly the same way they were last season doesn't wash for me. I understand their grievance and why they feel disadvantaged, but really they need to just suck it up. If the club feel that strongly about equality and a fair playing field then they should be lobbying for a league format that genuinely allows a fair playing field without having to manipulate fixtures in order to create what they perceive to be a "parity" rather than bleating about only having one home game against either cheek.

I'll just chuck in that Bannigan has been 'followed' by the club's official account for months. Social media is as good a way as any to find out if someone's an absolute walloper so if there's a vague interest there it makes sense for someone to keep tabs. Lessens the chances of ending up with a tinfoil hat wearing 9/11 conspiracy theorist or a Trump apologist on the books.

If folk are just trawling through Flow's 'followiing' list on Twitter then along with Demetriou and Heneghan we'll be being linked with Craig Slater, Jackson Irvine, Will Vaulks, Haris Vuckic and Abdul Osman next as he started following them around the same time.

Seems to be. He played RB for Cambridge in their 0-0 vs Man Utd a while back. Going by his Instagram he bloody loves Crossfit.

There's quite a good (and fair) bit by Gordon Waddell in the Mail about it as well. Again focusing on the ridiculousness of a situation where the league structure continues to throw up anomalies but the clubs who actually comprise the league continue to ignore it.