capt_oats

of all the bodies we offloaded only one of them actually played, Grimshaw. League starts: Twardzik - 0 Reid - 0 Taylor - 6 Grimshaw - 13 Robinson - 2 Clarkson - 0 So, excluding Grimshaw, of the other 5 we're only looking at 8 league starts between them. The moving on of those players barely impacts on the first team at all and if anything highlights in no uncertain terms the bloated squad left to McGhee by his predecessors. We've brought in Gomis and drafted in Cadden to the first team who has shown promise. We've been banging on about the likes of Thomas and Watt to get a shot, so hopefully this is it.

A year (+1 option). http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/06/25/david-clarkson-returns-home/

Don't disagree with the point in general but Baraclough didn't bring Long in until the last day of the winter transfer window. With Baraclough arriving mid-December that was 7 games he ran with Dan before bringing in a replacement. It's not as if he was binned as soon as he walked in the door. Granted his other option was Neilsen but still...the narrative seems to be that Baraclough didn't give him a chance. He got 7 games and one of those was his absolute nightmare in the 4-1 at Dens. Good luck to him and everything, he did us a turn and seems like a decent enough guy but ultimately there was probably a reason why he was 3rd choice at Dundee.

That's Twardzik left by mutual consent. http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/01/26/goalkeeper-dan-twardzik-departs/

Interesting that he's Tweeted that they're hoping a few will move on and a few will come in. Given he's posted that this morning you'd think there's a couple more to go out beyond the confirmed departures yesterday.

As harsh as the comment is, given that he's still under contract to us until the end of January then it's fairly unlikely that he would be over there now either way. Edit: The quote directly before that is basically going on about how they're wanting to add a striker and they're still looking to add to their roster. As far as the MLS goes for every Pirlo, Lampard and Gerrard there's also a Sean St Ledger, Giles Barnes and Steven Caldwell. For what it's worth I thought all the MLS chat seemed really premature. I suppose we'll see what happens.

As has been said it makes sense for all parties. He's only started 3 games since August. Presumably Port Vale will be able to match his wages at least and will give him game time that he clearly wasn't going to get here. In which case it's in his interest to actually play. Though it's not really a surprise as such from seeing his recent squads, it was interesting to see McGhee admit in the news stories accompanying Robinson's departure and the official termination of Taylor's deal that he'd already let both know that they weren't really in his plans. In Taylor's case as far back as December, which we already knew from McGhee's press interview. Begs the question a bit as to whether or not there are others who very obviously haven't been involved at either 1st team or u20 level that will have been given the same message and whether we'll possibly see another couple of bodies out this week?

He started on the bench the previous week against Aberdeen too. The hair though?! Jesus wept. I didn't actually realise he had it braided until I saw the highlights. The absolute state.

Just looked at his Wikipedia page there, turns out he's been at Exeter on loan before. Indeed they're the only club he was loaned out to that he got any decent number of games (30) everywhere else (and there have been a few) it's been single digits. Presumably they know what they're getting.

Robinson deal confirmed on our side now as well. https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/691621684084891649 Makes sense for all concerned. Moult and McDonald are pretty firmly established first choice pairing and justifiably so. It's fair enough that he's gone looking to get games. I suppose he could easily just have let his contract wind down up here.

I think ostensibly we're arguing the same point more or less and that is that it's about balance. Whatever question Baraclough was looking to address the answer wasn't Jake Taylor, we didn't win a game in which he started while Grimshaw supported both Pearson and Lasley ably when Lasley dropped out we struggled (see ICT 1-3 at Fir Park) though that may also have had as much to do with our default being to bring in Ainsworth and go 442 with 2 wingers in such a scenario. That's not to say that he couldn't have grown into that role however it's academic anyway since he's now a Preston player. I'm not necessarily arguing we need like for like replacements for both in the way that we seemed to stockpile right backs for a while simply that it'd be good to have someone in that would allow us to keep an effective blend in midfield. For example if someone can come in and allow us to rotate Pearson, Lasley and Cadden (or whoever the younger player that is played alongside them is) whilst still being competitive then that would be ideal. Either way I'm interested to see who/what type of player we bring in.

Apropos of nothing as you can take numbers and make them fit any narrative but I still found this quite interesting. So far this season by my reckoning we've been able to start with our 5 'experienced' players (Hammell, McManus, Pearson, Lasley, McDonald), 8 times. Our record is; P 8 W 5 D 2 L 1. It's a small sample clearly but it's the results have been against a decent spread of teams in terms of league position: W: ICT, Dundee, Celtic, St Johnstone, Cove D: Hearts, Accies L: Ross County As I've mentioned before on a purely numbers/results basis the 2 players we seem to miss most are Pearson and Lasley so McGhee's bang on the money in identifying it as the area that needs dealt with. As has been pointed out others have tried to address it but it's clearly difficult to get the right bodies in. Edit to add: again a fairly dull point, and I could be wrong on this, but watching Fox tip Lasley's shot over the bar I was wondering: am I right in saying that so far this season we haven't scored from outside the box? All our goals have been inside the area? Don't get me wrong, goals are goals but just seemed surprising to be this far into the season and that to be the case.

It is aye. This season in the league we've played 7 without him and won 1 (Killie at FP) and drawn 1 (County also at FP). FWIW: Our league record with Hammell starting at left back is: P 10 W 4 D 2 L 4 With Chalmers starting at left back it's: P 10 W 3 D 2 L 5

You could take your pick of squad members who are out of contract in the Summer who haven't really been involved at either 1st team or u20s: Out (from): Twardzik, Reid, Robinson, J. Leitch (maybe?), McFadden (contract expired, though it sounded like there was scope for an extension depending on his situation). Also I know he's back down south but has Jake Taylor's loan been officially cancelled? I don't recall any official word from either club unlike the Grimshaw deal. Maybe they're just trying to forget it ever happened. In: Midfielder, Defender You'd hope we'd try and get bodies in fairly early and give them time to work with the squad ahead of the Dundee game.

Cadden for me.

We clearly need midfielders however I'd argue that Cadden has more than enough about him to fill the role vacated by Grimshaw. For me the area(s) we have a problem with are Lasley and Pearson. As shown last week and also earlier in the season when Lasley was injured we've had to change our shape and we're a much less effective side without him. Same goes for Pearson. Both are in their 30s and it's a big ask for them to play week in week out. Pearson must be pretty close to a suspension by now as well from yellow cards? For all McGhee's talked up Laing as a midfielder, indeed he was doing so during the week again, he's clearly not confident enough in his ability in that role just now to actually play him in there. Edit: Though he was talking during the week about how the relative success of Grimshaw's loan might put us in a good light in that market with the bigger clubs in England I do wonder whether or not it'll be more experienced bodies McGhee will be more tempted to bring in during this window.

Going by McGhee's post-match there, 1 or 2 out this week and 1 or 2 in off the back of that. Says he's looking at players better than or at least as good as for first XI not to sit on the bench.

First 20 mins or so I thought we looked like a team who had been scudded 6-0 last week. Hesitant, nervous and lacking a bit of belief. We only actually seemed to start playing after they scored. Thought Cadden showed up well, at fault for their first and gave Irvine the freedom of the box but other that that (and that genuinely wasn't a dig) I thought he grew in to the game well and didn't look out of place at all. He more than deserves a run in the team. Missed a number of good chances to equalise and Fox brought off a number of good saves. Defensively we were certainly shaky but I thought Kennedy was alright at right back and got up well at the back post for Pearson's goal. We looked a bit toothless going forward and as others have said our decision making in the final third could/should have been much better. Having said all that, last time County were here we were utterly abject and nicked a point, we were much better than that performance today and got nothing. Meh!

You'd think/hope that would be the case. Watt seems to have been used in various positions for the u20s. Both RB & CH while I'm fairly sure he was playing Lasley's role in the u20s cup game vs Killie. He was playing RB for the first half on Tuesday night however from watching back the highlights (I had to leave at HT) it looked like they switched him to CH and Kennedy to RB for the 2nd half. I could be wrong though. Either way, with McGhee and Robinson both at the game the other night and the fact we're at home today with Lasley back I'd hope that they've seen enough to give a couple of the 20s a shot in their actual position in the system that has been working for us rather than shoving players in out of position.

Ferguson was centre half IIRC but aye, Thomas was left wing.

I don't disagree however for them to acquire even an average at best player from Championship/League 1 level then the starting point would be a 7 figure price easily, so you can frame in in that sense. Obviously we're not a Championship/League 1 club but even still there seems to be a huge disconnect. Their business so far in this window has seen 2 Championship level players come in for a combined £18m in fact in terms of the league on a whole then there's barely a disclosed permanent deal going in to a Premier League team that is less than £1m. (http://www.skysports.com/football/transfer-deals). The suggestion was that they're looking at him as an alternative to Matt Phillips who's seemingly rated at £8m. In that context even £1m+ add ons would represent a cheap deal for them, which to be clear isn't to say that I think that Marvin Johnson's worth that simply that it would be a cheap price in that market. In a world where you have folk like Tony Andreu, Lewis Macleod et al moving for (apparently) £1m fees then in that context it'd be fair to say that Marvin Johnson is worth more than £400,000 (or marginally more than an out of contract Lee Erwin). However the flip of that is that a player's only worth what someone's willing to pay and I totally agree that the club posted a fairly hefty loss and when it comes right down to it whichever way you slice £400,000 would represent a fairly sizeable profit on a player we paid a nominal fee for only a year ago and a player who is fairly inconsistent at that. This is the model that the club and the owner have highlighted we need to do better in and as you've pointed out yourself our record of trading on players brought in from the English lower leagues has been poor. So in the eventuality that it turns out to be a legitimate interest then if it's a take it or leave it offer then we'd take it regardless of whether it can be viewed as 'cheap' when framed on the other fees Bournemouth are spending. Having said all that you'd like to think that they wouldn't just take the first bid put to them given that it's in both Les' and the Club's interest to maximise their income in order to pay back the loan not to mention that the player still has another 2 years of his deal to run.

"reported" £1m http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/28966896 there's a few places quote it as £1m (Soccerbase) others as the BBC link "up to" £1m. Edit: Forgot about this one, Tony Andreu from Accies to Norwich for £1m+ http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11709/9696898/transfer-news-norwich-have-had-a-bid-accepted-for-hamiltons-tony-andreu

If Bournemouth stay up then the TV deal down there next season equates to something like £10m per game. Even the Championship is something like the 13th highest revenue generating sports league in the world (NFL, MLB, EPL, NBA & NHL being the top 5) so it's fair to say that £400k is probably a bit light for a team (small as Bournemouth are) competing in the 3rd wealthiest league in the world. He's signed an extension in the summer presumably in the hope on the club's part that such an eventuality as this would come about. So if there is any legitimate interest then this is a test of the club, the board and Les Hutchison's resolve. They claimed the whole point was that they needed to be more effective in the transfer market, I guess we'll see how effective we can be. Whether you think Johnson's a good player or not is actually kind of irrelevant in so much as it's totally subjective. In essence it's what he's worth to the selling club and what he's worth to the potential buyer to have him in their squad that's important. Again, to reinforce the point they just paid £8m for Lewis Grabban whose best performing seasons have been playing at Championship/League 1 level and £10m for Afobe from Wolves, again a player whose only prolific seasons have been at Championship/League 1. Their compensation deal with Blackburn for Josh King was £1m. Given that West Ham apparently paid Accies £1m for Hendrie, Norwich £1m for McGrandles, Hull paid close to £3m for Robertson gives an idea of relative values. Even Celtic paying £1.5m for Cifci and the best part of £2m for Armstrong works as a frame of reference. Does Marvin Johnson have the same potential as someone like Robertson? Possibly, possibly not however presumably he was offered (and signed) the extension as some sort of insurance in terms of maximising his valuation.

Suggestions are that he's training with Raith. If United fans are anything to go by Connolly didn't really show up, was too lightweight etc. Given that Erskine's signed a PCA with Thistle with a view to him moving during this window and McGowan's apparently off to China then it looks like there's a clear out starting at United. If P&B is anything to go by Telfer will be next out the door. Edit: seems Dow is another one. Speaking to St Johnstone about a PCA.

As good a time as any to remind that Bournemouth paid £8m for Lewis Grabban the other week. So aye...they can bolt with any £400k pish.