C&A not the shop

14 senior players currently under contract. Putting out a 4-5-1 Carson O'Donnell Mugabe Lamie McGinley Crawford Donnelly Maguire O'Hara Lawless Watt Subs: Morrison Carroll Grimshaw I don't hate that team, lacks flair but 11 players that will put in a shift. No goals though.

I'd certainly rather we got Cole on a new deal than brought in Lafferty. Though even with Cole staying we would still need another striker. I could see us working something out with Rangers for Hastie, he hasn't showed much this season but he's clearly well thought of at the club and both Robinson and Alexander have always talked highly of him. Though he would have to be on "project" wages and thats going to be a huge drop from what he was on at rangers.

Didn't realise that was the same McMillan, was humming and hawwing about including Thomas and Hall. Actually that's a huge number that have kicked on. Kinda undermines my argument a bit.....

I imagine he's been invited to pre season training to see how he's holding up. Continuing our arrangement of not casting injured players adrift. As for young players, thats just the nature of the game. I thought Hussein might have stayed on based on previous hype but evidently not. From our youth cup winning squad how many have went on to play at a decent level? Cadden, Turnbull, Campbell and Hastie. Even a cup winning youth squad is going to be mostly made up of players that don't make it in the game.

If we're looking at out of contract Killie players I'd be keen on Tshibola. Burke is too much of a gamble based on age. Real risk he doesn't recover from an injury at that age.

It also states who we've offered terms to so I think beyond the 4 listed the rest of the players won't be here next year. Also ill be very surprised if we aren't going in to next season planning on Carson being number one. Could see Magliore being one of the loan players we are looking to bring in next year. People compare to him Zak July's negatively but Zak Jules is playing regularly in league 1, he's making a good career for himself.

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2021/05/24/end-of-2020-21-squad-update/ Squad update. Only Cole, Cornelius, Fox and Dunne offered new terms (or invited to pre season training which I assume refers to dunne for his fitness, and Campbell who has been offered and rejected new terms). Ruthless but required.

I knew one of the youth coaches that dealt with Moore and he was always full of praise for him. A lot was expected of him, just shows how an injury at the wrong time can really mess with your career in football.

There's been a bit of that with us this season, Scott Fox and Ricki Lamie are both local. You'll imagine players taking a couple of hundred quid a month less for a job near family etc. Foyle definitely had mixed results but if you look at the money we took from Kipre, Moult and Johnson then its more than paid for itself as a model. Its the right time for a change though. I see people linking us with Obika from St Mirren, he's always looked decent against us but I don't see him being someone we'd look at.

I took the goalie and full backs to be a given, couldn't be arsed typing them.

Yep, Lamie and Magliore. Foley, Campbell, Lawless, Hastie. With Cole and Long up top.

I can see Lamie starting alongside a new right footed centre back that replaces Gallacher. Our luck with goalies was wildly poor last season. The year before Gillespie played every game as far as I can remember whereas this season we had Carson, Archer, Chapman and Kelly all in goals with Fox injured and Morrison recalled from a loan as we had no one to sit on the bench. Carson came back from his DVT issues and was looking great, he had one knee injury that he was rushed back from (to avoid playing Chapman, so you can see why). I have faith he'll be our number one and will play 40+ games next year.

Ohhhhh that's a worry.....

https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2021/05/11/free-season-tickets-for-2020-21-holders/ For the link to the official including details. Absolutely fantastic from the club, from what they're doing, the wording in the statement and the video and everything else. You see a lot of criticism of how the club is run on here but I guarantee we're the envy of every other clubs fans right now (except maybe St Johnstone if they get a cup double)

We all talk about how Campbell has dropped a bit this season but at the start of the year he was far and away our best player,for the first 12 games or so we would only get a result if Campbell had a good game. And of late he's been solid again. So really he had a poor middle of the year, and the club followed with a poor period. He's got to go challenge himself down south (or in Europe) and I hope it works for him.

Every signing we make is a punt pretty much. Well not true, there are some steady uninspiring signings that are players who we know can do a job in the SPL, players like Lamie and Crawford. After that were gambling on ability, attitude or fitness. When it works out we challenge for Europe, when it doesn't we battle to finish 10th. A fit Louis Moult is well out our price range.

I'm in to it, though it will lead to another season of moaning we don't have the midfield to play 3 up top and the full backs being exposed.

I'm sure he wanted to be closer to home when he left here, so Aberdeen is not going to be very attractive. If he can't find anything near Stoke down south willing to take the risk I can see him back here. Though if we bring Cole back and have Watt are we going to carry 3 strikers that would all expect to be regular starters.

Aberdeen need to announce something positive so you can see why they've done it. Take some of the edge away from missing out on third again.

Again the rumour was that it was his Da that was acting as his agent at the time and when he got a real agent that's when the clause was looked at and thought to be not actionable. Again, thats the rumour that was going about.

What I've seen that seems believable was that the clause was poorly worded and a good lawyer would have tore it to shreds. At the same time I imagine he was advised not to play to keep things as clear as possible, so rather than feigning injury he may have not played through injury or rushed back as fast he may normally have, which is not the same thing as feigning injury. The club may have tried to pull a fly one with the clause and may have been called on it a bit. Thats life, he'll be well paid up at Aberdeen and I don't grudge anyone getting paid. At the same time I'm not gutted he's leaving i do think we may struggle for equivalent quality on the same money.

This happened last year as well with him...

It was the rumour at the time and I think it makes sense. Certainly not fact but conjecture that I believe may be accurate.

You're spot on. I'm wrong again. I should stop trying to be clever.

If we beat United then anything other than a St mirren win means we definitely finish 7th