weeyin

That sounds like a great move for Hutch and gives him a decent shout at the EPL in the future. Also good to see that all the doom merchants who were convinced he was signing for Rangers were wrong (again).

The guy who made us the best in Scotland is still at the club, so I'm sure he can oversee whoever takes over.

The club tends to do its business in private, and its rare for anything to leaked to media before paperwork is signed and sealed. I prefer it that way, but it does make for a lot of idle speculation (and wild rumours) on sites like this.

I presume he was given a deadline the same as all the others with offers on the table.

See Ryan Stevenson has signed for Partick.

Imagine how much we could sell them for if we signed them up for 10 years (on deals we couldn't afford) and sold them after 5.

Questions have been asked (and answered) about our finances. We lost out on Rangers/TV/League sponsorship/Cup run money and cut our budgets back in consecutive seasons to reflect that. The board has been pretty open about the books and what avenues are being explored to bridge the financial gaps. You (and I) might not like all the answers, but they are available.

You remember correctly.

If that was true, then at least one of them would have gone on to a higher (or even equal level) to us after we released them. I don't remember that ever happening - which was kinda my original point.

It's not short term gain though, it has been medium term losses. The cold hard facts of our accounts the last couple of seasons don't lie. All these games where we have let kids in for free and had cheap tickets have not stopped us from running at a loss. I'm sure the club would much prefer it if we had more TV money and a league sponsor, but failing that, our major revenue stream is our gate money. If I was going to pay a few quid extra I'd rather do it for a Euro game than an Accies or St. Mirren game. If there was an easy answer to boost our funds and lower ticket prices, every club would be over it like a rash.

And that's not good - no disagreement there. If we need to turn a profit this season, though, and we are relying largely on gate money to do it, ticket prices like this are inevitable.

There's also the risk that we get papped out, so need to balance making money on one tie versus a run of two (or three?) home Europa games.

No better than any other of the guys we released that seem to give folk the fear. Lawless being the most recent example.

Whether we regard it as being fleeced or not, our finances aren't great right now and that is partly due to the Rangers situation. When we all voted to keep them out the SPFL, we knew we would take a financial hit and everyone at the time was on board with how that could affect prices. Well, here we are, runing at a loss the last couple of seasons, still without a league sponsor, and having recently lost the 2 Edinburgh clubs to the Championship. It's not ideal, but if a few quid extra is helping out the club, then it's fair enough.

Kieran MacDonald, ex-Motherwell youngster who moved on to Clyde, has been signed by Accies. Choose any 2 from: a) We should never have let him go b) Hope he doesn't come back to haunt us c) He always scores against us

Small matter of the 3 year contract he signed that might hinder that particular deal.

In an interview in March, Ainsworth was talking about how much he loved it here and was hoping to be offered a contract and play in Europe next season. Of course, circumstances (and offers) change, but there is a lot to be said for enjoying your job.

Difficult to say, as 'Flow used to draw his wages in pies (allegedly).

I almost responded to this yesterday, but the point is still valid today. I don't believe any rumours on here until I see an official announcement from a club that a player has been signed (and registered).

We didn't have many slots to fill. Given the success of the team last year, and the fact we have secured our younger talent, this is not a bad thing.

Dom Thomas, Morgyn Neill and Steven Higgins all confirmed as extending their contracts on MFC Twitter.

They'll be breathing a sigh of relief they missed out on Kenny Miller. Boyd would have scored a barrel load in our team from 2 seasons ago, but not sure he would be as well suited to our current squad.

See Gunning been officially released by Utd.

Ross Stewart and Dom Thomas have been in the first team squad on a few occasions, so I'm sure he was including them.

Just read the article in the Evening Times about Leitch signing and McCall mentions we currently have 9 "academy products" in the first team squad. That's not too bad.