Lobey_Dosser

If he’s out for the thick end of the rumoured 3-6 months, we’ll likely struggle for £3mil + offers as he enters the last year of his contract. Motherwell and Turnbull have conducted themselves impeccably throughout the process and it’s very unfortunate how events have unfolded. The end result is not great news for either party.

Poor Turnbull, his head must be spinning. Fingers crossed the surgery is minor, he is back playing in no time and this saga does nothing to depreciate his transfer value. Difficult time for the club too, I imagine we were ready to execute plans as soon as the money arrived in the bank. Do we now put one or two proposed summer signings on the back burner?

Gutted for Turnbull if this has fallen through due to a medical reason, particularly in such high profile circumstances. Regarding negotiations between both clubs, that should be a short conversation. If Celtic are unwilling to pay the agreed fee for medical reasons, then the deal is off. Tough for the boy, but he won’t be the first to fail a medical and then get a multi million pound move elsewhere.

Brian Kerr.

I mind seeing Shankland for Aberdeen reserves and wasn’t particularly impressed, despite scoring against us. He did look an out and out poacher that day. Interestingly though, Ian McCall said recently that’s he unsure whether 9 or 10 will be his best position, which suggests he’s may be developing into a more versatile forward. Anyway, there’s no chance of us getting him at this stage in his career with Sunderland, Hearts and Rangers previously signalling interest.

The likelihood is we’ll be signing players we haven’t heard of. However, I was wondering if we might be in for local boy Lewis MacLeod. He’s been dogged by injury since leaving Rangers but is a talented midfielder. Luke Leahy is another player I’ve been keen on for years but we seem to be covered at left back now. And while it splits opinion, I hope we have a chance of getting Mikey Johnston on loan.

While I think we’ve done well to get £3mil+, reports of Aberdeen rejecting Celtic’s £5mil offer for the overrated McKenna isn’t the best timing...

I’m too young to fully appreciate how good O’Donnell was in his prime but I’d rate Turnbull higher than Faddy, he certainly has a higher ceiling. Nobody loved Faddy more than me, particularly for his exploits with Scotland, but Turnbull has potential to be a top player for a top European club like McAllister. Being an integral player for Everton proved to be beyond Faddy. The unfortunate thing with Turnbull is that he didn’t get the opportunity cement his hero status by ripping Rangers and Celtic apart the way Faddy did.

Character will still be high on his agenda - I said in Jan that McCormack didn’t strike me as a typical Robinson signing. On Lafferty, he obviously blows hot and cold but he’ll probably screw the nut this season with Euro 2020 in mind. I’m sure I’ve heard Robinson praising Lafferty before, did we not try and sign him before he went to Hearts?

Until we signed Ross McCormack... I’d love Lafferty at Fir Park, as would Robinson, his all round game is miles ahead of what we are used to. However, it’s not going to happen unfortunately.

I think we are still looking at 5 or 6 signings, particularly if Hartley and Johnson are offloaded. Given the risk attached to the loss of Turnbull, Hastie and Aldred, hopefully we are able to invest in one or two players that have a bit of pedigree.

The stepping stone may be of benefit to Turnbull. To date he hasn’t played under any real pressure so that will be a learning curve in itself. He me also be attracted to having the likes of Brown, Tierney and McGregor who will welcome him in, recognising that David is central to their future success. My only reservation is Lennon, who is primarily interested in winning as opposed to nurturing talent like his predecessor. As an aside, he’ll walk straight into this current Celtic midfield which was on the wane last season. If he hits the ground running, he’ll have minimum 15 goals by Christmas, probably more.

Lennon on SSN confirming Turnbull will have his medical this morning and sign this afternoon. Good luck to the kid, huge decision for a 19 year old and the last few weeks won’t have been easy. He’ll inevitably end up in England (or abroad) but maybe he saw the jump to Norwich too big at the moment. Rather than potentially being on the fringes of an EPL team that are likely to be battling relegation he can play a central role in Celtic winning 10 IAR. Then with plenty of goals and a few medals under his belt, he may be ready for an established EPL team at the age of 21.

Oh dear.

Burrows recently indicated that we’re trying hard for Ariyibi but should anything materialise, it’s likely to be nearer the end of the window.

That away kit is just about perfect. Shame a sponsor is imminent.

And the English transfer market has escalated considerably since then. Any young British player who has one good season in the premier league and is sought after by a top 6 team is likely to be valued at a minimum of £30m, probably more (Longstaff, Rice, Wan Bissaka and Maddison current examples). Norwich appear to have a very good infrastructure and ethos for developing young talent. This has lead to their sporting director being courted by Man United. They are obviously a bit of a yo-yo club but with an exciting brand of attacking football on display last season, it looks like a good fit for David should he opt to accept their offer.

Dundee United had a 10% sell on for Armstrong which equated to £540k.

Motherwell come out of this looking very well imo. It would appear that no club in England is ready to pay £3mil and in the end, Celtic have possibly ‘overpaid’ in order to avoid a re-run of the McGinn embarrassment. I look forward to watching the next chapter on David’s career. Barring injury, he’ll inevitably end up at a top English club but hopefully in the meantime we can watch one of our own progress on the European and international stage. Good luck to the boy, by far the most talented kid I’ve seen come through Fir Park in 30 years of watching Motherwell.

It’s dangerous to 2nd guess anything in this saga but I doubt Scott Brown would have been so candid today if this wasn’t happening. I expect him to be training with Celtic by the end of the week.

If Alan Nixon is suggesting the move to Celtic is back on then it probably is.

McBride did very well on loan and Nadir was obviously a dream. Other clubs have done well on occasion. Christie was key to a good Aberdeen side and Henderson delivered the Scottish Cup for Hibs. I think we can forget about Johnston, Morgan and Henderson now though.

I think I read earlier in this thread that Turnbull has the same agent as Stuart Armstrong. If so, there is a bit of tension between club and agent. That might explain the toys being thrown out the pram. As an aside, credit to Turnbull for not rushing into anything. Of course he may still end up at Parkhead but there can’t be too many young Scots that have previously rejected the opportunity to sign for Celtic or Rangers. All too often, heads are turned at the slightest interest from either club. Fingers crossed he gets the move he really wants.

Mikey Johnston and Lewis Morgan are cracking talents from what I’ve seen with Scotland, while Henderson is reportedly on another level. I doubt any of them would be keen to leave Celtic prior to having the opportunity to impress during CL qualifiers but if there is scope to bring one in, we have to be all over it. In years gone by I was never keen on taking Premiership players on loan but in an era where the turnover of players is so high and few quality players stay beyond a season, why not? The primary disadvantage is obviously not being able to play against Celtic but the opportunity to have access to an exciting talent well beyond our budget for 34/35 league talents surely makes it worthwhile.

I think we’ll be in the market for two midfielders. One to replace McHugh/Gorrin and one to pull the strings and feed all these wingers that we are after. Assuming Cadden finds a new club, I suspect we are looking at around 6 more signings.