MelvinBragg

Why, where's he headed?

Anyone miss the pre internet days when the first you heard of a signing was when they were in the paper with the scarf above their head? Might be noticing it more this year because a few of our signings have been trialists but very rarely do we get a surprise signing that's not been talked about for days or even weeks beforehand...

Again, while O'Donnell had a decent Euros and is a good full back at SPFL level, I'm not sure his form with us will mean a stampede of clubs looking to sign him. Celtic is a possibility, would Aberdeen , Hibs or Hearts be willing to pay a fee, even if it was set relatively low. I could be proved wrong, of course. Cadden attracted interest from down south and O'Donnell is a better player than him but there is a marked age difference there. Time will tell, I guess..

This is only tangential to the subject here but with all the talk of centre halfs on trial, I found myself wondering if these guys will be any better than the guy we had on loan from Blackburn. And it took me a good half hour to remember Tyler Magloire's name, despite his time with us being very recent. Is it me getting old or is this a side effect of the fact that we never got to see him play in person? Will we all struggle to remember the likes of Calum Lang ever playing for us?

This is true. However home advantage or not, Scotland were up against last World Cup's finalists, semi finalists and a team that beat said semi finalists in qualifying. There have been tournaments in the past when you could say "Scotland should be beating them". On this occasion, it was more a case of "Scotland could beat them if they play to their best". There were other groups in this tournament which Scotland could have got out of. The Dutch group for one...

You realise you have increased the number of Google searches into the Maltese national squad from the ML1 area exponentially? I haven't looked but I'm sure some will. The signing of Amaluzor has caused a bit of consternation on here. That's the market we're shopping in. The talk of a smaller squad with higher average salaries is naive, given the injuries we had last season. Am I enthused by the signing of a winger from National League South? Not particularly but I'm not sure he'll be a nailed on starter, possibly a plan B? Perhaps the reason I'm not as vexed as some on here is that he's already been training with us. We've not simply judged him on his performances at that level but had a look at him in the context of our squad. Which kind of brings me to you pointing out we have a few trialists in at the moment. Trialists can often be seen as a negative but going forward, it may be something we rely upon more heavily. If you accept that pretty much every signing we make is going to be a gamble to some degree, a way to improve your odds is to see them in training up against the players you already have and also how they interact with the rest of the squad. We might need to get used to a large proportion of our future signings being trialists...

Celtic have neither a right back nor much money...

With that post, I assumed grizzly had hacked your account. Turns out that's his name...

I really thought football clubs had moved beyond signing players on the basis of a couple of good games in a tournament. While O'Donnell has been solid for us, I wouldn't say his form would pique the interest of Championship clubs down south...

"Patterson would have scored that..."

Fox Devine Mugabi Lamie Grimshaw/Cornelius O'Hara Donnelly/Maguire Crawford Carroll/McGinlay Watt Shields That should be good enough for the league cup group stages...

Didn't have loads of dealings with Andy in person, but whenever I did, I always found him a smashing guy. And as others have said, a wise and funny voice on here. Just really sad news...

Interesting that in his interview he mentions making the right decisions not rushed decisions. Is that telling us to not hold our breaths for signings right now..?

Staying in England then? To be honest, I'd rather he stayed down South. There are four possibilities if he returns to Scotland. He comes to us and is as good as before. He comes to us and disappoints. He goes to another SPL club and is as good as before. He goes to another SPL club and disappoints. Possibilities 2, 3 and 4 would be painful to watch...

Best guess would be the likes of Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United. Hibs, if they sell Nisbet would be a possibility. A fit Moult would improve all those teams. And that's the thing. Is he fit? How much are clubs willing to gamble?

I could live with that policy being in place....

I bear no ill will to Charles Dunne. Always gave 100% when he played. While not the best defender we've seen at Fir Park, he was far from the worst. I don't know how much he would have played had he stayed given both Lamie and McGinlay can play left centre half so probably a good move for both club and player. With the number of players leaving, it frees up a fair bit of the wage budget for the 7-10 signings that Alexander says we're after. Like others, I'd hope that one is a starting midfielder and one a starting centre half...

As I've said elsewhere on here, Lafferty is 34 this year. Comes into the getting on a bit category...?

Lafferty will be 34 in September and while he has done reasonably well at Kilmarnock, during the recent game at Fir Park he was unable to outpace and get away from Ricki Lamie. It's a no from me on that account alone. Could I warm to him? Tricky but not as tricky if we were to sign Paul McGowan...

So what you're saying is both managers inherited shite squads and that Alexander turned it around and Wright didn't? Was the squad Wright inherited noticeably worse than the one that Alexander did?

Interesting with Martin Foyle away to see how it effects our recruitment this summer. I'm sure we'll still be targeting the English lower leagues and non leagues but although he had a mixed record, Foyle did manage to unearth a few good players...

I'd argue that the 93/94 team were definitely better. Case could be made for 2012/13 team. Thing with cups is that the best teams don't always win them...

The two teams that spring to mind are the 93/94 team and the 2012/13 team. The 93/94 team was better than the 94/95 team despite the fact they finished 3rd rather than 2nd. The 2012/13 team could be breathtaking, beating Celtic comfortably at Fir Park twice in three months. The cup defeats that season were 2-0 at Ibrox in the league cup to a third division Rangers team and losing a third round Scottish cup replay at Fir Park to an Aberdeen team that we then scudded 4-1 a fortnight later in the league with Fraser Kerr and Zaine Francis-Angol at full back. Celtic won the Scottish Cup that year, fair enough but St Mirren won the league cup with Craig Samson in goal...

What is more frustrating is that there have been better Motherwell teams since that have failed to get anywhere close...

Who was released last week?