Former Motherwell Fc Players Thread

[coop91]

According to SSN Johnson has put in a transfer request at Oxford.

[fizoxy]

That's Marvin handed in his transfer request, like he does.

[wellowell]

Exact same as a year ago with us a leopard never changes its spots but hope he gets his wish as will benefit us .

[texanwellfan]

Good to see Jamie Murphy in the EPL when will he be old enough to come back and play for us ?

[fizoxy]

Oxford's valuation said to be around 3million, so that would be nice.

[Well-Made]

Lee Lucas on trial at Crewe, and I don't mean court

[daver]

Had a look at the Yellows forum. There are widely contrasting views regarding Johnson's worth and one poster noted the thread is very similar to one on the Motherwell forum this time last year!

 

Interesting that one poster is saying the club (Oxford) 'confirmed' the fee was closer to the £400k figure mentioned than the £650k put about and the sell-on is 10%.

[superward]

Lee Lucas on trial at Crewe, and I don't mean court

Read that and also that he played centre half in the recent friendly!

[Welldaft Mk1]

Had a look at the Yellows forum. There are widely contrasting views regarding Johnson's worth and one poster noted the thread is very similar to one on the Motherwell forum this time last year!

 

Interesting that one poster is saying the club (Oxford) 'confirmed' the fee was closer to the £400k figure mentioned than the £650k put about and the sell-on is 10%.

Not saying this is gospel, but I believe the fee was around £4-500k plus add ons. Based on various factors such as appearances and Oxford being promoted. The latter did not happen. I also believe the sell on clause is around 20%. We wanted more than Oxford could offer, so the sell on clause / % was decent

 

So we probably got around £500k and if he is sold for £1.5 - £2m -then another £3-400k. Not too shabby. Hope he moves on for our sake.

[capt_oats]

Had a look at the Yellows forum. There are widely contrasting views regarding Johnson's worth and one poster noted the thread is very similar to one on the Motherwell forum this time last year!

 

Interesting that one poster is saying the club (Oxford) 'confirmed' the fee was closer to the £400k figure mentioned than the £650k put about and the sell-on is 10%.

 

Looked at that thread myself and it's almost identical.

 

The £400k figure comes from Kidderminster Harriers "confirming" they received £40k from us through the deal. 10% sell on means £400k cash received.

 

However, Oxford's manager at the time said himself that there were additional guaranteed payments that had to be made. So presumably there's some sort of contingency on those payments in the event that the player moves on. As far as our sell-on for him goes there have been any number of wild claims about that. I've seen Oxford fans claim we're due 40%, The Sun claim 25% and other Oxford fans say it's only 10%. Who knows tbh, given the nature of the deal and the fact that Appleton was talking about having to be "creative" in their offer to us 25% doesn't seem that unlikely, particularly if we were accepting a lower cash payment than our valuation and looking at it being topped up in add-ons.

 

Despite the scale of the investment, Appleton is certain it is money well spent.

He said: “I had a few ideas around potentially what we might be able to do and be creative in going back with something to Motherwell.

“I had a long conversation early in the morning with Darryl about what we could do and the potential I think Marvin has got going forward.

“That started the ball rolling really.

“There’s all sorts of things in the contract, like all contracts.

“There are certain bits that have to be met, but ultimately we had to get to a place where Motherwell were happy and we still think it’s fantastic business for the club.”

 

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/oxfordunited/14715643.Marvin_Johnson_impressed_with_Oxford_United_s_determination_to_do_deal/

[sbcmfc]

Are there teams actually wanting to buy him? I'm guessing so if he's handed in a transfer request?

[Haggischomper]

Hull City

[wellowell]

Possibly Leeds as well

[Andy_P]

There was the post about mercenary footballers recently and you would have to concede the tag suits Marvin fairly well.

 

If I remember rightly he was en route to sign for Yeovil before about turning and heading to us. And within eighteen months of arriving at both Motherwell and Oxford he's handed in transfer requests. Not exactly one you'd build a team around on that evidence!

 

That said, Oxford can speak for themselves (personally I think they've bit of a fucking cheek asking for £3m for a player a year ago they were bartering to try to pay less than £500k)on what they anticipated when they signed him but as long as you know what the arrangement is as I think was the case at Fir Park even in the short term a signing like him can be mutually beneficial.

 

We benefited when we was playing us, we'll benefit from him in the future through add-ons and we'll benefit for a good while beyond that as we can point to him when considering all these English non-leaguers and say look at the potential platform signing for Motherwell gives you.

[ONeils40yarder]

I think we've also got to be realistic on 2 points here;

 

a) in my opinion, all players should look out for number 1, first and foremost. Its a cliche, but its an incredibly short career, and one that if driven in the right direction can be extremely lucrative*. If it were me, and Hull were sniffing about, knowing what they will be paying as a weekly package, I'd be inclined to be rocking the Oxford boat as well if i'm honest. Injuries or poor form can kick in at anytime, and I fully understand why a player would jump at the 1st chance of a better deal.

 

b) we've got to understand where we, in particular, but Scottish Football in general lies in the food chain, particularly in comparison to England (even at their lower levels). I was scoffed at when i suggested we should accept £500k for Johnson, and I was scoffed at when I said Moult wouldnt go for much more than that either. But, my thinking is that if we accept these relatively decent offers, and fire in a healthy sell-on clause, then if the player goes down-by and enhances his reputation further, then more cash will flow in at a later date. Meanwhile, we are using the money wisely to a) pick up our next asset and b) make decent inroads to paying off our Hutchison/Boyle debts. Clubs in England, just wont offer millions of £s to a club like Motherwell because we are unfancied, we aren't glamorous, we have been poor on the park for a good few years now, we pay relatively poor wages etc etc. Oxford asking for (and hopefully holding out for) £3,000,000 enhances our business model as far as I'm concerned.

 

 

* Last week I heard a story concerning Lee Erwin, the gist is that he was allegedly on £7k a week at Leeds, with one year remaining on his contract. He was offered 80% of that 7k per week x 52 (or thereabouts, depending on when it was agreed) to tear up the contract. He then goes and gets a 2-year contract with Killie on a couple of grand a week, and circa £200k from Leeds to fuck off. Anyone that thinks a player should pass up that type of cash, and that ability to set yourself up for life is off their nut.

[weeyin]

I have no problem with players wanting the best deals they can get for themselves.

 

I do have less sympathy, however, with players who negotiate a 2 or 3 year contract and then hand in transfer requests as if the contract didn't exist. Contracts work both way and you can imagine what Marvin would be saying if Oxford had turned around and said "actually, we've decided we don't want to pay you this season". Cake-and-eat-it Syndrome.

 

Bottom line, however, is I hope he leaves for 4 million.

[ONeils40yarder]

If we are right in our belief that we 'sell' the Club to incoming players on the agreement that they'll be given a platform to perform before being sold to the highest bidder, then we're pretty much singing from the same hymn-sheet as the likes of Marvin Johnson, and that the 2year and 3year deals, are only put in place to maximise the profit when a potential buyer starts sniffing around.

 

With us Marvin, bought into what we sold him, and I'm presuming the likes of Heneghan and Moult were no different, even McHugh and Bigirimana etc etc. The contract only works so long as both parties are happy with their lot, and effectively we could have held onto Marvin if we really wanted to, but evidently we were more than happy to take the cash...and sell-on fee to rip up his contract.

[Kmcalpin]

That said, Oxford can speak for themselves (personally I think they've bit of a fucking cheek asking for £3m for a player a year ago they were bartering to try to pay less than £500k)

 

 

Yes but surely you must agree Andy that he has improved beyond all recognition after a short spell in England. He's probably 6 times better than he was when he left us.

[CoF]

b) we've got to understand where we, in particular, but Scottish Football in general lies in the food chain, particularly in comparison to England (even at their lower levels). I was scoffed at when i suggested we should accept £500k for Johnson, and I was scoffed at when I said Moult wouldnt go for much more than that either.

 

Good post - I'd disagree with this bit though. The numbers folk come up with for our players don't come from watching MFC players in isolation, it comes from seeing other teams shift players (who might only be marginally better) south of the border for hefty sums.

 

We don't seem quite as savvy in that market yet - either that or we're getting the market value but fans tend to see our own boys through claret and amber tinted spectacles.

[CMWellfan]

Take into the pension arrangement for professional spirtsmen. They can put 20% of their gross income into a pension fund, and draw a 25% lump sum tax free when 35. Most wait till later.

 

Someone like Marvin, picking up say £8,000 a week at 20% pension rate, would bank £250,000 into their pension on a three year contract.

 

I find it unbelievable that anyone would criticize a family man for banking £250k in three years.

[milo]

Dom Thomas apparently had good game at the weekend.

[CoF]

Dom Thomas apparently had good game at the weekend.

 

Depends what you mean by good. Heard on the radio Killie's service (on the whole) to the strikers was awful. Sounds familiar.

[Desp]

Dom Thomas apparently had good game at the weekend.

He had loads of those "good" games with us too. Coincidentally, those games generally ended with Motherwell nil...

[Spiderpig]

Dom Thomas apparently had good game at the weekend.

Aye and Killie got beaten by a crap Hearts side so sounds like he made a valuable contribution, I don't think so.

[milo]

Big Hutchy playing quite regularly for Millwall at the moment. Best of luck to him.