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But do you trust him to put his foot on the ball and pass to a team mate? He's been a bit hit or miss in that department so far this season (e.g. his underhit pass that led to the pen against Hertha), but hopfeully that will improve.

Gordon is solid,he just had shite around him last year.

I'm not sure Gordon is equipped to play out from the back, but I'm OK with him if he can.

I pray this is true I do, to be fair, like Gordon as a centre half and with a decent footballer beside him, it would maje for a good partnership imo

I really hope so. We have been crying out for decent central defenders since Hartley & Aldred left us.

Can we sign these new CBS already got the dead for Saturday with our central defence

You put 2 in the fridge for an hour before the adding them to the bag just before the draw. The other balls are room temp. As others have said, however, when the draw is on the radio only, you don't need to be that clever. You just read out whatever you like.

Yes please. And it suggests JBA has replacements in mind. Quite honestly I think we don't have any central defenders ....by trade or makeshift...that merit a first team place. So I'm hoping we see more than one depart. To be replaced by at least two that are comfortable playing out as the Manager expects. Might save me a few 'moments'.

Kofi Balmer being touted about? Maybe a good move for all parties concerned?

Draws were on the wireless in them days so we would be none the wiser on what was going on

Well regardless of whether it was driven by defiance or just plain support for their club, Rangers fans did turn out in big numbers when they were in the lower leagues.

Interesting stuff...how would you heat them there balls? And would they not have cooled by time draw was made. If we can work that out, there's a book deal in this...

Just to add to the complications and confusion. It really is a minefield. Clubs who are losing a youngster (despite offering a new contract) very often do a deal with the new Club that bypasses the compensation rules that apply to cross border only movement. Like I believe we did with McKinstry to Leeds. Maybe building in a larger up front fee with a lower sell on %. Or the other way round. That may suit both Clubs depending upon their financial situation at the time. For internal transfers the compensation rules usually do not apply. Like with Hastie to Rangers. (Individual Associations can adopt the International rules if they like, but Scotland don’t). So we did a deal with Rangers rather than go to a dodgy tribunal whose decision is final and a one off payment. Sometimes with no add on %. So you can get screwed. I understand we got £350k for Hastie plus decent add on had he moved on for big money. A Tribunal might not have been so generous. We will never know. Best recent example of a tribunal outcome is Lewis Ferguson to Aberdeen. Accies got £250k and a small add on %, the level of which was not disclosed. No appeal allowed despite Accies going public that they felt hard done to. Compare that to our Hastie deal. Aberdeen certainly scored when he moved to Italy. Accies may have still been due further training compensation if Ferguson had then left Italy before a certain age….. but I’m not 100% sure on that. It is debatable and not specifically covered in the rules I read. I think Motherwell have actually done pretty well over the years, often successfully negotiating with the new Club. Bailey Rice a recent example. Certainly for youngsters not fully established in our first team. We were unable to negotiate a better deal for MJ though as Graz were happy to go with the set compensation arrangements. No discussion. The ball was in their court as Max had decided to move on. No bad feeling from me on that one as he did what he thought best for himself. And he had only joined us age 12 and appeared in under 20 games for our first team. So very different from Miller. We also lost out initially on Cadden as the US were not in the International arrangement. And when they signed up under pressure from the ruling bodies, they were regarded as a lower tier country where lower amounts were due. History wise. After the Bosman ruling that players could just leave at Contract end with no compensation due (in line with other occupations) Clubs from several countries approached UEFA and FIFA asking them to set up a scheme that rewarded Clubs for developing youngsters. Until they came up with the current scheme Clubs were due nothing. That was seen as a barrier to youth development. So why bother developing kids? The present arrangement is something that helps. Covers cross border only though which is a flaw in the system imo. Like many countries, Scotland opted to go to a tribunal for internal transfers if Clubs do not agree a deal. At least that recognises the need for some reward for youth development I guess. But it is not perfect. That’s my take on things anyway. Others may know differently. Told you it was a nightmare.😀

Thanks for the clarification.

Dennyc is correct

You may be right so I absolutely will look at that - but that isn't what comes up when you do a search online.- it just says we were due the money because he came through the ranks at Motherwell and was under 23 I'll have a look tomorrow - thanks for that info. Appreciated

There is. But they have made the disparity between the haves and have-nots so great in other ways, they don't need to worry about cup draws.

My understanding is that, to qualify for compensation, a contract has got to have been offered by the 'losing' club. Otherwise that Club is seen to be just releasing a player at contract end. Like happens to so many younger players. Otherwise every player that is let go under a certain age would entitle clubs to compensation. Basically to qualify for compensation you have to demonstrate that you wanted to keep a player. For that reason a contract offer has to be made before a player's existing contract expires. If you like you can check it all out by doing a search along the lines of ' Training and Solidarity Compensation payments in football'. Two different schemes. Details age requirements, cross border requirements and contract basis amongst lots of other detail . Pages of it though so a glass of wine (white) might help! Happy reading.

I thought we got compensation for Johnson because of his age - not because he turned down a new contract. Because he was under 23 we were due a fee under training development A quick Google search will confirm that's why we got compensation for Max Nothing to do with him being offered a contract and turning it down

Even more corruption and fattening coffers than the 70s?

I think that’s it in a nutshell, Millers career path has been set for awhile now and it doesn’t include another season at FP. If there had been the possibility he might stay another season then his last contract extension would have included an option for a further year. The fact that it didn’t say to me that Motherwell were told one more year then he’s off.

For Motherwell to have received compensation .....£350k.....from Sturm Graz, Johnston had to have rejected an offer from Motherwell before his contract expired. Otherwise no compensation due. Thems the rules. So he had a choice and opted to turn down our offer. The only real question is whether Motherwell could have persuaded him to extend earlier, perhaps when he returned from Cove? But lets be honest. He did ok on loan at QOS and Cove but it was only when he featured regularly in our first team that his performances took off. By then any team in Europe with a decent scouting system would be keeping an eye on him given his media coverage in Scotland as a possible young player of the year.. And no doubt quietly sounding out his Agent/Dad. IMHO, the Club could have done little more and I believe he had already made his mind up to go overseas well before his contract expired. If I recall correctly nobody was surprised that he moved to Austria. Rumours were rife well before he left. As WeeYin says, how on earth do you make a any player sign a new contract if they don't want to? And if you convince them to sign by offering daft money/length of contract then you could be stuck with someone who fails to make the grade or regresses. We have been caught out that way before and possibly even now. It's certainly an issue that Clubs with a limited budget have to manage. Also, in comparison to Johnston, Miller spent much more of his early years at Motherwell. Johnstone (I think) only joined us at age 12 and had no previous links to us. So perhaps LM felt a greater loyalty to us, received different advice from his father and so found it easier to extend.

Yep of course Motherwell fans would have done , and they did in 2002 of course in our time of trouble I was meaning we did not have the same level of hatred towards everyone else at the time , when it was clear they did

Do your band play only their own songs - do they do Muse covers - asking for a friend

Why would you support a team out of defiance. Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of Rangers but if Motherwell had been in the same position pretty sure Motherwell fans would have kept supporting the team. Fans aren't to blame for the arse the club made of things