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Given the way Kettlewell preferred to play, you do have to question the wisdom of signing a player in that mould. Obviously not going to be an issue in a Jens team, but he will still require to put the hard yards in pressing opponents.

In the Scottish game, "lazy" often means "prefers to make a pass than chase down a hopeful punt"

He did. He looks to have some ability and had early pedigree. But from the very little seen (and reading between the lines) he seems to be your stereotypical technically gifted but lazy type (Ciftci). Thats not to say Jens might not be able to get a tune out of him but it would take a change in mindset and application

Not these days. They tap up the player first to stir up some unrest and then go to the club and say "see, he wants to move - you'd better let him"

From BBC website: Rangers explore move for league rival's in-form forward, with German interest in a Celtic midfielder... Rangers are keen on Motherwell winger Tawanda Maswanhise and have initiated preliminary discussions by sounding out the 24-year-old Zimbabwe international's agent. (TeamTalk) Do they not need to have 'preliminary talks' with his club first ???

Exactly, with being able to do that save the money or spend it elsewhere.

Your last paragraph is exactly my point. I see it as an opportunity for MFC to make some money and have a quality player in the squad till we sell him. I think that would come down to Welsh willing to take a drop in wages for short time. of Course, remains to be seen if a suitable loan deal will be offered which is probably a more likely outcome if we want to see him play for us the rest of this season.

I think he might of actually in the early league cup group stages last season either way he's barley featured so it's hard to form an opinion on by all accounts seemed to do well on his loan at Morton last season so must have some ability.

Did Stuperevic not play (and score) for us in a cup game? I seem to recall a 20 yarder against Clyde at NDP.

I agree with Wilson needing moved on he tries his best but he's probably not premiership level with the other 2 I don't think Stuparevic has played a game for Motherwell so it's hard to know what his level actually is and Robinson I think by all accounts isn't due back till March so he'll be here the rest of the season at a minimum.

A good assessment but for me wilson needs moved on hes not not up to the standard required, irrespective of how many minutes he gets at Raith, so we need LB cover. As for the strikers Robinson and Stuparavic wont play for us again, they will be moved on as soon as they are fit. The other 2, Stamatelopoulos and Hendry are hopeless and show no signs of being anything else so they need moved on as well, maybe in the summer though as i cant see another striker coming in during this window.

2 keepers is always fine to me Connolly looked decent enough against County and worst comes to worse we bring a keeper in on a short term deal to see us through the season.

We probably do need to trim the squad some, but we need 3 keepers. We're only a year removed from a goalie crisis, and you jist need to look at killie for an example of the downside of not having decent backup keepers.

If you look at our squad we have something like 25 senior players + 2 out on loan as much as we want new signings I can only really see 1/2 more coming in. GK - Ward/Oxborough/Connolly - probably need to shift Oxborough RB - SOD/JK/Sparrow - Fine all utility players who can cover other pos CB - McGinn/Mcghee/Gordon - Need 1 more in that area and we will be paying a portion of Balmer's wage. LB - Longelo - Need 1 more in that area as cover/competition and let Wilson get minutes at Raith CM - Watt/Preistman/Fadinger/Slattery/Halliday - Probably enough depth might need 1 if Halliday goes. RW - Maswanhise/Just/Nicholson - Enough options with all 3 able to play other pos need 1 if Maswanhise goes. LW - Said/RCC - Fine ST - Bjorgolfsson/Stama/Hendry/Robinson/Stuperavic - Probably need to shift 1 or 2 If you take injured players out of that and the loans we have 20 available

They also have to consider the alternative. Imagine Jake Hastie had stayed with us and taken on board the coaching turning him into a better player and was now a regular starter for Cardiff City on 7 grand a week, I get that it's a tough decision, and never criticise any player that chooses the money option. No idea what I would have done in the alternate universe where I was a player in that situation.

Football doesn't work like that, say he takes a wage cut, highly unlikely, gets a serious injury with us, career ruined. What then for him? Players cannot play fast and loose with a short career. Imagine Jake Hastie had stayed with us and became the pish he is. He wouldn't have had a 3 year contract on 5 grand a week to soften the blow. As it is he should be comfortably off even though his career came to fuck all. Players have to live for the moment.

I wouldn't pay 400k for a cup tied Welsh. I rather look elsewhere. I'm sure there are central defenders who can pass a ball that we can pick up cheaper than that. As for Watt and JT, no need to sell in January and no indication they want to leave. If a Scottish club is interested, then the price goes up at least 50% - call it a tariff.

If Welsh had any sense he would take the wage cut come to us and for a couple of years then get his move and earn x amount of money in the championship down south. He will only benefit himself coming to us and the way we play earn 5 grand a week then now and earn 8 times that in a year or so. However we have to have a set of balls and pay the fee to get the player my big fear is we sell all these players yer Watts,Tjs and Just and don't reinvest in the squad.Bums are back on the seats and will only stay on the seats if we keep up momentum it won't cut it now going back to Dom Thompson and Tony Watt of this world. We are on the cusp of something very very special and really proper club changing forever.

The way he's playing if it continues regular starts with us he could be thinking a wee chance for Scotland squad. That could be a factor. No even a sniff of Scotland if he stays at Cmeltic

Happy to pay Celtic the £400k if they use that to pay up his contract and he can move to us as a free agent. Basically means he can play for free for 18 months. We would obviously offer him some sort of deal which is additional money he wouldnt have had should he stay at Celtic, maybe with the proviso that we dont stand in his way if a bigger club comes in for him. We shouldnt be wasting any more of the Miller money than that though. The boy is a good fit for us. But we still need be smart about our player trading. It needs to generate revenue, not the other way about.

When is your next gig there mate?

Captain 7?

I would hope there would be a way we could sign Welsh. When Liam Kelly signed from QPR he must have taken a huge drop in wages. Maybe the option is we give Welsh a big signing on fee and maybe guarantee say 5% of any transfer fee we might sell him on for. With the money we got for Miller which I know isn't all up front I would hope we were a bit more flexible in negotiating deals. As for Watt and TJ absolutely no pressure to sell as plenty time ledt in contract, in particular TJ.

I suspect any Welsh transfer to us is a no goer. The stumbling block of course is likely to be his wages. I accept that not all players are purely and solely money driven, but thats unlikely. Its likely he's on something like £10,000 a week and even if he was to drop that by 50% it would represent a huge drop. My other concern is that we hold onto Watt and especially TJ this window as their loss would impact on us both results wise and financially. Summer is a different matter. Hopefully, the club would be involved in any discussions with other clubs before deals were signed. As their contracts are with us, it would be nice to have even a nominal amount of say in the matter. Is that a lot to ask?