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Despite the fact he was going to join Celtic I am genuinely sorry that this has happened to young David Turnbull. It must have been hell for him and his family to suffer such a disappointment and to have it reported and dragged in the media the way it was. I hope the operation is successful and that he makes a full recovery even though we will eventually have to lose him. He's only 19 so will recover quickly and with time on his side he will get his big move. I'm also glad that Motherwell stood up to Celtic in this case and let them see they were not going to be bullied or coerced by them or their sycophantic media. I'm certain David Turnbull will have the full unequivocal support of the club and us the fans and I for one wish him the speediest recovery even though as I say, we will eventually have to lose him.

here you go, bit more believable now

Is this embarrasing or well thought out . I ll let u decide. Personally i think Burrows is doing a great job.

He’s our player. Bring him back so we can assess this “out of the blue” knee injury. I’m guessing our medical team are as surprised as we are. If he needs treatment, so be it. We can attend to that. If he is ok, then he is missing valuable pre season training and getting to know our new players. Or Celtic can stump up what was agreed. What’s the alternative? Agree some half arsed reduced terms deal with additional to be paid when he has played 50 and then 100 games? Cue sell on at 49 or 99 games with or possibly without a sell on fee. No thanks. Plenty of time left in this window. If Celtic really want him they will come back, now or when he proves his fitness. He is a commodity they want for future gain. And another good season for him and others will be interested. We are in the position of strength here. We should not roll over and give away our best asset in a rush of panic. Or are we that desperate for the cash? We have done our best for Turnbull in this window but maybe it’s not to be for him.... this time. We have clearly demonstrated we will let him go to advance his career, but it must be on our terms.

Sources close to ground crew say he made the flight.

Once again I am staggered by the negativity (I should not be. I have been reading this forum long enough). The reality is that we have smashed our record transfer fee out the park on a player that is only 19 years old. Why has this happened? Did we just happen to strike it lucky with Turnbull, a Motherwell fan and local lad. To a very small degree, yes because he undoubtedly has natural ability but Turnbull is a product of decisions made some years ago now by the Board and Alan Burrows to invest in youth development. He has been nurtured through a system that allows good young talent to fulfil their potential. This is something we should be congratulating the club on. My opinion is that we are ahead of most, if not all, clubs in Scotland in this regard. Stephen Craigan must take a lot of credit too. This is something we should be celebrating, not criticising. Regarding the player himself, the money involved in his move to Celtic will be life changing. He is 19 years old with huge decisions to make about his future. Let's cut him some slack and just enjoy watching him develop, knowing that he is a Motherwell produced Motherwell fan, who has come good. The hypocrites on here who would no doubt sell their Grannies for a lot less, get the chance to take the theoretical moral high ground because they have not been successful enough to be making these decisions for themselves. I think you have to have walked in Turnbull's shoes before you can start spouting forth about his decision making. Like all Motherwell fans, I will be walking out of Firpark gutted if he is scoring for fun against us next season, but that's football. Let's enjoy the benefits that the transfer money will bring, be appreciative of Motherwell's forward thinking as we enjoy watching the young players break into the first team and take some pride in watching David Turnbulls career take off if he genuinely does have the potential we all think he has.

Sounds like "the amateurs" running our club refused to be steamrollered by Celtic after all. (If you hear a chewing sound in the distance, it's the sound of 100 humble pies being devoured).

If he’s as good as he is carrying an “ injury “ how fucking good will he be when fully fit. GET THE PRICE UP!!!!!

Offence is often taken and rarely given. It doesn't mean you are either correct or have access to certain rights, it's just a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected. "oh I'm offended by that" ...... So fucking what! Stephen Fry

Not sure why anything that was said means he’s finished. He seems to be making progress, and the club says he’s close to full training, which only puts him a couple of weeks behind the rest fitness wise. Whether he gets his form and confidence back, and whether it affects his ability to play at the top level once fully fit, no one on here can possibly know at this point. So to say he’s done strikes me as being negative for no reason. Im proud to support a club that takes this kind of approach, taking care of a player who was injured on our watch. It is the right thing to do.

Heard he's been spotted lifting the European cup in 1967. Edit, found the pic in question

I see Turnbull isn't in the squad, injury?

We are not actually offering to pay him. Just loan him the money to see if he’s still any good.

If you take your C&A tinted specs off for a second you'll see that they're well within their rights to try and take the price down a bit. He's out for six months potentially, no way would/should they pay full price after that. I would expect Motherwell to do the exact same thing in their shoes. There's been a lot of rage at Celtic from our fans over the past couple of weeks, the 'magnificent offer' and John Kennedy pish completely justified. Trying to reduce the price a bit isn't.

And if we had all found out about the accepted bid from the papers first, and not the club, everybody would have been pissing their pants about lack of communication.

Very much this^ Felt like the first time in decades we had a a squad worth developing, at a club who were equally in best financial postion in many decades, yes we had debt, but on very favourable terms, that most trading businesses would love to have access to. but the squad has been totally decimated, even the next phase of kids has been broken up we've not always been a selling club, the only success in most of our lifetimes came from allowing a manager to build a squad season to season for success, then Bosman reset that and it felt like last season was the first opportunity since that the club had worked to a position to build on, it will not hapen very often as the model includes offering players opportunity to relaunch career, so can only build core from within but it seems every single influencer in the club and society are chasing the income over the team capability, I'm sure they do it in good faith and with good will, but I just wish they hadn't been desperate to sell on the kids

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.

You mean to tell me I pay a tenner a month and don't own a football club?!

Clueless.

If he signs that he will unlock level 99 motherwll god status.

I love this 'usual suspects' chat. It always makes me think of the ant hill mob lurking away is some dark corner of the steelmen online site waiting to attack us with negative vibes. Last night they were being blamed for a negative reaction to the Crusaders friendly (when actually nobody was saying very much) and today for not giving the club due credit (when actually the comments have been very positive). I bet they will be along in a minute though to spread their vile. Darn those usual suspects!!!

I think this may be one time when everyone on here is in agreement and I hope the board realize the position of the fans. We cannot and should not even entertain any reduced price or change in terms. We need to step up and tell them to complete this deal now or else there is no deal. Not now and not any time in the future.

I'm not a doctor, but I'd rather an injured player started training when he was medically fit again after 18 months than make him do full training while he was still injured. (I have no idea if he will make a recovery, but pretty sure he won't make a recovery if we make him train too soon).

Very much a rusty first pre season game I'd say. Johnson had an excellent shot saved in the first half but not much else to report on...those worth a mention: From the first half team - Gallagher looked decent, Semple very busy and got a lot of ball looking to create, Sloth looks like he could be very tidy once up to speed and took all the dead balls, Maguire decent in the defensive mid role Carson Grimshaw - Gallagher - Hartley - Livi Campbell- Maguire Long - Sloth - Semple Johnson From the second half team - Scott looked great on the ball up top but didnt do much to trouble the goal, Polworth did a lot of running, collecting and distributing and looked good I thought, Cornelius got a good bit of ball too and looked to try and create, Donnelly decent again in the middle like Maguire was. Carson Tait - Devine - Dunne - Carrol Donnelly McAlear Cornelius Hylton Polworth Scott

I sincerely hope so. I'd love nothing better than us coming out of this looking like the professionals while they look like chumps.