capt_oats

If you can be arsed sitting through it here's a full 21 minute video of the bold Alejandro...

Agree with this. If there are players who don't fit the system (for whatever reason) or Robinson feels we need to improve on what they offered last season then I'd like to think we'll be making an attempt to move them on. I'm all for having depth but simply piling midfielder on top of midfielder is a bit of a waste of budget.

Signed for Blackpool last week btw.

He is, aye. FWIW: here's the full quote from Robinson about the midfielder. As I said on here and P&B that, for me, reads like a pretty specific type of player. It sounds like a deep lying or central mid rather than an advanced #10 type and the 'stature' comment unsurprisingly sounds like Robinson's talking about a physical attribute rather than profile in the game (though there's no reason why it couldn't be both I suppose). It's a pretty crude way to view it but it sounds like a player who we're hoping gives us the physical side of McHugh's game with the technical side of Bigi's. It's of course open to interpretation but that's my view on it anyway. One thing that I would say is that it reads like a player who's being brought in with a view to going into the first team rather than that 13-18 group Robinson references earlier in the interview. As has been said earlier we've got plenty of midfielders with a specific skill-set so I'd have thought (hoped) if we're bringing another in then it's someone who offers something different to what we already have and is also an improvement on what we already have. As for why it's not done, it could be something as simple as the player still being on holiday and not in the country to do the photocall. As others have said, there's every chance the deal is done in principle.

^^^^ This.

Pretty much. By all accounts he just downed tools and spent most of his time cutting about with the Pogbas and trying to punt his fashion line. Most Thistle fans were happy to see him chased. Also, he doesn’t really fit the ‘adds creativity’ side of the profile Robinson is talking up.

Funny you say that as on reflection the player Robinson seems to be describing sounds like McHugh’s role in the side. Just picking a name who’s supposedly available it sounds more like an ICT era Greg Tansey-type than an Ali Crawford.

In fairness I don’t think you could listen to many of the qualities Robinson is describing and draw Ali Crawford as a conclusion in terms of the player he’s talking about. Aside from the “stature” comment he talks about the player being able to get about the park, offers a bit of composure and creativity and give us a bit of ownership of the ball. I’m paraphrasing there but IIRC that was the gist. For me, that’s not an attacking midfielder or #10 like Crawford he’s talking about. That’s a central midfielder, a more deep lying or box to box type.

Johnson's 25 and will be out of contract so presumably there wouldn't be a fee to pay. I'm not sure if that has an impact on the excitement scale.

Unpopular opinion: white shorts don't go with a claret & amber shirt.

You'll find his role here: http://www.basesoccer.com/people/

And I'm not saying that he'll come to us only that there aren't going to be many (if any) teams at any level who are going to be willing to pay a remotely substantial fee for a player whose only first team football amounted to (literally) a solitary minute in 6 months and whose Rangers career amounts to less than 2000 mins of football in roughly 2.5 years nor will there be much incentive for a buying club to match a reported 6k p/w salary. To all intents and purposes O'Halloran's the Rangers version of Ciftci. As thisGRAEME says Rangers can want a fee all they like but good luck finding someone willing to pay it.

Pretty much. From the outside looking in they're in a position whether they can either just let him bleed them for the next 2 years or they cut their losses and work out a deal/package with him if there are clubs interested (assuming he's amenable to it). It's unlikely that any club could afford to match his wage is going to want him and those clubs who would show an interest are only going to be able to offer a fraction. If they're not happy with loaning him out and genuinely want a clean slate with him off the books then something's got to give one way or another. A nominal fee with a decent sell on % could be their best hope of recouping something long term but even then you'd think they'll have to cough up on his wages in the short term. With 2 years still to run on his deal I'd have thought it'd be a pretty hard sell to get him to settle. The news release on the official site confirms that in the 2nd paragraph.

£50k for a player with zero discernible footballing ability whose only redeeming attribute is that he runs about a lot? Not for me.

SIGN HIM UP

The YouTube clip of the Liverpool v Carlisle game with the Gillespie penalty shoot out saves from Lallana and Coutinho is below.

At the risk of seeming like I'm creeping on Flow's twitter, he mentioned a while back that it's 18s and reserves. To all intents and purposes it seems the 'reserves' is just the 20s under a different name. A re-brand of the dev league. I think the only obligation is that they play a minimum of 3 'overage' players.

Pretty much. Craigan highlighted that he would need to get bodies in over the summer in his post-match interview after the Hibs game. He specifically said he was looking to strengthen in the defensive area. The Buckie Thistle tweet is here btw: And this is the bold Sam in action doing his thing...

Goodwin's already patched them. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11797/11389255/alloas-jim-goodwin-rejects-chance-to-speak-to-st-mirren-over-managers-job

If you look at the original Instagram post it's made clear in the caption they're "concept" designs. So it'd seem they're just mock-ups rather than anything official.

Personally I'd say it's more likely to be that it's an incredibly slow news day and threads like this make for easy copy to file. Edit to add: Robinson's been in the press talking about the repayments and how it affects his budget as well. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/16237985.Cup_cash_won_t_change_Stephen_Robinson_s_fortunes_at_Motherwell/

Not to white knight Ciftci here but the version we had this season probably needs a bit of context. He's clearly not a gym bro in the same way that many of our squad are and it's fair comment to say that he's erm, not blessed with natural fitness but it's worth mentioning that Rodgers left him out of Celtic's pre-season training camp last summer, he didn't sign for Plymouth until 21st August so missed their pre-season as well given their league season started 5th August. By all accounts Adams signed him for Plymouth and had no idea what to do with him. He picked up an injury playing for Plymouth's u20s in mid-October and his spell with them amounted to 8 appearances and 537 mins of first team football in 6 months. When he signed for us he had 19 minutes of football since mid-September. His two loan spells previous to Plymouth amounted to: 373 mins (Pogoń Szczecin) and 883 mins at Eskişehirspor where he had 4 goals in 12 appearances. His time and lack of opportunities as a Celtic player is pretty well documented. So the upshot of that is you're talking about a player who hasn't had regular first team football since he left United in July 2015. So, that's a player who arrived at Fir Park with no pre-season to speak of save kicking about with Celtic's u20s last summer and has had no regular first team football for going on 3 years. It's probably fair to say that his fitness would have been a pretty low base when he arrived (and probably still is as a result). The St Johnstone game earlier in the month was his first start for us since the end of February (so going on 2 months). The "fat Turkish waiter" shouts were still with him at United but I don't think anyone on here would deny that he was a very effective player for them. Similarly it's surely no coincidence that his best form tied in with him playing regularly and being a valued member of the squad/team. Which is presumably what Robinson is offering him if it's true that we're in for him. My take is that he's clearly a naturally talented (if not a naturally fit) footballer who needs to be playing regularly to get the best out of him. While we've got plenty players who will graft and put in a shift we don't have many gifted players around the squad and such are our resources the pool of players with natural ability who will be accessible and want to come to Fir Park is going to pretty limited and there are undoubtedly going to be caveats there. Long story short, I'm well up for us signing him.

There's a lot of that website is absolute nonsense especially the valuations and they've been known to get the contract expiries wrong but in this case it's correct. Here's the Record story that announced the deal: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-complete-signing-michael-ohalloran-7288058

He has 2 years left on his deal at Rangers. https://www.transfermarkt.com/michael-ohalloran/profil/spieler/125158