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That's fair comment re signing the new contract and we would still be where we are now, but it still should have been offered, recognising potential in our Academy players and maximising the fees generated when they inevitably move on is something we have not been particularly good at over the years, except maybe Turnbull. It's something the club could improve on, but I get the impression that the current board are not as financially astute as they could be on matters like that.

In the winter I hope to keep good insulation in their house/flat they have good underlay underlay!!! Sorry

The date in this thread title also needs the flux capacitor treatment.

Why is that lucky? Isn't that down to good planning, coaching, and spotting of talent? They tell the only story we need to worry about though. Lucky for us, predictions of relegation from pundits or fans means absolutely hee haw when it comes to what actually happens. The fact is, over the course of those seasons we put more points on the board than the teams below us. That's all that matters. You don't know that though. When we signed Van Veen very few on here were excited by his goalscoring record. When we signed Watt no one really thought it would amount to much. The truth is, we'll do what every other team outside the top five city sides do every season and work with what we have, make some signings, and see what happens. Some of those signings will be utter gash, but I guarantee you, if we revisit this conversation in a season or two we'll be having the exact same discussion about how we will be unlikely to replace X,Y or Z who have come in post-Van Veen and done a good job for us.

It's also worth remembering that even if we had offered him a contract, there's no guarantee he would have signed it. It's not as if he suddenly became good. His dad and agent would have known his talent levels, and would likely know that once he got a chance to show how good he was, the offers would be there. Offers which may not have been there had a sizeable transfer fee been required.

I shared those concerns as well when it came to McGinley, but that is down to the manager. And if the club is going to appoint him, they need to trust his judgement on which players he would like to offer contracts to. What I would say in the clubs defence is that this is a squad game, and while we'd all love for every player on our first team books to be first-team, regular pick level, that simply cannot be the case. Guys like McGinley, Carroll, and even Shields and Maguire for that matter are squad players. We need to ask how many high quality players are going to be happy coming to Motherwell and playing back up? Not many. So if we find someone who is a good professional, not going to spit the dummy if they don't play, and who will happily come in when required we need to realise that they perhaps have a role to play at the club.

Good Sensible Post

SOD I was ok with but Mugabi and Maguire definitely. Have said before that big Bevis is an absolute diamond and the kinda guy you want to succeed but tbh just isn't good enough, last game of season v utd said it all

It looks like shields could be on the move to India.

"We've no got any money" has been our transfer strategy for many years. And every season we end up bringing in about a dozen or more new players in the summer and winter windows.

The turnover of absolutely shite players brought in from here, there and everywhere is something that goes much further back than Hammell. You are talking, for the most part, at least 5 years of terrible close season signings. Eventually it catches up with you with the squad being denuded of the remaining talent, season after season. We got away with it last season but something similar might be lurking in the near future. The talent disparity, lost and brought in (so far), is miles off and has to give you the fear. I'm not one of those guys that gets a knot in my knickers with a lot of time left in the transfer market.....but there has been a trend of decline probably going back the McGhee's last season, so I won't be banking on a raft of likes-for-likes, even.

Hopefully getting him in on loan ..

Trying too hard now mate.

Oh! I know what was worst

I don't know what's worse that joke or the fact that I actually burst out laughing at it 😂

Love all the armchair Director of Football types who are claiming they knew all along that Danzaki was a waste of space. It's a shame the club doesn't bring some of you in to sort out the transfer policy. In all seriousness, it's quite simply a case of one manager signing a player, and the next manager not liking the look of him. He was always going to take time to settle in, but he was deemed worth the wait by the management team at the time. When he signed it looked like a risk worth taking. Top goalscorer during his time at Brisbane Roar, and only played four times for us, so it's hard to say what he could have done. But, the new manager didn't like the look of him, and that's how it goes. He'll move on, and we'll move on. This kind of situation has happened to far bigger clubs than ours, and it's happened to far better players than Danzaki.

Probably in minority but I feel he never got a proper chance. Was coming to new country and culture so was going to need time to settle. But maybe he wanted to leave. I just hope it hasn't cost us money

It was clear he was going to be rubbish given the amount of hype the club were putting out there. Kettlewell clearly doesn't rate him at all. To offer some mitigation for Danzaki though, he arrived as the wheels were falling off the Hammell regime. Van Veen had downed tools. Players that were brought in to steady things were getting injured (Blaney, Mandron), experienced professionals were performing hilariously badly (O'Donnell, Slattery), Hammell was throwing any shit at the wall to see if it would stick (the 4222 with Spittal and Slattery as two 6s and Tierney and Danzaki as two 10s seemed extreme, just wear a T shirt saying 'SACK ME, I HAVEN'T A CLUE'). Danzaki may have been pish but it was hardly the ideal situation for a young guy trying to adapt to a new country to land in. Had he arrived to a semi functioning team, we could have made a better assessment. His Motherwell career was 126 minutes...

This is what depresses me about modern Football the club's have been very good at making the financial responsibility the responsibility of the fans. I didn't start supporting Motherwell to spend more time fretting about potential finances of transfer deals. I'm not getting at you our you message it just reflects how clubs have managed to make it the fans concern. I pay for for season ticket merchandise and other match day expenses. I like 1000s of other pay plenty. These really are not things that should animate us but they do.

Does the CEO sign players now? No wonder we're struggling to replace him.

That first video is of the team I best remember from my youth, Rennie, Wark, Davidson, Marinello, Graham & Pettigrew, with plenty of steel (no pun intended) around them to allow them to strut their stuff. Two things jumped out to me; 1: I think we paid 100,000 for Marinello, what would that equate to now? 2: How many players would each team finish a game with if Colum was refereeing in the 70s?