capt_oats

http://spfl.co.uk/europe/ As a result of that ranking, Scottish entrants to UEFAs competitions for 2016/17 will be as follows: Ladbrokes Premiership Champions Champions League qualifying round 2 (Champions pathway) Scottish Cup winners* Europa League qualifying round 2 Ladbrokes Premiership runners-up Europa League qualifying round 1 Ladbrokes Premiership third place Europa League qualifying round 1 * If the Scottish Cup is also won by the Premiership champions then the Scottish Cup berth will go to the Premiership runners-up and the fourth-placed club in the Premiership will also qualify for the Europa League.

That'd be the same Gavin Gunning who basically quit United in the middle of a game? Cool.

I thought Watt was fine this afternoon. In fairness he's been playing centre half more often than not recently and looked pretty comfortable. Agree re: Campbell, Leitch and particularly Turnbull.

There's yer top 6 fixtures published: Sat 23rd April v Hearts (H) Sat 30th April v Aberdeen (A) Sat 7th May v St J'stone (H) Wed 11th May v R.County (A) Sun 15th May v Celtic (A)

I understand that McGhee said ages ago that he'd look at integrating some of the younger players when we were safe however I'd argue he's already been doing that. As I mentioned half our bench on Saturday was 20 or under plus Cadden starting. I'd imagine he'll continue fielding the sort of team he has up until now, with some of the younger guys getting longer on the park than that have been ie: Dom Thomas getting half an hour rather than 5-10mins and Jack Leitch getting a start in place of Gomis and so on and so forth. It wouldn't surprise me to see the likes of MacLean, Campbell or even Turnbull make an appearance on the bench but equally I don't see the starting XI changing much.

Well Mackin won't as he's currently an Airdrie player. He started for them on Saturday

I get that the bench is somewhat dictated by positions that may need covered but it was notable that 4 of the 7 subs at the weekend were 20 or under with Chalmers 22.

We were the same against United at FP too. I've not seen Laing play at RB as yet, granted it's a small sample of games, but out of curiosity was it the same with him in there?

Ripley seems a fairly confident guy, if Boro do go up then I'd imagine he'd want to be around their place next season and try to push for a place on their bench/starting spot in their cup team. His season here has benefitted all parties and he's improved markedly and that's a credit to both himself and in particular, Jim Hollman. However being up here for a season gets him experience, any longer than that then if I were him I'd be a bit worried about being out of sight, out of mind (for want of a better phrase). I suppose it depends on a number of factors: - who else is available? - what he wants? - what we want? - what Boro want? (not necessarily in that order). I can imagine from our point of view that it'd probably be preferable to the club to have our own (permanent) goalkeeper, however as weeyin points out it's such a specialised position & a good goalkeeper can make a huge difference to the side then it's probably worth making an exception or being flexible with your options in a way you possibly wouldn't with a full back or midfielder.

Apologies if this has already been linked to elsewhere on the forum (or in this thread) but it seemed relevant. Breakdown of prize money etc: http://stv.tv/sport/football/1331865-spfl-sides-to-share-record-21m-prize-money-payout-in-201516-season/

Signed a new 3 year deal with Boro last summer IIRC.

Never in doubt.

Dow was rumoured to be signing for St Johnstone but was supposedly holding off to see whether United stayed up as that was apparently his preferred option.

I know he's been linked with a ton of teams (St Johnstone, Thistle amongst others) but given how light we are in midfield and our somewhat over reliance on Pearson then I wonder if we've looked at Blair Alston at Falkirk who's out of contract and 24. You'd have thought depending on where we finish that we'd be as good an option as either Saints or Thistle. Suppose it depends on whether Falkirk get promoted or not.

Jake Taylor's at Exeter. Was on the bench against Plymouth on Saturday.

I think it's one of those things where (for me) it only really becomes an issue if we are undervaluing players or seemingly shoving them out the door to the first bidder. We've got some good players here so in a way it's a nice change to hear them being genuinely talked up with a focus on their positive attributes and what they bring to/offer a team. For the most part everyone knows the score; we want to establish ourselves as a club who can bring through our own players and also develop the players we bring in and make them better with a view to moving them on in a way that will benefit both parties. There's a fine line between selling the club in a broader sense through rightly pointing out the successful development of the individual players and coming across as desperate. For me if we're playing well and players are evidently in form then there's no harm in reinforcing that (within reason). It's notable to me that McGhee has been talking up the structure of the club and the coaching staff a lot. He's basically advertising the club in no uncertain terms to players etc saying "we will make you better and here's how we'll do it because here's the evidence and here's how we are doing it." Put it this way it's more refreshing to me to hear us talk up our players in a positive way than listen to the whole "we're punching above our weight" chat.

Sky Sports 3

Those two away kits are fleein'. Have a feeling the one with the central C&A would be ruined a bit by a sponsors logo across it though. Either way though as mock ups they both look tremendous.

Good stuff from Bryan Jackson here: http://m.heraldscotland.com/sport/14394655.Administrator_Bryan_Jackson_backs_fan_ownership_model_as_a_sustainable_future_for_Motherwell/?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

McDonald has a +1 option on his deal so I suppose it depends on what's required for that option to be taken up ie: is it just a matter of the club saying "yes, please" or not. Edit; "Despite several lucrative offers from various clubs around the globe, the 26-times capped Aussie International has chose to a return to North Lanarkshire and has penned a one-year deal with the option of a second." http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/07/21/scott-mcdonald-signs-on-again/

Moore's contract is up in the summer. "Moore's contract with Motherwell is up at the end of this season and manager Mark McGhee felt it would benefit him to be playing first team football every week." http://www.ayrunitedfc.co.uk/moore-signs-for-season/ Edit: From the looks of things he's Ayr's top scorer for the season which isn't bad going considering he missed a few games for them with injury. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-league-one/top-scorers

His Alfreton Town player profile has/had him listed as a right back: http://www.alfretontownfc.com/content/law,-josh-116.htm

Ha! Nah I didn't take it as a direct reply. Just on reading back my posts I didn't want to come across as "we should/shouldn't be selling...".

Just for clarity I'm not suggesting that we are, or should be, looking to punt Ainsworth or that he's been frozen out or anything like that. What I'm putting forward is more that in light of all the discussion of us potentially looking to cash in on players (Moult, Johnson, even Cadden, Hall etc) and the fact that the club is on record as looking to be more effective in terms of bringing in fees then it wouldn't be surprising if a player who's under contract, (presumably) at the higher end of the wage scale but has found himself on the bench or isn't an obvious fit for the first team would be one of the players we'd be looking at moving on before we considered selling on guys who are currently first choice picks.

Despite his inconsistency I'd have thought we'd still be in a position where we'd consider Ainsworth an asset. Unlike the players whose contracts we mutually terminated in January he's still been at the very least around the match day squad, if not a first pick. So I'd be surprised if we'd just cut him loose, I just don't think we'd be that hard to deal with if a deal was on the table that suited all parties. Given teams have paid fees for his services before I'd have thought his agents would have been able knock together a highlights package that could convince a League 1 club down south to pay at least a nominal fee. Despite him not having started much of late his stats in the time he's been here still show up pretty well. As far as Law goes I thought it was interesting that whenever McGhee was talking up Laing's performances at right back the other week the qualities he was highlighting in Laing were all attributes you don't get with Law: height, pace, strength etc. I like Law but my view on him has always been quite consistent. As a right back he's a good squad player to have around and know you'll get a certain level of performance from. The sort of player to cover for injuries or maybe have a short run in the team now and again rather than someone you look at and say "that's a first choice full back". For me he looks like a player who's been converted to the RB role and it shows in the defensive side of his game.