weeyin

From The Herald: Udinese are pursuing a £4.5million deal to take Motherwell midfielder Lennon Miller to Serie A. The Italian side had an offer of £2.5million turned down for the Scotland international in January. Herald Sports understands the two clubs have held fresh discussions with Motherwell in line for a club record sale exceeding the £3.25million secured from Celtic for David Turnbull. And, despite links with Bologna, Torino and Fiorentina, Udinese, 12th place finishers in Serie A last season, hope to conclude an agreement this week.

I think people are worrying about nothing. Based on absolutely nothing at all, other than media reports that more than one team is at or close to our valuation, my hunch is he'll be sold for more than Turnbull and we'll get some nice future payments with add-ons.

There was a great article this week about how Porto managed to pull off an old-school transfer and keep it secret from everyone: The striker was the last to board the plane he took from the Netherlands to Porto last Sunday and timed his arrival on matchday to avoid crossing paths with anyone. Upon landing, he was the first off the plane and ushered into a van with tinted windows that drove him to the stadium. His entourage – anonymous to fans – collected his luggage. In the van the club’s social media team were secretly gathering footage. “It’s quite strange,” De Jong told them. “In these times, with so much social media, to keep something like this a secret … It’s going to be a big surprise. Let’s hope we can keep it quiet until the presentation.” The real challenge was yet to come: the medical. To avoid raising suspicion, Porto had registered De Jong in the clinic’s system as a handball player. The doctors and nurses had no idea they were assessing a high-profile football transfer. It was with shock and disbelief that the 49,000 fans in attendance greeted De Jong, who scored 18 goals and provided 13 assists for PSV last season before his contract expired. The stadium announcer had been calling the players out one by one and before introducing the captain, the last to be summoned, he teased a surprise signing, listing his previous clubs. Then came the reveal: “And now, our new No 26, Luuk de Jong” – the cue for the 6ft 2in centre-forward to walk on to the pitch. Club journalists broadcasting the presentation had to look up his name to check his stats, caught out like everyone else. The plan was a success. Full story here. Having read it, you can see why it never happens now.

That's the problem with the media's need to publish new stories, often multiple times, daily - it gets boring very quickly. Also one of the many issues with transfer windows. Much better when we heard someone was leaving, and the only other thing we heard was the deal was complete.

I'd much rather have a tall central defender that can pass a ball. Gogic would have been a great player for us in SK's system, but not sure he is what we need now.

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou revealed it was a late call not to risk playing Lennon Miller in his side’s goalless William Hill Premiership draw away to St Mirren. The teenager is yet to play a competitive match this season amid ongoing speculation over his future, with a number of clubs at home and abroad credited with an interest in signing him. Askou had said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday that Miller would likely feature in Paisley after overcoming a minor injury, but the 18-year-old was again omitted from the matchday squad. The manager explained: “Yes, it was a final call with everything taken into consideration. “It’s not a secret that there are things going on in the background. We know he’s been out for four weeks. “How much risk are you willing to take on a player like him in that situation? The decision was that we kept him out of it.” That's club speak for "we're not playing him, because he's about to be sold"

I'm not sure we are waiting on the Miller money. We released/punted plenty of players whose wages should be available now. Mair, Balcombe, Seddon, Casey, Blaney, Kaleta, Thompson, Davor, Paton, Callachan, Andrews, Ebiye, Watt, Plange, Dickson, Armstrong, Vale and Tavares have all gone (and maybe some I have missed). So by my calculation we have punted 18 and brought in 6 (plus Sule on loan). That should leave us a few pennies for new players.

Cup games away from home to Championship teams are never easy, but we should have the quality to win this one. After a blistering start in their opening league game, they struggled to break the deadlock in their game against Ross County on Friday. We'll need to find our shooting boots, though.

Miller was never going to be featured in any of our competitive games and if anyone thinks he's not playing due to an injury, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn looking for a buyer. He's out of team because a deal (or deals) is/are being negotiated and it suits all parties to keep him wrapped in cotton wool. I'd be amazed to see him in claret and amber again, unless it's a testimonial match (or if he signs for Roma).

If we get in a striker or two, this could be a cracker.

Dougie Donnelly might be getting on a bit, but he showed again tonight how much better a professional broadcaster is compared to ex-footballers just playing at it.

Keepers seem to have special rules, so wouldn't be surprised if we could recall Connelly if needed in an emergency.

We have Sparrow and Halliday, in the short term at least, but I know what you mean. To get us to the next window, I'd lean towards 2 strikers and one defender unless Ross shows he is good enough.

So if we were to sign 3 new players, would you go for two strikers and one defender, two defenders and one striker or some other combination? Bonus question. If you knew Sule would return in October, would you choose differently?

Davidson is certainly in the mix for me. Davidson, Graham, Marinello and Pettigrew were all standouts from my early memories of the team.

Watt mentioned in his "official" interview last week that every club he has been with since he was at Wolves has tried to play this style, so he feels very comfortable with it. It certainly looks that way.

Could have been off the park for persistent fouling and his ankle breaker on Maswanhise, but somehow gets away with it.

After all the stick I have given the defence over the past couple of seasons I was tempted to give one of them the MOTM for a clean sheet, but difficult to look past Fadinger.

So far JBA seems to know what he's doing, so I'm confident the lack of cutting edge will be addressed.

Positives- clean sheet away from home, and 67% possession Negatives - we need more central striking options. Also positive - unbeaten start to the league after 2 tough fixtures.

So it turns out one way to "earn the right to play football" is to practice playing football during the preseason, practice it a bit more the week before a game, then use that practice immediately after kick-off to play football from the start of the game. Now take your pick...

Gogić getting away with an ankle breaker there. Not even a foul given.,

I have no doubt JBA will bring in a couple more strikers before the window closes. On the plus side, the early season has shown how well we can cope without Miller.

Also, kudos to the person who chose the half-time photo on the Twitter feed.

The "best midfield outside of Celtic" working hard to maintain their 30% possession in the first half. Still needing a striker or two though.