Lobey_Dosser

Indeed. The WS brings in around £12k a month. What's to stop a proportion of that going towards the playing budget if it helps retain our 2 key assets. Having said that, I'd like to think we could offer McHugh and Moult a wage rise within the current budget.

Following on from the press conference on Friday, some quotes on the contract offers to Moult and McHugh. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/15385644.Stephen_Robinson_hopes_Louis_Moult_will_stay_at_Motherwell_after_offering_new_deal/ Doesn't sound like we are offering them a significant increase on their basic salary.

No but we aren't exactly looking at young prospects to provide competition and ultimately replace them. Hammell, McManus, Dunne, Dembele and McHugh as left sided options would be overkill when we only have Heneghan and Tait on the right.

That being the case, surely we don't need Dembele and Dunne?

Do we think we have many irons in the fire outwith the trialists and Coulthirst? The lineup today underlines the size of our squad. 21 players stripped, an absent Moult, Fisher, Bigi and Carson, Blyth and Watt out the picture, yet no room for the likes of Turnbull and Hastie.

That was a helluva strike from Tuton. Good to see Bowman score too. Wouldn't write him off just yet.

Is Dembele right or left sided?

How we shaping up? 4411/4231 with Tanner/Gordon playing behind the striker?

Hammell has needed replacing for some time but we've failed miserably with ZFA, Straker, Chalmers and Jules. I doubt Dunne, who by his own admission prefers to play centre half, will do any better. Here's hoping Adam Livingstone is capable of making the step up when the opportunity inevitably arises.

He can play centre half of left back, similar to Zac Jules. Supposedly lacks the technical ability to be a proper left back.

It's a struggle to find any positive comments about Dunne but Robinson has worked with him before and will consider him a suitable character to provide back up. I wonder if we are still in the market for two defenders. Subsequent to Robinson indicating we had a left sided defender all but signed, he has continued to talk about needing a right and left sided defender. Personally, I'd like to see us sign an out and out left back to compete with Hammell but it's looking unlikely.

It's all about 'character' in these interviews. Hopefully they have the quality to match. Still think we are 2/3 good signings away for me to be optimistic about the season ahead.

4 goals in 25 games before signing for Rangers in the January. Amazing what a wee bit of media hype can do. There was talk of him being on the brink of a Scotland call-up.

Sorry, I had it in my head that O'Halloran was scoring every week at one point. Obviously not.

Are we in the market for a direct McDonald replacement?I hope we are but all the chat has been about a pacey striker. I like Ciftci a lot but he clearly has his issues and with an agent like Van Hooijdonk, he'll probably be looking further afield. Regarding O'Halloran, if we have a Skippy type wage available, I imagine we'll do all we can to tempt a proven scorer.

From the snippets I've seen, this is the type of striker I'd like us to take a chance on. He'd certainly offer the pace Robinson is looking for. By all account though, he'll take some convincing to move north.

I'm sure McGhee implied early doors that Blyth had a mental barrier in getting over injuries. The sooner we can get him out the door the better.

That's all a tad harsh. Heneghan had a poor 2nd half to the season but he was on the radar of big clubs prior to joining Motherwell and I doubt the reported interest is being fabricated out of thin air. Cadden is far from complete but he's the best player we have produced since Murphy and has plenty of scope to kick on. He also worked his balls off while playing out of position to keep us in the league. Regarding value, we got around £450k for an out of contract Erwin. As has been mentioned, Boyce has a £500k release clause to clubs outwith Scotland. Throughout the Dempster era, offers were few and far between despite the quality of the squad. Now we are in a position where we have 3 assets that are attracting significant interest but we don't need to sell. Time to focus on the positives.

Nicky Devlin signs for Walsall. Wouldn't have minded him getting another shot a Motherwell but this should be a decent move for him. Done well to recover from his injuries at Motherwell.

Due to his age and contract length I think we are in too strong a position to consider anything below £500k. Unless of course, Cadden really wants to go and/or the money can be reinvested in retaining other assets. Anyway, Burrows has just killed the story of an improved offer.

Ah of course, Keatings. Signed for Dundee Utd.

Can't remember the fallen from grace chat but he's been mentioned on here since he attended the Dundee game. I suspect we did speak to him but were quickly priced out a move and that will remain the case unless we sell Moult swiftly. According to Robinsons latest quotes, we are looking for a striker but a pacey one. He's not the most likeable character in the world and his recent club stats aren't great but if a team from our level manages to recruit a player that has scored the international goals and played with quality of striker he has, it would be a real coup.

Am I right in thinking that even if Cadden ran down the next 2 years of his contract, we'd get a decent wedge in compensation? This is a big season for Cadden, hopefully he gets the chance to play further up the park (possibly more central) and starts scoring a good number of goals.

If true, bit of a cheek given their stance on Walker.

I'd agree with this. I wonder how hard the agents of Bowman and Blyth are working to find a new club. I suspect Bowman won't be content with a place on the bench. Regarding Moult and Heneghan, I hope we can sell them sooner rather than later so we have time to invest in quality replacements. Whilst it's largely outwith Motherwell's control, the last thing we need is a Marvin style saga coming to an inevitable close on deadline day. The inability to replace Marvin in August had a huge bearing on our season and ultimately contributed to McGhee losing his job.