Kmcalpin

IF he moves on, I wish big John all the best - a decent guy. However he doesn't fit in with our preferred style of play and he'll be 32 in a few months time, so his best years will be behind him. In short I won't be overly concerned. Had Ian Baraclough really wanted to retain him, he would have re-signed.

Not a game on which to judge him. The lad is a right back who can play centre back and played left back as there was almost, but not quite, no-one else. In the games he played he looked nervous and wasn't great but over the piece didn't do too badly. Someone else on here wrote that Stuart McCall hung him out to dry and thats an accurate assessment. The time to judge him is when he's played a fair few games in his natural position. Over the years we've seen far more experienced players play poorly when asked to play outwith their comfort zone (Keith Lasley left wing; Steve Hammell midfield; John Sutton wide left midfield).

Agreed. We need at least 8 players. Possibly more if Sutton and Ainsworth leave.

In a way Ian yes. In order to get compensation a club has to offer a player a new contract and we did.

Even Dundee United are struggling just now - they are desperately trying to move on Cifti before his contract expires.

Actual costs incurred seem to be a major feature of the calculation including the number of trainees on a club's books. I also think years before the age of 16 are counted at a lesser rate. All very complicated. If someone can post up an accurate calculation then good luck to them!

Just checked out the guidance on calculation of development fees. In short its impossible for the layman to work out figures. We've seen figures of between £200 and £500k mentioned in the media. My hunch is at the lower end somewhere between £200k and £300k. We'll probably never know.

A lesson there for Lee Erwin. Alan Martin took a big gamble and it didn't work out. Next season we are going to have to sign a couple of mobile strikers in the Erwin/MacDonald moulds at the very least. Craig Moore has a big season ahead of him - maybe make or break. He's been unlucky with injuries but didn't impress at all at the back end of the season when given his chance. We certainly can't rely on him being first choice. IF he comes good he'll be a replacement for MacDonald / Ojamaa not Erwin.

Compensation/development fees are liable for VAT.

I think he'd be better to stay another 12 months to develop himself but its all about money, money, money.

I'm sure I heard it mentioned a few years ago at a club AGM. A seemingly huge transfer fee didn't seem quite so big once VAT and a player's cut were deducted. These are the kind of issues fans don't always appreciate when they question where all a club's income has gone. That said I hope we get at least £300,000 for Erwin. Its annoying to think that if he played with a club like Walsall or Tranmere he'd be worth double that.

Sadly any fee will be somewhat less. Even if the gross fee was £500k, £100k would be siphoned by the Treasury in the form of VAT.

I'll be surprised if Marvin Johnson is still with us by the end of 2015 - didn't think it would be long before the vultures began circling overhead. The key question is can we secure a decent fee for him.

When does pre season training start this year? If our first friendly is on 7 July the players must be starting back pretty early. Last season our first publicised friendly was 9 July against Fulham with the Stjarnan games coming in Mid July.

This. Our team of the mid seventies was the best side I've seen in all the time I've been going to Fir Park but I didn't like the sash strip. It should stay in the past. Stick to our traditional hoop.

Whilst that is undoubtedly true, there were quite a few players who hardly featured for one reason or another after the January sales, or even before. ZFA, Vigurs, Cummins, McHugh, Lawson, Reid, and Nathan Thomas. Their wages would amount to a few hundred thousand over the course of a season. We did have a bloated squad but in reality many were simply names on a wages sheet. Next season I'd expect a smaller but more settled squad with hopefully less passengers and injuries.

Presumably someone from the club reads these pages? Given that a few posters seem to have details or know someone who has details of the flarethrower(s), I hope these have been picked up or passed to the club. The SPFL is holding an investigation right now and the flarethrowing is an integral part of that. Its very likely the club will be punished for our fans' pitch invasion and I just hope it isn't punished for "our fans" flarethowing.

These artificial pitches are always sold publicly as being state of the art and marvellous but players and management constantly gripe about them. From what I've seen of the NDP pitch it just wasn't good and the ball was bouncing unpredictably. If it was all it was cracked up to be why replace it?

Hopefully we will minimise loan deals this summer. They do have some advantages but have many drawbacks. By their very nature they are short term; they don't tend to arrive until well after our season has kicked off - usually late August; players might not be 100% fit; and they miss our pre season preparations.

Kampmann's signings were entirely different - not so much hit as miss. In assessing Baraclough's signings we have to take in to account the nature of the January window, in which it is very difficult for clubs like ours to do business. Very few managers have a 100% signing record. If we look at Bara's record you could say that Pearson, MacDonald, and Johnson have been clear successes. Laing, Grant and and Long have been ok and Straker and Thomas were poor. Harri Kampmann's record was worse, far worse.

No surprises at the departures. Ian Baraclough says he wants to freshen up the squad and I wouldn't disagree with that. No doubt quite a few players coming in over the next 2/3 months. The decks have been cleared.

I'm a bit put out by the Rangers press release and Flow is disappointed it was released at all. I don't know where they get the "investigation into the behaviour of the Motherwell fans" from. Is that their take on the remit of any official investigation or is it official? In my view any investigation should cover the security arrangements and behaviour of all fans. To limit the remit would render the entire process flawed and unsafe.

Absolutely Al. Stuart McCall is a decent guy but he left us in a poor state. His squad rebuilding decisions over the past 2 years proved to be very poor. Off the field too, I suspect things were not as they could have been. Not expecting miracles next season but hopefully we can achieve at least one decent cup run and higher league placing - 7/8/9 place will do me. It promises to be an interesting summer on the transfer front with a good bit of rebuilding to do. Ian Baraclough will have the opportunity to rebuild at the right time and not having to firefight during the difficult January window. Targets were identified as far back as January so matters are already in hand. Will be renewing my season ticket shortly. The Play Off Final games seem to rekindled interest among many fans.

What did Flow say on Sportsound?

Having said that what contribution have Vigurs, Lawson, McHugh and Cummins made this year? They would account for a few thousand pounds surely.