David

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.

In my opinion, this is due, at least in part, to the rising prices and wages footballers are getting nowadays, especially down south. While we aren't directly connected with the English game, we're at a distinct disadvantage in that we're literally a few hours drive from England. Any decent player who is looking at us will also be looking down south. We've been fighting against the current of rising transfer fees and rising wages being paid to very ordinary players for years now. I didn't anticipate us being anywhere near the quality of side were were at the end of last season literally weeks before we became that side! How many fans saw our January signings and thought "perfect, now we can go on a terrific run of results"? We could just as easily bring in some players this summer in the final weeks leading up to the window closing and find that they gel together really well and we've signed a few players at the right time and play them in the right system and see us go on to crack into the top six early on. There's a ton of luck involved at our level, and it really does make the difference.

I'll say this, for a club that has supposedly brought in "for the most part, at least five years of terrible close season signings" we've done not too badly during that period. We've finished 7th, 5th, 8th, 3rd, and 8th again in that five year period. We've also reached Europe twice. But I guess those seasons accomplishments are mainly down to other teams being terrible and us "getting away with it" and being lucky, right? Absolutely nothing to do with the players we've brought in. The truth is, a club of our financial standing is very rarely going to be able to recruit players who can be considered a safe bet to succeed. We just aren't in that financial position. Most of our signings are going to be a risk. But, we've managed to unearth some real finds during that period as well.

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.

Bearing in mind he was "farmed out" to gain experience and not because he was rubbish, I'd say so, yeah. I think he's always been earmarked as one of the players who could make the breakthrough, and in this day and age any player who has anything about them would need to be an absolute mug to sign anything that ties them down to a deal they could easily improve upon a few years later. There's every chance if there was a sizeable fee involved he wouldn't be seeing the kind of interest and financial packages he's being offered at present.

Regarding Shields in particular, it all depends on the players we bring in being closer to Premiership level than he is. I'm thinking when the window "slams shut" we'll have signed more than a few unknown commodities who could either succeed or be dismal failures. It could end up being that Shields has more of a chance if the new players aren't quite up to scratch.

Maguire and Shields will be looking to prove to the manager that they're worth a place in his squad. And if they can't do that they'll end up going out on loan again this season.

100% on the money here.

Any new manager realistically needs about two-three years to do the job. The players who are on longer term deals when he arrives won't be easy to shift, and it'll take a 2 year cycle or so to flush that all out. What won't work is binning the manager every time we go through a tough patch and lose in the League Cup groups or something. If we're invested in Kettlewell's vision we need to be prepared to let him implement it over a few years and get in the players he wants over three or four windows.

Makes you ask if the money we're paying this specialist recruitment agency is actually worth it.

On LinkedIn being headhunted for jobs. I'm not saying that I agree with the OP, but I don't think a lack of Chief Executive candidates is the problem. They are out there. It's just that they're not interested in what we're offering.

First new signing in the door today. Just remember, even if we're not being "linked" to anyone by lazy journalists doesn't mean the management team isn't working away and getting things done quietly.

Here's a question. Has any of these players actually left us and gone on to do anything of note since? Casper Sloth is one that will always stick in my mind. He arrived here with 8 Denmark caps, and having played for Leeds, AaB and Silkeborg. Playing regularly for the latter two teams before arriving in Motherwell. Then he does absolutely nothing, leaves after seven months, signs for Notts County that summer and is there for two months, before signing for Helsingør where he sticks around for eight months, before finally washing up at Stjarnan where he leaves after 15 months and has been without a club since January last year. Number of competitive games played since he was at Motherwell? Seven in total.

It could be the case that Kettlewell will give O'Donnell a run in the side.

I like that a lot. If there's a sponsorless version I'll be buying it.

I'd like to think that we're chasing the quality of player who is good enough to have numerous options on the table, so I'd expect them to take their time in deciding where to go.

That's not how it works, this isn't a Football Manager video game. There will be players we're sounding out who are weighing up our offer alongside other options. We can't just sit back and wait on the top priority players to make their decisions or become available before we sign other squad players. Not all the dominos are going to fall into line as we'd like them to. It doesn't work that way.

Beaten to his signature. Damn.

Grimshaw has left Morton. Bring him home.

It's a different league. Which is the point I made originally. If he fancies a change of scene and it just so happens Harrogate are the club offering him a concrete deal that works financially then he has the option of either taking it, or staying here. And he's clearly stated he fancies a change of scene and a different challenge.

Strange, but true. He was one of our better players under Hammell in a losing team that was playing badly. But didn't feature in the team when we were winning under Kettlewell. I'll ignore the petty swipe at the end of your post.

Which basically means he was one of our better players when we were hurtling towards potential relegation, but deemed not good enough when we were on the up and looking like a potential top six side.

It's a new challenge. Football is a short career, and he may want to look back and say that he's tried his hand in different leagues, and outside his comfort zone. Nothing wrong with that.

At this time of the summer, speculation is all we have.