David

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.

A lot of fans are overlooking the fact that last season was somewhat of an anomaly for Van Veen. The most goals he's scored in a season outwith last year was 24, and that was in the 4th tier of Dutch football almost ten years ago. Since then his best has been 16 & 15 in a season. He's clearly hit a purple patch of a season, and he has every right to want to ride the wave of that into a lucrative and probably unexpected contract. And let's be honest, when he scored 11 goals for us the season before last we'd have snapped up £500k with add-ons without a second thought.

That's an insane line of thinking, by the way. Sell a very good goalkeeper, who's one of the top three Scottish keepers around just now and hope that we can get someone else in who "isn't worse than Chapman." I notice you seem happy to keep Oxborough, despite him not having played a single game for us, and having played less than 50 games in his entire career at the age of 25.

I've updated the first post with the latest information. So, by my reckoning we're still looking to negotiate with the following: Max Johnston Dan Casey Dean Cornelius Sean Goss Mikael Mandron I think it's fair to say that both Johnston and Cornelius will be offski, so that leaves Goss, Mandron and Casey, correct?

He's great for a club of our level. He's saved us numerous points over the past few seasons, and has certainly won us more games than he's lost. Remember the debacle we had with keepers before he arrived? The whole Chapman/Archer nonsense gives me the fear to this very day. Nah, I'd rather we kept a keeper like Kelly than sell him and hope we can get someone at least as good.