David

I'd be pretty shocked if this was true. Pleasantly shocked, mind you.

Still another three weeks until the league campaign kicks off so plenty of time. I have no doubt the service will continue as before.

Hey, I'm just sharing what I've been told by someone who's watched these guys play for their team. Nothing more. I'll judge them when they play for us.

Just been speaking to a Bradford fan, who says both Seedorf and Cole were at his club previously. He also said both were fucking terrible. Cole described as being really quick but with absolutely no end product.

The fact we've offered him a two year deal suggests that he's held in a higher regard than many gambles who get a one year offering. I'm sure there'll be some pleased faces among those who bemoan us offering short-term deals.

With the benefit of hindsight it would probably have made more sense for Turnbull to take the Norwich deal under the proviso that he be loaned back to Motherwell for a season or even two. He'd have been making more money, but still been close to family and friends with the opportunity to play regularly for at least another season. That was obviously before the medical stuff came to the fore, of course.

I guess it comes down to the old "is the glass half full or half empty" approach. Personally, I see it as a sign that our game as a whole is improving and attracting players from down south, who see a move to Scotland as a way to further their careers if they're good enough. Yeah, but you're idea of "used to be" is 30 odd years ago. Aside from the fact that it's still 11 players on a team with a ball being kicked about it's hardly even the same sport nowadays. Back when those players you mentioned were making the move down south the footballing world was a lot smaller. Foreign players from such exotic locales as South America and Eastern Europe were the exception rather than the norm. Clubs have access to a wider talent pool today, so it makes sense that English clubs would choose to look further afield than Scotland and other home countries. Our clubs are doing the same. I don't necessarily believe it's a case of our talent levels dwindling as it is more choice being available from across the globe. Scouting and tracking of foreign players today is totally different from 30 years ago. What other European nations though? The only European nation of similar size to us that I can think of that's really done well producing players is Croatia. The likes of Ireland, Norway, Finland, Slovakia etc are all pretty similar to us when it comes to developing players. The landscape in football has changed drastically over the past 30 years. As I mentioned, it's hardly even the same sport in many ways. Again, you're talking almost 40 years ago when you mention the early 80's. Totally different footballing world, and also a totally different world as far as general society goes. As someone who was a kid back then you had a few options when you weren't at school. Either stay in the house and do fuck all, or go out and play football. Today though? There's internet access, there's Netflix, there's mobile phones, there's Xbox and Playstation. In all honesty, if me and my pals had the option as kids to either go out to a rain-soaked patch of grass with a ball and play football in the cold or stay at home, hook up the Playstation and stick on the headphones and play football online against each other online (as well as against other kids from across the globe) I don't think I'd have played as much football outside either. There will always be kids who play football, but there's more options now. That's just a fact. There's a danger of becoming the very people we used to mock as kids, the types who'd watch a football game in 1990 and say "Pffft, this shite isn't a patch on the stuff from the 50's. I remember when players had proper haircuts and goalkeepers didn't wear gloves." Another thing to consider is that international football is totally different now as well. There's far more fans out there (myself included, in all honesty) who see international football as nothing more than something that gets in the way of club football. As the game becomes more global and fans identify more with club football the international scene becomes less important. You're not blaming them, but you're claiming that unless they head down south they don't have ambition or confidence:

And what issues are those? You're looking at this as purely a footballing issue, which is a mistake, as football is only a part of such a move. The truth is, a lot of players, for various reasons, are happy enough to sacrifice being paid an exorbitant amount of money in favour of being paid very fucking well to play football in their home country. Money isn't everything to many players. Also, often times it's not just the choice of the player. I know for a fact if I walked into my living room this evening and told my other half that she better start packing her stuff because we're moving to Yorkshire, Norfolk or Sunderland she'd laugh in my face and tell me to sort myself out. Her parents are nearby, her friends, her life. Even moreso if we were already living the kind of comfortable life that any player who sees interest from down south is living in Scotland. Some players have children in school, who have their friends and their family around them. Would I, in theory, be able to tell my parents that I'm taking their grandkids down south because making a couple of grand per week in Scotland isn't good enough when I could be making tens of thousands living and plying my trade in some town or city in England? I honestly don't know the answer to that. The simple fact is, every player is different, and those who turn down the riches and competition of down south to remain in their home country are no less ambitious or competitive than players who choose to move elsewhere. Wait, surely if we have Scottish players knocking back more money to play down south and staying up here, and English players coming up to play here it actually shows how well regarded our game is in comparison to the lower leagues down south, no? If our game was in "overall poor health" then wouldn't we have players leaving in droves?

McGinn was a couple of months away from his 24th birthday when he signed for Villa. Bit of a difference moving away from family and friends at 24 years old rather than 19 years old. It's easy for us to say as adults that the smartest move is to England where there's more money and a higher level of competition, but I'm not sure if we'd be willing to do the same at that age given the choice (although I'm sure there'll be a few on here who'll tell me that they moved from Glasgow to London to find work as a chimney sweep at 14 or something). I fully expect Turnbull at 24 years old to be thinking differently about his career than he is at 19. There's really no rush to go down south, he could have signed for Celtic, seen out the entirely of the deal they offered him and still be the same age McGinn was when he left Hibs.

Unfortunately, I think the media scrutiny, in this country anyway, will continue until he either signs for Celtic or moves down south. A slight positive I guess is that in most reports our club is an afterthought. He's "David Turnbull, who's dream move to Celtic sensationally fell through" rather than "David Turnbull, Motherwell player."

As mental as it sounds in this day & age of seeing how quickly a player can be punted, I'd love to see him sign the new deal, play with us for a season or two, then leave with a year on his contract for around £2 million to £3 million.

I'd be hoping that the club had their budget and plans drawn up long before Turnbull's move to Celtic was proposed. And if they changed those plans based on a windfall that was nowhere near being guaranteed then that's been a massive own goal. I'm pretty certain it isn't the case though.

Yeah, in all honesty there isn't really a club in existence that would say "the player failed a medical and needs surgery? No problemo, we'll still pay full whack!" They were only looking out for their own best interests, which is quite right. And we were looking out for ours and those of our player. I have no doubt they'll be back in January or next summer.

It's taken them a while, but they've managed to say something that doesn't make them look like utter cunts.

I was under the impression that the average Doncaster player was on a grand and a half a week?

Yeah, I'd be very surprised if that's true.

I sincerely hope so. I'd love nothing better than us coming out of this looking like the professionals while they look like chumps.

Well, how the fuck was I supposed to know you're dodging all over Wishaw tracking down answers? There's a lot of people posting what they think is happening, and what they think should happen, but doing so in a manner that makes it look as though it's fact.

It's not often I say it, but I wish we were more like Aberdeen. Of late they've taken zero shite from the Mould Firm, having knocked Celtic's £3.5 million bid for McKenna out the park before it even had a chance to gather steam last season. Both Celtic and Rangers know that if you go chapping their door you better smarten the fuck up and not play funny buggers. Let's hope we do the same if they try to fuck us about regarding the fee for Turnbull, as the way our club deal with this situation will set something of a benchmark for how other clubs will view dealing with us for our top young talent in future.

Is this based on what you've heard? Or what you think will happen?

That's more a damning indictment of the standard of journalism we see today than anything else. If they're picking up their information from Twitter accounts and internet forums they deserve to be misled and embarrassed.

Internet forums are always going to be full of speculation and rumour, it's the name of the game. I wouldn't worry about what we're saying on here, we're just a bunch of fans passing the time while we wait on transfers to happen. It'll all be revealed in due course I guess.

Worryingly, there didn't seem to be that many of them willing to pay this money before the issue even arose. I think we may have overestimated the size of the queue when it comes to clubs willing to chuck £3 million at us.

I'd hope that wasn't the case, and that we had our transfer plans drawn up long before we had any idea we'd be getting £3 million for Turnbull.