David

I think everyone knows that we have to give all of the new signings a chance, but this idea that any criticism of them based on their career to this point should be off the table is getting tedious. How boring would the place be if everyone just responded to a new signing by saying "great, I trust the managers judgement, let's see how this new guy gets on." It's natural to see a new signing and immediately look at where he's been before and what he's accomplished. Is that a cast-iron indication of how he'll do for us? Absolutely not, but to completely dismiss it as not worth discussing is mental. Personally, I'm not impressed by this guys career to this point. It's a signing that has me scratching my head a bit, as I'm fairly sure there are players available in Scotland for similar money who have a better track record. In fact, even though playing with a lone striker isn't really playing to Danny Johnson's strengths I'd have more confidence in him than this new guy based on what they've both done in the past. Johnson can score goals for us if given the chance, he's done it before. Now, just to clarify, this isn't me not "giving the new guy a chance," it's me, as a fan, looking at what he's done until now and forming an opinion. That opinion will change as he gets chances to play for us, and obviously I hope he turns out to be a superstar.

Tierney was never priced at £3.5 million though, was he? My point is, he's clearly one of the better defenders in the British game yet Arsenal aren't prepared to just chuck around the money needed to get him. Neither is any other English club by the looks of it. Much like Turnbull, the asking price for Tierney is pretty well known.

I know it's not the way most football fans want to see it, but Cadden owes us fuck all. He was paid to do a job, and when the time came and we stopped paying him he was free to move on within the rules of the game. If any rules have been broken we will have a case, and if not then that's just how it goes.

Yeah, well, I still don't think that Andy Carroll is any real barometer that English clubs will just chuck silly money around because they can. As I said, if that was the case Kieran Tierney would be an Arsenal player by now, wouldn't he? Also as I said, there wasn't a lot of money being chucked around a month or two back when Turnbull was available for £3 million pre-knee issues. I did see more than a few folk say they expected interest from down south, where it seems they wipe their arses using ten pound notes. Not much was forthcoming though.

Yeah, but that was a calculated risk of sorts. Carroll was a Liverpool player and an England international who had been a proven commodity in the English Premier League. There's a difference. Let's be honest, despite our belief to the contrary there wasn't a queue of top English sides with £3 million ready to buy Turnbull before his knee issues were known, so what makes you think there'll be any real interest when he's a few months (if that) removed from coming back? The risk associated with buying a player from a minor league who's not proven at the top level is enough for most of the bigger clubs down south to take into account, but when you throw in the knee issues as well? I think it'll either be Celtic, or he'll need to take some time to kick on and prove he's back to his best before anyone outside Scotland really looks to invest top dollar. This belief that "It's England, they'll just chuck millions at us because that's what they spend on players down there" isn't quite true. If it was Kieran Tierney would be an Arsenal player by now.

Is that the same Andy Carroll that West Ham were shopping around to potential buyers last summer and in January for next to nothing yet couldn't get a buyer? The same guy who's been let go and hasn't got a club yet? I don't doubt that clubs down south are awash with money, but just because they're rich doesn't make them absolute mugs. They'll be doing their due diligence before making any signing.

Like it or not, sport is one of the primary avenues for both drinking and gambling. The comparison with smoking and F1 isn't really the same, as it's not like punters were dashing to the corner shop to buy a pack of Benson & Hedges before the racing came on the telly that day. We may not like it, but there are some things that humans should be allowed to do without the government banning them "for our own good." Again, as I said previously, personal responsibility comes into it at some point. No one is forcing anyone to see an advert for Paddy Power and go make a bet. I see ads all the time for shit that I don't do. And if I decide to launch my weekly earnings into a Betfair account and lose them it's my fault, not that of the bookies in question or wherever I may have saw an advert.

Sadly, the entities who would fit within the image we're trying to project either aren't interested in spending money sponsoring a football club like us, or they simply can't afford to match what we're being offered. It's all well & good decrying the evil bookies, but if we knocked back PaddyPower, for example, and took a lesser amount from a different sponsor would we be happy to see the club take less money because of it? Would we be saying "well, it's worth it to be morally in the right" if we couldn't sign a decent striker to score the goals to keep us up, or afford to offer the next Davie Turnbull a contract as he progresses from youth team to first team? I'm all for us being socially aware when we can, but this is still a business.

Even so, I don't think there's many in the EPL who's approach is "fuck it, we have plenty so just get the lad in regardless of his knee being an issue or not." These clubs are looking for value for money as well, and there's no point in spending even a few million quid on a kid who's just had a relatively serious knee operation. I think he'll be here until the summer.

I'd wager that any club who are interested in him will be waiting to see if he's the same player when he returns. I'm not sure January will be enough time for them to assess that.

My question is, where does personal responsibility come into it? I've known people who's lives have been affected badly through gambling as well, but I wouldn't blame the gambling companies. I know many more people who can gamble for a bit of fun and it never becomes an issue. This is a good deal, and unless part of the trade-off is having to sign up for Paddy Power in order to be allowed to buy a shirt I don't see the problem. We've all moaned for years about sponsors on the shirts wasting the look of them, and when we get a deal that allows us to wear or buy them sponsor-free we're still moaning.

I have no idea how that could be a "lose" in all honesty, you can just ignore them. There has to be some benefit to the companies who sponsor us. The way I hear people we want the money on offer, but to offer nothing in return. This current deal is fantastic.

While being sponsored by a betting company isn't ideal, I'm not so sure there's a line of morally superior companies ready to cut us a cheque for sponsorship opportunities. It's a terrific deal financially by the looks of it, and we get our kit with no sponsor this year. Win/win by the looks of it.

As much as the minutiae of social media doesn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things, he should probably know better than to get involved in those kinds of games. He's a Motherwell player, we're still paying his wages, and I assume we're footing the bill for him to see specialists and whatnot, so it's common courtesy to leave shit like that well alone for the time being. If and when he signs for Celtic he can like and retweet Celtic-related pish all day long if he chooses to, but someone should probably be having a quiet word with him. If he thinks that what he's doing goes unnoticed by fans of both clubs and the media then he's incredibly naive.

Ye ragin, Yodo?

That will no doubt please certain people on here.

They'll just wear the shirt from last season probably.

Yup, I agree. I know two guys who would have bought the away shirt to wear in Portugal on holiday, but who are now saying they'll pick it up at the end of this season when it's down in price to wear on their holidays next year.

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: