David

It's a no-lose for the club then really, isn't it? Unless he's absolutely adamant that he doesn't want to stay, of course.

That shirt on the right reminds me of the black & grey abomination we had a few years back. Think a few folk seemed to like it, but I fucking hated it.

No one is saying you can't discuss it if you want to, but take it to the General Football section, or even Compost Corner. Let's get back to discussing our best player.

I think most fans would agree, but those running the club need to deal with the financial reality of it all, and the sad truth is we can't afford to dismiss millions of pounds. Let's just hope he's still here for another season. I wouldn't mind seeing us get this season out of him and then sell for around the £2 million mark with add-ons to a club down south in the summer if need be.

It's not quite as simple as "just no'ing" I'm afraid. We can gamble on Turnbull doing really well this season and the offers being higher next summer, but we're also going to have to take into account the fact that his deal will be closer to running out by then, which is when traditionally clubs see offers for players start to drop in amount. And yet again, the market will play a part in the next window as well. If we stick a £4 million tag on him, knocking back offers of half that, we could be sitting there "no'ing" until his deal expires and he walks away for fuck all.

As I mentioned earlier, the market will determine what he's worth, not us. We can say that we're not accepting a penny less than £4 million all we like, but if no bugger is willing to pay that then he's not worth it. It's incredibly naive to think we can just say "well, Hibs and Dundee United got X amount, so that means we're going to get Y amount" as it doesn't work that way. The market will vary depending on the window. Are clubs looking for a player in his position? Are there a lot of other options out there who can play said position? Are the clubs who are interested in a financial position to pay the kind of money we want? It'll depend on a number of factors, but it's far more complicated than we think.

Indeed, the Scottish media seemed pretty high on Ariyibi. I'm sure Derek Ferguson was waxing lyrical about him on the radio a few weeks back.

He sounds perfectly fine as a winger, it's just the mentions I've seen on him as a striker that gave me cause for alarm.

If we're going for him let's hope he's more of a winger than a striker. He's not managed double figures since 2014/15 in English League One, and has a career total of 361 games and 61 goals.

We seriously need to stop comparing our game to the game down south. It's hardly even the same fucking sport in all honesty. The financial situation there is a different ballgame entirely from anything we're doing, so an English under 21 international going for £13 million has zero bearing on what we could get for Turnbull. Our game is as comparable to the English game as the Welsh Premier League, or the Danish Superliga, or the Norwegian Eliteserien is. Ie; not in the slightest. The harsh truth is that Turnbull is worth what the market dictates at any given time. This summer we may get a few bids of £2 million for example, while next season it could be more if he does well, or less if his form dips or he's injured. It doesn't matter what we "slap on him," it matters what clubs are willing to pay. If the best bid we get is less than we'd like then we're left with the option of negotiating a few bolt-ons such as sell-on clauses and suchlike, or we can refuse the offer, hope the player isn't pissed off that he's been denied a move, and then hope we get offered more the next time around.

That's a very good point, and it had occurred to me when watching Scott up top on his own that he may do better with someone like Johnson alongside him.

Lucky you. If you'd ever had to try and negotiate your way past the cunts while trying to get children who are with you to the toilet and for drinks etc then you'd maybe change your tune. Bottom line is this, they shouldn't be in beside the home fans at all. They're absolute cretins of the highest order.

Spoken like someone who has never had to put up with Celtic or Rangers fans pish in the O'Donnell stand.

Then he's a charlatan and deserves to be on the forums with the rest of us!

Let's look at the facts. Robinson took over from McGhee at the end of February 2017 with us sitting 10th in the league, 3 points above Accies in last place. We'd just been scudded 5-1 at home to Dundee, the latest in a run of 4 defeats on the bounce, which also included a 7-2 tanking off Aberdeen. We'd won two of our last thirteen league games. We eventually finished 9th, went out to Rangers in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup, and lost 5-0 to Celtic in the last 16 of the League Cup. In his first full season he brought in notable signings in Craig Tanner, Trevor Carson, Charles Dunne, Cedric Kipre, Liam Grimshaw, Curtis Main and Peter Hartley along with Tom Aldred on loan. We saw Allan Campbell really step up his game, and we saw Robinson hand debuts to Davie Turnbull, Liam Brown, Barry McGuire, and James Scott. Notable "duds" include Alex Fisher, Russell Griffiths, George Newell, Ellis Plummer, Deimantas Petravicius, and Stephen Hendrie on loan. We finished 7th in the league, lost 2-0 to Celtic in the Scottish Cup final, and lost by the same score to the same team in the League Cup final. That summer we sold Kipre for a reported £1 million, a player signed under Robinson on a free the previous summer. Notable signings include Mark Gillespie, Alex-Rodriguez Gorrin, as well as both Tom Aldred and Gboly Ariyibi on loan. We also saw the emergence of Jake Hastie, and Davie Turnbull really came into his own. "Duds" that year include Taylor-Sinclair, and Sammon and McCormack on loan. In his second season we finished 8th in the league, lost to Ross County in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup, and Hearts in the quarter final of the League Cup. Personally, I think he's accomplished all we really could be expecting of our manager. Pushing for top six, finishing 10th or above (which is what we budget for), his cup record is pretty decent, he's brought in one player who's netted us a million quid so far, and he's brought the youth into the side fairly consistently. Would it be nice to win a cup or finish in the top six? Aye. Should we judge a manager a failure if he doesn't accomplish either of those? I don't think that's realistic.

That's why we're posting about football on a forum and paying to get into games, while the likes of Levein and McInnes have played the game and are paid decent coin to manage top Scottish clubs. When Robinson continued to play Main during the business end of the season from January onwards in the position where he was the lone striker, despite the calls from us fans that he was pish, maybe the same logic applies to Robbo as well.

Aye.

I think what Burrows is hinting at is that it would take around £2 million to set the wheels in motion on a move at the moment.

I don't think there's anyone who "doesn't want Motherwell to win" this game, or any other game, but there's probably a few who don't see the result as being all that important. I'm now of the opinion that some fans had even when 7th was still possible, and think we should be looking to give the guys who've been here for a while and are leaving the chance to say goodbye, as well as giving the kids some more game time. Do I "want" us to win? Of course. Am I going to be bothered if we don't? Not really.

If he ever kicks on and makes a big enough impression to win a move from Thistle we're covered with a sell-on clause anyway. Apart from that there wasn't much else we could really do.

I see we've added a sell-on clause. Doubt it'll amount to much, but you never know I guess.

Why's that interesting? It's a game that literally means nothing. We can't finish any higher or lower.

I do actually, yeah. Especially when there's a deadline or a target that we've been working all year to hit. It's called being a professional.

So, last game of the season and a legitimate dead rubber, with us unable to catch St Johnstone in 7th, but Livingston unable to catch us in 8th. What team would you go for at the weekend? It's a choice between playing some more of the kids to give them a runout, or playing some of the more established players in what could be their farewell game for us, give them a chance to say goodbye and all that. I think the lineup will be quite telling. If we see the likes of Main and Hartley brought back into the fold there's a good chance they'll be on their way in the summer I'd think, One thing I would do is make some pretty substantial changes where possible to the shite we saw against St Johnstone. Another performance like that, dead rubber or not, is unacceptable. I don't think we'll see Hastie feature after the grief he got at the weekend, but I'd be happy enough to see some of the first team who are moving on be given a chance to say goodbye, sprinkled with some of the youngsters getting game time as well.

Seems you could be right, maybe the best idea would be to fuck the new season ticket off and just PATG, as that means I can fail to turn up if & when we're consigned to bottom six next season with a load of dead rubbers to play. Would be better off just sitting out in the garden with a beer, enjoying the nice weather. Fucking ridiculous state of affairs, especially with fans paying their hard-earned to travel to the game and pay those ticket prices.