David

Those youngsters just need to accept the fact that they're probably nowhere near the player that Turnbull is. It's not as if Celtic are akin to Chelsea here, they've given youngsters a chance if they think they're good enough. McGregor and Forrest are two examples of that.

Regardless of where he goes, it looks like we're getting the much-touted £3 million, and then some add-ons apparently. That's going to change the game for us as a club, and that's something that's more important than one player.

Unless, of course, we agreed a fee in principle with the player when he signed his new deal? I wouldn't be surprised if the situation is that any club who bid a pre-agreed amount are then given permission to speak to the player.

If he'd stayed with us the best he could probably have hoped for was a League One side eventually, so it'll all work out in the end I guess.

Probably because we have agreed with the player on a fee where we'd allow him to talk to other clubs? Maybe Celtic are the first to reach that fee?

I think there's more to it than just wanting to punt our best youngsters. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised when he signed that new deal with us. I assumed he'd have waited until the end of the season and seen what offers he had. I've seen in mentioned that there may have been a "gentleman's agreement" of sorts regarding what size of bid would trigger us allowing him to go. We can't knock back that kind of dough, plus the lad may very well fancy moving on and trying his luck on a bigger stage.

He'll be 24 years old by the time his contract expires with Rangers, and he'll likely have no trouble finding a lower Premier or upper Championship club in Scotland afterwards. He'll also have pocketed a decent wedge in the process.

I'd wager that the players you mention are very much on the clubs radar. Until they're linked with the likes of Sunderland and Hearts, of course, at which point the chances of him coming here are pretty slim.

Are we happy to press reset every season? Unfortunately, if a players contract is up with us there's very little we can do to force them to stay, is there? Unless you're suggesting we offer these unknown quantities a two or three year deal rather than the usual one year offering?

I'm not quite sure why the media keep beating the "Turnbull to Celtic" angle outside of it being good clickbait for the masses. Anyone who's even had a slight gander at how Celtic are operating at the moment knows they're not going to spend serious dough this summer, especially not on a player who's position they're looking fairly well-stocked for at the moment. Any sensible reactions I've seen from their fanbase has run along the lines of "if he was available for a million to a million and a half then try to get him, if not we move on and try to buy for positions that we badly need to fill."

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.