David

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.

There's been a few sources claiming it as being true, and it's the same thing I alluded to the other day. There's a reason why his medical is dragging on, and why he's being sent to see different doctors and so on I'd imagine. This isn't a case of people making things up with no foundation, there's a reason why this is taking so long.

Isn't he out of contract? Or am I mixing him up with someone else?

One of the problems at the moment for most fans is perception. For all intents and purposes it's easy to forget that he's still a contracted Motherwell player, what with the photos of him in a Celtic shirt with Lennon, him being reported as bouncing around specialists all over the UK with Celtic doctors and so on. Meanwhile our focus is on pre-season, with him having for all intents and purposes been sold. You have to feel for the lad. Regardless of how much he wants a move, or how much money he could potentially be getting, there must have been a few times when he's been sitting outside some doctors office somewhere checking his phone and seeing the videos and photos from Belfast thinking "Fuck sake man, I wish I was just out there having a laugh with my pals and getting some time in on the pitch."

I would still prefer he stayed with us for another year, personally.

Would we? If Celtic started playing funny buggers with the fee that they agreed previously, you think Turnbull would throw a strop if we don't accept it? You don't think he'd knuckle down and see what else comes up this window, or in January? That last sentence is also calling into question his professionalism. I've seen nothing to suggest he'd act in that way.

I thought Celtic made a big song and dance about not being able to offer any guarantees over game time?

If this situation had followed the same sort of timeline and protocol that the vast majority of other transfers do then I'd agree with your first point, but it hasn't. There's still every chance that he ends up a Celtic player, but there's definitely something not quite right at the moment. Virtually everything points towards that being the case. Not that it's something disruptive enough to cause the deal to collapse, but to say there's nothing to see here seems a tad naive.