MelvinBragg

This should probably be in the Ins and Outs thread but I wouldn't dismiss it. 22 years old, runs all day, 6 goals in 21 starts most of them at wing back. Someone may show an interest...

Aye, he showed a bit of human decency, offered some leadership. I suspect many other Motherwell managers would have been equally capable of handling what was a horrible situation...

Both are past 30. Both pretty experienced. Both previously right backs who probably don't have the legs for the modern attacking full back role. Both probably more suited to playing in a back three. Do we really need what is effectively two players filling the same role? Had I a choice of the two, I'd probably have renewed McGinn. But given O'Donnell renewed automatically, I'd have chosen to sacrifice McGinn in order to free up a salary for a younger defender with a bit more legs/energy/power.. But, hey, as it is they are both under contract now. I don't know how much value for money we'll get out of that fact, but not much we can do about it now..

Agreed. As soon as O'Donnell's renewal clause kicked in, McGinn should have been shown the door...

Someone said to me that they hoped he can find a defender the same shape as himself...

The thought of working for Steven Pressley not exciting them..?

I'd agree that lack of positional sense and concentration has been more of a problem recently than lack of physicality...

Don't know much about Sylla, I must confess, and I'm aware of the Ebbe Skovdahl line about statistics but we've already signed a defender from a Dundee team that conceded 77 goals last season (highest in the division). Not sure signing a 31 year old defensive midfielder from that same team is guaranteed to help our defensive solidity...

Who was the last manager appointed anywhere than came in promising slow,, passive football. They all say they want aggressive front foot footbsll. Many fail to deliver anything resembling it...

That's kind of my point. Many on here rightly point out that our squad was huge last season full of players not contributing. To sign another defender before moving someone else on risks the same situation...

I think O'Donnell and McGinn were right backs at one point in their career. But whether a manager plays a three or a four, your full/wing backs are asked to do a lot of attacking as well as defending. Are McGinn and O'Donnell really that capable of that these days? I think we have a glut of defenders, some of whom used to be full backs and a probably better suited to centre back, some centre backs of varying quality and one left back who may be only seen as good enough for backup. Problem is all of these players are under contract (renewing both O'Donnell and McGinn is borderline insanity) so to sign too manyvmore defenders again leads to a large squad with people not contributing as we had last season. Can we move a couple of them on? Time will tell...

O'Donnell and McGinn no longer have the energy to play as modern full backs. Whether they have the tools to play centre half is an entirely separate question...

Those wishing us to sign another central defender when we have five players on the books who can play there (actually six as probably Koutroumbis could do a turn there). Whether you rate O'Donnell, McGinn, Balmer and McGhee there (or Gordon for that matter), unless you can shift one of them off the books bringing another one in risks the kind of large unwieldy squad we had last season...

I suspect that work is ongoing on new players. I half think the manager has been identified but we're waiting on a work permit...

What strikes me about this thread is that the club almost do too good a job of keeping it under wraps and going leftfield for a thread like this. It's got to the point where we all know there's no point speculating or suggesting who it could be because no one has a clue.. So we're left with Fleetwood Mac jokes and discussions about Steve Clarke....

This...

Some role at Newcastle scouting was the last I heard of Jack Ross...

I know we have previous for leftfield appointments but appointing a guy that hasn't managed for over ten years would be beyond bold...

Aye, obviously if we're finishing third then we've won loads of games and this is no bad thing. But in terms of just a straight choice between Europe and a trophy, a trophy please... Naturally, I would settle for either...

I feel differently these days. Most of us have seen Motherwell in Europe. The number of us to have seen us win a trophy is getting smaller all the time. If you offered me third place next season or a league cup win, it's the claret and amber ribbons every time. But that's maybe just me...

At least it sounds like the club wouldn't have been totally surprised by it with chat "of support offered during time at the club". The club should have sensed this was a possibility and been preparing for it. Better now than when he assembled a squad...

Gather Mark Ferrie has been released...

Pretty sure he actually was in our academy setup at one point. Remember seeing the name at that time...

Maswanhise and McGhee (assuming the deal still goes through even with the change of manager)...

By my maths, it's 20 without those three but I'm including Dylan Wells and Luca Ross in that. To have a squad of 20 and still feel short in so many positions (full back, midfield, up front) is a concern. Too many defenders that probably won't be first picks (Balmer, Koutroumbis, one of O'Donnell or McGinn), and too many players in other areas that we almost don't count as options because they have contributed so little for various reasons (Nicholson, Stuperavic are the obvious ones). Basically my thoughts are that while 20 isn't a huge squad, it feels unbalanced and it still to me feels that there are too many players who may not contribute a lot over the season...