MelvinBragg

As others have said, with so many new faces it's hard to say with any certainty our first choice eleven. Only two names that I'd say are 100% starters are Tait and Campbell. Pretty confident that Dunne will start due to his pace. I suspect that Sloth will not take the Gorrin role and we're more likely to see Donnelly or Maguire take the 'number 6' role in midfield. Which of them may depend on who adapts to the role quicker. Which would leave it between Sloth and Polworth for the third midfield spot. To me, this is where Robinson will succeed or fail. Obviously we're hoping that a striker will contribute more goals than Main did last season but a lot of the burden for assists and goals may fall to the third 'attacking' midfielder. No one should be expecting Sloth or Polworth to match Turnbull's numbers but they'll have to contribute and for me it's Robinson's most crucial decision. Up front? Cole has some degree of a scoring record but Long has got a couple in pre-season so is the jersey his to lose? I haven't seen any of the three wingers play so wouldn't like to comment. Ilic played more first team football so may be more ready? Seedorf would be my guess for the guy to miss out. Maybe more a work in progress? At least we have some options now. Whether any of them are any good, time will tell...

February 8th is my guess if we're running a sweep. But I'm naturally pessimistic...

I'm going to wait until this is confirmed by Motherwell and hope we've learned from the Mike Grella debacle. The team Sepsi can't be that good. They have Csaba Laszlo in charge...

I had seen this but also appears to have only signed for a Romanian side in the last couple of weeks...

I think people also forget that he was quote an important part of McGhee's team first time around...

Where did you see this information?

Caught sight of the Daily Record at work the other day. The front page was taken up entirely by two Old Firm stories...

I'd say it means something what he does for NI U21s. Still a young player, if he has tools to play defensive midfield, should he not play there because he was bought as a defender? By that logic, Carl McHugh should never have played centre half for us, Grimshaw shouldn't be considered for right back and Tom Hateley should have spent his entire Motherwell career in midfield.. Not saying he's the answer, but to dismiss him because he was bought as a defender is ridiculous...

You mean thinking about playing him in a position where he has excelled for Northern Ireland U21s?

Club stating that the length of time he'll be out for will only be known once he's had the operation. Didn't know Scott Mullen now did horoscopes for the paper as well now.. Figures I've heard in 3 to 6 months. 6 months would be Christmas so I guess being back before that would mean he would be at the lower end of rehab time. Which would be lucky for him. You see, there's your story there: guy out for 3-6 months, if he's back before the 6 months, it'll be good luck for him. In other news, water found to be wet...

The game last night showed how thin the squad is. It's good that Cornelius, Devine and McAlear got game time, but are they ready to be part of the first team squad? Concern would be that the club were banking on some of the Turnbull money for signing on fees and it may hold up or derail plans. At least 3 or 4 players short to my mind...

Positives are he doesn't go to Celtic this summer. Will they come back in? Depends on whether they are able to get any of the other targets they were apparently going to move on to. If anything, his injury should at least mean we don't see the spectacle of Scott Brown going for his 'dodgy' knee at Fir Park second game of the season... Negatives? How long will he he out for? Will he be the same player? It's early to have this conversation but it's a serious question. Even with a successful outcome, does this issue affect other teams' willingness to take a punt on him next summer. £3m is a lot for Motherwell to miss out on. Don't expect the usual suspects on here to give the club the credit they deserve for standing their ground but you can't have everything...

Identified how?

It looks like we're bending over by simply negotiating, that would be some people's opinion. And the newspapers are reporting that the two clubs are negotiating. I'm coming round to the idea that we simply say "£3m plus or fuck off? Simple choice...

Couple of thoughts. Turnbull has played pretty much every game since October so I can only assume it's not an injury but something that looks like it could become a problem. Any player can get injured at any time though so we shouldn't be entertaining a discount on that basis. I find myself wondering if the Norwich deal fell through on this basis rather than him choosing Celtic. However if we keep him, do we then send him for any treatment/operation required and then see no benefit as we sell him in January? My fear is that this drags on through the summer and affects our preparation for the new season....

Personally I'm starting to look forward to the meltdown on here when the number 9 jersey is handed to an unproven trialist...

Pearson second time round was worth it if only for the playoffs...

What's your 3 in midfield in this scenario? Just curious as I reckon we're quite light in there...

Tell him Allan Campbell...

I agree that 4 more signings would be a minimum I'd expect. We've lost our 9 or 10 first team players this summer. Look particularly thin in midfield and attack...

Hope it's just a turn of phrase, note Steven Robinson on SSN saying we hoped to add "a couple more" signings Really hope we're looking for more than two more players. ..

We have made it perfectly clear that he's for sale. If there was serious interest from down South, they should have made a bid. You say that we gave in to the first larger bid. You make it sound like we took a bid of £800k. We received and accepted a bid of £3m for a player that has made 30 first team appearances. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me...

Aye, probably means it's true. He'll need to hit the ground running as I don't imagine he'll be universally popular with fans there given the carry on of the last week...

I don't realistically see the sale of Turnbull changing our budget. And it shouldn't...

I know we're still looking to add players, particularly in the forward areas but having looked again at the squad numbers, what struck me is how thin we are in midfield. Unless Polworth is earmarked to replace Turnbull, or Donnelly and Grimshaw are seen as viable defensive midfield options, we have only two centre midfielders in Sloth and Campbell. Or are we expecting Semple or Cornelius to step up. A big ask... Starting to get a bit concerned about the upcoming season. I know there's over a month til the league season starts but even games against Morton and Queen of the South could be tricky without a working midfield...