MelvinBragg

It seems that Robinson feels that Cole is a wide player. Also was Long not said to be able to play anywhere in the front three? I reckon Semple could also fill in at a push...

Actually thought Donnelly looked as good as Polworth tonight and felt that Polworth got caught in possession a few times in the first half. Also despite what you said, felt Donnelly won his fair share of headers...

Not sure why, but I have a slightly bad feeling about tonight. Hope I'm wrong but just a slight concern that we might come a cropper...

To be fair, only one of Gillespie or Carson can play, Tanner is injured, Kipre was sold and Rose moved back for family reasons. Aldred and Aribiyi were generally successful loan signings, so the fact that only Dunne, Carson or Gillespie and Donnelly might start tonight doesn't say that they've been his only successful signings so far. I wasn't a fan but you could even argue that Main has moved to a bigger club on leaving so doesn't suggest that he was a disastrous signing. With a few notable exceptions (mainly at left back) most of Robinson's signings have contributed something in their time here...

The guy Leighton played as a trialist in a game for Celtic this summer. Would certainly suggest he has options other than us. A case of wait and see but seems unlikely...

Suspect a few of the Levante and Nancy players went on to have decent careers. Not sure Hyypia played that game... EDIT I stand corrected, just checked...

Or like Fisher and Taylor-Sinclair, we find clubs to take them off our hands....

Agree with pretty much all of this. In the last few seasons, we've sold a guy we got as a trialist, a guy we got from Wrexham and a guy we got from Kidderminster for over £2m. That's before you consider Johnson's sell on. Add in the money Moult and Kipre helped make us by helping us get to cup finals, the money that Johnson helped us make (save?) by winning the playoffs, I think it helps pay for the 'mistakes'. And on that subject, the club does have a knack of remedying the situation quickly if it's not working out. You didn't see the likes of Alex Fisher, Taylor-Sinckair, Jacob Blyth, Lee Lucas or Wes Fletcher hanging around picking up a wage for too long ...

So shut down something that makes the club (a business, whether you like it or not) more money than it costs? While also providing players like Campbell, Turnbull, Maguire, Scott and Semple? You talk as if the academy has done nothing for us. The point I was trying to make is that the academy has allowed us to make the money to keep the club going, in this summer's case without weakening the first team greatly. But clearly that doesn't fit in with your agenda ...

While it's obviously frustrating to lose these young players before we even get a chance to see them play, there is another way to look at this. For a while, we as fans were bemoaning losing our best players for a pittance. Think of the fees we received for Mark Reynolds, Jamie Murphy and Paul Quinn. At that point, we were losing crucial first team players for fees that we're now receiving for guys who've never played a game for us (and I do know that you have to take inflation into account). This summer, looking at Hastie, McAlear and McKinstry, we're looking at bringing in north of £750k in transfer fees. That's for a guy who has played a dozen or so games for us and two youngsters with potential. Prior to this summer, to bring in that kind of cash we'd be looking at selling a crucial first team player like Moult, Kipre or Johnson. Money isn't everything, I know, but transfer revenue is crucial to our survival and development. The fact that we can bring in that kind of cash without significantly weakening our first eleven is a positive. Could we have got more down the line for McAlear or McKinstry? Possibly, but they could equally have gone down the road of Ross Maclean, Dom Thomas, Ross Forbes or Robbie Leitch. I imagine that we will see sell-ob benefits of McAlear and McKinstry deals further down the line should they develop well. If they don't though, we have done well to get fees on the basis of their potential...

I'm assuming, as with McKinstry, we'd be due a development fee..?

You could say the same for Barraclough, Brown and McGhee (second time around). Article makes it sound like we were a team that had only been in the Premier a couple of seasons and we had never been secure in it till he took over...

Forgot Polworth and there is the slim possibility that Tanner may return...

That's what I'd heard regarding the full backs as well. Could simply have been a bad day at the office for Tait or possibly a need to readjust having played on the left for most of the last two seasons...

3-0 away to a Championship side is a decent result, more so when you consider five of the starting eleven were making their debuts and two of the subs were as well. Clean sheet with half a new back four is no bad thing. Look at Hibs, Accies and Livi's results today and tell me ours wasn't a very good one...

Flipside to that is you could look at it as the club making money from players who clubs are willing to take a punt on. Over the last few years we've made money on Hall, Johnson, Heneghan, Moult, Kipré, Hastie, McKinstry and probably assorted other small fees (did we not get a fee for Bowman?). Our tactic of trawling non-league and trialist may have its' critics. But it's worked out not too badly for us financially...

For me, the hilarious part of the article is "helped establish them in the top flight". Stephen Robinson was 10 the last time we were not in the top flight. Think we're pretty well established in the top flight...

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...