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January Transfer Window


Kmcalpin
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I can kind of understand why McGhee hasn't brought on ainsworth late in games at times, but like others have said, he can definitely contribute something, be it as an impact player off the bench, or playing the 1st hour of a game.

 

His stats back up the fact he can be one of our most valuable players if we can use him effectively.

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What is hurting us is that he came in and immediately tried to force out Ainsworth and Laing to free up their wages and we are still paying them more than a year later.

 

That's massive amounts of money down the drain because McGhee likes to play favourites. We need to get the best out our budget and there is no way Ainsworth couldn't have contributed more and I don't think there is much difference between Laing and Heneghan.

 

So a manager comes in, and makes it clear to a couple of players they are not part of his plans. So it's his fault no other clubs have taken them off our hands? How does that work? Both Ainsworth and Laing have made contributions to games we've won during McGhee's time.

 

A manager playing the players he believes are best for the job, whether you agree or not, is not an unusual practice. I'm no huge fan of Heneghan as yet, but It's been a long time since a manager, other than Ian Baraclough, has rated Louis Laing worthy of a long-term place at centre-half.

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I liked Laing at right back, would maybe have stuck with him for a while longer rather than Law. Tait's nailed down that starting spot now though and we have McMillan as a a back up as well so it's pretty clear Laing is surplus to requirements.

 

Shame,I still think he has the potential to be a decent player but time is running out for him to realise it.

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So a manager comes in, and makes it clear to a couple of players they are not part of his plans. So it's his fault no other clubs have taken them off our hands? How does that work? Both Ainsworth and Laing have made contributions to games we've won during McGhee's time.

 

A manager playing the players he believes are best for the job, whether you agree or not, is not an unusual practice. I'm no huge fan of Heneghan as yet, but It's been a long time since a manager, other than Ian Baraclough, has rated Louis Laing worthy of a long-term place at centre-half.

 

Even Baraclough had benched Laing in his final days after his roasting in the East Fife game. IIRC he only started 1 game between then and McGhee taking over and playing him as a DM vs Celtic.

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So a manager comes in, and makes it clear to a couple of players they are not part of his plans. So it's his fault no other clubs have taken them off our hands? How does that work? Both Ainsworth and Laing have made contributions to games we've won during McGhee's time.

 

A manager playing the players he believes are best for the job, whether you agree or not, is not an unusual practice. I'm no huge fan of Heneghan as yet, but It's been a long time since a manager, other than Ian Baraclough, has rated Louis Laing worthy of a long-term place at centre-half.

I'm not saying that it's McGhee's fault no one has come in for them but I think he should have worked with them both for the benefit club due to how much money we owe them and tried to get some value from their contracts.

 

Heneghan might be slightly better than Laing but I don't think that actually makes much difference over the season. Killie and Accies are getting similar outcomes with worse individuals.

 

Having a balanced team that can play to a system and getting the best squad for your budget is more important at our level now than the difference in quality between the good and bad players non city Premiership clubs can sign.

 

We're wasting a lot of wages and our squad is unbalanced. When you look at the team on Saturday and see a young right back at left mid and two injured players spearheading our 'attack' with no options (other than frozen out LA) on the bench that is down to McGhee.

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I'm not saying that it's McGhee's fault no one has come in for them but I think he should have worked with them both for the benefit club due to how much money we owe them and tried to get some value from their contracts.

 

Heneghan might be slightly better than Laing but I don't think that actually makes much difference over the season. Killie and Accies are getting similar outcomes with worse individuals.

 

Having a balanced team that can play to a system and getting the best squad for your budget is more important at our level now than the difference in quality between the good and bad players non city Premiership clubs can sign.

 

We're wasting a lot of wages and our squad is unbalanced. When you look at the team on Saturday and see a young right back at left mid and two injured players spearheading our 'attack' with no options (other than frozen out LA) on the bench that is down to McGhee.

Agree with that, we have a frightening combination of dead wood and ageing experienced players leaving us pretty thin on the ground at times.

 

For all Mccall wasnt good at, and admittedly relying on some luck, we had a pretty tight squad under him, with apparent quality over quantity.

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I absolutely agree getting value for the budget is absolutely imperative at our level, considering the budget has been reduced. There are also instances where you can question how the manager has spent some of that budget.

 

The thing is though, we can't go out and get a squad of 18-20 proven players with the budget we've got. Unless you go back to McCall days/St Johnstone way of working and buying short term success with no long term gain. That's obviously not the plan we're working towards to so it's a no go. Every signing we're bringing in will be a greater risk than before. Some work - Tait, Heneghan, Clay & McHugh have been first team regulars when available. Some have worked out not so well. Blyth, Bowman, Belic, Brill (maybe we shouldn't sign players who have a surname beginning with B?). Lucas, I think, could be a good signing but if he spends the majority of the next three months injured then it'll go down as another poor singing.

 

The criticism of these signings is absolutely fair and reasonable, but it has to be tempered with the knowledge that there is absolutely no chance of a 100% success rate (or even close to) with the business plan the manager is current adhering to.

 

If a player becomes available, surely if there is money available (signed off by the board) we should go for it if the manager believes he's better than what he currently has?

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What is hurting us is that he came in and immediately tried to force out Ainsworth and Laing to free up their wages and we are still paying them more than a year later.

 

That's massive amounts of money down the drain because McGhee likes to play favourites. We need to get the best out our budget and there is no way Ainsworth couldn't have contributed more and I don't think there is much difference between Laing and Heneghan.

 

What does "playing favourites" mean? That he picks the players he thinks have the best chance of winning a game?

 

Or are you seriously saying he'll pick teams he think will lose so his mates get a game?

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What does "playing favourites" mean? That he picks the players he thinks have the best chance of winning a game?

 

Or are you seriously saying he'll pick teams he think will lose so his mates get a game?

I think there's a difference between the 2 scenarios you're suggesting.

 

Managers do have favourites, they don't see the flaws in them that everyone else does (or alternatively, they see something they offer that others can't).

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Anyone touting Ainsworth as not getting a game due to not being one of McGhee's "favourites" must have forgotten that he spent long periods out of the team under McCall and Baraclough too. He's a talented player but clearly an enigma, evidently as we were his 12th club at the age of 26.

 

You can debate McGhee's tactics or gameplan, I didn't agree with Chalmers starting nor McMillan coming on for him, but there's absolute no doubt that had McGhee thought that Ainsworth was the player mentally and tactically to either start or come on, he would have done.

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I think there's definitely a breakdown in relationship where he is being overlooked on purpose.

 

I suppose everyone can cite an incident in their own lives either with a school teacher, boss, friend or parent who have pulled a wideo on someone because they hoped the replacement could do just as good a job. Ainsworth is a prime example here. To think that McGhee is doing anything other than trying to justify his position can't see the wood for the trees.

 

McGhee will justify that he doesn't track back and offers little when we defend (which seems to be our modus operandi at present). This time last year I didn't want to see him in the team any longer as I felt he tapped out, however the only player I felt offered guile and spirit if not ability was Josh Law.

 

I was happy to exclaim on here I never wanted to see him in the C&A again. But I felt his attitude changed towards the run in and he looked genuinely upset when McGhee poured scorn on him rather than a number of his colleagues who equally performed chronically in a defeat.

 

It's evident that he's the dog that can be kicked in that dressing room by McGhee.

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please stop with this shite, post a comment about what the discussion point is, not just a link to redirect to another web location

 

to save others you are linking to a twitter post that was mentioned yesterday

 

 

 

There's a boy Shea Gordon from Sheffield United claiming on Twitter to have signed for us. Northern Irish midfielder. 19/20 year old.

 

http://www.steelmenonline.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=15429&p=486047

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please stop with this shite, post a comment about what the discussion point is, not just a link to redirect to another web location

 

to save others you are linking to a twitter post that was mentioned yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.steelmenonline.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=15429&p=486047

Only posted to confirm that the boy has annouced it, calm doon
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Only posted to confirm that the boy has annouced it, calm doon

But the point is if it's just a link, nobody knows what it is unless they click it, which takes them to another website or app (depending on the device). Whereas if you add a few words saying what the link is, people can get the context from that and decide whether they want to click or not.

 

Anyway, to the point in hand, interesting one if official, not sure how another midfielder fits into the plans but then again, I know absolutely nothing about the lad.

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But the point is if it's just a link, nobody knows what it is unless they click it, which takes them to another website or app (depending on the device). Whereas if you add a few words saying what the link is, people can get the context from that and decide whether they want to click or not.

 

Anyway, to the point in hand, interesting one if official, not sure how another midfielder fits into the plans but then again, I know absolutely nothing about the lad.

At 18, I reckon he's been signed with a view to going into the U20s initially...
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I think there's a difference between the 2 scenarios you're suggesting.

 

Managers do have favourites, they don't see the flaws in them that everyone else does (or alternatively, they see something they offer that others can't).

 

If they aren't seeing the flaws, then that's not playing favourites.

 

However, I think many (if not, most) fans don't see the game the way most managers do for various reasons. "Playing favourites" just normally means the gaffer is using a player that fans have taken a dislike to.

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Skippy tempted by Western Sydney Warriors ...

 

 

 

 

 

Motherwell's Scott McDonald tempted by Western Sydney Wanderers offer

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Scott McDonald has admitted he was "tempted" by an offer from Western Sydney Wanderers but that Motherwell rejected their latest approach.

The A-League club have renewed their interest after failing to sign the 33-year-old striker this summer.

"It was a 50-50 thing," he told BBC Scotland. "The club was considering it, I was considering it and, in the end, it didn't come to any fruition.

"Obviously it was something I wanted to explore. The club weren't as keen."

The former Australia international is in his second season of a second spell at Fir Park and signed a new one-year contract in the summer.

But the club managed by former Crystal Palace defender Tony Popovic had hoped to take the former Celtic and Middlesbrough striker back to his homeland for the first time since he left Cranbourne Comets for Southampton in 2000.

Asked if the offer was still alive, McDonald said: "It may well be, but that's not in my hands at all. That would be up to other people to discuss it.

"I haven't heard anything else from representatives or anything else that the deal is still there.


"As far as I'm aware, that club hasn't signed anyone else, so if Motherwell were to change their mind - but that's not happening.

"We are where we are and we resume where we are."

McDonald started on the bench for Motherwell's Scottish Cup defeat by Rangers on 21 January, with manager Mark McGhee later explaining that the striker's "head was not in the right place" because of the transfer approach.

"I offered to play, but we had a conversation and we felt I hadn't trained all week leading up and there was a heavy amount of preparation put into that cup game itself in terms of shape and starting XI," said the striker, who stressed that "the manager and the club have been fantastic to me".

"I agreed it wasn't right for me to step in on Friday and basically call the shots - I'm back in the team.

"That wouldn't be fair on the rest of the squad who had worked really hard during the week as well for me to go and take one of their places and the manager agreed on that.

"Of course, the offer was tempting and that's why it dragged on that whole week."

McDonald returned to the starting line-up for the weekend Premiership loss to Rangers and was sent off after 27 minutes for a foul on Kenny Miller and Well have launched an appeal against the red card.

Western Sydney lie eighth in the 10-team A-League.

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Yea, I'd have thought if anyone was coming in today, we'd have heard something by now, especially with the game tonight.

 

Pearo, is a freebie so he doesn't have to be signed today.

 

The worry could be someone on the way out.

 

Anyone know if any player hasn't travelled to Dingwall?

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