TRVMP

He was a shit!

The info pack that went out back in February said this (emphasis mine) To me this reads that while it's not intended to be "here's 750k to spaff on Nacho Novo and Rowan Vine", it's not 100% strictly earmarked either. It could be, for example, that 'player development' means signing a certain player for the first team with a view to selling him on.

Some people are being a bit carried away. If you're Reese James or Cole Palmer you're obviously going to hear from the chairman's representatives about where the club is going and what the squad and management plan is, because you have a team of agents who can get you into almost every top club in the world if things aren't to your liking. With all due respect to Ian Wilson, who is a fine player and apparently a very decent guy as well, he primarily needs to know the financial package he's getting. Yes, all else being equal players will gravitate towards the club with a stronger team to play in so they have the best chance of winning games and winning bonuses, but at our level of football and our level of recruitment I think it's a bit overkill to need to sell players on a 'project' of ownership.

Everyone's list is about five players too long before we even consider who else might be available. We're likely to be operating at the lower end of the market and that means in some cases we will want to renew as we won't find anyone better, but that question can only be answered once we know who else is out there. The idea that we should be falling over ourselves to get the likes of Shaw renewed is laughable.

Shaw saying the players are in the dark about whether they'll get a new deal. Here's a top tip for the Morton footballers: if you get the ball across the goal line and win football matches, we will know we're in the Championship next season, and then you'll see if you get a contract or not.

Unknown markets get harder and harder every year as minor leagues become richer and more professionalized. Scandinavia was possible for Morton at first because Danish football was amateur. When the Iron Curtain came down suddenly all the top players in the former Yugoslavia were free to travel and even top-level guys could be enticed to mid-league clubs in France and Germany. Those opportunities just don't really exist in large numbers anymore, not to mention the expense of work permits. The closest we had to an untapped market was the League of Wales and we know how that went. I'm not saying there are zero rough diamonds out there, obviously clubs at all levels of football punch above their weight through creative signing every year, but it's significantly tougher than it used to be. Therefore if the two options are "go for unknown players" or "try a sort of brute-force moneyball and go for undervalued players who can play within a system", the latter is more realistic. Of course there are other options, this is just between those two.

Could have set your watch to this, honestly

Still can't quite believe how badly County have fucked it this year. Anyway, a draw tomorrow will all but mathematically keep us safe from 10th - 9 points ahead with 3 games left, but with 14 goals on the "Staglets" (subeditor: check nickname.) A win will of course cement it. I'd love to see us rise as high as 5th but QP spoiled that a bit with a win tonight.

Wouldn't have been on my keep list but Murray's earned some trust, so good luck to him.

Still, good news about the shame game in Dingwall.

What percentage of games has that Shaw appeared in for us? 20% maybe?

I get we're just talking about the players we have but you have to remember our budget is going to change, we don't know who else is available, we don't know who Murray has a good relationship and might be able to tempt here... There's obviously some players for us who are very good at this level and who all else being equal you'd want to keep, but all else isn't equal. What if we re-sign a guy like Longridge now, then in a month's time someone better gets released and Murray otherwise has a chance of signing him? I used to believe it was important to get the nucleus of the squad signed up early but I'm less and less convinced of that now. At our level of football the raw materials will matter more. Lopata-White probably met the others for the first time shortly before his debut and he looked the part from the outset. Plenty of other opportunities like that are going to present themselves. For me there's no room for sentiment and as much as I think the likes of Blues are good guys who have served the club extremely well I'm also not going to fall over myself to say they should be renewed before May.

Keep Garrity, we'll need players trained at the club to fill the Champions League squad quota under Estrella.

Can't see Brown lasting much longer at big-spending Ayr, given their big spending and poor results.

Maybe it'll be an Alan Power situation and the manager will decide the player's just run out of steam, but Gillespie is pretty much ever present under Murray. He clearly rates him.