Squad for next Season

[Mr.Blue]

2 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

This fucking breaks my heart.

[Toby]

11 minutes ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

Wilson is also injured and has hardly played a minute so far this season for Queens. I'd be stunned if we're bringing him in on loan.

Losing Crawford would be gutting as he's our best player, but letting him go for a five figure fee would be criminal. If someone at the club has really agreed to have that clause in his contract then they need their balls/fanny severely booted.

Any agent worth his salt would have ensured such a clause was in place for his client in signing an extension last season, especially considering how good he was for us.

If Crawford hadn’t signed his new deal he’d have walked for nothing, so I suspect Morton had little choice but to accept such a clause to keep a hold of him.

It’s hardly a fuck up on Morton’s part- there are aspects of contracts that suit one party better than another, but accepting a compromise doesn’t always have to be considered an act of folly.

[Scott]

15 minutes ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

Wilson is also injured and has hardly played a minute so far this season for Queens. I'd be stunned if we're bringing him in on loan.

Losing Crawford would be gutting as he's our best player, but letting him go for a five figure fee would be criminal. If someone at the club has really agreed to have that clause in his contract then they need their balls/fanny severely booted.

Meh, I’m trying not to be too critical of the club here. Would anyone really have envisaged a club coming in for Crawford up until a couple of weeks ago before he hit red hot form? If we’re trying to attract players like him, slapping a big release clause on his contract may put him off. 

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

18 minutes ago, Toby said:

Any agent worth his salt would have ensured such a clause was in place for his client in signing an extension last season, especially considering how good he was for us.

If Crawford hadn’t signed his new deal he’d have walked for nothing, so I suspect Morton had little choice but to accept such a clause to keep a hold of him.

It’s hardly a fuck up on Morton’s part- there are aspects of contracts that suit one party better than another, but accepting a compromise doesn’t always have to be considered an act of folly.

 

16 minutes ago, Scott said:

Meh, I’m trying not to be too critical of the club here. Would anyone really have envisaged a club coming in for Crawford up until a couple of weeks ago before he hit red hot form? If we’re trying to attract players like him, slapping a big release clause on his contract may put him off. 

I appreciate both points, but I don't understand why it's of any benefit to us to include such a paltry figure release clause in any contract negotiations. I don't really see it as protecting our assets or offering an incentive to the player.

Dare I say it, but any player at our club would be available for 6 figures, probably less for the majority. We've seen this before with Tidser under previous regimes where small release fees get leaked to the press (in Douglas Ray's case, by himself personally) and I think it just makes us look like diddies.

Maybe I'm expecting too much.

[vikingTON]

27 minutes ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

 

I appreciate both points, but I don't understand why it's of any benefit to us to include such a paltry figure release clause in any contract negotiations. I don't really see it as protecting our assets or offering an incentive to the player.

The incentive to the player is patently obvious - not being held to ransom by a club owner if a desirable offer in terms of club and pay is on the table. 

[standman]

I really like Robbie Crawford and good luck to him if he gets a move where he can improve his income. It’s a short career, he won’t be on a fortune at Morton and he has done really well for us.

From a fan’s perspective it feels disappointing as it looks increasingly difficult trying to build a really good squad . One step forward and two back.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by standman

[TRVMP]

44 minutes ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

 

I appreciate both points, but I don't understand why it's of any benefit to us to include such a paltry figure release clause in any contract negotiations. I don't really see it as protecting our assets or offering an incentive to the player.

Dare I say it, but any player at our club would be available for 6 figures, probably less for the majority. We've seen this before with Tidser under previous regimes where small release fees get leaked to the press (in Douglas Ray's case, by himself personally) and I think it just makes us look like diddies.

Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Players and agents are too savvy these days to accept "if a big club comes in for you, we won't stand in your way." They want clarity, and quite rightly so. 

At the other end of football Dortmund could have held onto Bellingham for another year or two and got almost 200m, but his representatives worked to get him a release clause that would allow him to climb that last rung of the ladder to a Madrid or a United or a Bayern or a PSG when he wanted to go. 

[irnbru]

1 hour ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

 

I appreciate both points, but I don't understand why it's of any benefit to us to include such a paltry figure release clause in any contract negotiations. I don't really see it as protecting our assets or offering an incentive to the player.

Dare I say it, but any player at our club would be available for 6 figures, probably less for the majority. We've seen this before with Tidser under previous regimes where small release fees get leaked to the press (in Douglas Ray's case, by himself personally) and I think it just makes us look like diddies.

Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Lower then average wages benefit us and a sell on fee benefits the player if he does well. We don't have a lot of money so need to make a contract more attractive in ways like this unfortunately. 

[Alibi]

I hope the Wilson story is mince. Slow & injury prone IIRC, and not good enough. I hope the Crawford story is also just creative journalism.

[Greacen2000]

I really hope Crawford stays as he has been immense but if he does go then we definitely do need another midfielder in the squad so Wilson could make sense in that regard.  Not as a direct replacement but possibly more as cover for a first choice 3 of Gillespie, Power & Blues.

Assuming that we already had a bit of cash earmarked for a RB, this deal could give us a chance of signing someone that was previously out of reach.  I expect Wilson will be on less than Crawford, so we have the savings made there plus the “5 figure sum” that we will receive for him.  So the savings & transfer fee added to whatever remains of our budget could equate either to an extra player in the squad, or open up other possible targets at RB.  I don’t for a minute believe that Dougie will settle for Blues or Mcgrattan as first choice for that position, and am sure he will sign someone when the right player becomes available.

Tough one to take if Robbie leaves but it’s always going to be a risk when you sign these sorts of guys who are looking to resurrect their career.  As soon as they find their form and an offer comes in, they will be off (see also Grimshaw).  

On the plus side we get the benefit of them while they are here, and it could also become a bit of a selling point for players who previously might not have wanted to drop down to this level (eg “look at Grimshaw & Crawford - they came down here and in a short time earned themselves good moves” etc).

Edited August 15, 2023 by Greacen2000

[RossMcC1874]

Really hope this is just rumors and nothing comes of it. In my opinion he was our player of the season last year and what he offers the team is something no one else has, first name on the team sheet very rarely injured and a really consistent performer. 

You always expect if players do well for us and a bigger club comes in they will be off if we get a fee for him at least that's something but it won't replace him, right back is the priority and has been for weeks but if we lose him another midfielder is a must, Wilson is a massive downgrade and is a different player to what Crawford gives us we should be aiming to be getting better than him if we are losing our best player. 

Edited August 15, 2023 by RossMcC1874

[irnbru]

3 minutes ago, RossMcC1874 said:

Really hope this is just rumors and nothing comes of it. In my opinion he was our player of the season last year and what he offers the team is something no one else has, first name on the team sheet very rarely injured and a really consistent performer. 

You always expect if players do well for us and a bigger club comes in they will be off if we get a fee for him at least that's something but it won't replace him, right back is the priority and has been for weeks but if we lose him another midfielder is a must, Wilson is a massive downgrade and is a different player to what Crawford gives us we should be aiming to be getting better than him if we are losing our best player. 

Tbf, I thought Wilson was really good for us and came on to a game. Can't see him being a like for like replacement and we have the likes of Boyd, King, McGratten and even Blues who can play in a more advanced role with Power and Gillespie sitting. Would guess Dougie sees it is cover there rather than to do what Crawford does. 

[SpoonTon]

Crawford was, dare I say, slightly underwhelming last season. I mean, consistently pretty good (he worked hard and played an important enough part in any success we had) but was probably outside the majority reckoning for player of the season. Not so this season which he has started magnificently, especially in the more advanced role, and has been giving me real optimism for the season ahead - losing him would be a major blow. And replacing him with Wilson doesn't fill me with anything like the same kind of optimism. Having just signed Power and already having Gillespie and Blues, it removes a goal threat and midfield balance without a clear way of replacing it. 

That being said, losing your best players is a blow which you just have to take without being able to do much about it. Getting a like for like replacement would be incredibly difficult. And if he has wanted the release clause to sign a new deal then there's not much we could do about that either. It would be a bit like complaining that we didn't sign Grimshaw on a longer deal - we're not going to put clauses in that we don't need to and we can only do what the players are willing to do. 

Lets just hope that it doesn't happen.

Edited August 15, 2023 by SpoonTon

[Greacen2000]

2 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Crawford was, dare I say, slightly underwhelming last season. I mean, consistently pretty good (he worked hard and played an important enough part in any success we had) but was probably outside the majority reckoning for player of the season. Not so this season which he has started magnificently, especially in the more advanced role, and has been giving me real optimism for the season ahead - losing him would be a major blow. And replacing him with Wilson doesn't fill me with anything like the same kind of optimism. Having just signed Power and already having Gillespie and Blues, it removes a goal threat and midfield balance without a clear way of replacing it. 

That being said, losing your best players is a blow which you just have to take without being able to do much about it. Getting a like for like replacement would be incredibly difficult. And if he has wanted the release clause to sign a new deal then there's not much we could do about that either. It would be a bit like complaining that we didn't sign Grimshaw on a longer deal - we're not going to put clauses in that we don't need to and we can only do what the players are willing to do. 

Lets just hope that it doesn't happen.

I agree that finding a like-for like replacement or upgrade on Crawford would be very unlikely, dare I say even unrealistic.  If it happens then I expect that Blues would be the "replacement" for him, and if Wilson comes in it would be as cover for Gillespie & Power (who are both unlikely to play 90 every week).

As for the release clause, its clear that the reason its in there is because the player/his agent asked for it as a condition of him signing an extension.  Like you say I seriously doubt we would be chucking in release clauses unless we really needed to.

[dunning1874]

If the 5 figure fee in question is 10K then it's absolutely ridiculous but when we signed Crawford you had no inkling that there'd be the slightest possibility of a fee for him. He was a 28 year old who'd just been released by Partick, hadn't won a contract at Dundee on trial and had struggled to hold down a place in the team at the two top flight clubs he played for previously, and signed for us in August having been a free agent when the league season started.

He's clearly a good enough player and is so important to our style of play that he could make more of a difference in prize money to us over a season than £99K, but if you're getting a transfer fee at all for a player who came to you with that background it's actually really impressive, and makes the club look attractive to potential signings who'll see it as a good move for their chances of playing themselves into offers from a higher level. If it was a choice between this clause in the contract for him to sign the extension in January and him not signing and seeing what offers he might get this summer, we'd have lost him entirely.

The issue is how we replicate his pressing if he goes, as we're clearly at our best with him behind the striker to lead our pressing and no one else can do the same job; through no lack of effort, you just don't see the same intensity without him in the front four.

[dunning1874]

As for the potential signing of Wilson, is it possible this is unrelated to Crawford's potential departure? It could be an indication that Blues is now being viewed as the medium term solution at right back and Wilson is to give us another option in midfield in his place, with our options for the deeper two then being Power, Gillespie, Wilson and King.

[SpoonTon]

2 minutes ago, dunning1874 said:

As for the potential signing of Wilson, is it possible this is unrelated to Crawford's potential departure? It could be an indication that Blues is now being viewed as the medium term solution at right back and Wilson is to give us another option in midfield in his place, with our options for the deeper two then being Power, Gillespie, Wilson and King.

It could also be that someone has an injury that we don't know about, or simply that Imrie really rates him and thinks he would help the squad out in whatever way. It is clear that we've really struggled to find a right back, but I do worry about Blues being anything other than a makeshift answer to that problem. 

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

Crawford seen in training with the team on the club's Instagram page. Also spotted Michael Doyle in what appears to be full training. Would anyone be surprised to see him sign a short term deal as cover?

[TRVMP]

I'd rather have Mcgrattan continue to get minutes, personally. 

[dunning1874]

39 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

It could also be that someone has an injury that we don't know about, or simply that Imrie really rates him and thinks he would help the squad out in whatever way. It is clear that we've really struggled to find a right back, but I do worry about Blues being anything other than a makeshift answer to that problem. 

If we're still not finding a decent right back, and bear in mind Queen's Park still don't have one either and could blow us out the water financially if they end up chasing the same player when someone Imrie wants becomes available, I could see a scenario where Blues (or McGrattan) are at right back until Baird is fit, then O'Connor moves across when Baird returns.

Short of a natural right back becoming available, if we're going to end up with O'Connor as first choice there my ideal scenario is signing Ricki Lamie and then having him and Baird as the first choice partnership, but obviously not sure how likely it is that Motherwell are actually going to move him on despite now being sixth choice centre back.