MOTHERWELL have already snapped up Inverness midfielder Liam Polworth and Livingston defender Declan Gallagher on pre-contract deals for next season but they’re now having to wait for either signing targets – because they’re holding out for more money from non-league clubs down south.
Chief executive Alan Burrows insists that the club have already identified the players they want to bring in but insists they’ve no option but to play the waiting game.
“You’d be amazed – every time we try to sign a player Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Livingston are in for them at the same time,” he shrugged.
“We’re all shopping in the same market and all you can do is try to get in early. The flip side of that is that good players aren’t in a hurry to join the likes of ourselves; they want to see what else is out there, hoping that it’s maybe someone bigger who’ll pay them more money.
“I didn’t realise that until I became chief executive and started negotiating with agents, who’d tell me who else was in for their client and how much they’d been offered to sign.
“Every time our chief scout, Martin Foyle, goes to watch a game he sees the same old faces in the stand.
“Nobody is ever going to retire on the money they make playing for the bottom six clubs in the Premiership.
“We’re all much of a muchness so players will hold off in case a team from League One or League Two or the National League in England comes in for them because they have more cash than we do – they’re in a different stratosphere.
“That can be frustrating because we’re ready to go with deals while they’re waiting to see what happens. But at least we can guarantee them Premiership football.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here