Martyn, Lewis and Ben discuss Celtic and Ranger's latest transfer news, as well as diving into Motherwel''s latest investment bid.
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00:00Hello and welcome to National World Fitbit Talk, your nan's favourite football podcast,
00:11Ken. It's a show where we break down the latest news and results from around the Scottish
00:15Premiership and the SPFL. I'm your host Martin Simpson, joined this week by Lewis Anderson
00:20and Ben Banks. We're going to be discussing the latest on the failed investment from former
00:25Netflix Vice President Eric Barmack at Motherwell, we'll be talking about Celtic and Rangers'
00:30latest transfer ongoings and we'll be looking at the latest round of the Scottish League
00:35Cup. So Ben, you're our go-to guy for everything Motherwell, can you just give us a sort of
00:42brief look into what's the latest news with this investment having been withdrawn by the
00:50former Netflix VP? Brief might be difficult with the amount, I mean I think Mullow fans
00:56will look back on this month as probably, I don't want to say most tumultuous, certainly
01:01in my time covering the club and sort of being near the club has certainly been bonkers.
01:10The initial proposal getting made after Mullow released, I don't know if you remember Mullow
01:15released a video last season asking for external investment, Taylor Swift, Giesier Dosh, all
01:22that type of stuff and that initially got slated by fans and onlookers for being a bit
01:26cringey but seemed to have attracted some interest so in comes Eric Barmack and Courtney
01:33Barmack through Wild Sheep Sport, they proposed to invest in the club ÂŁ1.95 million over
01:39six years. What this would make, this would then make Eric Barmack the immediate chairman
01:44at Mullow and would give him pretty much boardroom influence, it would reduce the Welsh society's
01:50power at the club and fan ownership wouldn't really be a thing and it would eventually
01:55basically see the end of fan ownership at Mullow. I think that's what it became in the
01:58end, it was that choice between wanting the external investment and perhaps, at least
02:03on the face of it initially, being on a bit more of a level playing field financially
02:08because obviously Mullow are probably one of the clubs, certainly in recent times, who
02:12have posted losses and was fan ownership the sort of right way forward, the Welsh society
02:18itself would come under a bit of criticism but a new board came in at the start of the
02:23year with that as well so it's a completely refreshed Welsh society but as this went on
02:28it just became a total saga, the initial investment plans that would have pretty much ended fan
02:33ownership got withdrawn and amended before the ballot process, the ballot process then
02:40got amended and extended so up until really a couple of weeks ago and then there was the
02:46Barmack proposal itself in terms of the plan they put together which contained factual
02:51errors in terms of the finances of the club so you then had that to deal with so there
02:57was just so many errors and it became a totally divisive topic within the fans that it sort
03:05of drifted away from what the actual debate was ongoing about should Mullow welcome external
03:10investment and just became a bickering match between sections of fans and between sections
03:15of the board and the Welsh society and just became a bit of a mess in all honesty so I
03:22think for Mullow it's just good to have one way or another where they agreed with the
03:25proposals where they disagreed with it, the club needed a level of clarity because it's
03:29been a really positive summer I think signing wise at Mullow, on the pitch I think you can
03:33there's obviously the news yesterday as well that Theo Baer's going to go to Auxerre in
03:37France for a fee above the 1.3 million that's been reported which I should say that if that
03:44does go the way I think it'll go it'll probably be certainly near the Barmack's valuation
03:51of the club in terms of the money he was going to put in, I think the club overall
03:55was valued at 4 million which was another sticking point so you had that type of sale
04:01the signings have been fairly decent like Saleem Gordon, Zac Robinson coming in but
04:05none of the talk has been about that it's all been around the investment proposals and
04:09I think now the fans and the club generally need to rally around the Welsh society to
04:16deliver their model for fan ownership going forward and for the fans as well just to get
04:20because it has been really positive on the park I think Stuart Kettlewell has done a
04:23really decent job certainly this summer so it'd be good to get the focus back on the
04:27football and I know you asked for a brief summary but I think if I was to give you a
04:30full-on summary we'd be here for far longer than the 24 minutes we have.
04:34That's all right just obviously the Welsh society and fan ownership in general has proven
04:40a force for good in Scottish football just for the sake of clarity is the issue here
04:46specifically about the investment the proposal from Eric Barmack or is it much more general
04:53like you say whether any outside investment is going to be welcomed because how sustainable
05:01is fan ownership as a sort of permanent model? I think it has proven and it's only in the
05:07last the thing with clubs like Malone I think whether you're fan owned or not you're only
05:10really like a bad transfer window or a bad season away from then saying the model doesn't
05:14work up until really Graeme Alexander came in Mullal had just made three and a bit million
05:19off David Turnbull they'd made a million off James Scott so that model of bringing through
05:24players from either their academy or England the likes of Theo Baer bringing them in building
05:29them up and selling them on has been a model that has worked for a large number of years
05:33at Mullal and because they kind of got away from that under Graeme Alexander I feel like
05:37that's been almost like a snowball effect for all of this you're then in the stadium
05:41as well the renovations get made on that and the pitch so all these things have just
05:44been like a snowball effect the Welsh society themselves have said they are open to external
05:48investment for me personally I feel that this one has been rushed and that some of Eric
05:54Barmack's ideas were actually quite good for the club in terms of content I actually quite
05:58like reading some of it but in terms of what it takes to run a football club I was never
06:02convinced that all the information was there to fully pull that off so I think fans are
06:09welcoming external investment I don't think that that's the thing I think that just this
06:14offer specifically wasn't right it felt like it was just the first one that came in and
06:20it kind of got it felt rushed through a bit and we'd spoke to members of the Welsh society who
06:24also shared that view that they felt it was rushed to inform their members of of sort of
06:30the ins and outs of it but I think one thing that will be positive I think it has brought
06:34into view sort of the Welsh society's place at the club it has led to a boost in members
06:38for the Welsh society which was needed so hopefully for Mullow that it now there's more
06:46focus on fan ownership that'll come with more scrutiny but I think it will bring revitalized
06:50energy behind that movement and perhaps more sponsorships more memberships and potentially
06:56off the back of that maybe more investment if there is somebody out there who wants to play
07:00a part in a community owned club. Well the Scottish League Cups kicked off it was a good
07:07result for Motherwell at the weekend a 3-0 home win over by all accounts a fairly poor
07:13Edinburgh city side that our club obviously still in a bit of disarray. Lewis any result from the
07:20weekend really jumping out at you I'm looking probably at Falkirk beating Dundee United 2-0
07:26that's one of these ones that's as equally a good result for Falkirk because it is a potentially
07:31devastating one for Dundee United. Yeah a really impressive result I don't think you can really
07:38class it as a big shot given that the season Falkirk are coming off the back of obviously
07:41that invincible team that John McGlynn has built you know going into obviously Dundee United winning
07:48promotion back to the premiership you're always favoring the team playing in the top flight but
07:54you know obviously Jim Goodwin has kind of rung the changes there over the summer they've recruited
08:00several new players on paper they look decent additions and of course they're still to see
08:05some of these players and what they can offer and the boy Trapanovsky in particular
08:11in the midfield but yeah no by all accounts a decent game I watched the various highlights
08:18from this match and Falkirk looked more than in the game I thought they were particularly
08:23impressive in the second half moved the ball around really well scored two really good goals
08:27and you know Jim Goodwin's hoodoo and cup competitions continues to linger over his
08:34head doesn't it and he's got a wretched record in these cup competitions same in the Scottish
08:40over the last couple of years it's been tournaments that have certainly haunted him and so that's the
08:44result that certainly stands out I thought Aberdeen were particularly impressive against
08:49Queen of the South and albeit still very early days in Jimmy Tillan's reign but you know
08:56very convincing winners in the end obviously Queen of the South have had their trials and
09:01tribulations over the last 12-18 months or so but you know I was particularly impressed with
09:07a couple of Aberdeen's new signings there and the other one that stands out to me is Anand
09:12beating Inverness I know Inverness are almost falling off the edge of a cliff at the moment
09:18and in time it's a real sharp decline and Duncan Ferguson doesn't look like he's got the answers to
09:25halt their slide this could be a real kind of almost a Gretna fall from grace if you like
09:36so a really good result for Anand given they'll probably look at that group and fancy
09:42their chances Anand in all honesty I don't see apart from Dundee I don't see many other teams that
09:48will kind of you know stake a claim to it to almost win that group so a really good result
09:55for Anand as well yeah I mean a huge result for Anand and then like you said just concern from
10:02Inverness all round Aberdeen as you mentioned a really positive result there I think one thing
10:08we can note from that game is that we're starting to we're probably getting the feeling that's been
10:12suggested that they're not when they when inevitably they do sell Bojan Mijovski who
10:17looks like he's off to Bologna potentially that they won't need to sign a replacement because
10:22they in fact signed his replacement last summer in Esther Sochler and some people maybe who weren't
10:28as aware of the situation were thinking that that was a bit of an odd sign in to bring this guy in
10:32just to spend most of the season sat on the bench but what Aberdeen are now going to have is a
10:38striker who has had a full season to acclimate to Scottish football ready to step into the boots of
10:44one of the best players to to grace the field at Pataudry in some 20-30 years I was at the
10:52Hibs Elgin City match personally at the weekend that was a comfortable enough win for Hibs they
10:59took an early lead but the sort of towards the as the second half progressed they looked
11:06less comfortable and it kind of seemed like Elgin might have had a chance to get into it
11:11and then Hibs got went too ahead before the break and then just completely blew them away in the
11:16opening 10 minutes of the second half and it was a foregone conclusion from there I think
11:23they've signed the new centre-back Marvin Echepeteta I apologize if I've mispronounced
11:30that I had to check it every time I tried to spell it in my match report at the weekend
11:36he looks a real decent centre-half from the little from the one game I've seen from him
11:42we're going to take a short break now but when we come back we're going to
11:44be looking a bit more at some of the latest transfer gossip across the premiership
12:06welcome back with the signings of Echepeteta and Ohora Hibs might actually have sorted out
12:14the defensive issues that plagued them last season which was a big problem I do think Echepeteta
12:20is a improvement on Rocky Bashiri again having only really watched 90 minutes of him against
12:26a league two side but he does look composed solid strong Elgin had a striker up front
12:34and golden I believe his name was a new signing I don't know anything about his
12:39background but he was quite a combative sort of niggly number nine he was exactly the sort of
12:45player you would love to have in your team but the other the fans of the other nine clubs in
12:51league two are probably going to despise him so I think if you're ever at a league two game you'll
12:57be hearing quite a bit of booing towards him but he looked a good player for that level
13:04again in a match where he was obviously not going to get much support but he was able to
13:09really just kind of be quite combative quite a lot of battles with Miller and Echepeteta but
13:17handled that threat really well Hibs kind of you know kept him out the game as best they
13:21could and didn't really rise to his bites at them so overall quite positive from Hibs
13:29so I want to start Ben with Celtic it looks like they've not only got one new goalkeeper coming in
13:37but potentially two so obviously let's start by saying that Kasper Schmeichel I think is going
13:44to be a really good signing we saw how effective it was bringing an experienced keeper in Joe Hart
13:51in for the sort of final years of his career Schmeichel obviously a Premier League winner
13:57still the Danish number one keeper but bringing in Sensalo as his backup feels like a really
14:05good move because now it feels like if they get two years out of Schmeichel that they will have
14:12someone ready to step into that role when he goes you know you would expect to see Sensalo
14:19if he does indeed come in sort of maybe play the cup matches play in the League Cup and the Scottish
14:24Cup games maybe if it if the drop down to the Europa League you might play in those matches
14:29although you probably would still expect Schmeichel to be going in there but yeah they've got someone
14:34that they'll be able to sort of gradually phase into the team when Schmeichel inevitably does
14:39hang his gloves up probably in two maybe maximum three seasons time yeah I think the thing for Celtic
14:46fans of this is that I think if it had just been Kasper Schmeichel there's no doubt in Kasper
14:51Schmeichel is a really quality goalkeeper and probably speaks to the level of goalkeeper that's
14:54came up to Scotland certainly with Celtic and Rangers in the past few seasons with Butland
14:59Joe Hart I would imagine that's played a factor in it and that these guys are coming up here and
15:03almost like totally rebranding their image like Joe Hart was a joke down south and was getting
15:08laughed at on all sides before he came to Celtic and now all of now he's like a club hero and a
15:13legend of the of this sort of decade of dominance they've had but I think if they'd have just signed
15:19a 37-year-old goalkeeper after links to the likes of Kelleher Jensen at Sparta Prague I think they
15:24would have still been slightly underwhelmed I think it is that long-term planning aspect of it
15:29that's that's going to be pleasing and that um Sinisalo is coming in after a really good season
15:33albeit league one level but still a decent enough level down south and I think if you go into the
15:39Finnish national team's website and you go to Sinisalo's bio on his national team profile and
15:46it says his idol is Kasper Schmeichel so I mean it's I mean pretty I would imagine that's been
15:51a massive factor for him so getting to work with his idol would be a massive boost it's nice for
15:56me personally to see Sinisalo back up at it back up in Scottish football he was a player I covered
16:01in a previous role while he was at Air United and was always really impressed with him at that age
16:05because that was his first loan coming out into Scottish football and he looked you could tell
16:10then that he looked like a goalkeeper who I don't know if you could you can never say it maybe 18 19
16:16whether they're going to play at that sort of premier league level but you could definitely
16:19tell he was a goalkeeper who was going to play at a good level and I think we've seen in the
16:22Scotland game when they played Finland at Hampden last month it was really impressive those sort of
16:28saves towards the end of the game were from what I can remember of him he's got really good short
16:33stop mobility and his distribution's decent I think maybe the commanding of the box was maybe
16:37something that had to be worked on but that was to be expected at the time of a teenager
16:42so I think it's I think it's a really smart signing a pair of signings by itself I'm arguably
16:47more excited to see Sinisalo because you kind of know what you're getting from Kasper Schmeichel
16:52there's a bit more of the unknown when it comes to obviously the number two so it's good long-term
16:56planning I think for Celtic which for Celtic fans I think is the big thing because it's long
17:00been a criticism that they're constantly looking one or two seasons max and then going back to the
17:05drawing board yeah I remember seeing Sinisalo during his period at Air United as well and I
17:11think regardless of what level you're playing at and the Scottish Air were in the Scottish
17:17Championship at that time yes they had a brief spell in League One but that was a few years
17:21before that but yeah Air were in the Championship at the time and yeah 18-19 years old being the
17:26first choice keeper a club at a decent level like the Scottish Championship speaks volumes because
17:32I don't think any manager trusts an 18-19 year old as their first choice keeper unless there is
17:39something about them and clearly Sinisalo did have something about them and is showing that now
17:46let's jump across the City of Old Lewis Ben and I discussed on last week's show some of
17:53the dealings Rangers had gotten done early on it's gone a wee bit quiet hasn't it yeah yeah
18:01I think we're starting to get into the territory now where Rangers are struggling a bit you know
18:07in terms of the cash flow perhaps slightly affecting business obviously on the back of
18:13the game covered at the weekend against Ajax and their pre-season friendly Clemence revelation
18:20that they'll now need to be selling players before any more experienced names join his
18:28squad obviously he's made a big point of that hasn't he about wanting to add experience and to
18:34his his ranks and we've seen that based on the last couple of days they've been linked with
18:40Johnny Jordan of Sevilla 30 year old experienced midfielder has played at the top level in Europe
18:49certainly has quite a bit going for him he's under contract at Sevilla until 2027 but
18:54he's been kind of deemed surplus to requirements at this stage and Rangers have been looking to
19:00try and wrap up a loan deal here and had an offer at the weekend submitted which was turned down
19:08due to issues surrounding his wages obviously you can imagine he's playing at a top level in La Liga
19:14and he's going to be on a lofty salary and it's thought that kind of Rangers were willing to
19:20offer around 30% to cover his wages it sounds to me based on conversations I've had that Rangers
19:29would need to cover about half of that so you're looking at 50% so again there could need to be
19:37some movement outgoings potentially in order to facilitate a loan move there obviously still
19:44interested in Abdalla Seema whether or not they'll be able to get him back on loan and
19:49Albion Rahmani who is the Rapid Bucharest striker this has kind of been ongoing now for several
19:56months at one point it seemed that you know a move is relatively close to Rangers however that doesn't
20:03seem to have been the case and again the type of money Rapid were looking for at this moment in
20:10time doesn't seem like Rangers can can necessarily go and spend that without without moving players
20:17on so we're at the stage at the moment where we're looking at guys like Sam Lammers like
20:22I know Cyril Deciz has been linked with an exit in recent days, Todd Cantwell, James Tavernier
20:28whether or not some of these guys might be moved on I think to be honest it'll be into August
20:37the way things are going at this moment in time until we see some more incomings at Ibrox as
20:42things currently stand and which will be a slight concern for fans given that most of the signings
20:48they've made so far are kind of relative unknown quantities and we don't really know how they're
20:54going to adapt to Scottish football so yeah I think slightly uneasy feeling among the
21:02Rangers fan base at this moment in time they'll be keen to get more signings in the door ASAP
21:08however Clermont stated that that might not necessarily be the case.
21:14In general it seems to have quieted down a wee bit we saw a flurry of business from clubs across the
21:21Premiership and that this sort of passed five or six seven days really but it's kind of dropped
21:27off a wee bit but one player who looks like he's heading out of the Premiership then is Alex Cochran
21:34now the Hearts fans reaction to this seems to have been a bit certainly I think they're
21:41disappointed that he's going without being gutted and a lot of them are recognising that this is
21:48good business and Hearts are making a decent profit on their investment with him
21:52how big a blow is it for Hearts really?
21:55I think it's a blow but I think it's a good example of the player trade model that I kind
22:00of alluded to earlier with Mullow in that Hearts are almost doing what other clubs in Scotland are
22:06doing but in a slightly bigger pond they've brought in Alex Cochran on loan they've bought
22:10him for a modest fee he's gave them a couple of years of really decent performances a 7 out of 10
22:15type player every week and now he's going to go down south back close to the family for a profit
22:21that's kind of what you're looking for at Hearts you're not going to get players now who are going
22:25to be there for five six seven years and making 200 300 appearances for clubs anymore very very
22:31rare that happens so I think this is the type of thing that Hearts should be looking for they've
22:36already got the replacement in James Penrice that they're going to try and develop and I would
22:40imagine the goal is the same there have him playing for a few years and then down south he'll go for a
22:44profit if all goes to plan I think James Penrice has a job on his hands to get the levels Cochran
22:49showed consistently because that was the big thing with him I think every single game you pretty much
22:53got the exact same performance and that's not a criticism you wanted that performance pretty much
22:58every game from Alex Cochran I think he'd be a really good player for Hearts he'll be one the
23:01fans miss he was quite popular within the fan base but I think there's as weird as it sounds
23:07there's positives in his exit I know I mentioned that a bit earlier as well we feel where that's
23:13probably the other one terms of Scottish football in terms of the because that deal as far as I'm
23:16aware that'll be done when the next 24 to 48 hours he'll be an Auxerre player and that's deal of the
23:23decade stuff for Stuart Kettlewell to turn this player who's had one goal in 38 appearances first
23:28and Johnson then less than 12 months later he's potentially going for like 1.3 million pounds or
23:34potentially higher than that which is quite incredible so those two are probably the two that
23:39are closest to being confirmed and I would expect the Bojan Majovsky story to Bologna to heat up
23:53you