Mensing starts the New Era

Despite Owen Coyle's attempts to keep him at St Johnstone after his successful two year spell in Perth, Mensing has moved up to taste SPL football at Fir Park. He'll already be familiar with his new surroundings - he won the BBC Man of the Match award on that horrible night at the end of February when we were dumped from the Cup.

Both St Mirren and Swindon were reported to be competing for his signature but he opted to become a Motherwell player. On the day that McGhee was paraded at Fir Park, Mensing informed Coyle of his intention to play for us. Scott Leitch was instrumental in persuading him that his future was best served by joining us.

The twenty four year old German will add some competitive bite to our centre midfield and he seems to be the pick of the First Division crop from last season.  The formal announcement from the club is expected on Tuesday.

Given the departure of most of the midfield rank it looks like we will have to find a few others to play beside him. Could Mark Reynolds step forward to take a midfield berth with the return of McLean to the back four?