MOTHERWELL are interested in bringing Leeds United striker Lee Erwin back to Fir Park.
The 21-year-old left the Lanarkshire club for Elland Road a year ago but has failed to establish himself with the Championship side.
Erwin only started two game for Leeds and failed to score during a handful of cameo appearances under Steve Evans before the Scottish manager was sacked last month.
SportTimes understands that Motherwell have been monitoring the striker’s situation for several months now with uncertainty over Evans’ future stalling any progress on potentially on signing Erwin on a loan deal.
Now with Gary Monk in charge at the English outfit, The Fir Park board are keeping a close eye on the situation in the hope they can lure the talent that came through their youth academy back to Motherwell if regular game time under Monk looks unlikely.
In his first full season in claret and amber in 2014/15, Erwin’s contribution, particularly in the Premiership play-off final against Rangers, ensured the Steelmen stayed in the Scottish top flight.
While most may remember him for being attacked by Rangers defender Bilel Mohsni during the Fir Park second leg, the Lanarkshire kid opened the scoring at Ibrox just three days earlier to put Motherwell in the driving seat.
As well as potentially bringing Erwin in, the Fir Park club believe they are inching closer to securing the signatures of their out-of-contract veterans.
After Stephen McManus put pen to paper on a new deal last month, negotiations have been ongoing to keep hold of captain Keith Lasley, defender Stevie Hammell and forward Scott McDonald.
Reduced terms had been offered to several players towards the end of last season, and SportTimes can reveal that an agreement is close for all three.
While Motherwell supporters will be keen to keep the trio, they will be equally disappointed at the news yesterday that rising star centre-half Ben Hall has left the club to join up with Brighton and Hove Albion.
The 19-year-old Northern Irishman burst into the Well first team back in December and quickly became a stalwart in Mark McGhee’s defence.
Negotiations with the player have been taking place since the turn of the year but they could not match the terms or opportunity offered by their English Championship counterparts.
It is understood that Hall has been brought in with a view to be blooded into Chris Hughton’s first-team following the release of Scotland international Gordon Greer.
The silver lining is that Motherwell stand to pocket around £214,000 in development compensation due to Hall being in the Well set up since 2013.
“We are obviously disappointed Ben has chosen Brighton, but this is further vindication of our policy at the club of developing young talent and should give hope to the youngsters currently at the club and in the Academy,” said McGhee.
“We have been in discussions with Ben for the best part of five months, however, we have always been conscious that this may happen and as such, have been working on a replacement, which we hope to announce soon.”
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