'Turnbull fee helped us rebuild pitch from scratch' - Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows reveals how Fir Parkers are becoming fourth Scottish club with hybrid pitch

Midfield ace Turnbull, 22, joined Celtic in August 2020 having progressed through the youth ranks at Fir Park to become a first team regular.

Along with Allan Campbell and Jake Hastie, Turnbull was part of a hugely talented young trio who royally entertained the Fir Park crowd during the 2018-2019 campaign.

Although Hastie joined Rangers that summer, Turnbull hung around in North Lanarkshire for another season before quitting for Parkhead in a deal which saw ’Well earn almost double their previous record transfer fee received when Phil O’Donnell also made the switch to Celtic for £1.75 million in September 1994.

And the sizeable fee for Turnbull is being put to good use by the Steelmen, with acclaimed groundsman Paul Matthew overseeing a five-week pitch project.

Burrows told The Sunday Post: “We spent a six-figure sum last season just renovating the old surface. But you can’t do that year-on-year.

“We won awards for having the best pitch in the country – again, down to Paul – but that was just papering over the cracks.

“The problems with the pitch drainage, in particular, were so bad that we couldn’t host Under-21, youth, and women’s international matches or Challenge Cup finals, all of which we used to do.

“Fortunately because of the fee we received from Celtic for David Turnbull, we had the resources to start from scratch once the season finished. We’ve become the fourth club in Scotland to install a hybrid surface – that’s 95% grass, strengthened by synthetic fibres – after Celtic, Rangers and Hearts.”