Swello

Craig Levein? Cowden --> Hearts is a similar jump as from Alloa to us I'd guess...

The club have known about the proposed 12-12-18 set up for a long time before today - it's been a topic of conversation for weeks already, even if some of the fine details aren't known publicly. In the spirit in which they apparently agreed to it today, I see no reason why they couldn't have consulted the support to ascertain whether or not we support the basics of the proposal in principle before they did likewise - and if need be, come back with specifics later - a meaningful dialogue in other words. To "consult" for the first time after the fact and with the Board's position clearly already established feels like a PR exercise to me unfortunately. I'm not normally negative towards the club in this way - but as a Season Ticket holder (and a 'Society member) it feels like we are getting railroaded into a frankly ridiculous league system that introduces yet more uncertainty into the fixture list at a time where fixture re-arrangements are already at an all-time high. I've had my 'ticket for the past 25 years without a gap - but this 8-8-8 stuff will probably turn me into a pay at the gate punter, which was pretty unthinkable before now. This isn't a "ah'll no be back" toys out the pram job as I'll still go, it's just that the level of uncertainty about who we'll be playing, when and where will make it better sense for me not to commit up front. I don't doubt that the people running the club have it's best interest at heart, I know it's early days for the 'Well Society and I don't expect a consultation on every decision - but something that affects all fans as this does should have been a no-brainer and should have been consulted on weeks ago.

It beggars belief that the club have waved this through without any attempt at consultation, no matter how cosmetic the exercise may have been in reality. This is from the Summer, the clubs view before the "Newco" vote: And the first point from the "Steelmen Forever" page on the website: We have worked exceptionally hard over the last few years to improve club / supporter relations and, to a large extent; we believe we have managed that. But we will continue to make the club as open and the people who run it more accessible through various channels such as the 'Well Society, the Supporters Advisory Committee, Fan Forums, our own media outlets and other affiliated fan organisations. It's easy to pay lip service to "fan ownership" to help with the overdraft, but quite another thing to carry it through when you might not get the answer you are looking for.

Don't often post on here - but couldn't let that one pass. My mates and I went drinking in the bars near the stadium instead of the Irish bar in town and as soon as we got there, a Levante fan paid for our round and another came over 5 mins later, took us to their little social club and I've never experienced a sincere welcome like it despite following 'Well all over the place for years and having been on the majority of Euro away trips. It was their first Euro game and they were pleased to have us there. I talked to loads of those guys and their outlook as a support is much the same as ours - we've got a lot in common with them. After the game, a guy came up to us without us asking and offered to walk us to the Metro station. Even on the train, people were happy to come up and shake hands or whatever. I know when we're being patronised as we have seen that - but this came over as completely sincere and to me, it's what makes a good away trip into a brilliant one. I only support 'Well have never given a toss about English football or anything else - but Levante are a team and a support that I will always wish well.

If as many season ticket holders as possible committed to additionally paying in to 1 game in the 2012 half of the season and 1 game in the 2013 half (the club could even nominate the games for publicity purposes), it could raise a pretty significant amount of money....

I see the same issue constantly - it doesn't matter which hardware or browser. Works again perfectly if I log out and back in or delete the site cookie. I've been working under the assumption that it's because I access it using different devices without always logging out - something that I haven't verified.

Leaving the 1991 semi replay aside- Shimmy King day for me - what a jump at Parkhead I've got a well worn video of it somewhere and the faces on the Celtic bench afterwards were priceless......

That's so much better than the dreaded "punching above our weight" - I think I'll use it in future

They beat us once that season at parkhead, we got 2 wins and a draw in the league and the cup replay win IIRC.

I've made no comment on who is "bad" and who is "good" in this as I don't know all the facts. What is in the public domain is way that Brown conducted himself throughout his exit from the club - only the most naive people in the world bought that whole "out of courtesy" thing for example and the fact that he even thought that was plausible says much about the way he views other people. Brown attempted to move to Aberdeen with his "nice guy" image intact - he made a total arse of it and as a result exposed a lot about the way he operates. Life is never as simple as "good" and "bad" - but I'm pretty confident that Brown has been "more bad" than Boyle/MFC since late last year.

As far as the gentleman's agreement goes, not in my opinion, no - as Brown left in the manner he did, the gentleman's agreement was pretty much ripped up I would say. That's the point of gentleman's agreements - it requires a moral obligation from both parties to work. That said - he possibly has a case legally. I'm no legal expert obviously - but I guess he could argue that he had a verbal contract for that bonus payment and a verbal contract is binding under Scots Law I believe. Regardless, he's got a fucking brass neck pursuing 'Well for loose change after the way he conducted himself (and continues to conduct himself)

Presumably as the Gentleman's agreement was still in force at the time?

From the record website: Considering Boyle's comment was only audible to Brown and him, I wonder how that little nugget got into the papers?

Standing on a crush barrier to see the Trophy lifted Turning to my mate just after we scored to make it 3-1 and saying "We've Won the Cup!"

There can't have been many guys that were with the club such a short time that polarise opinion so much as Gannon.. FWIW - I view his contribution as positive overall although I believe that his flaws contributed to his exit. The rebuilding job he did with the squad was considerable and shouldn't be underestimated - I just don't think many other managers would have done as good a job in such a short time, even given he probably had a decent working budget. His "hit rate" of getting decent players in was high - to my mind only moutouakil wasn't a decent SPL level player or better - the rest proved themselves to be good at Motherwell's level. The bottom line is that we had a horror end to the calendar year in 2009, just as we did in 2010 incidentally, but nothing Gannon did fatally derailed our season due to the good job Brown did when he came in - we still qualified for Europe, we didn't spunk huge amounts on compensation, etc. Ironically, whereas history may show Gannon's contribution to be a net positive, the same may not be said for his successor whose actions have probably done more long-term damage to the club than Gannon managed to do.

Not getting at you for your opinion, but the part in bold perfectly sums up the attitude of the people in charge of the clubs over the years. By taking the hardcore support for granted over a prolonged period, they have in fact pissed-off increasing numbers of these types of supporter by raising prices, moving kick-off times to suit TV, etc, etc. By a twin strategy of trying to mimic/keep pace with England and prioritising the wishes of the TV companies over the interests of the biggest financial contributors - they have actually managed the feat of turning many of the most loyal fans away by treating them with disdain (we've not exactly been quiet about the things we don't like). Once the core people start to pick and choose games in preference to season tickets and the ratio of money provided by supporters drops closer to the amount supplied by broadcasters, that's when the financial armageddon that we're always hearing about will happen. 20 years ago, you might have said "5000 people will always come", a decade ago you would have said "4000 people will always come" - the fact that it's now down to "3000 people will always come" is fucking scary.

Usually a read-only member on here - but just wanted to say that I'm genuinely sorry to hear this. I've had the pleasure of you guys' company at a few EoS end of season dinners and your dad was a really nice bloke. I've been through something very similar in my own family in the last couple of months and know how difficult it can be. Look after each other.

For comparison - it's interesting to see that Utd are charging their fans £25 for upper tier/£22 for lower tier - concessions £12/13 for the AEK game. Personally, I don't mid paying £20 for a "showpiece" game - it's the normal league games that are hideously over-priced....

I tried to register properly and pay for a week's access - but it needs a local postcode (I used Aalesund's ) and a "valid" local mobile number. Out of interest, I tried to make one up in the correct format and also used one out of the Norwegian phonebook (I searched on Riise ) ) - but it wouldn't accept either. So even though the anonymizer proxy works fine, I can't get registered....