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Alexander was absolutely done with us long before he eventually left. I’ve said this many times had we not snatched the late draw at Livingston and scraped top six and then somehow Europe then he would have been gone at the end of that season, perhaps before. And what keeps being overlooked is that HE wanted to go. It was him that approached Burrows to instigate the “mutual consent” after the Sligo debacle, not the other way around. He wasn’t sacked and he wasn’t “hounded out” he left because he wanted to go. And I’d have Stuart Kettlewell as manager over Alexander any day of the week.

As I've just posted on P&B (so apologies to folk who peruse both and are getting a repeat), it's been encouraging to see some positive mentions of the actual consultation email content itself like this. I'm not sure if that's the widespread response but there's certainly been some favourable comments made. It might not seem like it, but a lot of collective work went into the content to try and ensure it was as balanced as possible and avoided anything that was too leading in either direction, so if that has been achieved, it's a good thing. Although that said, one thing that maybe could have been clearer in hindsight going by some of the comments is that idea of the consultation being non-binding. It's to give the Well Society and club parameters within which to approach current, and any further, investment offers in terms of negotiations, while also clarifying if steps such as green lighting a CEO and beginning to rebuild & refresh the Executive Board can be undertaken, or whether those kinds of things need to remain on hold. However, I think it's worth highlighting that if the Hollywood A-Lister did indeed rock up at the Chapman Building carting wheelbarrows of cash and looking for majority shares, nobody would say "sorry Taylor hen, the Well Society voted in a non-binding consultation not to give up fan-ownership so you'll need to taxi it back to the airport". 😂

Heard a rumour that if Obika plays 37 minutes and wins two headers against Celtic he automatically gets a contract extension until May 2026. But don’t tell anybody.

So a director has resigned. We still have no CEO. We have 3 board members 2 of them well society. They don’t want to give up control and have put it to a non binding vote. They have said they can raise 600k Pa when just now it’s 100k at most. The LA consortium want us to be a feeder club for their youth. And oh we made a loss of £1.6m. does that sum up the AGM better without the spin ??????

I hope they score their goal early. That way it gives us plenty of time to score one more than them. We're not keeping a clean sheet. Get in their faces and show them no respect. Feed the Bair.

The great thing that is going on just now is that everyone is thinking about new ideas on how to improve things. A great post on twitter from Grant Russell highlights loads of options which could improve us . These types of people and the new WS board are definitely giving me hope for the future. Keep the debates and ideas going guys.

I am a WS member but don't pay a lot monthly as can't afford big monthly investment. Would be happy to increase now but I need assurances it would improve club. If WS can't keep us sustainable then an investor would interest me but that's for another day

I take your point and in general feel some fans are never happy. Re Alexander tho, the Sligo games did it for me , terrible performances and a big missed opportunity too .. frustrating...I actually felt more for Steven hammel who never got the chance to work with the players he bought, but again timing played a part after the Raith cup tie.

Not often I agree with what you say dude, but i'm with you 100% on this.

Funnily enough, I was thinking exactly the same thing. If that's what the membersip wants then it will have to contribute more and quickly. We need to realise, that if there are no other aspects to a Society proposal other than increasing member income (and I'm confident there will be), then we're looking at roughly tripling average subscription levels i.e. from £5 monthly to £15 monthly or from £10 monthly to £30 monthly.

Until we have all the information it’s all a bit pie in the sky………..let’s see what’s on offer by who/what etc etc we are getting the usual knicker wetting when we don’t actually know all the facts

The challenge is we've not been profitable. The model hoped we'd sell players and hoped we'd be able to have cup runs to make things meet. That's not happened. Crowds are reducing and unlikely to ever increase, other revenues from tv etc have not been forthcoming. Our cost is 50:50 ratio on players v's other costs. Thinking from the eyes of an investor, if investing funds in a football club (even if I was a Well fan) I'd want control, I wouldn't want a well meaning society to have control the majority control. I personally don't believe we're any better off with a society owned model than we had for the previous +100 years of existence.

Yes, I'd be a bit concerned too. St Johnstone and St Mirren were in the right place at the right time. In St Mirren's case they sold old Love Street at the very height of the Retail boom when we all worshipped the big supermarkets. There was money in them thar stadia. In St Johnstone's case, they sold Muirton to a supermarket too, Asda on Dunkeld Road. A benefactor, farmer McDiarmid gifted them the ground for free to build a new stadium with plenty of surrounding land on the edge of town. In the Geoff Brown era they were rightly lauded as being a well run club and their war chest from the sale of Muirton, allowed them to push the boat out a bit on the playing side. Times change though and Geoff Brown and his family wanted out. The multi million war chest has now diminshed. Timing is critical in these matters, of course and after years of opposition, an expanding and wealthy Perth is gobbling up more land. The once sacrosanct land to the west of the A9 is being opened up to developers. For those of you who know Perth you'll be aware of the development at the old Auction Market site, and the new housing there. Bertha Park too, to the north west of the infamous Inveralmond roundabout is zoned for housing. So its quite conceivable that St Johnstone could flog McDiarmid Park to a housing developer (its within the existing settlement envelope and to the east of the A9 after all) and make a killing out of it. unlike Fir Park, there are no underground workings. Then build a new stadium on greenfield land to the west of the A9. Unlike the Motherwell conurbation, and it is a conurabtion, Perth is a wealthy wee city with a large rural hinterland and no ugly sisters nearby. That said they do attract smaller crowds than us and the population is smaller, but growing. In short, their situation is not quite the same as ours. They have more to gain, but more to lose.

I'm sure the Third Lanark, Clydebank and Gretna fans would disagree.

Not at the moment. It's simply gauging opinion on whether or not we would be open to the idea of outside investment which would result in The Well Society holding less than 50% of shares in MFC. Do doubt there will be further options once a preferred bidder has been decided upon and more details of the investment can be made official.

I don't mind being ambitious, but Wrexham is a one off, and there's mileage in their story because a relatively modest investment can lead to them moving up some divisions and thus generating more interest for the tv show. The best we can do is finish 3rd and maybe win a cup, but there's a few clubs with budgets and fan bases that eclipse ours that can't even do that. Shit, we often finish above a couple of them. The level of investment that is transformative enough to really make it interesting isn't going to happen, but I'd be open to someone putting enough in to help us become more sustainable and secure, and improve our academy and facilities. The WS losing a controlling stake isn't a red line for me, but the kind of investment required to make me happy with that is probably out of reach.

Wellgirl, sadly it mirrors life. Those that shout loudest and the most often always appear to be the majority when in fact they are not. And what do they do when their obsession makes little sense? They shout even louder and more often. Keep fighting the good fight. Common sense usually wins through. We will have to disagree on Alexander though. His time really had come to an end. As it does for all Managers in the long run.

FWIW I do believe that we should endeavour to have the Society keep its majority share. In my opinion it is the best way to safeguard the future of the club. However, in my opinion there are some changes needed within the club & society to changed the current direction of the club. Firstly, Comms from both parties need to be massively improved. Poor standards of club comms has been well documented since Alan Burrows left the club. This was highlighted with Kettlewells contract extension announcement this week. Amateur wouldn’t even be the word for it. In terms of the society I think the most insightful and worthwhile communication from it has come on here and P&B from Jay and Dez. Secondly, the Club and Well Society seem to be pulling in different directions. Visions of both need to align in order for us to make any progress. Believe this can be seen with recent talk of ‘investment’. Why wasn’t the Well Society given more time to formulate a a long term development plan before *that video and talk of investment was put to fans? Now it’s come across that Club Board are keen for investment ASAP whilst the Society are still coming up with their plan. Some joined up thinking would be good. Investment should be welcomed but only from the right parties. It must be ensured that the values of potential investors match those of the club and that they’re willing to work alongside the Well Society to protect the long term future of the club. It is absolutely imperative that a CEO is appointed ASAP so that we can begin to move forward on any front. Youth development and implementing effective player trading must be at the forefront of any long term strategies being proposed. Major changes needed in terms of recruitment process for us to start moving forward. Ideally before the Summer. If we can get the recruitment right and Sell a Lennon Miller or 2, we will be absolutely fine.

Not just that. It's at the stage where the club posts anything on twitter or Facebook and some fans are out shouting at everything. I'm not talking about folks right to have a say. It's just the constant creeping negativity that's getting on my every last nerve. And some of it is just over the top. I'm sick of it. It's been like this since folk wanted Alexander out. Kettlewell can't even give a media interview without being called out and personal comments made.

Was told today that 2 EK businessman with US backers are looking to make a bid for a minority stake in the club. Idea would be around providing an interest free credit line each season to the club with a return on investment only through player sales. They are MFC fans and see the Lanarkshire area as having huge potential in growing and developing home grown and US talent and would make separate investment specifically in that area . Not sure if this is one of the reported two offers in todays papers If true the academy is 100% where I would like us to focus on investing over the next 3-5yrs as it should be literally the life blood of our club in helping us become financially sustainable

If injured then that fits our signing policy perfectly 😜😜

Good post , and the merits of Fan ownership are great in principle, however when applied to a club of Motherwells size there is a fundamental problem ie our fan base , even if every single fan joined the WS would still be too small to make it a sustainable model. So the club is going to need additional outside investment, which in turn raises the question of would a potential investor be interested in commiting money without gaining control of the club? For me I struggle to see how the club can attract investment with the WS in place, I hope that not the case but at the moment I don't think we are an attractive proposition.

Do you know if I was a young man id say no too. However I'm at a stage in my life where there's less ahead than there is behind and I'd fed up with the struggle just keeping our heads above water. The possibility of a few seasons before I croak it where where had genuine excitement and even the slightest possibility of I cup I think I'd go for it. Selfish ? Yeah, but after putting money in for 46 years I'm fed up with the piss poor level of expectation. Before anyone starts listing what we've done I'm well aware of it I've been at them all. Other than a last minute winner to get top six in the most turgid football you could ever imagine the trend looks like being one way. It might not be but the odds are it probably is, so yeah I'd go for a stab at being bought over. I know there's risks but there are risks being fan owned too. There are no guarantees in life.

As others have mentioned, I think we'll find it incredibly difficult to find anyone, be it a group of investors or an individual, who would be willing to throw their money into a project without having control over said project. Add in the fact that the controlling interest isn't being held by a fellow wealthy individual or group with experience in business, but a large swathe of what can only be termed as non-business savvy individuals for the most part. What group or individual is going to find that an attractive proposition? Outwith a rich Motherwell fan who simply wants to burn some money helping a club he or his ancestors supported, I don't see it as being feasible. We can't have our cake and eat it, so to speak. We either sell up properly and entice a wealthy owner who would be the actual owner, or we continue as is.

Potential investors want a return on their money, ie controlling interest in the club, ownership of the stadium / land etc and for me the WS is a major obstacle to that for investors. Given our very limited fan base it was never going to be a long term workable solution and would any investor want to put money into the club with no certainty of a return / profit and not having control of the club, for me I can't see it happening.

Unfortunately for us, the fan ownership (which I am part of) has slowly dragged us down. Why? Our fan ownership would work if we could at least double the amount of members. The number we have at present makes it very difficult to make progress, because over the years costs go up, but our membership doesn't go up to compensate , so you eventually reach a point where what we put into the club isn't enough. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. That's why if we could put some kind of package together for interested people to invest in conjunction with the Well Society, this would put us a more stable footing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakrie_Group This is the conglomerate who own Brisbane Roar. From their Wikipedia Page Football club[edit] Brisbane Roar (2012-present)[edit] Bakrie Group, through PT. Pelita Jaya Cronus acquired A-League title-holders Brisbane Roar FC in 2011. Bakrie Group initially purchased 70% of the club shares, but in 2012 the Football Federation Australia (FFA) announced that the Bakrie Group has acquired 100% ownership of A-League club Brisbane Roar FC.[35] In May 2016, Brisbane Roar faced an administrative and financial turbulences when the team ownership held investment in the club, resulting in Brisbane Roar failure to pay staff and players.[36] C.S. Visé (2011-2014)[edit] C.S. Visé, a second division league Belgium football club was acquired by Bakrie Group in 2011,[37] during Bakrie's ownership Indonesian youth players like Syamsir Alam, Manahati Lestusen and Alfin Tuasalamony were called to play for the club.[38] C.S Vise was eventually sold by Bakrie Group in 2014.[39] https://asiatimes.com/2021/06/indonesia-tycoons-name-is-mud-over-unpaid-disaster-dues/ JAKARTA – Fifteen years since a flood of toxic mud and gas spewing out of a breached natural gas well cut road links and forced the mass evacuation of East Java villagers, firms controlled by coal tycoon Aburizal Bakrie have still to pay at least US$100 million in compensation for causing the disaster. Although the flow from the world’s largest mud volcano has been contained by levees since late 2008 – and is now expelling only a fraction of the 120,000 cubic meters a day it was at its height – experts expect the after-effects will continue to be a problem for the next 30 years. They warn that because the levees are only made of compacted earth, there is still a real danger of heavy monsoonal rain or increased seismic activity triggering a catastrophic collapse, unleashing an avalanche of mud across an even wider area. “It is mind-boggling to me that the mud is still flowing,” says one source who was involved in the project at the time of the eruption. “There was a lot of evidence in the seismic of a sub-surface feature, but we thought we were drilling a reef, not a volcano.” Mud volcanoes are not volcanoes in the accepted sense because they don’t produce magma. They are normally formed when hot water from deep beneath the surface mixes with subterranean mineral deposits and is forced upwards through a geological fault. Officials said last December they were still considering ways to collect on the $54.8 million loan taken out by the Bakrie-owned PT Lapindo Bratas and subsidiary PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya to recompense the government for providing the bridging finance to compensate many of the victims. Lapindo claims to have already paid as much as 8 trillion rupiah ($560 million) as part of the emergency response and victim resettlement, but the State Audit Agency (BKS) says it now remains liable for 1.5 trillion rupiah ($105 million), covering the principal, interest payments and accumulated penalties built up over the past decade.

The fact that Wilson, Weir and McMahon are stepping back and have suddenly decided fan ownership isn't viable doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. I think they have always viewed fan ownership as a means to allow them to continue to run the club and have probably convinced themselves they are the only people in the support capable of it. They have obviously put a look of work into the club which they should be thanked for but it always has to be remembered that they all worked for Royal Of Bank Scotland and were in prominent positions when it was run into the ground by Fred Goodwin. Bankers will always say the richest person in the room is the one you have to listen to but the vast majority of us aren't bankers and we all should bear in mind who actually paid the bill for Royal Bank Of Scotland going under and who walked away with a lot of money. I think after this week it's clear that the infamous video wasn't aimed at attracting investors as this has obviously been going on for longer than a few weeks. The video was aimed at us to demoralise us and prime us for the suggestion that we need to sell the Well Society shares to whoever is interested. The reason we don't have a CEO is because the two interested parties want to appoint their own people and Weir and McMahon have chosen to prioritise driving through a sale over the day to day running of the club. A manager who can't win a football match with a secret contract, videos that embarrass us and make it seem like the club have no money, vital positions unfilled on and off field and the threat of a bogeyman auditor popping up again. It's all designed to bully us into handing the club over. The Society needs to be proactive and put out some figures that people can actually understand. We have a top 10 budget in the country but everyone I talk to goes on about "no money". We are spending over £5 million a year on wages while being owned by the Society, that doesn't look like "no money" to me. We need a great deal more information about the club's financial status at the moment relative to other clubs and we need it put forward in way that the average society member can comprehend. We also need people to be able to separate the on and off field factors, we can't abandon fan ownership because Kettlewell and Daws are useless in the transfer market.