Leaderboard

Bigger than you?

Handsome/Ginger/Teuchter/Staunch as fuck, though.

It wont be worth much on here mate, the usual folk will be out with their pitchforks giving OUR OWN players pelters before they have even pulled on the training gear as thats how they like to live their life. Makes you wonder why they even support Motherwell, its chronic behaviour

What we really need to do is sign a striker that has a great scoring record that no one else is looking at and pay them a wage no one else can compare with,easy

People need to wake up to reality it's probably the only market we can afford. That said it gives the usual suspects who think every player we sign is shite an early season boost of trolling and negative posting its their pre season.

Too late it's already happened.

Tbh I don't think Robinson is that bad a signing and if we start the season with Bair, the Serb, Moses and Robinson that looks decent and suggests that we are hopefully switching to two up top. The problem is clearly central defence and centre mid where we seem to be spending money without getting what we need.

You say this every time, but have rarely (never) been able to give a single example of better players in our price range who want to play for us. Also, there is no point in spending all our money on 1 player when we have 4 positions that need filled.

Mostly sub appearances and he was also playing wide rather than as a centre forward. He scored 12 goals the previous season.

2 more than Bair when he signed.. imagine how lethal ZR9 will be

Kettlewell’s management and recruitment actually mirrors the club itself. Cheap, unimaginable, tinpot, receding by the year and on a one way street to the lower leagues and part time football. It really is a matter of when and not if both of those scenarios happen.

Good move for him, he was never really up to premiership standard, had a decent turn of pace but not much else.

Don’t know what height and weight he is.

And that's another one in the door. Serbian striker has signed on Stuparevic Two years with the option of another year

Dickie and Feely agreed to it, so McMahon will say the Society were consulted. And I'm not saying that is a valid argument, but he will dress it up that way. Barmack might even have genuinely understood that to be the case given their position within the Society and that they were introduced to him as Society Board Members. The fact it appears they did their own thing without reference to their WS Board colleagues will be conveniently ignored. I also think the outstanding Loan is an issue and the Exec Board want it gone asap. That would further weaken the Society's position. Ironic if they use the Society share purchase money to repay the balance. All set up for a majority shareholding and Fir Park to fall into Barmack's hands.

To make matters worse, it appears that the Society wasn't even consulted on the matched contributions mentioned in the proposal. It's not as if Barmack and the executive board sat down with the Society board and agreed on a figure that everyone thought was acceptable. The effective cancellation of 50% of the loan, which amounts to just under half a million pounds, adds to these concerns. As far as I can tell from what I've heard, this has all been imposed on the Society, though I may be mistaken. Those seeking confirmation can approach the Society board directly. I'm willing to be corrected on this, and I would actually welcome that. The idea that the club board and Erik Barmack determined these figures without consulting the Society itself seems unreasonable and verges on arrogance.

Spot on David. All to the point and exactly how every fan I have spoken to sees things. I've picked out one paragraph just to add that I think it is not only the Club's assets that need protecting. This proposal would vastly reduce/eliminate funds held by the Society as monies would be committed to match EBs input and to purchase any new shares not taken up by existing Shareholders....... should any funds be available. And there is a strong possibility that Members' contributions well drop off considerably. The sop that monies from transfer income might be set aside for the Society clearly recognises that possibility. Kind of ironic as well, the Club hands cash to the Society so we can hand it straight back to them. And that's not even looking at the ludicrous condition that the Society write off a huge chunk of money owed to it by MFC.

Therein lies the problem, it seems obvious to me that the current board want out and want their cash out as well. So it's no surprise they are all for accepting Barmacks offer. Get the deal approved and then quietly sell their shares to Barmack job done, for me their commitment to preserve fan ownership is about as likely as Scotland winning the Euros. So don't hold your breath waiting for them to reject the deal.

I posted my response to the update from the club board over yonder, so I figured I may as well post it here too: The club board's statement fails to address the core issues surrounding Erik Barmack's investment proposal adequately. Despite claims of transparency and the promise of detailed information, Barmack himself has admitted that he only possesses a fraction of the necessary data to formulate a robust business plan. This raises serious concerns about the thoroughness and preparedness of this investment proposal. The absence of a detailed business plan, which should have been a prerequisite for consideration, leaves us with significant uncertainty. The club's valuation, heavily contested by supporters, appears based on speculative and incomplete data, further undermining confidence in the proposed deal. A valuation of £4m, justified through questionable adjustments and assumptions, does not align with the reality of our club's assets and potential. The club board's argument that public meetings are impractical due to the number of voters is a weak excuse for avoiding direct engagement. Written statements cannot substitute for the dynamic exchange of a public forum, where questions can be answered in real-time, and accountability is immediate. The assertion that the club is not in imminent financial difficulty contradicts the rationale for seeking investment. If the club’s finances are stable, as claimed, why is there a sudden push to bring in external investors? This inconsistency is troubling and suggests either financial mismanagement or a hidden agenda. The claim that issuing new shares to Erik Barmack, while also offering shares to the Well Society and other shareholders, will preserve fan ownership is misleading. The staged investment over six years, culminating in Barmack owning 49% of the shares, effectively hands over substantial control, if not a majority, and risks undermining the very foundation of fan ownership. The board's confidence in the safeguards against asset stripping is unconvincing. The supposed protections do little to alleviate concerns about long-term control and influence over club assets, including Fir Park. Finally, the proposed board structure, even with assurances of balanced representation, does not guarantee that fan interests will be safeguarded. The potential for conflicts of interest and undue influence remains high, particularly with Barmack appointing two of his own to the board. It is imperative, in my opinion, that the board halts this process until a full, detailed business plan is presented and subjected to rigorous scrutiny. The future of our club and the principle of fan ownership are too important to be compromised by incomplete and inadequately supported proposals.

Do you really believe that's how the executive board sees this situation playing out? That Barmack's offer gets rejected and they are simply shown the door? I genuinely think they expect the offer to be accepted. From their perspective, they believe they can use their superior business acumen to explain to the members why it's not the offer that's flawed, but our understanding of it. If Barmack's offer is rejected, I fully expect he'll return with a new proposal. He's not going to disappear unless the club, through the Society board, presents an alternative that eliminates the need for Barmack or his offer in its current form.

The last point in this sentence is a huge factor in my opinion. We may have the money to spend, but two factors come into play in any given transfer window. 1. Are there players available on the open market who justify that increased expenditure on a single individual? 2. Do those players even want to come to Motherwell? For instance, instead of signing four players at the wage we usually offer for a single player, let's say we actually do consider combining those four salaries to buy one player. Just for arguments sake. You'll often find that players commanding the equivalent of four players' wages at our level will attract interest from clubs higher up the hierarchy, who see that combined four-player salary as their standard, single-player salary. Consequently, they are likely to offer far more than we can. In essence, it wouldn't work. It's a very simplistic way of looking at transfer dealings. It’s easy to plan with rough estimates, but the real world is usually far more complicated.

Because that's not how the footballing world actually works.

Well we are a small fan owned club so what do you expected? The only reason we've hung with the big boys so long is that we should have been relegated three times and got away with it due to the absolute shit show that is Scottish football. Pretty much the whole of Scottish football is pure diddy stuff so we're always fighting against the tide just in terms of having sensible medium term goals and maintaining a standard of professionalism. But hey, that's how it is and if it takes more out of you than it gives back, we're all allowed to walk away. And honestly, I'd rather support Motherwell as is, than have some billionaire come in as use us at a play thing. Motherwell might be a lot of things that aren't very inspiring but we are authentic.

I thought the statement was nothing more than a smokescreen, there is no need to get worked up about valuations, of more concern is potential shareholdings and there is plenty to be concerned about there. EB has gone silent on his tweaked offer, and no longer posting on p&b. The club post on fb did produce a number of positive comments, however I wonder how many will have a vote as I doubt they are WS members. The WS really need to step up to plate now, with a detailed rebutal, but how we have got ourselves into a situation where the Board of the largest shareholder in the club are not leading the negotiations,but a chairman leaving the club is, well thats beyond me

Kettlewell will be away before Christmas. He's not got a clue what he's doing. Another 15 game winless run coming up.

Slattery!!! Get in!!! A year with the option of a further year