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Clarke hasn't selected certain players not because he wants the U21s to benefit, but because he is a fucking idiot.

You're right about the potential havoc - although most significant developments piss people and organisations off - but these issues aren't insurmountable if the proposal is properly consulted on and the right application for planning permission submitted. In simple planning terms, any application of this type would be one that is considered in the context of local physical and visual impacts vs economic and community benefits. The benefits of the latter would have to materially outweigh the disbenefits of the former. I'm a planner. If the Club or WS want any guidance on this, they can have my time in return for a couple of free match day pints and pies. I've also just read Stephen's document on P&B. Hats off to him for taking the time to put it together.

Firstly, apologies for the lengthy post. Ive had to read the clubs statement again a few times to make sure Im understanding it correctly. Dickie has clearly wanted this to be published "I feel I need to outline the circumstances of my departure." So neither the club nor the WS have done his legs here, albeit they could have refused to publish it. I was previously of a mind to thank the guy for his service and move on. But there are a number of things about the whole thing that bother me. Firstly, being born into a family that had enough money to buy a position on the club board does not in itself make you a suitable person to hold that position, regardless of how much experience you subsequently gained in the role. Dickie by his own admission (and McMahon) were the architects of the WS previous incarnation post Les Hutchison. An incarnation that was set up to be kept at arms length and have little influence over the day to day running of the club and used as a cash cow to support the club when required. Most fans have been rightly critical of this incarnation of the Society as it appeared very poorly run and had no apparent direction. Douglas Dickie was Vice Chair of the Society and Club Boards at that time. He had the power and influence to do things differently. He chose not to. As an outsider looking in with no connection to any individual on either side, this whole thing appears to have kicked off last October when Society members had the audacity to vote in some younger board members with energy, enthisiasm and a vision for what fan ownership should and could be. These individuals appear to have rocked the boat and the "old guard" could no longer keep the Society at arms length and control it as they had in the past. Now, this could merely be coincidence, but it appears to me that it was about this time that the mantra of the club not being financially sustainable going forward without outside investment first appeared and the now infamous "video" was hastily produced We all know what happened over the summer so no need to re-hash that. But as Mr Dickie claims in his statement "the Club is on a sound financial footing, the best for around 25years" Both positions cannot be true. I do also wonder about the departure of Allan Burrows and how all that came about? Did he want more for the fan ownership model? Was he being thwarted? Did he become frustrated? Were there already murmurings about changing the model and selling the club? Hard to believe that someone so devoted to the club would suddenly resign for no reason. The facts as I see them are..... Motherwell are a fan owned club. Fan ownership has been paid lip service by the old board for way to long. The majority shareholder has now realised it can actually exert some power within the club and has chosen to do so for the benefit of the club and the fan ownership model. A club director has chosen to support a path to effectively end fan ownership, despite his position on the Executive Board being inextricably linked to his position on the WS Board. Said directors position is at that point untenable. He resigns from the WS Board but he refuses to resign from the club board. The WS win the power struggle and invite applications for a new executive board. Said director reads the writing on the wall and decides in a fit of rage to go out punching and try to stir up some ill feeling towards the WS. So in summary, I no longer feel I can thank Mr Dickie for his service. It could have been so different. But ultimately he has chosen the nature of his departure and I do not think it reflects well on him.

Not happening . I asked CEO this very direct question at the meet the manager /ceo night . The response from CEO was 1. No medium or long term plans to move 2. Cost prohibitive and sale of ground would be fraction of what we need ,unlike St Mirren who got good money for prime site commercial land . Was fairly short response but certainly he put any idea of moving to bed

He's a record breaker, no manager will beat his stats. Not the record Rodgers wants...published at 21:57 British Summer Time 21:57 BST FT: Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic Brendan Rodgers is the only manager to witness his team concede seven goals in a Champions League game more than once. This is the third time it's happened on his watch. Barcelona and Paris St-Germain were the others to hit seven past Celtic during Rodgers' first spell at Celtic.

Remember when we were a bit disappointed at losing 1 - 0 to Borussia Dortmund away, and ultimately seeing Paul Lambert join them on a Bosman? At least Celtic won't have to worry about any German interest in their players.

Some nice comments from Simo on his time at Motherwell https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwy9195z131o "I have been dreaming of it," said Valakari. "I never took it for granted that I would come back here, but when I started my coaching career one of my things was 'yes, one day I would like to coach in Scotland'. "I started my professional career here so it was always a special place in my heart and how I see Scottish football, how I see this culture, everyone is breathing football. That is what I have been missing in my last positions. "Without Motherwell, I would not go to the Premier League, without Motherwell I would not go to the MLS, without Motherwell more likely I would not have played for the Finnish national team. Motherwell made me the player that I was."

Max Johnson and mika Biereth both starting for Sturm Graz in the champions league tonight against club Brugge.

I've messaged them on Facebook

It has crap transport links. I don't drive and when I was a member of nl leisure that was a sports centre I used very occasionally. There's a bus that goes to it I believe but only at night

£20 does seem a bit steep

The bus we got for 2017 league cup final was shocking. Was like one Cliff Richard drove in summer holiday. £20 is a bit ridiculous considering its £30 minimum a ticket

AT LEAST YOU DIDN'T WRITE IT IN ALL CAPS!!!

Cheers mate. Apologies to everyone for the font if it made the post difficult to read. I tried to be smart and include "quotes" but it seems to have thrown everything out of sync! They will be taking the controls for the telly off me soon! 😆

Aye, a very grown up and dignified response, which some would argue after yesterday's petulant rant he doesn't deserve in the slightest.

That's a nice 'get it up ye, Dickie'.

Heavy industry 🤝 Fitba stadiums I can see you drawing up your concept designs for the following: The Ravenscraig Excelsior Bamrack Park The JDs (Steelworks) Stadium Bob Park Park The Riku Danzakibowl Lunchtime is over. I should get back to work.

haha, I mean, I doubt Grant would have let that go out. Laura would probably have went on an almost racist xenophobic rant too.

I think it's both; the WS are working jointly with the Club to interview potential appointees to the Exec Board and co-options to its own. They released this statement earlier today: https://thewellsociety.uk/2024/10/02/update-on-board-recruitment-progress/?swcfpc=1

Aye, I work in construction consulting/design so totally appreciate all the nuances, too. Very much in the heavier side of industry, rather than fitba stadiums though.

Also. Who is in charge of the clubs out going media stuff? The statements that McMahon made, The fact the WS statements were treated like a different entity during the investment stuff and now Dickie's "toys oot" rant being posted. Get a fucking grip of that someone.

Putting an economics and business hat on a move is a no brainer. That said I'd rather a medium term programme of replacing the POD stand and Hunter stand with something similar to the Cooper, which would make Fir Park a very tight, enclosed and tidy wee ground. In relation to the Phil Odonnell stand, that is probably something both achievable and pretty necessary in the short term. The Hunter stand less important but still a well designed structure would give the club more space to play with for covered player/corporate facilities. Here is a mock up I done a few years back...

Not to move. We have a really interesting ground I like for park it’s definitely got some character to it. I’d rather be at fir park than anything resembling airdrie or st mittens ground which is what we’d end up with if we did move

Miller and Wilson are both in the u21 squad. Doig is back in the squad so Wilson probably won't start. It's impossible to predict what kind of team Gemmill will pick but it would be good to see Miller, Barron and Cameron as the starting midfield. If they win both games they should be straight into the finals. If they draw with Belgium and win in Kazakhstan it'll be a playoff.

It was announced he was leaving before his final game against Rangers. I'm sure he lead the team out because he was leaving.

I don't think anyone is questioning his commitment to the Club or the record of the work he's done alongside McMahon which is overwhelmingly positive. He says as much in his statement; the Club is being left in a secure financial position, setting up the WS as majority owner etc. What he neglects to mention in his statement is that he was willing to throw a lot (if not all) of that work away over the summer to bring in an investment which (blatantly, imho) was a terrible deal for the Club and would completely undermine, or even remove majority fan ownership. £300k for immediate effective control and Chairmanship of the Executive Board to someone without any previous experience of running a football club? Surely he can see the irony in that, given what he's said about the Society's sub-committee in his statement? The Society has put in triple (I think probably more) that in its time and not gotten anything other than a nod of thanks in the accounts and at the AGM. He has tarnished his good work with what happened this summer and with this final statement. I'm sorry, but you can't play down just how serious his actions over the summer could have been for the Club. The WS as majority owner has every right to interview who it wishes to appoint to the Executive Board as its representatives. The fact that he resigned as chair of the WS board because the opinion of the majority didn't agree with his own and subsequently remained in his seat on the Exec Board which was to represent the WS as a majority owner until now, is an absolute nonsense. To then to have the gall to expect he retains this seat effectively "just because" of his previous record absolutely reeks of cronyism and is everything that's wrong with Scottish football as a whole from top to bottom. There's a dignity in accepting that you've lost with grace and good wishes. This isn't it.

Allan Campbell got 24 U21 caps. Hardly suggests an issue with him...