weeyin

I just use: wellsociety@motherwellfc.co.uk When Alison was there, she used to respond within a day or so. Katie McCrossan took over from Alison I believe, but I have no reason to doubt she will be just as quick.

I'm still amazed that the critics don't understand how the WS has provided much needed finance to the club each year since its inception. If nothing else, that has made it invaluable.

That plus McGhee's attacking flair and Broon's defensive nous.

I agree they shouldn't be responding to every individual question on a daily basis, but if it's true, for example, that our new benefactor is choosing who to put on the WS Board, the members should be given the chance to review, comment and if they want to, vote against that option. I wouldn't expect many to object, but if the WS ends up doing things behind our backs without any consultation and without requiring consent of the members then we might as well just scrap members' voting rights. I'd at least expect something along the lines of "Here's the conditions of the loan, it's our only realistic opportunity to buy the shares for the society, the vote to approve will take place on Friday" - or whatever. I'm sure I'd vote yes, but I'd like the right to vote. It's bad enough that the Society excludes non-local members from participating the their meetings - we should at least be participating in something as significant as this.

No, I was just pointing out the flaw in your logic that somehow he must take the blame for failure, but not get any credit for success. (and the "stalker" comment is just bizarre).

Aye, I remember all your posts last season praising Black for his contribution to our 2nd place finish. Or was he not as culpable as anyone for that?

I'm deadly serious for various reasons. The main one being that the leagues north and south of the border are littered with clubs who have gone to the wall or are in serious financial straits thanks to benefactors who decided they knew best. From Hearts to Gretna to Dundee to Livingston to Rangers. I'm not saying it will be the case here, but nepotism is rarely beneficial and I'm wary of deal conditions that involve giving family members jobs. Having a successful business is great, but as many have shown in the past, football is not your regular business model. If it was, we'd have a healthy league with healthy profits every year from every club. A look back at my posts will show I'm in favour of outside investments, but as a Society member, I feel there should be consulation on the details of the deal. I have been around the block enough times to know everything in business is negotiable.

I know beggars can't be choosers, but I hope there's not too many strings. I'm a supporter of the Well Society and don't like the idea of unelected board members - goes against the grain of members having control.

guff

It took me longer than 6 weeks to complete the transaction of buying a house after my offer was accepted - and that was a straightforward deal. I imagine the financing of a football club is a little more complicated given the structure of the deal from an offshore benefactor. In my experience, lawyers both side of the Atlantic take their own sweet time to ratify the paperwork.

The shortlist was created from 58 applicants. The last of the applicants was interviewed this week. A decision will be made as soon as possible. What other updates did you expect?

Aye, the club is obviously clueless, what with trying to shore up our losses, bring in new investment and hire a new manager to move the club forward. Much more important that they appease the posters on here than make sure everything is in place before announcing it. (And didn't 'Flow point out on Twitter we had something like 8 pre-season games, it was just that most of them were behind closed doors?)

Given there were no promises as to when the new appointment would be finalized, there is no delay.

I'm pretty confident that fear is misplaced. The timing of the resignation and takeover talks wasn't ideal, but there isn't anything unusual about any significant business transaction taking a few months, never mind six weeks. It's not like buying a poke of chips. As for the manager, it seems like we followed our usual process of getting a shortlist of 5 or 6, choosing the best fit and not responding to any of the pointless media speculation which has, as always, proved to be wide of the mark on a daily basis. If the new manager had been chosen before the takeover was in place then everyone on here would be moaning about how stupid the Board was for setting up a manager to be sacked by the new owner. We have been pretty savvy about filling the manager vacancy in the past, and while past performance is no guarantee fo future success, it's at least an indicator.

Good chance, unless Ashley has other candidates in mind.

Be funny when Malpas is introduced as the new gaffer.

Nobody from the club has said who has been interviewed or if the interviews are complete yet, have they?

Not that I'm advocating ignoring a guy if the doctors say he is healthy enough to work, but it does sound scary:

+1 on this. I expected last season would be the struggle after the transition. Having said that, I have been watching this mob long enough to know that any season could turn out like this one. With such a small squad, it only takes a few players to drop performance levels and/or an injury or two to kick off a downward spiral that can be difficult to escape. Just like winning can become a habit, losing can become a habit too.

Aye, much better we rush into an appointment in time for one game, than take a few extra days to make sure we hire the right man for the next few years.

If the Board has time to interview people they don't want to hire to do favours for agents who will reciprocate by trying to screw them over at every turn, they need to rethink their priorities.

Shiels has already been linked to the St. Mirren job (along, of course, with Stark and Adams). The press are just cutting and pasting "St. Mirren" into their old Motherwell articles.

He didn't exactly inspire the team that season, or we wouldn't have needed his free kick.

Accies might well be outperforming us for a few games so far this season, but given that they have been mostly stuck in the lower leagues recently, I think I'll take our budget and overall performances, thanks. I have no idea what budget ICT are on, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't similar to ours. But for all that, in the past few years we have been the team that everyone that outspent us looked up to. Sooner or later, some of those teams (and the teams we outspent) were going to have a better season than us. Right now, I'm more concerned about getting the best out of our team and seeing where that takes us, rather than worrying about who spends what.

Hibs were 7th when he took over and Hearts were pretty much guaranteed to go down. With the resources available, he should have been able to keep them up. When he took us over, albeit in difficult circumstances, we finished bottom too. Moreover, the football wasn't exactly nice to watch. I have no argument with everything he did for us during a difficult time, but the club has moved on since then and we need new ideas, not old ones.