David

Nice one, should be a decent little warm-up game. Not far away as well, which is a bonus.

An excellent gesture. Well done to those involved.

Even if he was all over the back pages tomorrow morning with a Celtic shirt on whilst hugging Lennon I'd still want him to play on Saturday. He's Hammells's friend, and will bring attention to the game. It has fuck all to do with him playing for Motherwell in the future.

If someone had asked me to guess which two posters were "not bothered" by McFadden playing on Saturday I'd have picked MJC and Steelboy. One is easily the most depressing person I've seen grace a football forum, and the other is probably still crying about his big team playing in division 3. Why don't the both of you just lighten up and relax? It's a game that is intended to put some cash into the pocket of a player who really deserves it, and having McFadden playing will hopefully pull some more punters into the stadium. Buy a ticket, go along and have a good time.

The commentary will be probably.

I don't think it's sensible to be looking for anything other than a top six finish and maybe a decent cup run. We do have the bonus of some European football this season as well, which is good.

What does a dish usually served in the English midlands have to do with anything?

I agree completely that the television money should be split more evenly, but it's all too easy to say that we want a share of the gate money when our average attendance sees us ranked seventh in a league of twelve. Even if this was brought up for a vote under a new democratic system I doubt we'd see positive responses from the likes of Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs or Dundee United.

I doubt it. The club will source volunteers for such a thing I'd reckon.

Maybe we can try and use one of the many other Newco/Rangers threads for discussing that subject and get this thread back to us moaning about our lack of transfer activity? Every time I log on and see this thread has been bumped I get the fear that one of our few first team regulars has been punted, only to see chat about Dundee and Sky TV deals. I'm not sure how much my heart can take to be honest

It appears that the ins/outs thread is veering off topic, so I thought a general chit-chat thread for anything Motherwell-related to the Newco situation post-Division 3 announcement would be an idea. As much as I'd like to believe that Sky will honour the original contract I can't see them doing that, and I wouldn't blame them if they didn't. They're in the business of making money, and why they would want to pay the same price for what they will see as an inferior product is beyond me. An SPL without Rangers in it is less attractive to virtually every non-Scottish football fan who follows our game and doesn't support one of the other SPL clubs. The sad thing is, if Sky do decide they wish to renegotiate the original terms of the contract there'll be no doubt that it'll be them who face the flak, when it should actually be those in charge of our game who marketed the whole SPL around two clubs in the first place. The fact that there is even talk of there being a termination clause in the television contract should either one of the Old Firm clubs fall out of the SPL is ridiculous. Our chairmen were the ones who signed that contract, and as such should be held completely responsible if it comes back to bite us in the backside.

I'm hoping that yesterdays result won't cause any kneejerk posts in this thread. Basically, what are your expectations going into the new season? Despite the whole Rangers/doomsday carry-on we've seen over the close season I can honestly say that my expectations are the same as always. I think we should be looking at cementing a top six place in the league. Anything above that is a bonus. I also hope to get a decent run in one of the domestic cups. By that I mean maybe a quarter final or something. As far as Europe goes, I have no real expectations there apart from the players giving 100% and giving us something to cheer about at some point.

I'm not even going to try and find out if this article has been posted before;

How long is your seat held for before they open it up for someone else to take?

I only mentioned six months because that would take us to the next transfer window.

Don't mistake my posts as being negative, as they aren't. I'd certainly encourage anyone who has the means to do so to get along to Fir Park whenever they can. I just don't think we'll see an increase in the average numbers we attract on a week in and week out basis. We haven't managed it up until now, and I don't see that changing. As I said, with the current financial climate in the UK, and especially in the Lanarkshire area, there just aren't the people with a spare twenty quid to go to a game (more if they have children). I think the core support we have is basically the support we have. It'll fluctuate when there's a "special attraction" such as a cup final, European night or whatever, but the numbers we've been getting for a while are pretty much it as far as I can see. I'd love to be wrong though.

Seriously though, do we honestly believe we'll see a noticeable difference in the number of people who show up regularly every week?

It has to be remembered that in these tough financial times there are a lot of people who simply can't pay twenty quid for ninety minutes of SPL football every two weeks, and they certainly can't afford the price of a season ticket. Couple that with the fact that a lot of people now work weekends as well and the truth is that we'll more than likely see a negligible rise in attendance this season, if any at all.

Which is why a contract worth less in financial terms but which would give him the opportunity to get some games under his belt may be considered more valuable to him at present.

Oh, I do. I'm just looking for something that could convince me (and others I'd imagine) to actually want to buy a season ticket and get excited about our European football this season. This is our first opportunity for a crack at a tournament that I never thought our club would see in my lifetime, and right now I honestly couldn't give a fuck. I would never have thought such a thing possible.

I'll try to keep it shorter and use less big words next time.

Is that the deal I keep hearing hasn't been officially signed yet? If not, then it's not an official deal. Sky will no doubt retain the SPL as part of it's programming, but unless they've already agreed to a deal they are perfectly within their rights to renegotiate. If I was buying a car and the side of it was scraped by a bus the night before I bought it I wouldn't expect to be paying the same amount for a lesser product. It may not be fair on the owner of the car as the damage to the product wasn't his fault, but that's business.

My first post regarding the Clarkson situation was this; Obviously the benefit to us would be having someone of decent quality on our books during our European push. The benefit to the player in question would be getting gametime and putting themselves in the shop window for a move in January. They both go hand in hand. And if they do, then fair play to them, as I said a few pages back as well. It wouldn't hurt to put the word out to them that we're willing to sit down & talk if they decide they wish to lose a bit on the wages side of things for six months in order to play some European football and get some much needed gametime under their belts, possibly leading to a better move in January than they would get at the moment. The amount of clubs who would be interested in a James McFadden with six months of football under his belt is certainly greater than those who are willing to take a gamble on a guy who's been on the treatment table more often than not recently. They wouldn't be playing any European football at Hibs this season, and the chances are pretty good that they'd be competing at the wrong end of the table as well. I meant reasonable to us, not the player in question. We'd be looking to trade off something other than money. As I said, the offer of six months which includes European football and a regular run of games. If McFadden comes into our team and plays for six months without any injury worries and at even half the level he's capable of he'll not doubt be touted as a Celtic target in January, along with other English clubs. You think so? I was under no real doubt that both would sign on here again. Where would they go? Hearts? Hibs? Aberdeen? All those clubs can offer is a bit more cash. They offer fuck all on the footballing front except for uncertainty and underachievement. At the end of the day, if a player is looking for money then he's never going to hang around Fir Park for long. We offer other factors than money to players who are looking at us as a viable employer. You don't think a McFadden or Clarkson can offer us something that our current strikers can't? Seriously? It's also worth taking into account the fact that a relatively recognisable new name signing generates interest at a club. Something like that would help to get people excited again, and would maybe even put more season ticket money in the clubs bank account, not to mention the usual merchandise sales and so forth. If McFadden signed a short-term deal with us tomorrow you can bet that our club shop will need a decent supply of his lettering and numbering for shirts over the next few weeks.

Isn't it the situation that the current deal we have with Sky expires at the end of the coming season though?

And you view that as a reason for them retaining the original terms of the deal that included two old firm clubs?