Alls well in Stirling

I've had a wee think about what I would like to see happen with the leagues. They are very rough thoughts but I reckon something like this would work. Top league of 202nd league of 22 4 up 4 down with a playoff system in the second league between 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th place teams. Below that we have a conference system with a conference premier league and regional leagues below that. For example, use the highland league, east of Scotland league etc for promotion/relegation to/from the conference premier! It's very much in the mould of the English system but that seems to work so why not. That gives the top league 19 home games with no split. It would be one home and one away game rather than the monotonous four games against each other each season. I accept that there may be meaningless games as the season progresses but the 4 relegation spots would hold some interest. I think this would work and personally see it as the most workable solution at the moment. Feel free to add bits or just rip it apart! Cheers

Just to add my wee bit to the whole Murphy leaving and where he is going! His agent, who was being unusually coy about the whole move, did state that he was going to Sheffield with one of his players on the 31st December!! Suppose we can put two and two together! Cheers Happy new year to all!

Was having a look on sky sports transfer(s) page and came across this story: Clicky Wonder if we are one of the scottish clubs linked with him?!?

Thanks for the responses. Good constructive points made and i reckon with a bit of tweaking, there could be a workable scheme in this. I actually did e-mail Leaane with the same broad outline of this idea. Hopefully something comes of it. On the actual monthly amount, i was basing that on a comment made previously in the thread where someone mentioned that the Well lotto was the equivalent £4.99 per month and that they didn`t notice it leaving their account each month. I was wondering what the figure would be where people would start noticing it leaving thir account each month!! I thought a figure of between £10 and £15 would be a reasonable figure. Looking at what people paid 10 years ago to the Pitch in fund, that would seem to be about right. As i mentioned in my first post, i would be more than willing to set something like this up in order to help our club. It would need to be packaged and promoted correctly to get people on board but i would like to see this work! Cheers

Ok, so i have been reading this site for a couple of years at least and have put the odd post on. Like others, i have been having a think about ways to raise money for our club. I`m afraid the best i can do is to come up with an idea that is a rip off of the St Mirren fans group trying to buy the club. Basically, it would be targetted primarily at season ticket holders (obviously open to anyone though) and would be the equivalent of paying in to one home game per month. The idea would be a direct debit paying that amount to the club each month. So for example: Motherwell have circa 3000 season ticket holders. Say 1000 of us agree to the monthly direct debit scheme. As a generic figure, the monthly direct debit would be £15. This equates to £15000 per month or £180,000 per year. I have noticed earlier on this thread regarding the Well lotto that some people have said you don`t notice £5-£10 leaving your account each month. Would this stretch as far as £15 for some people?? I know i would be willing to do this as it would go some way to making up on shortfalls on budgets. Now, this is just and idea! - May be a bad idea or it may not be a bad idea. Please feel free to tear it apart, mould it slightly or agree! Cheers

Being a Monday morning and a bit bored at work, I was having a look through Sky Sports site and found this: CLicky I know there are championship clubs linked to him but there is always that small chance that we could get him on board especially as he has said he is open to a move. Looks to have a wee bit of pedigree having played in Italy and Portugal!

Well from that list, in my opinion, only one of them is a recognised right back and he is 17! Hateley sees himself as a midfielder who fills in at right back now and again. I think right back IS his best position but what do I know! Saunders is a centre back trying his best to play right back when put there. Page has been used more as a left back and midfielder than a right back any time he has come on. Not quite sure what his best position is to be honest. Devlin is only 17 so I wouldn`t imagine he is ready for the 1st team although he may surprise us! Granted, we have 4 players who could potentially fill in at right back. It may just be that they are not the the answer.

Talking of full backs, I noticed that Robbie Neilson has mutually agreed with Leicester to be released from the club. Does anyone think that he could be a solution to our right back problem? - Don`t know if it is a huge problem but Neilson is a recognised right back. I seem to remember that he was a fairly steady player and had a helluva long throw!!

Found this on sky sports transfer clockwatch... Hopefully a left winger to give us some much needed balance! Motherwell manager Stuart McCall is keen to improve his squad by signing Manchester City winger Donal McDermott on loan for the rest of the season. McCall is in the market to strengthen his squad and is hoping to bring in a loan signing before Saturday's SPL game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Irish midfielder McDermott is an option for Well and he was watched by the SPL club's representatives when playing 75 minutes for City's reserves against Rochdale on Tuesday night. City's director of football Brian Marwood told skysports.com: "We are looking to get Donal out on loan to continue his development. "This is a good option for him and it's up to the player to see if he wants to go." The 21-year-old, who has yet to make a first-team appearance for City, has been out on loan to MK Dons, Chesterfield and Scunthorpe United in the last two years. He earned rave reviews, particularly in his three-month stint with Chesterfield, where he scored five goals, and could now get a chance in Scotland.

Gettin!! Lets keep the concentration and keep big foot quiet now! C`mon ye well!!

Just to add my wee bit that i know about our opponents! My wife and I had our honeymoon in Norway, or rather cruising around Norway and stopping at various locations, the first of which if i remember right was Alesund! Don`t remember it as being the most expensive place in Norway but it was a nice place to visit. Can`t really remember much about it tho! What has always stuck in my mind tho is a taxi driver telling us that the most famous footballing son of Alesund was none other than John Arne Riise! - He told us that he started his career there and actually took us past the stadium. Quite a nice wee stadium and from memory it was kind of up a hill at a hairpin bend where instead of turning the bend you go straight on to get to the ground!! Apologies for the vague memories but it was 7 years ago! - It was a nice place to visit!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!! Jamie Murphy! - Joint top european scorer now! 1-0 the Well! Time to see the rest of the game out now all going well!

Don`t know if anyone else heard real radio sport this morning at half 7 but they said that us and aberdeen are interested in bringing Stephen Dobbie in from Swansea. Apparently he is keen to come back to Scotland. Sure someone else posted that they would like to see him at The Well earlier in this thread!

Good to hear that the club are looking at new ways of encouraging fans through the gate and also making it more affordable in the process. An idea that may be relevant to Motherwell is to look into copying the season ticket scheme Bradford ran (or still run). I don`t know the full details but I beleive it was along the lines of the first x thousand got to buy their ticket for £100 then there was a sliding scale up the way for the next x thousand people. As I said, I am very sketchy on the exact detail but would something like that work at Motherwell. If memory serves, Bradford doubled (or tripled) their season ticket uptake and it has remained at similar levels. Anyone with better detail than me, please feel free to correct what I have said! Cheers!

Just a tiny paragraph in the back of the paper today. Derry City have been thrown out of the Irish league and it looks like a few of their players could be on their way. Talk of Kevin Deery going to Accies, but more importantly for us, it says that Ger O` Brien could move too, with Motherwell keen. Have to be honest and say that I have not heard of this guy before and know little about him. Going by Gannon`s signings so far, I would say that there is a fair chance that he would be a good to decent signing for us. Anyone else heard about this??