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??

Couldn`t agree more with all that has been said! I would take real competitive games over boring friendlies any time. Like a few of you I think it can only help us in terms of getting sharper for the upcoming league campaign. As has been said, the squad is looking better every week with the promise of more to come. Don`t think I have ever been looking forward to a new season as much as I am this one.

There have been a few memorable games in my years of watching the Well! One that comes to mind at the moment is a game against celtic at Hampden and we were 2-0 down after about half an hour or something. I remember celtics big new signing (Wullie Falconer!!!) scoring a screamer from what seemed like just inside the touchline nearest the dug outs to put them 2 ahead. I think we got a goal back before half time (not sure who though - maybe Kirky) and then TC lobbed the goalie from the far corner of the box and i`m sure it bounced on the line before nestling in the corner of the net! - Celebrations were plentiful and brilliant as we were right next to the gutted hordes of unwashed!! Of course, I could be talking complete jibberish here and mixing two games I remember into one!! - Any help confirming my memory of this game would be appreciated!! Still think the game where Faddy stuck the best hat-trick I have ever seen (mentioned on the other thread) past Livingston is up there with the best games I have been too!

Back on topic! Welcome to The Well Chris! I am liking the way the team is beginning to shape up. Few more signings and fingers crossed for the season ahead!

Well73 Its the best pain in the hole Ive ever had then! !!! Really really sorry but the joke is too obvious...............!!!

2 tickets bought!! Possibility of going back for one more! So 180 (hopefully 181!)

Shite...!!! As i said, I managed to read most of the thread!! That being the case, I hearby plead, nae demand that our managerial team for next season are Co Adrianse and Luc Nijholt. Where were they before? - Red bull i think u said. Can`t imagine they would have been paid more than what Muttley and side kick were on here, if reports are to be believed. I would have been negotiating with them before desparate dan had emptied his office. I know flow and Leeann read these boards! - A word in JB`s ear and we have a winning team. He is suited to smaller clubs. I`m sure Adrianse had a not so successful spell at Ajax and then moved down so to speak to AZ and was a revelation. He has always taken on smaller clubs as a job if I remember correctly. I reckon they would be brilliant for us if they were to arrive. Come on JB, you know its right!!

Managed to make my way through most of this thread and I have to say that Luc was my choice the last time before Desparate Dan got the job! This time though, I`m not so sure Luc would be my first choice. I take on board that he has some experience but from what i can gather it is mainly at the coaching/assistant manager level. I think we should wait and see who applies as, over the years, we have had a few interesting applications have we not?? - Was there not a top dutch manager (hiddink maybe?) who applied for the job prior to kampman or Mcleish getting it. Cannae quite remember! My own choice would be Co-Adrianse for what its worth! - He has an outstanding record of taking small(er) teams and having decent success with them. Did he not win the league with AZ Alkmaar in Holland? In saying that, im pretty sure he will be in a job somewhere and would be outside the realms of our compensation payment limits even if he did want to take our job! Anyway, riddance to Muttley as I certainly dont want a half hearted manager in charge of our club. Good on JB for maximising every penny from the sheepies and roll on next season, Europa and all!

Hi, I have just registered on the new site. Was on the old site for a while though but rarely posted. However, I felt compelled after having the misfortune of watching the SPL highlights on BBC the other night. Now, I was at Easter road on Saturday and to my eyes, we completely dominated the 2nd half and more than held our own in the first half despite going a goal down. Just by memory, I reckon that Hibs had about 3 shots in total during the game, scoring one and the others being quite comfortable for Buzz. We should have scored 3 or 4 goals in the game but didnt. Watching the highlights on the beeb , it was quite clear that they thought that we snatched a point and in fact only showed about 2 of our chances making it look as though they were on top for most of the game! I couldnt quite beleive it and had to have another watch at it to be sure I had just heard them saying what they said!!!! Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had the misfortune of seeing this program! Sorry if this has been posted or mentioned before but thought I should mention it!! Cheers!