steelboy

Who exactly do you think knows how to run a football club? All the people who are currently running the club and have been running the club for last 4-5 years are well society members. As Googles and Flippers says the proportion of members who are engaged is very small and the majority of the people who do make an effort to go along to meetings are generally happy to accept to whatever the society and club board say is preferable. The league reconstruction meeting proved that beyond any reasonable doubt (just think we could be looking at four completely meaningless games and then a reset to zero points if the board got their wishes). The society is effectively the status quo. The Well Society has cash reserves which the club needs and may be able to access cheap loans which the club cannot do. The society is underwriting the club at the moment, no one else is so it's correct that the society takes the controlling interest in the club. What is the alternative? People post about 'serious investors' as if there are people out there who want to throw their money away on a Scottish football club which has no prospect of ever making them a profit aside from selling Fir Park and groundsharing on the plastic with Accies. What we should take from the shambles of the last few months is that we need a chief executive who oversees the manager and makes sure that every contract given out matches the direction we want the club to be heading in. No more giving out two year deals to guys who are barely fit when they sign them never mind in 24 months time. No more 50 grand a year to guys who would struggle to hold down a starting position in the lower leagues.

Ojamaa has improved since he arrived but in terms of overall contribution he hasn't really added anything. I'd move him and o'brien on and give the new manager a chance to bring in his own players.

We could have signed Ojamaa and Clarkson and not bothered with O'Brien and Law. Clarkson has 8 in 8. Our entire squad has 10 in 16.

I don't think people would stay away if we had the same behind the scenes problems but were playing good football and winning games. The fact that we've only won 3 out of 18 games against the worst opposition we've ever faced is why people are staying away.

We have lost 50% of the support since the Stjarnan game. 2800 Well fans today and it'll be less next week.

Despite their first goal and his dodgy kick Twardzik by a mile.

Still terrible though.

We played well for half an hour then the midfield started blowing out their arse and they had three great chances before half time. Aside from their two headed goals they had 5 one on ones so we were very fortunate only to lose two. The fitness of our squad is a disgrace with vigurs the worst offender. Our subs summed us up. A 6ft 4 striker to right mid, a journeyman defender to centre mid and Kerr to left back when we needed a goal which was unbelievable. The club is in the financial shitter and the fans have lost interest. That's Stuart McCall's legacy.

Clarkson was sent packking in July, Henrik signed in the middle of August.

I don't think the board can be blamed for thinking we could get a top six finish this season and then next year rangers and hearts will be back with increased income. The problem is the contracts we have handed out in the last 24 months and our disastrous cup record.

John Boyle is the one setting deadlines and targets and talking to outside bidders. If he doesn't want anything more to do with the club or any money for his shares it's easy enough to do.

It feels like our season is on the line here. Even taking into account how much better United's squad is than ours a defeat will be very hard to take. The majority of the squad have already played their way out of Fir Park as far as i'm concerned but anyone who isn't visibly bursting a gut on saturday shouldn't play for us again.

I don't think he was suggesting there was a kickback, just inquiring what the societies interests were in agreeing to a non disclosure agreement.

I don't expect anything from the club. The society is a different matter, being a member means you should be aware of what the board is doing on your behalf. Agreeing to confidentiality agreements goes against the stated ethos of the society.

I got the impression it was the £800,000 but i'm not 100% sure.

Not much to report from the meeting. The society had an individual who was willing to loan money to see the society to the target but the board refused the offer because of conditions attached. No details of the conditions or the individual can be revealed because of another confidentiality agreement. Weir, Wilson and McMahon currently control the shareholding legally but can be dismissed at any time by Boyle so he effectively controls it. I asked who would receive the money from any sale of the shares to an outside consortium and was told 'it depends' and that there might not be any money. The current situation is being driven by John Boyle's concern for the long term future of the club. The same John Boyle who put us into administration and left hundreds of people stranded in Canada when he cut the throat of his airline. He must be a changed man in his old age. Brian McCafferty was very optimistic about the society reaching it's goals and even if i don't agree with the non disclosure agreements the board do appear to be doing everything they can to move things forward positively. It seems like the next meeting will either be informing us we have met the £800,000 or discussing what role the society should play in the event of an outside takeover.

The fact that so little has been made public is a stain on the credibilty of the society and goes against its stated objectives. The society should be working in the interest of its members not smoothing things over for the club board or John Boyle.

You don't even need to drop to anyone. We only used two subs at the weekend

Is there any point in going to this meeting tomorrow then? How does a society that has a stated aim of communicating with it's members end up in a position where they can't talk about the primary objective of the society which is acquiring the club?

The post the well society put up last week suggested the society rules could be changed to repay the members if fan ownership is abandoned. It also mentioned that the society would be repaid the £150,000 if the takeover goes through. It's unclear if the 5% shareholding was ever transferred to the society. That will be cleared up tomorrow. By the sounds of things Boyle has control of his shareholding again and Weir and McMahon were dismissed from controlling the trust.

I've seen him twice i think, Cowdenbeath and Fulham. He was a stand out at Central Park and scored a great goal and i thought he did well against Fulham. Josh Law plays every week yet we won't give the best player in our u20s a run out, as the thread title says that pretty much sums up at the moment.

You say you've only seen Thomas once but you don't think he's good enough? He may or may not go on to have a career at this level but surely it's straightforward enough that boys doing well in the u20s who are on the bench most weeks should get a run out at some point, especially when the first team players are doing so poorly?

Thomas played well against Fulham and has been performing for the u20s for a year and a half yet he hasn't made an appearance for the first team despite our struggles. Something not right there. I don't recall Murray playing against Clyde. If he was here this season he would struggle to contribute less than Mcmanus, Hammell, Ramsden and Cummins.

McFadden scoring his first goal of the season and by most reports having his first good game of the season on 22/11 doesn't point to it being a mistake letting him go. This result and performance isn't surprising or even disappointing. Our goals for the season should be (i) finish above county and st mirren (ii) hope for some luck to make some money out the scottish cup (iii) count down the days until 1/6/2015 when we can show the majority of the clowns in our squad (but sadly not mcmanus, hammell or lasley) the door.

Another clean sheet today would a great platform for the big cup game next Saturday.