2026/27 Ins & Outs Discussion

[weeyin]

You need to get some velcro letters for the kids' jerseys, because players rarely stick around at clubs these days - even the big clubs.

[Kmcalpin]

In news that will surprise no-one, Kofi Balmer will be leaving to join Bristol Rovers on a permanent deal.  

Good luck to the lad. His impending departure also frees up a squad place. 

[joewarkfanclub]

The whole investment chat is wrong headed for me.

What is investment?

Normally it means putting money into something short term with the expectation of a financial return at some point in the future.

I dont see how any investor makes money out of Motherwell FC without asset stripping us.

Scottish football isnt awash with money like the English Premiership. So European Football would be the only way to make money from us honestly, and we cant realistically offer that to any investor on a regular basis.

Id love to know what the score is at Hibs. If they have lost £13m in the last 3 years, what are the terms & expectations of the investors?

Even if they are honourable, it cant be a bottomless pit and they will pull the plug at some point.

The best way for us is to grow the club into an attractive proposition and sell some of our shareholding, whilst maintaining our 51% stake so that no one can sell anything out from under us.

Seems to me we are quite well along that path with attendances up, money in the bank and some saleable assets on the books.

Add in a progressive manager and potential Conference League football, I think its fair to say we are headed in the right direction.

Certainly much stronger than we were with the Barmack offer on the table.

[0Neils40yarder]

We will never be able to stop Celtic taking our manager or any player that they want because quite simply their fan base and finances are on a completely different level to us...no amount of investment will change that.

[bobbybingo]

The only consolation is, if Celtic take our players and/or manager, and they're successful, a bigger fish will take them away soon enough. If they're not successful, we already have their money.

Listening to them speak, I'm not convinced JBA is a certainty to leave. Just, on the other hand, sounds like a guy who's pretty sure he'll move on in the summer.

[grizzlyg]

8 hours ago, wellfan said:

The bigger picture for us in footballing terms is that JBA, and Wimmer to a lesser extent, has reset the club. That process was set in motion by the current board.

The only real concern for next season and beyond isn’t JBA leaving, which is inevitable at some point, but whether the board changes direction. I don’t think they will. They’ve been clear about the path they want the club on, and it feels like a structural shift rather than a short-term project.

The key test will be whether they appoint the next right man when the time comes, and whether the footballing direction remains consistent. If it does, revenue should continue to rise and, with that, the calibre of player and results will follow.

At agm they were saying the model and style of football would continue so if Jens goes then board would look for new candidate with same beliefs 

I am not convinced Jens will go. If he sees progress and can get good transfer kitty I think will stay. Sell Maswanhise and if we get say 5 million for Just we can invest and strengthen squad.

What a change in transformation since Feb 2025

[Stuwell2]

2 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

The whole investment chat is wrong headed for me.

What is investment?….I dont see how any investor makes money out of Motherwell FC without asset stripping…

I’ve stripped your post down to the point I want to reply to as I agree with most of what you’ve said but on this point I’d like to give my view of what we could do. 
Tony Bloom at Hearts is showing that his model can potentially give him a return via a share of the money made from transfers and as such we should look for a similar type of investor willing to make a similar deal with us with preferably non voting shares like the Hearts deal - probably at a lesser level but still I’d be looking at circa £6M minimum for a maximum 20% shares coming not only from the society but also our private shareholders so between the society and private shareholders we still have 80% holding. A £6M investment matched by say £2 or £3M by the club would give a healthy pot for buying players over the next couple of seasons. 
With the clubs position on and off the park this is probably the best time to make such a deal.
If no such deal is achievable at the moment then I think we should continue with the “organic growth “ that we are currently trying to achieve while continuing to look for a deal. 

[thewelllfan]

I'm firmly of the opinion that if we lose Jens I actively want us to sell some of our best players. I highly doubt we're going to get another manager that makes Maswanhise as effective as he has been this season. Same can probably be said for Just and Watt who are both having break out seasons at 26 and as an asset are at their peak valuation while a Motherwell player. I think that of the 3 Just will be the hardest to replace. Watt's replacement is already in the building (Priestman). 

Theoretically if we lost Jens and sell the 3 of them we could be looking at close to 10M. That would set the club up for the next decade and make the renovation of FP/New ground a lot less of a risk.

[Yassin]

 I really don't think the Motherwell manager being interested in the Celtic job is a massive exclusive. 

[joewarkfanclub]

2 hours ago, Stuwell2 said:

I’ve stripped your post down to the point I want to reply to as I agree with most of what you’ve said but on this point I’d like to give my view of what we could do. 
Tony Bloom at Hearts is showing that his model can potentially give him a return via a share of the money made from transfers and as such we should look for a similar type of investor willing to make a similar deal with us with preferably non voting shares like the Hearts deal - probably at a lesser level but still I’d be looking at circa £6M minimum for a maximum 20% shares coming not only from the society but also our private shareholders so between the society and private shareholders we still have 80% holding. A £6M investment matched by say £2 or £3M by the club would give a healthy pot for buying players over the next couple of seasons. 
With the clubs position on and off the park this is probably the best time to make such a deal.
If no such deal is achievable at the moment then I think we should continue with the “organic growth “ that we are currently trying to achieve while continuing to look for a deal. 

I could live with that.

Hearts fell lucky with Bloom as he already had the analytics in place and the model had already proved successful elsewhere.

Not sure how many Tony Blooms, or Jamestowns there are out there, but if we could find someone trustworthy with the necessary finances / expertise then it could be a good fit.

[weeyin]

54 minutes ago, Yassin said:

 I really don't think the Motherwell manager being interested in the Celtic job is a massive exclusive. 

Wait until you hear about a Celtic scout watching Just! 

[The African]

A thought regarding the possibility of Just going to Celtic. Jens has previously told us that we are a selling club, but that we will not be selling our assets for a price under our valuation. History tells us that Celtic are not likely to pay top dollar. As such, I think that, if and when Just is sold, it is unlikely to be to Celtic. Or put it another way, if Celtic offer 3 million, someone else will probably offer 4.