MJC

Oxborough in goals too. The first time he’s played for the first team?

Him and John Boyle had a set-to in the dugouts that same season after he’d went to Aberdeen. Boyle said something in his ear then tried to run away and Brown went after him. That spell from summer 2009 when Gannon came in to when Brown and Knox took over and then of course ditched us for Aberdeen in late 2010 was a mental but memorable spell for us. And of course him and Knox were often referred to as ‘Jack and Victor’ during their time here.

He was obviously a very good manager and had the ability to man-manage and get the best out of his players. Did an excellent job for Scotland and along with Archie Knox turned our season around in 09/10. From leaking goals left right and centre under Jim Gannon’s bonkers set up to being a hard side to beat in just two months resulting in a top six finish. And then there was 6-6 v Hibs which was completely uncharacteristic of a Craig Brown team but his teams had spirit and belief. The Euro run under him in summer 2010 was the best European experience I’ve had with us. For once we didn’t embarrass ourselves and actually came close to reaching the EL group stages. I seem to remember him brawling with one of those teams managers or coaching staff on the touchline at Fir Park during that run but can’t remember which side it was.

Yes, confirmed on SKY. 82 years old. RIP

If we go into the new season with Shields, Obika, Efford and Mandron as our striking options then it’s going to be grim, grim stuff for us next year. Fortunately there is still time for SK and the scouting dept to try and sort this so hopefully they come up with something.

Yeah I probably am a bit fickle. Most football fans are at times. But I’m just giving my opinion on what our kit should be like and I’ve been fairly consistent on what I think a Motherwell FC home kit should look like. However as I acknowledged earlier on today….

I get that kits need to change and occasionally ‘mix it up’ but kits like last seasons or the jester kit from the 90s just go too far imo. That was my biggest gripe with the last claret away kit we had (18/19) that we insisted on wearing in in every away game even when there was no colour clash. The only away games we didn’t wear it were against Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee. As far as I see it, change kits should only be worn when there is a colour clash with the home team and should NEVER be worn in a home game. But it’s not up to me obviously. Chances are we may bring two change kits out as we did last year, so a claret change kit as the main one wouldn’t be a bad shout.

A sponsorless version being an option to buy like the 20/21 kit would be cracking for this one. Though that one was released before the shirt sponsor deal had been signed so it’s probably unlikely in this case.

Our best home kit in years. Simple, traditional and a full claret hoop. Absolutely love it. After last years shanner it is a breath of fresh air. I’d imagine the numbers and names will be in white printing given the C&A combination on the back of the top? Unless we use black.

Yes! Yes! Yes! THAT is a Motherwell FC kit. An absolute beauty!

Cornelius away to Harrogate, official. A shame to see him go but good luck to him. Edit: and now Harry Paton confirmed on a two year deal. My enthusiasm for the new season knows no ends now.

He’ll probably do well for them in the Championship.

Because he’s crippled by injuries and has been almost since he left us over five years ago now. We knew this last August but still took a gamble on him by giving him a season long loan deal which we ended up cutting short in January because he’d contributed very little apart from his presence in the treatment room during his return. No harm to the guy personally but he’s done. We took a chance on him last year and it didn’t work out, so we move on.

Club Twitter saying that Calum Butcher will miss several weeks of the new season after having surgery on his foot. That is a hammer blow for us.

Half expecting a video titled ‘Unleash the Beek’ to surface on our Twitter page to confirm that Obika is our new No.9 for the new season.

That is the best way to look at it. Players and managers will come and go but the club will always be there. No one is bigger than the club, no matter what or how much they contribute while they are with us.

The ‘plus point’ if there is one about this move is that he’s not joining an Aberdeen or a Hearts etc so won’t be playing against us next season. Nevertheless he will be a tough act to follow for any forward players we bring in this summer.

KvV gone official. Undisclosed fee. It was always happening but still gutting to hear it confirmed. Good luck to him.

I can’t believe that anyone who has watched us over the past two years wouldn’t want Liam Kelly to remain with us. He had some poor displays last season but overall he has been excellent for us and saved us from many a potential drubbing.

I don’t know. I’m sure KvV and his agent will be well aware that if for some reason this move doesn’t work out or he suffers a similar misfortune that Moult did with injuries then we will give him a deal. I can just picture it now. August 2025, we are short of striker options and KvV has been touted for a return despite being out injured for months. Every post on the clubs Twitter is replied to with #announcevanVeen. Then finally a video is released, filmed from the top floor of Glassford Tower looking towards Fir Park. We then see a KLM plane is descending towards Glasgow as the tune of “Tulips from Amsterdam” plays over it. Then finally we see what we’ve all been waiting for. It’s the Fir Park pitch with a 34 year old KvV standing there in a Well top and a pair of crutches. The fanboys go wild.

Absolutely nothing. Oxborough hasn’t played a single minute of first team football and Danzaki showed very little when he got his chance and like McKinstry pretty much fell off the scene when Kettlewell took over. Kelly wasn’t great last season, certainly poorer than his previous two, but he also saved us on a number of occasions and more than proved that he is very much a solid, dependable goalkeeper for us. Losing van Veen will be a big blow, losing Kelly at the same time will only add another big blow at the other end of the park.

That would have been a very expensive mistake at a time when we were already well down the road to financial ruin. One ex Rangers player we should have signed during that spell was Ally McCoist when he left Ibrox in 1998 and ended up at Killie. He would have contributed more goals in that team than John Spencer did imo.

It usually is with us, they are something of a speciality of ours.

Nevin being our player/Chief Executive will never not be strange. And I liked him as a player too! His last minute winner against Hearts in a midweek game at FP was a memorable moment. His working relationship with Boyle obviously wasn’t the best, even if they were on good terms to start with. I’m sure he was the biggest vocal opponent to us going into administration in 2002 and he doubled down on that viewpoint last year on the 20th anniversary of that. But, how much of a part did he play in our overspending in the period leading up to that? Who knows? Billy Davies as manager with us was similar to Alex McLeish, albeit without the media darling status. He was an inexperienced manager given a significant amount of cash to spend by our standards and didn’t deliver as much as he should have in the circumstances. That said I was never convinced that the signings of John Spencer and Andy Goram - the two really high profile signings - were completely down to him at that time, even though Spencer was a relative of his.

The club have just tweeted that our partnership with Paycare has ended and that a new front of shirt sponsor will be unveiled in the coming weeks so it looks like we’ll be waiting a while longer to see what our 23/24 kit looks like, and who will sponsor it.