Jay

NEW PODCAST: Andy Paterson joins Sparra, Busta & Jay to round up this season’s podcasts. On the agenda – the 7-0 hammering at Celtic Park, season 2015/16 in review, Mark McGhee, contract negotiations, the Well Society’s recent AGM/Q&A, and whatever else happens to come up… http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-42/

I'm not sure I agree with that. I know of a few people, myself included, who have offered up suggestions as well as criticism both by e-mail and in conversation. The outcome has regularly been either negative or just radio silence. Others who have actually went so far as to create projects or organise events for the Society tend to report the experience in a negative fashion, either without any gratitude or the project they've put the work into it just being scrapped. Perhaps there is less enthusiasm to get involved now but then that's hardly surprising given a lot of folk's experiences up until now, but I think there is still plenty of room for suggestions and opinions - it's just a case of the Society actually treating people properly when they offer them up, rather than continuing to exclude and isolate the membership base. As I said in my original post though, unless there are genuine strides taken to make the actual idea of fan ownership more appealing, engaging and inspiring to everyday football fans, rather than the mix of utterly boring patter and scare-stories about Argentinians, then it just won't happen IMO. Agreed. But not in the Cooper/Centenary. Terrible selection of lagers.

I was at the AGM last night and managed about 25-30 minutes of the Q&A before I had to nip to Ravenscraig for 5s. I'm often very critical of the Well Society but I'm more than happy to pick up on any positives firstly. For me, I was quite concerned with a lot of the rhetoric when the news of Les wanting out first broke and my major concern was that fan ownership was going to be pushed through despite never hitting any targets or potentially being unsustainable - it seemed at that stage like the possibility of the Society playing Russian Roulette with the club and just hoping that the numbers would come in after an agreement was made with Les. So it was great to hear in no uncertain terms that this entirely not the case. I thought it was made very clear that the Society is negotiating with Les with their own priorities, objectives and common sense rather than playing to Les's tune and that's very encouraging. However, for me, yet again the whole thing is just so dull, disengaging and uninspiring. I have been to various AGMs before - I understand what they involve and I recognise that you're not going to have fireworks and rallying calls. But the whole thing - not just at the AGM - is, at times, soul-destroyingly dull which is incredible for an idea that should be, at its core, an exciting prospect for football supporters. The Well Society's biggest "achievement" to date has been the ability to take something that generated a lot of interest, engagement and a bit of a buzz, and completely demolish those vibes over five years - and last night again confirmed that such a trend will just continue. In fact, it was confirmed at the Q&A that 400-500 of the original members who signed up at the very start have not renewed or given monthly payments since. That's a massive figure - one third of the total adult membership at the moment. Those are the people who didn't need convinced by Dirk Lehmann becoming a member, or Jim McMahon answering questions at a Q&A, or Les Hutchison proclaiming "it's up to you guys" on the MFC Podcast - those are the very people who didn't need persuading, they were simply engaged by the idea of fan ownership and wanted to be a part of it. And the Well Society has been so incapable of utilising that engagement and inspiring folk further, that the very people who didn't need persuaded to join in the first place have now lost interest. For me, there needs to be a genuine revamp of the vision for the Well Society itself and how it relates to and engages the support as a whole. I know zero non-members who are going to be motivated to join by the current mindset. From my time at the AGM and Q&A last night, the only person who spoke with any genuine passion or fire in their belly was the Partick Thistle guy Paul on the panel. He was the only one talking like a football fan to football fans and making the idea of fan ownership actually seem like an exciting prospect. The rest were more interested in failing to answer questions and spending 15 minutes of the AGM discussing someone not getting their 4th team photograph in monotone voices. I'm not for a second saying that the Well Society needs to get rid of these guys and replace them with folk who'll shout a bit or go on Tommy Sheridan style rants - far from it, I have no doubt those involve bring their own qualities, experience and expertise to the table, but there seems to be a complete disconnect between the Society Board and the average punter who will need to join in order for it to be a success. The AGM itself just felt like a village bowling club meeting which, although the demographics that attend those sorts of things can't be helped, just emphasises how stagnant and mundane they've managed to make the whole thing over the past years. Les Hutchison said on our podcast that if Well Society members were able to convince friends and family to join, then it would be a great success. I don't believe anybody leaves Society meetings or events with any passion or pride or motivation to go and convince anybody else. By all means, spend 20 minutes talking about the two pages of a 12 page report you've decided to hand out or answer whatever questions come your way as best as you can. But this is a unique circumstance because, although football fans all differ in opinion on line-ups, managers, players etc - we all share that sentimentality, that romance, that buzz you get when you rewatch Ainsworth's goal at Ibrox or Kirk's goal at Hampden - and there's absolute zero attempt by the Society to play to that, to encourage it or even just manipulate it. Members of the Society should be leaving events like last night proud of being members, excited by what fan ownership means, and energised to try and convince others to join. Not shuffling out bored. Aside from the general atmosphere and lack of it rarely encroaching on particularly interesting, communication remains an absolute clusterfuck. I could not believe that Tom Feely announced during the AGM that it had never really been considered to make AGM minutes available to the wider membership. I've been to ramshackle uni whisky club meetings with a handful of people who produce minutes for the members never mind the AGM of a fan ownership model with 1,300 adult members. The idea that this has never even dawned on the Well Society in the past years is absolutely incredible. When you factor in the number of folk who have even been on this board complaining that such things aren't available, you can't help but wonder if the folk in charge at the Society are inhabiting another world. Apologies for the lengthy post. In summary for me - positives are that the Society is fighting its corner in negotiations with Les and I do believe their claims that no deal will be done unless it suits the Society and the Club; negatives are that the whole thing is as dull as dishwasher, there is zero attempt to actually engage or inspire the Motherwell support (unless your name is Paul and you're just a guest on the panel), and communication remains as amateur as ever.

The vast majority of folk listen via apps & iTunes rather than Soundcloud, so apologies for the delay. Podcast featuring Louis Moult & Chris Cadden now online: http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-41/

EDIT: Only on Soundcloud at the moment, should be up on the site (and therefore iTunes, podcast apps etc) this afternoon. NEW PODCAST: Sparra, Jay and Busta look back on fixtures against St Johnstone and Ross County, discuss the stewarding at the final game of the season, preview our visit to Celtic Park on the final day of the season as well as debating fan relationships with manager Mark McGhee. That's not all though, we are also joined by very special guests Louis Moult and Chris Cadden to discuss winning the MFC Podcast player & young player of the year awards respectively. https://soundcloud.com/mfcpodcast/mfc-podcast-201516-episode-41

"Steelmen Online supremo Ian Buchanan joins Sparra, Busta & Jay to discuss the disappointment of Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Pittodrie, the outstanding 5-2 victory in the U20s cup final, the upcoming home match against St Johnstone, season ticket renewals, the Manager of the Year award and more." http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-40/

NEW PODCAST: Quite a busy one this week! 'Well fan Ian Pritchard joins Busta & Sparra to discuss all things Motherwell this week. Also featured - Motherwell captain and U20s coach Keith Lasley is on hand to preview Wednesday's cup final, and Aberdeen fan Richard Hay of ByTheMinAFC joins the lads to discuss Saturday's jaunt to Pittodrie. http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-39/

"After a wee delay, this week's podcast is online! Graham Barnstaple joins Sparra, Busta & Jay to discuss making the top six, the post-split fixture list, Hampden Park, the upcoming Hearts game and much more." http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-38/

My first ever game...

Doing Player of the Year & Young Player of the Year Awards this year. The awards themselves are provided by Patersons Trophy Supplies and the winners have been chosen by the MFC Podcast team and all previous guests. But, more importantly, we are at this very moment in time recording tonight's POTY special with tonight's guest - online from around 10pm...

New podcast discussing the Well Society with Interim Chairman Douglas Dickie: http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-36/

We are recording tonight's podcast right now. It'll be worth listening to in a couple of hours...

Had a number of Tweets about the podcast not being available on iTunes & apps this week (before we noticed the same on here!) but that's it fixed now! Apologies for the delay, but it should be sorted! http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-31/

This week's podcast is online: http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-31/ Busta was absent so Joe McKelvie was drafted in to talk about the usual stuff. The new Head Coach of the Motherwell Ladies side David Gibson was also on to talk about the progress of the ladies team and women's football in general.

This is pretty much my thoughts on it 100%. The argument itself is perfectly sound - the legislation is poorly written which makes it problematic in practice due to the grey areas it creates. A situation where policy being implemented raises questions due to the actual legislation not being written well enough is hardly something radical and rare, it happens on occasion (just look at the furore over the so-called 'rape clause' regarding women having to prove they have been raped in order to claim tax credits for a third child when, in reality, and in my opinion, it is actually just down to very poor wording and lack of thought in the legislation itself). It happens at times with legislation in governments across the world and it should be raised, challenged and debated until those responsible for the legislation see the error of their ways. But as Al B points out, a very solid argument about poorly formed legislation is continually lost and diluted in amongst the consistent breaking of the rules, cherry picking stories and scenarios to suit the argument, and firing out bizarre conspiracy reasons for the legislation in the first place (I've heard a good number of them from it being an anti-Catholic attack or an attempt at class warfare, to the theory it is designed specifically to target Rangers fans because they're all Unionists). The folk at the forefront of campaigning against the Act in its current form make it far, far too easy for them to be dismissed by the other side (or those who are undecided) as simply being a tiny minority of misbehaving football fans angry and upset at not being allowed to act how they want. Kmcalpin mentions it being a topic of discussion for when politicians are seeking votes but even then, it's a complete irrelevance in Scottish politics and is far from a game-changer in terms of votes (particularly when the SNP are so dominant). From things I've read on social media there seems to be a number of supporters who believe it to be a big deal when in reality, outwith a section or two of fans on a Saturday, it is a complete non-issue which is barely mentioned across mainstream Scottish politics or across wider Scottish society. Unfortunately, as much as I believe the Act needs to be revised, I think it being a minor footnote in politics combined with those campaigning against it making it so, so easy for their arguments to be dismissed will result in the legislation just carrying on as is for the foreseeable future.

It's worth pointing out just how much of a good guy Spencey was - both on the podcast in terms of giving up his free time and properly getting into it, and away from recording in terms of organising and just general chat. He's always been a pundit I think most (non-Rangers fans at least) quite like and last night just cemented him as both a genuinely top man and a bit of a broadcasting legend of sorts - far and away the most enjoyable podcast we've done and hopefully that's translated into something worth listening to.

Episode 30 is now online... Broadcasting legend and Dundee Utd fan Jim Spence joins Sparra, Busta and Jay to discuss a variety of issues. Topics include Motherwell’s 3-0 win at Tannadice, James McFadden, ‘Well captain Keith Lasley, General Manager Alan Burrows, the League Cup revamp, the possibility of league reconstruction, Periscope within football grounds, Saturday’s trip to Perth, and much more. LISTEN HERE.

Just finished recording with Jim, cracker of a podcast. It'll be online at some point tonight (once we've played 7s and can edit & upload).

Delighted to announce we'll be joined by Dundee United fan and broadcasting legend Jim Spence on this week's podcast. We'll be recording with Jim tomorrow evening and the episode will be online tomorrow night or, at the very latest, the early hours of Friday morning.

I don't know the first thing about the Prediction League admin patter but I'll check if it can be added.

10 games is a very generous estimate for a lot of 'Well fans unfortunately.

Exactly this. Whether or not we have the resources and the desire to develop young players, we're not going to be able to do so without the young players coming to the club in the first place. When you have clubs like Accies continually bringing young players into the side, we have to be able to sell our club to youngsters with potential in order to try and out muscle the others clubs around sniffing about the same players. There is very little evidence for a good few years now that being a young player at Fir Park is going to lead to anything close to a proper chance to impress, other than the odd cameo appearance from the bench. Saturday summed it up for me - even in a situation where we were decimated in the middle of the park, our management would rather shuffle around half the team and play guys out of position than give the younger players a chance. That says it all. There are cases all over the world where a young player is thrown in at the deep end due to injuries and suspensions, grabs the chance with both hands, and goes on to impress far more than was originally expected. Even when things don't go to plan, the fact remains that younger guys waiting in the wings and then getting a gig due to suspension or injury is a regular occurrence at clubs all over the world - yet we go with Law in midfield and Hammell at right-back. We are not producing the talent because the young players we have seemingly aren't good enough for whatever reason, yet we are not going to attract youngsters with genuine quality and potential because clubs like Accies are a far better option in terms of the route to the first-team and being given opportunities. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unless we start trusting the young players more and giving them further opportunity in the first-team - particularly when we are completely void of players in a certain position and have young players who spend their careers playing in that position - then we will continue to miss out on younger players. If we want to be a club that brings through young talent, we need to start acting like one rather than just continually failing to develop players while blaming it on other factors.

After a week or so enjoying the Christmas festivities, Jay and Sparra are back with the first podcast of 2016. Joe McKelvie joins the lads to discuss the recent results, upcoming cup ties, and a few other bits and pieces... http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-24-2/

Victories at Celtic Park aren’t particularly common so getting the chance to talk over Saturday’s 2-1 victory with scorer of the winning goal in ’99 (and friend of the podcast) Kevin Twaddle was ideal. Also on the agenda were the festive fixtures, Dom Thomas, James McFadden and this week’s Remember Well question. http://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2015-16-episode-23/