joewarkfanclub

It looks to be about £9.2m all in if correct. Still a hefty sum. Given United are also reported to be wracking up losses and are reportedly around £10m in debt to their "investor" I think folks need to re-assess why they think "fan ownership" is failing........

They also appear to owe £6.3m to shareholders in what I presume are "soft loans"........ I think its fair to say the investor model doesnt come without a price tag. Devil is always in the detail.

Better to stay, get games under your belt and move on as an Alan Campbell, David Turnbull or (whisper it) Chris Cadden, than a Jake Hastie or Bailey Rice........

Is their game not on tv again? I would Imagine the covers were put back on the park immediately after the game on Saturday and every effort will be made to get the game on. Given we were able to play on it on Saturday and the pitch seemed perfectly playable (albeit a poor surface) I would like to think the game will go ahead.

Because under the initial rules you didnt have to. My initial stake was £300 for full membership. I was happy to pay that as I had the money available and wasnt buying a season ticket at that time. There were other tiers of membership with far higher subscriptions than mine. I think the top level was £1500 if I recall correctly whereby you got all sorts of other benefits. The rules changed later to smaller monthly subscriptions to allow those who were able to give a little more often to join. I now pay monthly, but didnt for quite a long time. I think its only fair that anyone who gave money under the rules at the time have their right to vote protected.

Its kind of a reflection of where society is now. Too many want instant gratification. For all the positives of social media, this is the huge negative. Football has always been an emotional game, but back in the day you just vented your frustration at the match or disected the performance over a pint with your mates afterwards in the pub. Now everyone has the ability to publish those thoughts immediately and thats not necessarily a good thing. Not a big fan of posting during a game as Im usually too engrossed in it to be bothered with my phone. It is good to debate things before and after though, particularly for those of us who dont live in the local area and dont meet any other Motherwell fans on a day to day basis.

Not sure thats fair. There are always some posters who are entirely negative, but there were enough of us who tried to keep things positive. Most just post in respect of how they are feeling at that particular time and 15 games without a win seemed like a very long time. Personally, I dont think we have a good team. But its a lot better than some gave it credit for. Similarly with Kettlewell. Id call both a work in progress. I think most reasonable fans now agree.

Absolutely. You can cast many accusations at Kettlewell and the squad, but not being together isnt one of them. The manager has his faults for sure. He wouldnt be at Motherwell if he didnt. But he has created a strong dressing room and that is there for all to see. We may not have won as many games this season as we would have liked, but the number of points we have picked up from losing positions has been quite impressive. I think the manager and the team deserve one last push from us to help them over the line.

£1.5m for a controlling share of the club values us at £3m. Given that Lennon Miller is worth that on his own, Im not sure how seriously I would be taking those figures.

Just went back and watched the video again (yes, I know!) and whilst the video is clearly aimed at US investors, it doesnt at any point actually stipulate that AND it finishes by making an appeal to ANYONE with money that would see us as an attractive proposition. Not really sure what Steelboys angle is here. I agree we need to be wary about the type of investor we attract and that we should certainly be carrying out due dilligence surrounding the individual/group and the offer, but there is nothing I've seen to suggest that we arent doing that and the Well Society certainly arent sending out those kind of signals. No need to be getting our knickers in a twist until we have something to deliberate over.

For me, the Society Board are the members representatives within the club and our access to influence. They will clearly have greater insight to whats going on within the club and access to more information than us. I think they also have a responsibility for the security & stability of the club and to the Society model. That should only change if they no longer believe fan ownership is viable. I think once the details of this deal are known and the Society Board have had a chance to examine the proposals, they should put forward the pro's and cons to the members, but ultimately they should take a position on it and give their reasons why. That way we can all decide our own position based on all the information available. Its our club. We should decide what happens to it going forward.

Thats not to say that I dont think there is room for an investor I think there is and any additional revenue stream is welcome as long as it fits with the ethos of the club and we remain fan owned. For me its definitely 51% minimum fan ownership. Happy to see how investment works alongside that and if we can benefit from the business acumen of any partners as well as the obvious advantage of additional finance then its a win/win. But lets see what the offer looks like first.

I think it means they accept that mistakes have been made and certain things could have been done better. I dont think anyone would argue with that. Given we were the first club in Scotland to go fan owned, there was no blueprint and we were pretty much making it up ourselves. Then Les came along and moved the goalposts. I dont think the Society has maximised its potential thus far. But Im more confident that the right people are in place now and we should see significant improvement going forward.

Agree with pretty much all of that. Whatever happens, there is plenty of scope for changes to our defence. First thing I would be doing is trying to identify a big commanding goalkeeper. Hopefully SK can find the balance to the rest of the defence after that.

I think folks just need to show a little patience whilst this all plays out.....

They sent out this email 4 days ago.... Thursday 4 April 2024 Dear member, A statement from The Well Society The Well Society, as the football club’s majority shareholder, would like to acknowledge the statement from the football club yesterday in which it was confirmed that discussions between the Executive Board and a US-based investor had reached the stage of entering into an agreement on a non-binding Heads of Terms (a legal agreement to explore options). It is important to acknowledge that, while the Well Society Board as an entity is not involved in these negotiations, we are encouraged by the suggestion that the investor would be keen to work in partnership with the Well Society, should investment come to fruition. We believe that the fan ownership model has – over the piece – been successful. We also acknowledge that, via our recent consultation, a majority of members who voted expressed an openness to consider investment options that may result in revised operating models. As the majority shareholder, we will continue to work on Society plans to engage fans, maximise membership and raise funds, while these negotiations continue. Things are at an early stage and we do not have the information as yet to reach a decision on whether we, as the elected representatives of the Well Society, believe that an agreement would be credible or beneficial to the football club. However, should these discussions between the Executive Board and investor prove successful, we would then be in a position to formulate our own position and - most importantly - consult with members of the Well Society on how to proceed, sharing detailed information with you at that stage. Rest assured that you - our members - will always be those with the responsibility of agreeing to or rejecting any investment opportunity which potentially alters the operating model of the club and the Well Society's shareholding. Thank you, The Well Society Board Tel: 01698 338009 Email: well.society@motherwellfc.co.uk

Sorry but he is done. Much as I love the fact we look after players who have long term injuries, we cant be wasting money on guys who can no longer be reliable even when fit. Obika is in the same category.

So you would fill our team with rookie loanees?

Big game. Lets get out in numbers and give the boys a chance. Come what may........

Im pretty relaxed about close season. Plenty opportunities to free up cash and get more bang for our buck in certain areas of the pitch. Id definitely offer Bair a year extension on improved terms as he has earned it. However he still isnt the finished article and can still be very frustrating to watch at times, if someone from say, League 1 in England comes in and offers reasonable money for him, I think we would be mad to turn ut down. Miller will he an interesting one. Would love to get another full season out of him before he goes anywhere, and he might feel that is in his best interests, but ultimately money will talk. Id definitely keep McGinn and probably SOD, as we need senior players to hold things together and if Kelly does move on then we would be a little light on that front. Both can do a job in a number of positions as well and that can be vital if running a small squad. Interesting close season ahead.

Partly why, despite all his faults, I think we need Bevis in there. He is the only commanding centre half we have. In the centre of a 3 when all he needs to do is head and kick it, he does just fine. Its when he is in the wider position or in a 2 and his positional sense is tested he tends to get caught out.

All good things come to those who wait. There's a lesson there for some......

I will go........ Dundee (A) 1 pts Hibs (H) 1 pt Ross County (A) 1 pts Livingston (H) 3 pts Aberdeen (A) 1 pts St Johnstone (H) 1 pt Hibs (A) 0 pts

Slim pickings yeaterday. None of our forward players had good games. Thought McGinn was way off his usual standards. SOD had a very steady first half and a good second half. But Gent was the only real stand out yesterday. The quality of his delivery is as incredible as Bairs inability to get on the end of it.

Terrible game of football. Thought we started brightly enough and created a couple of decent chances but it dropped off quickly and the goal we lost was typical of the mistakes we have been making all season. That gave St Mirren something to defend and we really didnt look like we had it in us to unlock their defence. Bair was awful yesterday and looked more like the player we had at the start of the season than the guy who was unplayable against Rangers. It was a real shock when he actually got across his man to score the equaliser. Tactically, I thought SK had it all wrong yesterday. Vale and Spittal are 2 of our better performers and they were rendered somewhat impotent by where they were deployed (and having Vale so wide left Bair isolated. Im definitely still in the keep SK camp, but once again his tactics and in game management were up for question. Ultimately a point isnt bad in the circumstances but it was in spite of everything, not because of it.