Dezz

I notice we have a trialst playing at No7 for the under 20's this afternoon. I wonder if he's a U20's player or if we are having a look at a potential first team player? Lee Lucas also playing.

Not Motherwell related but STV news are reporting Souleyman Coulibaly is in Egypt for discussions with 2 separate clubs. Although he's blown hot and cold he's scored a fair few goals for Killie in the first half of the season and it'd certainly be a blow for them if he left. Hopefully he goes, anything that weakens teams in our part of the league is most welcome. Edit : fee believed to be in the region of £1m! Jesus!

Just had my email from the society ....Congratulations Jay! After listening to your opinions and ideas on the podcast every week I'm looking forward to seeing what you can bring to the Well Society board. Best of luck.

For fuck sake!

Baws

I fucking love Louis Moult

C'mon Motherwell, get a goal second half. I don't want to have to play these horrible bastards three times in a row if it goes to a replay!

'Hold it above your head like a scarf.' According to something I saw on Twitter.

Bowman on the bench, along with Mcdonald. Charmers starts, presumably at left mid.

Can't say I've seen much of him other than U20's highlights where he's looked impressive but to be in around the first team at 17 years old, making your debut at Celtic Park and being given a 2.5 year extension, he must be highly thought of by Craggs, Faddy and McGhee.

Not exactly related to the transfer window but Jake Hastie has signed a 2 and a half year contract extension today.

Obviously not seen much of him as he's been playing abroad the last 4-5 years but was certainly rated at Dundee Utd and was always talked about being in Scotland contention. On paper he would be a more than decent signing.

There's an article from Stewart Fisher in the Herald today with the headline 'Focus turns to numbers as Project Brave kick-off nears'. Quite an interesting read and it states Herald understand the idea of 8 elite clubs is doomed and the final number could be '10, 12 or even greater'. It goes on to say that if the performance measures were worked over last season the 10 academies would be; Celtic, Rangers, hearts, Aberdeen, Killie, Hibs, Hamilton, forth valley, Fife elite and st Mirren. Apparently the final draft of the strategy was approved by the professional game board on Tuesday and now goes before the SFA main board before a bid document is sent to clubs. Interesting on the potential increase in numbers and how this might effect us getting in or otherwise.

Had a quick check this morning and you're right, Fir Park and the surrounding pitches are zoned as 'community facilities' in the current local plan. As you say, with consultation on the new LDP due soon there would be no harm in asking the question about the designation and potential alternative uses.

There would ofcourse be demolition and some remediation costs but with the amount of houses in the immediate vicinity, a fair amount of which has been developed in the last 5-10 years (Cala, persimmon etc), you'd hope there'd not be anything too nasty in the ground to scare off any developers if the club ever looked to sell up and move.

Brexit has put a bit of a dampener on things but land values in decent areas are generally holding up pretty well and in really sought after areas are steaming on. For what it's worth, if we put fir park on the market as a redevelopment site I think interest would be strong from the big housebuilders. I'm out the office the majority of this week but if you're interested I could do a quick bit of digging at some point soon and see what land values are like in the area. Edit: should add, I'm a chartered surveyor, not just someone who likes researching Motherwell land values in their spare time.

Really enjoyed that. As Sparra says, Alan's enthusiasm for the club is infectious and it's evident how strongly he feels about this ridiculous Project Brave. I would urge everyone to have a listen as if this comes to pass it will be a major threat to the business plan and model of the club.

Not Motherwell related but Hearts just signed the guy Lennard Sowah that played on the left for Accies against us the other week. To be fair, it's only based on 1 performance but I thought he made Tony Straker look like Roberto Carlos.

Unless the fee is enough to sustain us for a few years in the championship (worst case) it's not worth taking the risk when the league is so tight and Moult's goals could be the difference between safety and relegation. When so much importance has been placed on staying in the division this year in order to benefit from the increase in income next season, it would be silly to sell in this window unless it was a ridiculous fee, bearing in mind we only keep 40% of it.

Should be a reasonable wage freed up at least. Did us a turn in the playoffs and scored a winner against Accies but seemed to lose his way a bit and I can't say I'm disappointed to see him go.

I don't think we can take the risk selling him in this window whilst the relegation and playoff places are such an uncertainty. The battle for 11th and 12th will likely go down to the wire this year and having a 15-20 goal a season striker in your ranks is likely to go some way to making sure we're still in the division next year, which is of utmost importance for the future of the club according to the board. I'd rather take £100k-£200k less for Moult in the summer if his goals keep us in the division.

Particularly as Magennis pinged in a hatrick for charlton today!

It was infront of the 'Well fans. Great celebrations at the end. Not a huge fan of Samson but to was great to see him sprinting the full length of the park and launching himself into the players/crowd after the goal. Looked like he fair enjoyed it, also thought he had a pretty decent game yesterday too.

Sensible move to hopefully get him a run of games, and playing the likes of Hibs, Dundee Utd and Falkirk should give us a good idea if he's up to it or not.

Great way to end the game and I have no complaints whatsoever regarding Lucas' red card. I thought the guys stuck at it and really put a shift in. Fair play to McHugh playing his second game in 4 days, a fair chunk with 10 men, after so long out. Also thought Allan Campbell had a decent game for his debut and considering the circumstances. Louis Moult is some boy and Mcdonald put in a hell of a shift. If that's the best Accies have to offer the very worst we have to worry about this year is 11th. They were abysmal I thought. Also the number 46....lol.