We Exist to Improve People's Lives

[Kmac]

On the back of an article posted in the i newspaper titled: "Motherwell and their free season tickets: A community club like no other", Alan Burrows has taken to twitter to post the following: 

"Motherwell cannot promise to compete for trophies every season, to break Scottish football’s duopoly or to make extravagant signings; nor do they wish to. They cannot ever be a replacement for lost income and lost opportunity....

"But if Fir Park can be a sanctuary, an inclusive enclave for every person in the town who wishes to depend on them, they will have done their job"

 Whilst I fully appreciate that these words were not written by Burrows, his re-tweeting is an endorsement of the sentiment and quite frankly, it is fucking dreadful. 

I, like many on here contributed to the low income season ticket scheme - it's an excellent initiative and should be celebrated; together with many of the actions by the club. However, I, like many on here, also contribute to the well society. To be completely transparent, I have never seen the money leave my account every month and thought, how great, we will feed an under privileged family in North Lanarkshire, I have more thought, as I'm sure many have - I hope that it funds youth development and bringing through the next batch of talent for us to enjoy in claret and amber.  I am ever more aware that under the tone of social media output and the sentimentality surrounding it and now with this latest twitter statement that we seem to have changed our mission statement as a club - we no longer seem to want to compete but are rather acting as a community centre. I also regularly donate to food banks in the area (which should not exist, however 55% voted no, so they still do) but that is separate from football and  football club exists for a reason  - to compete, challenge and win trophies. 

We have gone through a barren 30 years whereby those around us have won honours (and been relegated) and that is part of football. 

We have begun a season after seeing numerous talents leave the club over the past 12/18 months - bringing in high revenue - yet as a product, we have an under developed squad which shows little sign of competing for anything again this season other than trying to avoid the playoffs. 

We, as a club, are in danger of disappearing up our own arse in a sea of "great wee club" feelings. 

Motherwell football should exist to improve peoples lives, but not as a community outreach program, but rather as a competitive side that carries its own weight as the 8th largest club in the country. Success on the pitch must be the ultimate and sole aim for any football, us included. Community outreach is important and part of the fan ownership model however the tone of utter resignation which Burrows has retweeted and the apathy it projects is utterly appalling for any supporter to hear and better yet, contribute more. Investment in our area must start with investment on the pitch, which we are not seeing, breeding success and a desire for people to want to attend matches and form a bond with the club. Free season tickets or not, struggling sides are unattractive for supporters and sponsors alike. 

I am proud of what we do as a club but success on the field is absolutely primary and a CEO who isn't constantly driving that message is unmistakably in the wrong role. 

[weeyin]

We have a football club and we have a community trust. Related, but separate entities.

No reason both can't be successful.

I don't see any apathy being projected anywhere, however, and a lot of this just comes across as an early season rant.

[CoF]

16 minutes ago, Kmac said:

Investment in our area must start with investment on the pitch, which we are not seeing,

Do you mean aside from an actual paying a fee for players for the first time in about 15 years, and tying them down with 3 year contracts? 

[fizoxy]

We are investing all over the place right now, so the community work isn't taking away from our squad improvements, academy, pitch improvements, stadium improvements, and everything else. I'm going to have a guess here, but I'm pretty sure the money we spend on players eclipses that which goes towards community stuff. We also receive funding for those programs from elsewhere.

I don't get where the apathy thing comes from, are there any actual examples of apathy from the club towards football operations? We don't know what goes on inside the club all day long, so how do we know that they aren't working every hour trying to improve the squad?

The struggles in the transfer market are well documented, we could funnel every last penny we have into player salaries and it still won't move the needle, players don't come to us for the money, so we have to be creative. 

[joewarkfanclub]

Sorry, but from the way you have worded your post, it just appears as if you are just reading what you want from the article so you can have a go at the club, or maybe Alan Burrows in particular

The article says "Motherwell cannot promise to challenge for trophies every season...." but it doesnt say we wont try.

Like other contributors have already posted, its perfectly possible to try and be the best club we can be in every department. 

The problem we have right now is that it feels like we are still struggling to get things right on the field of play, whilst at the same time doing very noteworthy things off it. 

I quite liked the article. Never at any point did I read "Alan Burrows doesnt care about winning trophies or football matches".

[Kmac]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Sorry, but from the way you have worded your post, it just appears as if you are just reading what you want from the article so you can have a go at the club, or maybe Alan Burrows in particular

The article says "Motherwell cannot promise to challenge for trophies every season...." but it doesnt say we wont try.

Like other contributors have already posted, its perfectly possible to try and be the best club we can be in every department. 

The problem we have right now is that it feels like we are still struggling to get things right on the field of play, whilst at the same time doing very noteworthy things off it. 

I quite liked the article. Never at any point did I read "Alan Burrows doesnt care about winning trophies or football matches".

As I mentioned in my first post, I fully accept that Flow didn’t make the comments In the original article.

I’m also not posting about anything relating to the article - I’m Posting about what Burrows, felt the important points to repost.

A CEO role requires a constant and precise vision of what success looks like and steering others In that direction - his tweeting does not reflect that - it reflects a fragmented vision of success and that is not what the job, In the context of football, requires.

[David]

14 minutes ago, Kmac said:

I’m also not posting about anything relating to the article - I’m Posting about what Burrows, felt the important points to repost.

A CEO role requires a constant and precise vision of what success looks like and steering others In that direction - his tweeting does not reflect that - it reflects a fragmented vision of success and that is not what the job, In the context of football, requires.

You did say "on the back of an article published in the i newspaper...," though, didn't you? So he's obviously going to Tweet about the subject matter of the article.

It would have been a bit weird if he'd tweeted about the article, but said something about the youth setup at the club. I think you've taken what he said and twisted it somewhat.

[Kmac]

4 minutes ago, David said:

You did say "on the back of an article published in the i newspaper...," though, didn't you? So he's obviously going to Tweet about the subject matter of the article.

It would have been a bit weird if he'd tweeted about the article, but said something about the youth setup at the club. I think you've taken what he said and twisted it somewhat.

Perhaps you can re-read my post? 

[David]

3 minutes ago, Kmac said:

Perhaps you can re-read my post? 

Once was quite enough.

[Kmac]

42 minutes ago, David said:

Once was quite enough.

Thanks for the nuanced response and counter. 

[Spiderpig]

4 hours ago, Kmac said:

 

I am proud of what we do as a club but success on the field is absolutely primary and a CEO who isn't constantly driving that message is unmistakably in the wrong role. 

Success on the field would be great but can't be guaranteed, there are loads of clubs up and down the country who have won feck all in their entire existence, should they just give up then?

Football clubs started right at the heart of local communities the vast majority of them still are including us and as fans we should be proud of that, or would you prefer we adopted the uglies model and take the fans for granted as long as a profit is made.

Plus engaging with the community in whatever way we can has its upsides, more fans supporting their local club which brings bigger crowds, and so more income to the club, which ultimately could mean better players and on field success, but if it doesn't we will  be a bit disappointed but smugly satisfied that as a club we have helped a lot of people in the community while trying.

 

[grizzlyg]

As I have said many times , I want to see us producing our own players than trying the gamble of English lower league players,  anyway COYW

[MJC]

I think the club’s social media dept to go a bit overboard with some of the things they put out, ie. “a coffee and a chat with x,y,z” but I don’t see anything wrong with this from Alan Burrows re-tweet.

It’s all fair enough and nowhere near the dismal self defeating guff about “oor great wee team” and the likes that many on here, Twitter and to be honest Burrows himself has been guilty of on many occasion. The words describing our standing in the game are more or less accurate.

I think it’s important and I’m glad that the club do reach out to the community nowadays, it’s something I always felt we didn’t do enough of in the past. The town of Motherwell and a lot of North Lanarkshire has been badly hit by unemployment, poverty and even more sadly, suicide in young people over the past few years and if the club can show its support to that then I’m all for it.

[Kmac]

2 hours ago, MJC_mkII said:

I think the club’s social media dept to go a bit overboard with some of the things they put out, ie. “a coffee and a chat with x,y,z” but I don’t see anything wrong with this from Alan Burrows re-tweet.

It’s all fair enough and nowhere near the dismal self defeating guff about “oor great wee team” and the likes that many on here, Twitter and to be honest Burrows himself has been guilty of on many occasion. The words describing our standing in the game are more or less accurate.

I think it’s important and I’m glad that the club do reach out to the community nowadays, it’s something I always felt we didn’t do enough of in the past. The town of Motherwell and a lot of North Lanarkshire has been badly hit by unemployment, poverty and even more sadly, suicide in young people over the past few years and if the club can show its support to that then I’m all for it.

Without doubt. The work done around suicide prevention, for example, is hugely commendable yet unfortunately required. 
I have no issues with the clubs community outreach but I have problems with it’s apparent primacy. 
We have begun a season with a first team/squad which is still under developed/not finished , languished against lower league sides in the group and of yet another cup; it’s not even September. 

Our community contributions are all worthy clauses however a  successful football team is priority number one. 

It’s a convenient deceit to be “a rollercoaster” “great wee club” Etc.  We, as supporters, ‘deserve’ product for money (to be blunt) yet we are not receiving it.

 

[MJC]

Without doubt we need to see more on the park. Despite the apparent change in approach to recruitment we appear to be yet again starting a season with the same areas on the field that have been needing addressed for years still not addressed. The window is not yet shut though so I’ll revisit this in ten days time.

As a club we also don’t see enough coming through from our youth set ups and that’s a concern. I’m not expecting us to produce a Turnbull or a McFadden every year but you look at the young players on our books and you don’t see anyone who you believe will make the grade and be a regular, reliable first team starter. Maguire to give the obvious example looks badly out of his depth at our level and you don’t see anything coming through that will make the grade.
 

For a club of our size(not a great wee team, not a big team, just a standard size Scottish top flight club) it’s crucial that we develop and bring through young players and we’re falling badly short on that front.

[Onthefringes]

24 minutes ago, MJC_mkII said:

Without doubt we need to see more on the park. Despite the apparent change in approach to recruitment we appear to be yet again starting a season with the same areas on the field that have been needing addressed for years still not addressed. The window is not yet shut though so I’ll revisit this in ten days time.

As a club we also don’t see enough coming through from our youth set ups and that’s a concern. I’m not expecting us to produce a Turnbull or a McFadden every year but you look at the young players on our books and you don’t see anyone who you believe will make the grade and be a regular, reliable first team starter. Maguire to give the obvious example looks badly out of his depth at our level and you don’t see anything coming through that will make the grade.
 

For a club of our size(not a great wee team, not a big team, just a standard size Scottish top flight club) it’s crucial that we develop and bring through young players and we’re falling badly short on that front.

Really? Maybe not using once in a generation types like McFadden & Turnbull as a comparison could be a start…

[Yorkyred]

I don’t have a problem with the statement. As others have said why can’t the club be successful in the community and on the field. I don’t believe one has a negative influence on the other and while everyone wants to finish as high as we can in the league there always has to be a level of realism, that does not mean being resigned to failure. The club is obviously now trying to go down a different route re signing players and I find that positive although it’s going to take time.

[MJC]

1 hour ago, Onthefringes said:

Really? Maybe not using once in a generation types like McFadden & Turnbull as a comparison could be a start…

I said that I’m not (that’s NOT) expecting us to produce a McFadden or a Turnbull every year.

You sure you read my post correctly?

[grizzlyg]

Can we ask social media team to stop the cringeworthy Happy Birthday posts on Facebook!!!

[SteelmaninOZ]

Happy birthday grizzlyb 

[MJC]

It’s when they shove the camera in one of the players faces after a defeat so that they can say “ahh well it’s disappointing, we gave it our all, loads of effort but just didny get the breaks the day, we pick oorsel’es up and go again” that gets me.

It’s okay after we’ve won though.

[Onthefringes]

1 hour ago, MJC_mkII said:

I said that I’m not (that’s NOT) expecting us to produce a McFadden or a Turnbull every year.

You sure you read my post correctly?

Aye, correctly. Mentioning them at all is a yardstick?

‘we also don’t see enough coming through from our youth set ups and that’s a concern’. Is that because you don’t see an instant impact? There’s far too many variables in the development of our own that discounts your theory.

[MJC]

Just now, Onthefringes said:

Aye, correctly. Mentioning them at all is a yardstick?

‘we also don’t see enough coming through from our youth set ups and that’s a concern’. Is that because you don’t see an instant impact? There’s far too many variables in the development of our own that discounts your theory.

Well if that’s how you choose to see it then fine, there’s nothing I can do about that.

All I meant though was that I wasn’t setting the bar as high as expecting a Turnbull/McFadden type player every season, but rather players who could establish themselves as solid, first team players ala Lasley, Hammell, Campbell, Cadden.

We have not seen anyone breaking through from the youth ranks that have been anywhere near the level of those four in recent years.

[Onthefringes]

Just now, MJC_mkII said:

Well if that’s how you choose to see it then fine, there’s nothing I can do about that.

All I meant though was that I wasn’t setting the bar as high as expecting a Turnbull/McFadden type player every season, but rather players who could establish themselves as solid, first team players ala Lasley, Hammell, Campbell, Cadden.

We have not seen anyone breaking through from the youth ranks that have been anywhere near the level of those four in recent years.

To say we’ve not seen anyone breaking through does them a disservice. Like I said, too many variables. Being afforded opportunities would help.

[MJC]

I agree with you that we don’t afford young players the opportunity to break through enough, we didn’t even get Turnbull in the team as soon as we should have!

But when you look at the current crop of young players on our books like Maguire, Devine, Cornelius you don’t really see any signs that they will be able to make much impact on the first team.