[Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons]

Active convos in this thread:

The video

Society communication

Choosing a religion

January transfers

St J fan arguing with St M fan about cheating with covid money.

Missing anything?

[Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons]

I was thinking along the lines of Tom Cruise and Will Smith, but looking at the list of celebrity Buddhists, I'm changing my mind. Tiger Woods, Jeff Bridges, Steven Seagal, Jet Li. That's a killer consortium right there.

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Just thinking out loud, we lack the backing of a religion to really put us over the edge and differentiate us from the gruesome twosome. We also need a good steady flow of money, and nothing beats being right at the top of a pyramid scheme when it comes to raking in the cash. We already have Will Smith on board... 

 

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32 minutes ago, JayMFC said:

I used to post on here & Steelmen Online quite a while ago but kind of just fell out of posting on forums in general. Long-term lurker though, always enjoy reading this thread & the 'Well match threads to get some of the patter & debate. Sadly, I couldn't remember my previous login details & the Forgot Password thing didn't seem to want to send me any e-mails about it, so a new account it is...

Only really decided to make the leap back onto posting here in response to the recent discussion about the now notorious video. In particular, I think the clincher was eliphas's post below, which I was quite keen to reply to.

I know quite a few on here but for those I don't, I'm Jay, been on the Well Society Board since early 2017, I've found the experience to be a hefty combination of that rewarding feeling of putting your free time towards something you think is genuinely worthwhile and absolute frustration. But, overall, I think the Society has moved in the right direction in that time and I'm actually really enthusiastic about the future with the new Board we have in place - there now seems to be an opportunity to make some real, positive change to how we go about a few things, and hopefully people begin to recognise that over the course of 2024.

Despite not posting on here for some time, I've always been very candid & open if anyone has any questions, be it at Fir Park, in the pub, on social media etc, and I'm happy to return to posting if that helps to break down this idea that there's a veil of silence that engulfs the Society Board. In relation to the point above, I'd just highlight that Derek's video was from an STV interview, which he'd been approached to do & the Society Board as a whole said "absolutely, please do", because he's very good at doing so.

There's a fair difference of opinion on the Society Board on a whole host of issues. Sometimes it's cordial disagreement, other times it can be genuinely passionate exchanges of ideas, probably just as anyone would expect. And often those disagreements extend beyond just our Board & include differences in opinion with the club's Executive Board etc. And it's for the best - I don't think any Society member would want a placid Board that just goes with the flow regardless & is essentially impotent. Despite that, we do try to keep those disagreements in-house as much as possible - I don't think it does any organisation any good to have individuals going rogue for no particular reason. That said, I'm always happy to give my own opinions on things when asked.

For example, in terms of the video, my reaction to seeing it was largely the same as everyone else's - I found it cringeworthy. As I think has been clarified elsewhere, it's something that was put together by an external agency & as a Board, we got to see the finished article before it was released. So the immediate response was not much of a surprise to me or some others on the Society Board. That said, I don't think any of us can argue with the fact that the agency's aim was to use a parody video of the Wrexham situation to go viral, and that's succeeded. I may have struggled to get through the full 90 seconds without cringing my face inside out but it's done the job it intended to, so I'm happy to hold my own hands up & say "fair enough" so far.

One thing is clear, and has been clear for sometime, communication from the Society is key. I think it's improved over the years from what it once was, and folk might be surprised to know that that's largely what people tell us in the main, but I still don't think it's good enough. However, that's something I think we're in a real position to try & change now, and I hope that members will start to see progress there going forward. Essentially, fan-ownership is, by its very nature, work in progress - it probably always will be - and we'll continue to do our best to make sure the Well Society Board is a genuine reflection of the Motherwell support when it comes to representation. I can only assure people that, in every discussion had (almost on a daily basis) that's very much happening.

I could probably spend the next hour just going through all the things I think it's worth addressing but, instead, I'll just try & be a bit more active on here to reduce the "silence" a little more. The only thing I will add is that, in the midst of all this talk about investment & fan-ownership, there will never come a time when any proposal that impacts on fan-ownership or the Well Society in any tangible way will be rolled out without every Well Society member having a vote on it. That's integral to the model.

Welcome back! These are good insights. Having a society presence in places like this and SO (love it or hate it, there's a lot of us in there), is definitely a positive step towards removing the vaccum that we normally fill with bullshit.

I'm encouraged that there have been moves towards engaging with us exiles more. I know we're a small group, but theres an opportunity to harness some energy that we don't get to burn on live matchdays.

Most if us know who you and Derek are, and many of us go way back to when there was just firparkcorner, bit it would be useful to see more comment directly from the Society (even if it's you two actually writing it). The video is case in point, if the society had came out in full support, with the info that Derek had provided, maybe that helps smooth things?

Either way, I'm glad to see this progress. Now we just need a podcast again.

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We shouldn't be allowed to get money for Bair. I like him, but that is galactic level pish ripping.

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4 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

If I kept a list of tiny, irrelevant things which really annoyed me, Petravicius being named on the bench for the 2018 cup final ahead of MacLean is right up there.

That ws just so the boxing guy had to say his name. Nothing personal.

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Vince would be great for the scottish game. Signing opposition players mid game, pumping the players full of drugs, covering up murders, only signing absolute units. Would be great. I'll call him.

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17 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Are you going to have a word with Taylor or not?

Funnily enough, I work with someone who used to be on her A&R team. He's a fucking gobshite though, so not happening.

I can speak to Jerry Lawler though, or elvis.

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I've cooled off a bit since yesterday, mainly about the video itself, as fair play to the players and coaches for playing along with it.

As with most, my biggest frustration is that this came out after a "fundraising initiative" had been promised for the last couple of years, and I expected a lot more given that timeline. As per @Busta Nut , it' now down to what we do next, and that is the bit I'm very very skeptical about. I just have the feeling the chairman is sitting by an old fashioned dial phone that isn't plugged in, waiting for JR Ewing to call.

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13 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

He is on the Society board.

I know that, but not everyone follows the board members, and clarifications like this would be useful coming from the official account of the ownership group.

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Would be better if that came from the society itself.

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Oh my. Guess we'll just sit here with our legs open and let the fans of every other club just come in and boot us in the balls for that video.

Is there such a thing as a cringe cry? I think I'm doing that.

 

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Ah f**k. Quirky video time.

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My guess is weir picked March based on where we are currently in the process of hiring the CEO, i.e. we're far enough down the road to pick that as a date with some confidence. I'm assuming we're close, but we look to have been close 4 times before, so who knows.

SO really don't like the women's team, eh?

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Just now, Doctor Manhattan said:

Spookily, I was re-reading one of the early "Bosch" books last night, which explained that frequent licking of the lips is a sign that customs teams use to pick out possible mules who are smuggling drugs packed into condoms which they've swallowed and/or inserted.  It's a side effect of the large quantity of anti-diarrhetic drugs they take to ensure they don't make an early exit.

I'm sure this is just a coincidence. 

Ah, "quirky video" was just a smoke screen for the real fundraising initiative.

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I don't know how much more detail he could give on the ceo recruitment process. He went into almost the specifics on the original process which saw us lose out on 4 people. Then he said we ditched the recruiting company and have identified potential candidates and he hopes for have someone in place well before he plans to leave in march. The detail about not wanting anyone with a history at the club was interesting, and I like the idea of someone taking a fresh look.

I'm not worried about the whole not sacking the manager thing. He explained that it's a 3 month run, with losses to the city teams and too many draws, and that the manager still has the support of the players. That can change, and I have no doubt we'd take action if it did.

Somewhere in between our current comms and the Russell/Bannan vanity project would be ideal.

What surprises me the most is that he licks his lips like a lizard alien in a human suit.

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I agree with him on the comms thing. The biggest loss was not having burrows reply months weirdos all day on Twitter. I don't think we've lost much from the west ham folk leaving, other than engagement, which I couldn't give a toss about unless it can pay for a new defender.

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What does moving the club forward/progression mean?

As far as on the field goes, outside of the season to season fluctuations every club deals with in a sporting competition,  how much further can we actually go? Win the league?

Off the field, are we talking about a new stadium? Commercial success?

What was the last thing that we can point to that would be considered progress/moving the club forward?

Not trying to be a dick, I'm genuinely curious as these terms have been flying around a lot.

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Good update. Mostly common sense stuff, and some reassurances (which were also pretty common sense) that could have been helpful a while back.

Not looking forward to our quirky fundraising video though.

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It's a tale as old as time, we'll get another one.

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I'm convinced that putting us and livi on TV is a poison pill by sky. They're going to use the surge in ER visits for bleeding eyes as an excuse to kill the contract.

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We might be able to pay a player like that marginally more than they are currently getting, but there are teams in the same division that he plays in that can probably pay multiples of what he's getting.  If money is a motivator in any way, very few players are going to come to motherwell.

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SK is definitely adept at moving people on, but I'd say that signing folk just so he can punt them isn't in the spirit of the thing.

I can see us sticking where we are as far as strikers go, unless Shaw's injury is bad. Have to imagine we will bring in a couple of defenders and at least one midfielder.

Are either Tierney or Mahon shouts to come back to be older on our bench?

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I guess it would depend on how the loan deal was structured,  but no.

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I can't bring myself to care much about any player in this current squad leaving, other than Bair because he's a machine now.

While a draw was disappointing based on us being a couple of minutes away from a win, how we managed to only concede 2 goals today with that defensive performance I don't know.