Swello

Agree - debt is debt. We've got one very soft loan from the Scottish Govt but it is still debt repayments - I wouldn't fancy us taking on any more. We had soft loans to Les Hutchinson and John Boyle that we were still paying back up to a couple of years ago - and that was all money that couldn't be spent on the fun stuff. Given the effort to become free from expensive debt was a huge battle since Admin - I would really take some convincing that we would ever go that way again (new stadium mortgage aside I suppose). As you say - Hearts are a poor example for us to look at. They are fan-owned but they are getting £5m/year a pumped in also and commercially are in a different league to us. Killie and St Mirren will always be the best example for us to compare against. I'm not convinced that either of them are doing anything radical compared to us - Bowie has put some money into Killie but nothing silly - they both just seem to be well run and have good football managers in place at this moment in time. Weird KVV signing aside, I'm not getting the impression that either of those clubs are fishing in a different pond to us for players/wages (St Mirren's top striker is Mandron, which is a very similar thing to Bair for example) and either of those clubs' squads could conceivably be ours. When clubs are very close in terms of size, it doesn't take much to tip the balance and the stark fact is that us paying for *all* the managers at the same time and filling our squad with all sorts of random, un-needed pish over the past few years has had a far bigger effect on our "competitiveness" than Saints or Killie spending a few quid or lunatics pumping money in the Dundee clubs. I honestly wonder how much making up for a fairly incompetent couple of years is behind the suddenly urgent push for outside money/a legacy project.

The Well Society aren't selling any shares - the new magic shares that will be created just make "ours" worth less - so we can all bask in that fact as we enjoy the extra 2 and a half players we've added to the squad.

Fully agree - but even though the governance is wrong (with non-WS directors being in the majority on the exec board) I think to do what they need to do to bring a new investor in (basically dilute the shareholding of the WS by issuing new shares) - they can't just wave that through on a one person, one vote basis at a normal board meeting - it would at least need an EGM.

Was thinking about this recently - how would the Exec Board go about driving anything through even if they were that daft? I presume they can't issue new shares without the say so of the majority owner. I could easily imagine a situation where they would want to disregard the wishes of the 'Well Society - but I'm not sure how they could practically do that.

Aberdeen and Celtic merit a mention for their 1000 year stints in the one league - Motherwell about to hit 40 years is another crazy long stretch. Aberdeen, Celtic & Motherwell have consequently got the fewest Challenge Cup appearances at zero each

Yep - I've always found the "that thing that you've done well for 10-15 years might suddenly stop working because reasons" argument a bit self defeating. We've consistently sold players for decent fees and/or development compensation, which has basically allowed us to be competitive with clubs that are able to generate more revenue from other stuff. We've done this both with players we've brought in and developed and via our academy - and we've done it as well/better than other clubs our size. To flip it around, I'm not really sure what model (other than "rich man gives you free money") people would suggest for a club with limited support to make a profit if it's not based on player trading?

Aye - it's been quite interesting/depressing to see so many zealots replying to "this is ruining the fun" type of points with "offside is offside". Once again, I'm convinced it's folk that don't actually go to games who generally hold these views. There seems to be a constituency of non-attending fans who get their main pleasure from transfer chat, contrived controversy and VAR decisions - who seem to have no conception of what it's actually like to be there to witness the sort of stuff that Coventry were doing yesterday (or even what Aberdeen almost did on Saturday). These are the folk that shite talk radio, clickbait drivel and pundits arguing with each other are aimed at.

''Sake! I was waiting for the big reveal for that one

It's nice that they put Theo in the place they keep for Motherwell players in the TOTY

It's totally normal to shout "yaaaaas" at a forum post, right?

This is probably a failure of media of all stripes in the UK - but there is nothing in Schengen that stops countries controlling their own borders at need. During Covid, it was very common....

Bair is probably in a different position from our young players who we usually have the stay/go debate about. He's not a teenager - he's in the middle part of his career and any interest this summer may be seen by him (and especially his agent) as an unmissable chance. I'd love to see him hang about but we all know the "Motherwell player has good season" story by now.

I always go to Dingwall but the tickets have always been more expensive than most - ICT used to do the same. I think the logic is that you've spent a fortune getting there, what's another couple of quid?

Aberdeen being our bogey team is a new thing. Taking points against every team is a rare thing for us I would guess.

Given the glacial speeds that deals can move at - and the fact that anything that is negotiated then needs to go through a cycle of scrutiny by the 'Well Society board and then members - and *then* all the legal formalities and due diligence - I'm not particularly fussed at this point and don't really care about a running commentary on it. If it does happen, then it's going to be too late to affect our summer recruitment/budget and so at the very earliest, it would have an impact in January 2025 (but most likely the summer after). The club isn't in financial difficulty of any sort, so not losing any sleep on the fact that there hasn't been an update for 5 days.

And because it would be rude not to:

Someone shifted the ball to him and so it wasn't a direct free kick (I had to rewind it in my head when I first read it )

The Spittal goal against Celtic was the only one on the list that I didn't see live - so maybe that changes my perception - but it is probably my favourite. But due to Hearts PCA's, I'm giving it to Slattery's which due to the way the ball was pinged about, looked amazing from high up in the away end at Tynecastle... One thing that I hope isn't ripped up in the summer is the attacking side of things - this has been a good goal scoring Motherwell team (that scored good goals).

My abiding memory of the 1994 game (apart from the fact that I stood behind the goals as it was the last day of the terracing) - was that someone ran on near the end dressed as Sieb Dykstra, complete with stick-on porn star moustache.

The nicest man in fitba to score a 92nd minute winner in front of the cooper and then an Adebayor in front of the Saintees fans/Eric Nicholson you say? That would brighten up the last day of the season.

This is what I don't really get with the post split fixtures revolving round the OF game - what is the difference between an OF Cup Final and an OF League decider? From a policing point of view - a 50/50 split crowd at a final is surely worse than a 90/10 or a 100/0 split in a league game. Arseholes in pubs are going to be the same regardless...

It's been mental looking into all this stuff. My favourites are that France at one point was requiring you to carry a breathalyser kit (but that seems to have gone away) but best of all are the drink driving laws in Belgium. If you are a wee bit over the limit when they test you, they allow you park up for a couple of hours before carrying on with no fine or points - probably to cater for folk that had a Tripel with their lunch

I think this is correct - but unfortunately France apparently needs one per person and we're driving through there first - great fun.

I got it from here: https://www.tuvsud.com/de-de/branchen/mobilitaet-und-automotive/feinstaubplaketten/bestellung-feinstaubplakette-england The thing you're after is called an "umweltplakette" and you need a photo/scan of your V5 amongst other things - but it wasn't too bad. I think it cost me 17 Euro all in (I think there are a bunch of commercial services that do it for double that).

Had genuinely forgotten about that utter nightmare of a game until @Handsome_Devil mentioned it TBH. Is that the only one?