GB raises his concerns with the chairman
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
After Mr. Dickie’s first appearance on TV as our new Chairman, on Friday Sportscene before the Aberdeen game, where he appeared to paint a bleak future for our club I was forced to write to find out what he really thought. After some time I got a reply from Alan Dick asking me to come in to Fir Park to discuss the three questions I had raised, these were;
1. What vision or goals do the new board have for the club?
2. How are they going to improve things on the park and subsequently our League position.
3. What benefits do the club see from the up coming “breakaway”?
I eventually took up Alan Dick’s invitation on the day of the Hibs game at Easter Rd. when we had an open debate on the points I was looking for answers from in my letter. We spoke first of the goals on the footballing side and the impact of the above TV appearance. Mr Dick stated that all Mr Dickie had said was that IF we were to be relegated that it COULD mean part time football. If any misunderstanding was forthcoming from this it was certainly not meant, and even IF we were relegated this season we would NOT be part time next season. He them went on to state that the club realistically feel they cannot compete with the major City Clubs for the Championship, but see themselves as being capable of challenging for Europe in the 4th to 6th position region in the League. As well competing at this level in the League we should expect to reach the latter stages of the Cup competitions, if not going all the way.
To me this is a realistic set of ambitions for a club of our size, and if Mr Dickie had stated these goals on Friday Sportscene I am sure that most Motherwell supporters would not have complained.
On the commercial side the club has seen the amount of revenue generated in a year bottom out at just under £2million, mainly due to the lack of transfer money being generated. To help increase this number Matt Thomson has been drafted on to the board, Matt owns the largest independent printers in the UK, with a staff of 460 people in his plants in East Kilbride. It is hoped that he can use his many contacts within industry throughout the UK to increase the amount of commercial revenue generated through sponsorship and corporate hospitality. On this front Motherwell have 280 boxes available, and at the moment 272 are occupied. In the Main Stand there are 50 spaces still available, therefore there is still scope to improve here. Mr. Thomson will also try to increase our Advertising revenue, although at the moment there is no free advertising space within the ground!
This is an area I have little knowledge of and I hope that the faith placed in Mr. Thomson pays off and he can increase our revenue and give our manager some much needed cash to spend.
We then moved on to the subject of the so called breakaway, and what benefits it would have for Motherwell. It would appear that the hope is, as stated in the Press, that this will bring in increased sponsorship money and TV money. This would be achieved through a major new sponsor and also a change in the TV rules. No real surprises here, this was pretty much as I expected. Although at the time of discussion the shape of the League seems to be up in the air, will it be 10 or 12 clubs, with our club favouring 10 as it guarantees 4 home games against the Old Firm. Although doesn’t seem to fit with our goal of being a top 6 club, where the 12 team option would also mean 4 home games against the Old Firm.
Lastly we spoke of how the squad could be improved. In the past, particularly in the McLean era, we could buy players for £30-40000 and then sell them on for £60-70000 thus generating a bit of money to help fund other transfers. Unfortunately this has all but dried up, as can be seen with the lack of activity in this area at Perth, Kilmarnock, Dunfermline etc., as clubs at all levels have no money for even these transfers.
This has meant that the Agent has become a major player in football nowadays, as they tout their clients around the world. Mr Dick said that Motherwell receive roughly 5 faxes a day from agents recommending players (approx 40/week!!). These come from all over the world, with none from Scotland as agents here know that our Managers knows who is available or not. If a player’s CV looks interesting the club will use one of their many contacts in the particular part of the globe to help check them out before bringing them over for a trial. Eric Garcin, for example, was vetted with help from Eric Black through is contacts in France.
I mentioned at this point that it would appear that many trialists arrive and are let go as being “no better than what we have at present” BUT many fans believe that we will not pay the wages asked. The club operate a wage structure which they do not want to upset, they are not prepared to offer someone double the money of Tommy Coyne, as this could upset the whole balance at the club. Therefore sometimes there has to be serious negotiation with the player and his agent to see if they can be brought into our pay scale – sometimes it works on other occasions it doesn’t.
It would appear that this is the level of transfer dealing we will see for the foreseeable future, at least until the Bosman ruling also covers domestic transfers. This led on to the Dorner/Resch fiasco, and whether supporters were conned at the time we were selling Season Tickets. When the players were first paraded it was the intention that they would be here for the year, until Modling produced the Pre-Contract agreement that screwed the plans up (I was shown a copy of this document!) much to amazement of the player’s agent who did not know they had signed it. Modling agreed the players could come and play but if they stayed on beyond 3 months a transfer fee would be required. At the end of this period the club decided to promote our Scottish youngsters rather than keep the two Austrians, who it was felt were not much better than we had already (yes that old story again).
I hope this helps put some of the supporters minds at rest, and that the club appear to have ambitions that match our own, and are constantly looking at players to ensure that the correct quality finally gets here.
Graham Barnstaple
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