MOTHERWELL FC: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THY STAY THE SAME...
I don't know how many times I've said it before here, or how many more I will, but hardly a week goes by without MFC putting it's fans through the ringer.
First and foremost I'm going to take this opportunity to reflect and thank Mr John Boyle for his services to Motherwell over the last 13 years. For over a decade he has had Motherwell at heart and while some things he did put the club at risk, his time as Chairman, in my view, was mostly a success.
When he took over in 1998, Boyle's vision of making us the "Third Force" in Scottish football was scoffed at by many, even the Claret and Amber faithful. At a time when money in the Scottish Premier was being thrown about willy nilly, his cash injection put us relatively on par with all outside the Old Firm.
"Marquee Signings" like Spencer, Goram and Goodman, as well as Ged Brannan and Pat Nevi formed the crux of our big spending, eventually helping us to a few successful seasons. Incentives like Kids for £1 and Adults for a fiver, were put on to increase crowds.
However, these small successes couldn't guarantee long term gain, and in 2001, Boyle saw his idyll crash and burn as the threat of Administration loomed large. The sacking of 21 members of staff meant that Boyle's reputation, as well as his pocket took a big hit.
The club had to rely now on it's youth set up, which gave Boyle a chance to help Motherwell FC and himself recoup the losses. The breeding of players like McFadden, Pearson etc was essential, but their efforts couldn't stop us from facing relegation. That was left to Falkirk's lack of seating.
After the enforced rebuilding job, which Boyle entrusted in Terry Butcher, things began to look up. A Scottish Cup semi final and a League Cup final brought in some cash before El Tel left. Boyle's decision to put Malpas in charge saw us plummet down the table, in one of the worst seasons since JB came to power.
The McGhee era brought with it triumph and tragedy. While the team played some of it's best football in over a decade, Boyle bankrolled the signings that made it so from his own pocket. Porter, Hughes and Malcolm (?) earned their wage not from the club but from Boyle and paid him back with a 3rd place finish and European football.
Our best season of the decade was also one of the worst as we lost Phil O'Donnell. For any club to have a player die is a tragedy, Boyle's reign saw 2, with youngster Andy Thompson passing away at the start of Boyle's time in charge. JB and McGhee were excellent in their handling of such a harrowing time.
In recent years, his lack of ability to tie management to contracts has been highlighted. Whether it was a thrifty move on his part or not, by not securing Gannon, Brown and Knox to permanent roles, no matter the reasoning, it made us look like a joke to a press who already see us as the league's clowns.
His time at Well is coming to an end at the same time that a 4th season in Europe slides out of view as well. There's no questioning that JB has lost far more than he put in to the Club, bit it's a measure of his respect for MFC that he has not asked for anything in return upon his resignation. Instead he goes, knowing that for all the ups and downs of his tenure, he tried to do the best he could for Scotland's best diddy team.
A ditty team that could have had an unlikely 9 points from 9 in the wake of the Ibrox debacle. The sweet victory over Aberdeen was followed by the worst match I'd seen all season til that point. Sutton's spot kick dispatched a dire Accies team, who on the day, didn't look much worse than us.
Wednesday night saw what is definitely the worst game of the season. Even Stu Mc says so. After a frustrating week at work, I looked forward to venting at the St Mirren players as we would joyfully pump them. In my head I knew we wouldn't pump them, but I was thinking positive. The old chestnut that someone was due a pumping off us was running around my head.
As soon as the game kicked off I knew the pumping wasn't coming.
There's an argument that "Anti-Football" is ruining the game. Rangers ride it's wave on most European occasions by defending and breaking. St Mirren do it without actually playing football which deserves the "anti" prefix more. At this point I'd say watch the game in full and you would see the lack of talent being subbed for dirty dirty late challenges and rugby tackles, but the game was awful enough once through.
That's not to say that is why we lost. We lost because we weren't fighting enough. Lasley, Jennings and Gunning all took some hefty challenges but we all know they can give as good as they get. We were bullied by a hungrier team and it showed. The fact that the only shot on target I. The whole game went in shows how dire that game was.
If you told any Well fan after Ibrox that we'd get 6 from 9 in the next 3 games they'd have been happy with that. As the players were booed off the park last night, I remembered just how fickle a bunch we are. Sure McCall's tactical nous was all over the shop last night, but it worked against Aberdeen and to an extent against Accies. He got it wrong last night, but so did the boys on the park. I wonder how he'll set out his stall for the visit of Celtic
So, as the dust settles on a busy week at Fir Park, our inconsistency has kept us consistent once more. The prospect of new owners fills me with fear and excitement. Will we get a local investor or an Ibramovich/Romanov type mentalist ploughing us in to debt while spending millions on average players? Who knows...
Up The Well !!!
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