This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
It’s been quite the week for Motherwell fans, with the long-running investment saga ending with something of a whimper as Wild Sheep withdrew their offer before the shareholder vote could even be tallied, and the sale of Theo Bair to AJ Auxerre.
The incredible sum that the club managed to attract for Bair - £1.6m plus £500k in potential add-ons, as exclusively revealed in The Herald – may just have soothed one or two worried minds about the club’s financial outlook now that Erik Barmack and co had departed the scene. It is, after all, not a kick in the Stuart McCall’s off the total of Wild Sheep’s proposed six-year investment.
Judging by a very unscientific gauging of the mood via social media and message boards, the vast majority of Motherwell fans though seem relieved that a line has been drawn under the whole affair, and a deal that was widely thought to have undervalued the club has been rebuffed, one way or the other.
The gauntlet has very much now been thrown down to The ‘Well Society to help the club attract outside investment, and it will be interesting to see how they now go about realising the plans laid out in their own strategy document.
In the here and now, the club have done brilliantly to get full value for one of their key assets in Bair. The manager, Stuart Kettlewell, deserves huge credit for his part in turning around Bair’s fortunes. He saw something in the forward that nobody else in world football did last summer, and hopefully he will reap some of the rewards by seeing some of that transfer fee trickling into his budget.
Judging by the performance at Montrose the other night, he could be doing with some reinforcements in attacking areas, with a Blair Spittal-shaped creative hole yet to be filled.
What the Bair transfer also does though is strengthen Motherwell’s position should vultures start circling for any of their other talents, namely Lennon Miller, with reports of Rangers keeping a close eye on the midfielder over pre-season.
It would be a huge loss for Motherwell to lose the precocious talent, as much as we all know the time will come when he will move on to bigger and better things. But there is certainly no need for the club to sell at this particular juncture unless they receive a ridiculous offer they simply can’t refuse.
Jdging by the way they handled the Bair negotiations, I’d have full faith that Miller won’t be leaving the club this summer unless a club out there is willing to surpass the record fee Motherwell have received for a player, the £3.25m that Celtic paid for David Turnbull.
He might not have the flashy stats of Turnbull in terms of goals and assists - they are, of course, very different players. But the quality that Miller possesses is beyond question, and he already has a good number of games under his belt at such a young age.
He is only going to get better, so if Rangers – or anyone else, for that matter – wants him, they will have to pay top dollar.
Read more:
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Zach Robinson aims to follow in Theo Bair's footsteps at Motherwell
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Bumper Theo Bair fee revealed as Motherwell make huge return
They may baulk at that, given that he is unlikely to play every week at this age perhaps for Philippe Clement’s side, but having lost out on Lewis Ferguson before he became unaffordable, they may be wary of missing out again. And there is every chance Miller could reach a similar level.
Whether a move to a team like Rangers would be best for Miller or not, is open to debate. His former teammate in the Fir Park academy, Bailey Rice, has found first team opportunities hard to come by since making the move to Ibrox when he was just 15, after all.
Had he stayed where he was, he too may have played 40-odd games at first team level by now, instead of the 15 minutes he has accrued over three sub appearances for Rangers.
Personally, I feel another year at Motherwell followed by a move abroad, perhaps to Italy, like Ferguson, would be best for Miller’s development, but sometimes such things are out of the control of both player and club.
If Rangers – or anyone else – are looking to recruit him in the short term though, they aren’t going to get him on the cheap.
AND ANOTHER THING…
That’s the new strips out then for another season, and the club have certainly gone for something a bit different with both the home and away efforts.
At first, I wasn’t overly convinced by the home top, given how far it broke from tradition, but it has grown on me after seeing it in the flesh.
The away top, revealed at last today, was a little bit more favourable at first glance. The tartan trim is a nice touch.
My only real gripe is the use of the script rather than the club’s badge, which made sense on the retro efforts the club were producing, but now seem to have become a mainstay of the away tops. But that’s a minor grumble.
Another trip to the ‘Well Shop to dress two boys and despatch a fair old chunk of my wages, awaits.
