UPDATE: 14/06/07

The fixture list for the new season has been published.  After opening the season away to St Mirren, we then have four successive games at Fir Park - including one "away" match with Gretna.

10.50pm

It seems that Mark McGhee and Luc Nijholt are the front runners for the manager's job.  Early favourite Owen Coyle is now thought to be an unlikely appointment, given that the club would need to cough up compensation to St Johnstone, while Gary McAllister has distanced himself from the role due to the lack of transfer funds available, although he stopped short of ruling himself out completely.

Other names in the frame are Tommy McLean and Joe Miller (ha!).  One newspaper even claimed Chris McCart was in the running.

'Well legend Nijholt is currently in charge of Dutch second-tier club Stormvogels Telstar, and is quoted as saying:
"My agent contacted the club two days ago.  I am interested in the job. I had a great time over there as a player and I have always said that I'd like to go back as the manager."

Meanwhile, former Reading, Wolves, Millwall and Brighton boss McGhee said:
"I have let it be known through my representatives that I am interested in the Motherwell job. I am in Barcelona on holiday at the moment and there hasn't been any official contact from the club. Hopefully, though, there will be."

The following statement from the club appears to indicate it will be next week at the earliest before an appointment is made:
"We have been pleasantly surprised with the interest in the position and the quantity and quality of candidates has been excellent.

"After taking a week to make sure that anyone who was interested in the job had the chance to make their interest known.

"After reviewing the list of candidates the club has now drawn up a short list of people that they would like to consider for the position. The names on this list will be contacted and hopefully spoken to in the next week or so.

"After this process is complete the name of the new manager will be announced, there is no rush at the moment as this is an important decision and one that the club wants to get right.

"While this process is ongoing Caretaker Manager Scott Leitch is still working away to tie up any new signings for next season thus ensuring there is continuity at the club in the short term."

In this Wishaw Press article, club secretary Stewart Robertson says "a chunk" of the £700,000 transfer fee received for Scott McDonald will be available to the new manager, as well as some of the proceeds of allowing  Gretna to groundshare at Fir Park.

Aside from our pre-season trip to Austria, the club have arranged the following series of friendlies:

Wed July 18 - Livingston (A)
Sat July 21 - Millwall (H)
Tue July 24 - Dundee (A)
Wed July 25 - Ayr Utd (A)
Sat July 28 - Nottingham Forest (H)

The Millwall and Forest games will be priced at £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.

Today's Sun claimed that Scott Leitch is currently holding talks with St Johnstone midfielder Simon Mensing, while the Daily Record linked us with Dundee Utd's David McCracken, even though he has already signed for Wycombe(?)

Meanwhile, the two players we seemingly made offers to last week, Craig Dargo and John Sutton, have yet to sign for anyone else...

Mark Reynolds has been included in the Scotland Under-20 squad for their World Cup in Canada next month.

Paul Quinn has signed a new two-year contract.  He said:
"I am delighted to have got things finally sorted. There had been a lot of unsettling talk going on with links to other clubs and I can now look forward with some certainty.

I spoke to Scott Leitch and he told me I was part of the club’s plans going forward. This came at the end of a couple of weeks when I had been on holiday thinking about the decision I had to make.

"There were a couple of things that I wanted the club to include in the contract, they have done this and I am pleased to conclude things.

"My goal is to play every week and better myself by playing games on a more consistent basis.

"Playing games on and off makes it hard to improve, but I will be working hard to improve myself and impress the new manager."

I think we all knew Brian Kerr was a bit of a twat, but this Daily Record article confirms it.

This statement from Maurice Malpas on the Official Site appears to indicate he was happy with whatever financial settlement he was offered!

Cast your vote in our new opinion poll (UPDATED to include the latest candidates!):

Who do YOU want as our new manager?