8pm

The club have issued the following statement on the Official Website:

Motherwell Football Club are pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Black as First Team Manager, Terry Butcher will take over as his Assistant and Chris McCart, one of Motherwell’s greats who was part of the 1991 Scottish Cup winning squad is welcomed back to the Club as a Youth Coach.

Also on board, as part of the complete restructuring of the Football Department as Youth Development Manager, is George Adams, who was previously Youth Co-ordinator at Celtic.

The appointments are effective from Tuesday 16th October and the new management team will meet the players for team talk and training tomorrow.

Details of the press conference and further information will be available on the web-site tomorrow.

All of us at Motherwell Football Club wish the new management team every success.

Do you agree with the appointment?  Vote in our NEW POLL!!!

5.35pm

And Motherwell's new manager is....

ERIC BLACK

Just confirmed by Ricky at the Press Conference.  He's been given a three-and-a-half year contract.  Terry Butcher will be his No 2 and Chris McCart will be joining the coaching team along with George Adams from Celtic  John Philliben and Miodrag Krivokapic have had their contracts paid up and both have left the club.

Black said:
"I'm delighted to take the job.  It is always something I wanted to get back to, it just wouldn't go away.  At this moment in time, Motherwell have offered me the opportunity to be my own man and I'm delighted to take that.

"I look upon my Celtic experience as just that, a wealth of experience in a short space of time and I hope to bring that to Motherwell.  

"Only time will tell if I can be a success here. I have experienced a lot - and sometimes I think you experience more in adversity than success - but I learned a lot from Josef Venglos and John Barnes and I hope to put that to work here.

"I haven't had the chance to meet the players yet so I'll meet them tomorrow morning. I think they have handled it very well not having a manager in place but I was very encouraged by their performance on Saturday."

Pat Nevin added:
"Eric is known throughout the Scottish footballing fraternity and is someone who is admired so it is no great surprise that other clubs have been interested in him.  I admire him as a person and his knowledge of football in this country and throughout Europe is second to none.  I spoke to him at some length and was very impressed by his thoughts on football."

The decision was made at 2pm this afternoon and he will meet the players for the first time tomorrow.  Chris McCart was only given permission to leave Celtic by Martin O'Neill at 4.45pm.  Black says that avoiding relegation is his first priority, but "we'll see" at the end of the season.  It turns out that Black and Butcher are business partners, and the pair launched a European scouting network based in Livingston earlier this year.

See what my own reaction was when I first heard the reports on Saturday morning.

5.05pm

Radio Scotland reports that there will be a Press Conference at Fir Park at 5.30pm this evening.  Is an announcement imminent...?

Ricky will be reporting live from Fir Park in 20 mins or so. Stay tuned for details!!!

9.15pm

Reports this morning suggest that Ian McCall will NOT be Motherwell's new manager, after he ruled himself out of the running.  The Airdrie boss was interviewed for the position two weeks ago and had been on the club's shortlist to replace Billy Davies, however he has decided to remain at New Broomfield following their Challenge Cup win on Sunday.  The race to succeed Billy Davies is now between Eric Black, Colin Lee, Softie/Mio and an unnamed mystery candidate, who is believed to be a Scotsman currently working in England (Jim Duffy perhaps?).  The club hope to have the new man installed before Saturday's trip to Dens Park.

Speaking last night, McCall said:
"I never at any stage applied for the job at Motherwell and, while I admit to speaking to their representatives, it was them who approached me rather than the other way around. It would take an extraordinary offer for me to leave Airdrie now.  When I took over at the end of last season, I faced a real battle to sign players at next to no notice in an effort to keep us up.  We managed that but the players, and myself in particular, took a lot of very unpleasant abuse from supporters who were disenchanted that Steve Archibald and his foreign players had gone. They didn't seem prepared to give us a chance.  We've come through that now, though, and I couldn't begin to tell you how touched I was to hear our supporters chanting 'McCall must stay' on Sunday. My mother, who was at the match, was almost in tears and I wasn't far behind her."

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