3pm

A few snippets of news:

Former Dundee United manager Alex Smith has been given a consultant's role at Fir Park.  Smith worked with Terry Butcher for 18 months at Raith Rovers, and said:
"Terry knows for as long as I help him that he will get nothing from me but straight views."

Butcher added:
"People like Alex should never be out of the game. He knows so much and can help me greatly with his opinions.  I have Chris McCart and George Adams here and I have the highest respect for them, but sometimes you need a different pair of eyes."

David Partridge has been given a two-match ban following his red-card at Ibrox on Saturday.  The defender will apparently miss the CIS League Cup tie at Aberdeen tomorrow night and the Partick Thistle match a week on Saturday.

James McFadden is on the verge of signing a lucrative boot deal.  A spokesman for Faddy said:
"James has three leading sportswear firms wanting him to sign a boot deal.  It is a good position to be in and at the moment we are in discussions with the firms and assessing their offers."

11am

Today's newspapers are reporting that John Boyle could return to take over the club again, a move that has been rumoured for some time now.  The club's administrator, Bryan Jackson, admits he may have to go back to JB  if a new buyer cannot be found in the next seven months:
"Ultimately, if there is no buyer by the end of the season, I may have to beg him to come in again.

"He would be taking over the debts owed to other creditors, writing off a massive debt owed to himself, and be saddled with the problems of running a club in difficult times again. He would not be due any criticism from me. Indeed, he would be my White Knight.  He is still chairman, major shareholder and major creditor.

"Motherwell need to plan ahead as a football club. It is not the business of my firm, KPF, to run football clubs on a long-term basis.  We are only at Fir Park in a holding role

"The early rush of enthusiasm from outside to buy Motherwell dwindled to one or two genuinely interested local parties, who have been exercising due diligence. But their interest seems to have cooled and there does not seem to be a solution in sight."

However, Jackson tried to emphasise that he was not painting a gloom-and-doom scenario:
"The positives are that the finances are in reasonable order and we will come close to breaking even this season," he said, "We do not need to sell anyone at the moment.  We are hopeful the club will stay in the premier division but, if we don't, everything would have to be looked at again.

"There is still a feeling that the downward trend in fooball finances generally has not bottomed out yet.

"What we would like to see is a consortium of local business men moving in, maybe including John Boyle, because we know they would have the club's interests at heart.

"It would be better if a five-year plan or such could be put in place. We are working on ways of increasing income.

Clearly, the future remains uncertain. "We are desperate to see the club survive. Anything else would be a huge disappointment, especially to its solid, loyal fan base."

Meanwhile, JB himself has denied that his return could be viewed as him trying to avoid paying the club's debts in full:
"If we're talking about protecting the interests of Motherwell's creditors I could point out 87 per cent of the debt is owed to me."

JB also defended his decision to made players redundant at the end of last season:
"I did what I did to keep Motherwell in existence. Nine players were made redundant and not 19. Ten of the number released were going out of contract a month later.  The nine who were made redundant would have a claim against me if I went back to Motherwell, based on deducting their current earnings from what they would have had over the same period at Fir Park.

"I made nine redundant to save the jobs of 62 people who work for, or play for, Motherwell.  If Lord King does the same thing as chairman of British Airways he
receives praise. I am painted as a villain."

Khelad Kemas turned out for last night's Under-21 match against Rangers, which the visitors won 2-1.  Ian Russell scored Motherwell's goal.

Team: Dubourdeau, Dempsie, Crawley, Black, Sengewald, Mathie, Russell, MacDonald, Jack, Kemas, Clarke (Scott 80)

Subs: Clarkson, Ewings, Quinn, Barkey

Time for a new opinion poll!

Should Steve Woods be replaced when the transfer window reopens?