Society wants entirely home grown 'Well team

A Motherwell FC team comprising only home grown players is a bold vision of new club owners the Well Society.
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Nov 2016, 10:37 BST
Updated 16th Nov 2016, 16:50 BST
Chris Cadden is one of the shining lights in the current Motherwell team (Pic by Alan Watson)Chris Cadden is one of the shining lights in the current Motherwell team (Pic by Alan Watson)
Chris Cadden is one of the shining lights in the current Motherwell team (Pic by Alan Watson)

The fans group completed its purchase of the Fir Park outfit on Friday after acquiring the 76 per cent shareholding owned by Barbados-based millionaire Les Hutchison.

Well Society chairman and club director Tom Feeley said that blooding as many youngsters as possible in the Motherwell first team – with a view to selling them on for big bucks – is a key concept of the club’s new identity.

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He hinted that the signing of cheap imports from England’s lower leagues could be phased out entirely.

Tom added: “We need the guys coming through from the under-20s, we need them coming through from the academy into the under-20s.

“And there’s no doubt, our academy just now is tip top.

“We’ve got some excellent quality guys and we’ve got guys from the under-20s breaking through into our first team.

“That’s what we’ve got to do. We’re not going to buy loads of players in the future.

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“The perfect situation is we shouldn’t be signing anybody. We should be bringing all our own players through.

“Five guys played at Parkhead recently that have come through our academy and under-20s.

“And they played well that day although we lost 2-0.

“Chris Cadden is the shining light.”

Tom said it would be “ideal” if the club could pay back the £1 million loan owed to former owner Hutchison within the next three years.

He added: “It would be nice to clear things with Les within that time frame.

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“We know we need to sell players. That is the one thing that’s going to generate some surplus sums of money for us and we just accept that.

“And we’re not the only club in that respect.

“Most of them in this part of the world are anyway.

“It would be great if we could generate the loan repayment money through transfer fees.”

Tom stressed that Motherwell FC would retain 40 per cent of any transfer fees generated, so not all of this cash would be going straight to Hutchison.

He said that there would be many announcements in the coming weeks with a view to further increasing the Well Society membership of 2000.

Related topics:Fir ParkBarbadosEngland