Brown and Knox

By Graham Barnstaple
December 11 2010

New Dons boss Craig Brown believes Motherwell Chairman John Boyle’s reaction to his move north has been “churlish”

John Boyle stated yesterday he was disappointed with the way Aberdeen had gone about the appointment of their new manager. He is upset that after all the good work he has down at Fir Park and it looks as though everyone at Motherwell should be grateful for his legacy.

He may have a point but it looks as though he has led the Motherwell board and fans a merry dance this week.

Stewart Milne has already indicated an agent for Brown and Knox contacted him earlier in the week. This seems to go against what Brown was say when he said the contact came out of the blue and he only talked to them out of courtesy.

Then out came all the guff about how he was happy to stay, Motherwell’s squad was better than Aberdeen’s, how happy he was with the reaction of the fans and he had unfinished business.

Of course, this all turned out to be a load of old tosh as the next day he was resigning and heading off to Pittodrie, in a U-turn of gargantuan proportions.

It looks as though Brown has misread how the people of Motherwell feel about all this, different if he had said on the first approach he was going to go it would have been acceptable.

But to spin a web of guff the way he did, and basically mis-lead the Motherwell players, board and fans, what reaction did he expect?

From many in Motherwell his reputation as a gentleman of high integrity has been tarnished and he is certain of a hot reception next Saturday and on his next visit to Fir Park.