JUNE 30th, 2015. Now a date of significance which could, if not already, prove to be one of the most important in the recent history of Motherwell Football Club.
Just a couple of days later on during that pivotal period, the most remarkable thing about this Lanarkshire summer’s afternoon was that there was a big yellow ball in the sky and the kids weren’t canoeing to the ice cream van. Only three press men were in attendance that day, this numpty being one of them, to speak to the latest two recruits brought in by Ian Baraclough. No satellite trucks were parked on Fir Park Street, no throng of flashing cameras and babbling questions. Joining us was one family who had won a competition to see the unveiling of the club’s new kit being modelled by the players, one of which was an unknown forward brought in from Wrexham. It’s not doing the striker a disservice to say there was more fuss being made over the rather dashing attire he was sporting than the man in it. That man was Louis Moult.
He almost looked embarrassed by the modest attention being thrown his way as he stood at the mouth of the Fir Park tunnel, wearing an over-sized, one-size-fits-all strip and a claret and amber bar scarf draped around his neck. Why would anyone want to speak to him?
It’s a habit that’s over the last two years which hasn’t changed.
On Saturday, we were all at it again. While in 2015 he candidly and bravely spoke about losing his mother Vicky to alcoholism at the devastatingly young age of 15, how his doting dad Arthur drove him all over the country for his love of the game and how a threat to his professional career drove him to start taking his coaching badges, this time journalists wanted to talk to him about something much more straight-forward - his penchant for making defenders look like puddings. It was something he did quite well during an industrious and bountiful afternoon on a chilly Leith afternoon. His team were, rather harshly, two goals down when he sprung into life to grab a brace he really had no right of being near. The first goal was headed in from all of four yards, the Hibs defence and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano fooled by the Englishman’s cloak of invisibility, while 10 minutes later he instinctively rolled away from Efe Ambrose – poor Efe… - to blooter a low right-foot shot under Marciano before he could properly react. This all came after he had crashed a shot off the crossbar in the first half and missed a glorious header at the back post, or it very well could have been four in the one game (a feat he achieved against Hamilton Academical last season).
This is nothing new, of course. In his two and a bit years in claret and amber, he’s leathered in no fewer than 43 goals, and 18 of them came in a Motherwell team last year that almost got relegated. It may very well have done if it wasn’t for the 25-year-old.
There were one thousand Motherwell fans in Easter Road on Saturday and this time last month every one of them probably didn’t think Moult would still be here. Aberdeen had a mid-summer offer of just over £300k knocked back, tentative inquiries from Rangers were rebuffed even before that for a player with just a year left to go on his deal. A deal Motherwell offered to extend for a year to make him the highest paid player at the club. With the window now shut, it’s a contract which remains unsigned but still very much on the table.
The Fir Park board are right to protect their interests given their recent history in the transfer market. They hauled in over £1million for Marvin Johnson in terms of transfer fees and sell-ons. It’s a trick they could very well repeat to add to the £400,000 garnered from Ben Heneghan’s sale to Sheffield United.
In truth, though, if Moult does sign that contract, he has the potential to go for an up-front price greater than that of Johnson. And Motherwell know it. The new contract is not done with the naïve hope of keeping Moult until 2019, but to help ensure cash can be reinvested in a team and club now for the fans, by the fans. Some of it may be used to find the next Louis Moult, but they’ll have their work cut out. Not only has Moult demonstrated his eye for goal with some ridiculous finishes – just think back to that lob against Celtic at Fir Park last season – but his work rate, link up play and feverish desire to get the ball into the net from everywhere would make him an asset worth the attention of teams, with all due respect, far greater than the one he is currently adored at.
Back to the present, and Moult didn't speak to us all on Saturday, perhaps anticipating the questions regarding that contract. Instead, he chose to do his talking on the park, something he will undoubtedly continue to do with a smile on his face and, for the sake of Motherwell, hopefully with some more dosh in his pay packet.
Unlike that afternoon two years ago, everyone is now listening.
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