This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.

Fundamentally, the news this week that the club have entered into a non-binding Heads of Terms with a US-based family hasn’t materially changed my viewpoint on potential investment, or really changed the situation as yet.

I, like many others I would guess, are not entirely against the idea of outside investment, but it all depends on what the club would be giving away in order to secure it. My red line would be the ceding of the ‘Well Society’s majority shareholding, but I also have misgivings about giving away any sort of shareholding in the club if that wasn’t in exchange for a commensurate level of investment.

As yet, we do not officially know the figures involved, in terms of either the proposed level of investment, or the identity of the investors.

So, until both of those points are clarified, there is very little to go on in terms of judging whether this would be a good thing for the club or not.

Some notes of caution though. There is no doubt that outgoing chairman Jim McMahon is a Motherwell man, and will – I am sure – be looking to leave a legacy at the club when he steps down in the summer.

READ MORE: Motherwell announce agreement with US-based investor

However, I hope that his eagerness to show that the investment video that was his brainchild, and that he personally financed, has been a success doesn’t blind his judgment, and that he doesn’t end up driving this through to its conclusion even if it isn’t in the best long-term interests of the club.

There is also some confusion here when it comes to his mandate for doing so. The executive board of course has a duty to seek out investment if they feel that is what the club requires, but the fact that the ‘Well Society board haven’t been directly involved in this process suggests something of the tail wagging the dog.

The ‘Well Society, let’s not forget, are the owners of the club, and their statement on Thursday evening distancing themselves from this process suggests a great deal of scepticism from their side around the potential deal.

This is a democracy, of course, and just as Society members voted to retain an openness to investment, so too will they eventually be asked to ratify whatever this deal may be. This is where crystallising exactly what any investment will mean to the club and its future will be vital.

I suspect that a great many of the members who didn’t vote on that first point will engage more when there is something concrete to consider, and something that could potentially affect the future of the club, for better or worse.

There may be many who will see the promise of foreign investment and think that more money cannot possibly be a bad thing, but there is of course a litany of cautionary tales throughout the recent history of the Scottish game to ensure that caution is advised.

READ MORE: Bravo Motherwell, now other clubs must speak out on VAR

Investment could be a good thing, and the ‘Well Society board themselves have said they are encouraged by the noises coming from the potential investors that they would like to work with the Society rather than sideline it.

So, let’s move forward with an open mind, but with a healthy dollop of scepticism too. The devil will be in the detail.

AND ANOTHER THING…

For all that the direction of the club off the pitch has been the main topic of conversation over the past week, I noticed a great deal of discussion as the fans filtered out of the Cooper Stand last Saturday over what they had just witnessed on it, and the direction of the team.

This isn’t a criticism of Stuart Kettlewell at this particular point in time. His number one priority is to secure survival, and the harsh reality is that until Motherwell’s Premiership status is sealed, the fans may have to accept that the football may not always be the prettiest.

Teams are scrapping for every point at this juncture of the season, playing for top six places, European football or just to stay in the division, so no one is expecting tiki-taka to break out.

That being said, the quality on show at the weekend was often poor, despite the team showing good fighting spirit to come back and secure a point against St Mirren. And often, I feel, games turning out in such a scrappy manner can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This point isn’t really Motherwell-specific. You hear managers saying it all the time. We are playing St Mirren, they are physical, so it will be a battle. Oh, we’re going to Livi or Killie, it’s a plastic pitch, this will be about winning second balls.

I’d love to hear more about how a team were going to go out with the intent of playing good, passing football and imposing their identity on the opposition, rather than accepting being dragged down to their perceived level.

Easier said than done, and maybe a tad naïve or even idealistic. But football, despite what Bobby Williamson once famously said, is in the entertainment business. If we are paying 26 quid to watch it, perhaps we should be entitled to set our expectations higher than the fare on offer last weekend.