JOHN Boyle has come a long way since being expelled from training as a priest for smoking at 13, but his retention of Mark McGhee's services as Motherwell manager may be proof to some Fir Park fans that the travel entrepreneur still has the ear of a higher power.
The lure of Hearts proved strong enough for McGhee to stand at the door of a plane bound for Lithuania and Tynecastle majority shareholder, Vladimir Romanov. However, the former Scotland international decided against the move to Edinburgh from Lanar
kshire after agreeing an improved deal with Boyle.
But the Motherwell chairman is no stranger to making the right decisions in business, despite the Fir Park club being placed in administration just over six years ago.
Boyle had unveiled his vision of Motherwell as the 'third force' in Scottish football after the Old Firm when he took over in 1998. The big money salaries paid to the likes of Andy Goram and John Spencer indicated the ambition Boyle had, while the arrival of Pat Nevin as player-chief executive preceded the appointment of Billy Davies as manager.
Davies was handed a war chest of some size when he succeeded Harri Kampman. The results were not as hoped for in the first season as Motherwell finished fourth from bottom in the inaugural Premier League season. A year later, Hearts clawed back a 12-point deficit during the season's run-in to snatch a Uefa Cup place from Boyle's club.
Failure was a new word for Boyle to deal with – business success had followed his every move prior to buying Motherwell.
Boyle and his brother, Hugh, had sold their travel firm, Direct Holidays, making £56million into the bargain before setting up the investment vehicle, Hamilton Portfolio in 1999.
The investment firm has ploughed more than £230million into property and small firms from the technology, media and printing sectors.
Boyle's personal finances hit the buffers with Motherwell, though, as he overestimated the lure of Celtic and Rangers to Lanarkshire supporters.
And, in April 2002, Boyle placed the club in the hands of the administrators after losing a reported £11million of his own money in the chase for glory. As a result, Nevin also left the club along with then manager, Eric Black, although the former believed Boyle should have held off the route of administration for a while longer.
Boyle stood down in the wake of administration with Bill Dickie taking over as chairman, working alongside administrator, Bryan Jackson, to save the club. Nineteen players left Motherwell as cuts hit hard.
But Boyle still worked from the sidelines to help out, and the club emerged from administration two years later. He said: "I was largely responsible for creating a bit of a mess, but I cleaned up my own mess. We tried an experiment and it didn't work."
In 2003, Boyle returned to his original field of expertise as he unveiled Scottish Caribbean tour firm, Go Travel Direct and Zoom airline with his brother.
Things were still tough at Fir Park, though, with the team finishing bottom of the SPL in May 2003 and only surviving relegation by virtue of First Division champions Falkirk's Brockville failing to meet the stadia safety criteria required for the top flight.
In that same season, however, a number of gems were beginning to emerge with James McFadden and Stephen Pearson impressing for the Steelmen – the two players were to prove a crucial ingredient for survival. Everton shelled out £1.25million for McFadden in August 2003 and, just over four months later, Celtic paid £350,000 for Pearson.
Boyle was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2004. Although no longer chairman of their club, his success within the travel industry had garnered a Buckingham Palace visit 'for services to business'. He was also gaining further respect within the business community for his contribution to Zoom which this year promoted him in the Sunday Times' Rich List to 644th with an estimated wealth of £120million.
Boyle returned to the Motherwell chair in February this year at the club's agm where a fourth successive annual profit was unveiled.
Some fans had criticised Boyle after their CIS Insurance Cup final appearance in 2005 when the then Fir Park manager Terry Butcher, who had succeeded Black in the dark days of administration, moved to FC Sydney in Australia that summer.
Butcher's assistant, Maurice Malpas, managed only one season in charge for himself before McGhee arrived last year, and to brilliant effect in a season that will forever be associated with captain Phil O'Donnell's death on the Fir Park pitch in December.
Yesterday's confirmation that McGhee has opted for Motherwell and rejected Hearts' overtures may yet see Boyle finally crowned as the fans' champion in Lanarkshire.
The full article contains 810 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
