When will Jeff and the board accept that their approach to running a football club is outdated and failing?
Not many clubs (at any level) are ran the way we are and of course it can always be argued ‘we’re financially well managed’ etc etc etc but frankly that is not the way to run a football club in the modern era…
With fans being 100% socially mobile with access to any and every form of communication at every level, our owner and his board colleagues are simply in complete denial about what is happening to us.
Their apology for the relegation is nothing but them issuing a pointless and meaningless piece of PR to seek to fend off any immediate questions and it’s noticeable that there’s absolutely no word or mention of the approach for the future and/or any idea of the plan to seek an immediate return to L1… again we are treated like fools and forced to accept being fed BS…
If Jeff does care about WFC (which I personally doubt) then he’ll instigate change quickly and effectively but if he doesn’t and continues with his current approach then my honest assessment is that we are almost certainly destined for further decline and failure…
When? Probably never. Of course I can be mistaken, but rent is first. Club? Exist only to pay it and nothing more. I still think this exit plan is just selling ground, evict club somewhere and simply declare bankruptcy. When? Fan-base has to be smaller.
How could someone who cared about WFC take £1,000 a day from it? How could someone who genuinely cared take over £8 million from a club during his time in charge? How could some who cared about the club instead of looking for a potential buyer who would invest in it and take it forward is just looking for someone who will pay him a ridiculously high figure, and then have to continue paying rent to him? Down the road in Wolverhampton they had an owner who not only did not take a penny from the club, paid all the debts out of his pocket, invested £40 million, and sold it for £1 when he got old, because he was a genuine fan.
Oh sure, let’s give Bonser the benefit of the doubt that he really is a genuine fan and if it wasn’t for wicked Suffolk Life he could prove it.
I’m absolutely convinced that Jeff loves Walsall FC…and why shouldn’t he? Its little old Walsall FC that has made this tin-pot businessman rich beyond his wildest dreams. Not only “has” it done so but it continues to do so, which is where our obvious jealousy of other club’s protests and subsequent changes of ownership really is an entirely spurious comparison. Take “Smurf” at the Vale. Just a big mouth loon with more money than sense, a walking ego who loved having a pint in Burslem with the great unwashed even if it cost him a couple of million quid. People like Smurf probably had no mates at school, they longed to be the popular kid, so later in life when the chance arose they prostituted themselves into a position facilitated by their financial wealth and demanded by their previously retarded self-esteem . When it goes tits up, like a bad bet, a bad marriage, or a luxury holiday blighted by a dose of the tom tits they just do one. That was never what JB was about or is about. The reason he’s on the premises is because he knows the value of what he’s engineered, but also the magnitude of the truth of how he engineered it.
He’s an entirely different animal, and while there’s a bit of ego in there, its just the ego of a man who knows he’s pulled off and got away with the biggest financial coup in the history of football club ownership.
Was the plan from the start Geordie, with more than a little help from his friends.
The grubbysticky fingers involved in the move from FP run wide, run deep, and involve more names in places and positions than we will ever be privy too for obvious reasons.
I recall some years ago a certain very successful German budget supermarket chain wanting to buy and move onto the Bescot retail park which at the time was probably 25% occupied and considering the surrounding areas would have certainly virtually crippled the one that stands on the FP site. They waited, they waited, and they waited, for the go ahead from Walsall Council who in the end never even bothered to reply, the Germans obviously twigged, said were fed up of waiting and withdrew their application. This move would have helped fill what was clearly a struggling retail park, enliven and stimulate the area, provide much needed jobs, and also competition for the other lot, and you would have thought WC would have fallen over themselves to give the go ahead. The move from FP to Bescot was when the very soul of WFC was sold off in many ways and to this day a lot of covering of backs is going on.
Uncle Jeff has just joined in on the feeding frenzy.
In fact on a completely unrelated topic. Have you ever noticed in those films about the mafia, there’s always one character. Starts out running the local shoe-shine stall, or maybe a greasy spoon dive, spends his time oiling the wheels shall we say, a message here, bit of local knowledge there, in with the authorities as he shines their shoes as well. Then when all the main characters have either shot one another, got banged up, or ended up hot footing it back to Sicily he’s still there untouchable, munching away at the top table with his steady little income stream.
It is critical that Jeff breaks his monastic like vow of silence and speak to the fans. More so than ever we need to know the following:
What are his plans for the club, both short term (getting out of L2) and medium term (making progress towards Championship status).
If it is genuinely for sale how much does he want and what are his conditions.
We need straight answers because he aint getting any younger and the club is heading backwards at a rate of knots. He wants to be seen as a saviour but as it stands he took over a Div 4 side and he currently owns a Div 4 side … only difference is the club no longer owns the stadium it plays in
There has been so much happened or not happened in ways that no one can fathom over the years Exile for it to be incidental. In fact i would say it has and still is having a bearing on how WFC is run with regards to what it can do and cannot with things/promises/deals in place that you will never see written down. Add into this the business interests of the leader of WC at the time and you get the message.
You and i both know this is how so much of big business works when a lot of money is involved.
If you repeat a lie often enough you start to believe it to be true.
I think the problem is that Bonser genuinely believes his way is best for the club and, of course, the fact it’s very financially rewarding for him too helps.
I think things will have to get a lot worse on the pitch before he wakes up and smells the bacon. Even then, our regression will probably be blamed on lack of support rather than a lack of progressive leadership from the top.
If Bonser keeps insisting the club has to be run as a business, then he has to carry the can in this respect. Businesses have to attract and retain customers. No successful business ever takes its customers for granted.
Completely agree, but it’s easier to shrug your shoulders and say we’ve always been a small club surrounded by bigger competitors then actually do something about it.
Funnily enough I think Rotherham are the club we should be looking to emulate. Similar history, similar location issues, similar support until recent years. A new stadium and ambitious owner means they are now looking well-placed to be a top-end League One club that enjoys occasional spells in the Championship.
A pipe dream with Jeff in charge of course, but it feels like a realistic thing to aim for.
Footy clubs, or sport clubs, can do it. Why? Customers have club in their DNA. I can say it is some sort of an exploitation, but it’s footy. Some unexplained thing. You can change your favourite drink, or snack, you can even change your wife, but can you change your club? If you did it, it wasn’t your club.
