You claim that without you there’d be no Walsall FC.
You claim your intention is to secure us in the Championship.
I claim you talk complete and utter ■■■■■■■■.
You have overseen a club on the brink of League 2. A club that looks like it will struggle in the division below. A club that has a playing budget that is more like a whip round. A club that is devoid of atmosphere, direction and ambition. A club that can’t provide basic toilet facilities, or even bog-standard catering, or roofs that don’t leak. A club that feels its warranted and worthy to tell the world it’s painted the bloody stadium for the first time in a decade.
The club is rotting from top to bottom. The only thing that ever improves is the bloody rent cheque.
I hear you wish to leave a legacy? You are doing … a club that is a husk of what it once was.
When the inevitable happens, does the rent get lowered as our income is slashed? If so i’d be willing to see us drop further to get rid of the paracite. If we aren’t any good as the goose who lays a golden egg, he may get rid. Or he may just continue bleeding us dry.
The problem is, tinned, there have been interested buyers but as soon as they hear the price and/or Bonser’s conditions and extent of sale, the interest ends.
It is clear that, despite what he says (a blatant lie), he does NOT want to sell. The “club’s no.1 fan” (what an offensive epithet that is!) is on a nice little earner which he has no intention of giving up.
His legacy will be the eventual demise of the club. Unfortunately, his puppets (or should that be Muppets?) on the Board will do nothing about it.
“Demise of the club”…fans drifting away, an unchallenging local media, a chairman and CEO that hardly ever say anything about the football club in the public domain, indeed the chairman doesn’t even attend the club’s own AGM.
In any slow demise tipping points occur that accelerate it. Our last relegation lead to a temporary resurgence because everyone was so relieved to get rid of Merson, and it wasn’t that long after we’d been a Chamionship club so there was a healthy, recently lapsed support base to tap into once we started winning again in League Two. None of these factors apply now. The last major downward tipping point was 2008 (Dann Fox window), we’ve had 11 years of slow demise punctuated only by the latter part of the Smith era, note even that wasn’t enough to significantly improve attendances. The supporters that stopped going back then arn’t going to suddenly come back after that time period. This now feels like another tipping point. Away attendances down to those that just go no matter what, and home crowds at early 80’s/Hibbitt era levels. Nobody wants Deano to fail, so his leaving isn’t going to create a “bounce”, and neither is narrowly staying up, or going down and doing well.
There’s going to be a sea change one way or the other, at the moment it feels like we’re just going to shrink to the level of a lower league somewhere in the pyramid with crowds of 2000/2500. What that would be a staging point on the way to is anyone’s guess, but demise would be a reasonable call. That might, after all be uncle Jeff’s real “secret” exit strategy, blaming the apathy of the town as he sails off into the Med.
Bonser does not appear to want to sell, there is the rent being paid into the pension fund. In order to continue to receive the same amount as the rent figure someone would have to pay far more than the club is worth so that the interest earned on the club sold figure would continue to pay the “rent”. As the value of the club goes down the chance of selling reduces. Meanwhile the rent still gets paid and could end up being a debt against the club if it could not be paid. Therefore for Bonser to sell he would need to accept less than what he thinks it is worth. Not an option at present he is prepared to accept.
