Don’t have Twitter, does he have an email address?
have asked, will let you know if he responds UTS
Sweet, thanks!!
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Please lump on fellow Saddlers. Don’t expect it to make a huge difference but our suffering needs to get more coverage. From contacts I have had with Gabriel he is an EFL nut and has a big following on social media. I want to make life as difficult as possible for our cosy Board and their closed shop. Love the team, hate the club (the Board). UTS. Walsall till i die
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Have you seen our car park @Belgiansaddler ? talk to @RobHarv3y next time you are there 
Only kidding mate well done for bringing it to his attention
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Good job, Belg.
My tuppence worth, for what it’s worth
Hi Gabriel,
I hear that you are potentially putting together a piece of the club, and really wanted to share my thoughts with you in the hope it will give some insight into the mess that is Walsall FC, I apologise in advance if this becomes somewhat of a ramble, but I will try and keep it as on point and succinct as possible.
This year marks my 25 year as a fan of this small, often anonymous, but proud club. I came late to the party as a 14 year old asserting some independence and looking for a day out on a Saturday, I quickly became hooked. It is no small irony that my first ever game was an FA Cup 1st round tie against non-league opposition, and now non-league soon may become my weekly reality, and this is entirely down to the disastrous leadership of this club that has its’ roots in events 32 or so years ago, but started to really bear fruit in the last 7-10.
I am no expert on the club or the entirety of the lower EFL, and I won’t claim to know the dealings that went on well before my time, dealings that involve us moving from a decrepit, yet characterful stadium that we owned, to a soulless one that we do not, one where the toilets overflow, where the catering and matchday ‘experience’ is almost non-existent, one where the scoreboard doesn’t work (from what little I do know the land and stadium were separated off from the club and are now owned/managed by a company called Suffolk Life, who administer the pension fund of the former owner Jeff Bonser, and his brother. Also that the club may or may not have been overcharged for a stadium that was almost a carbon copy of Glanford Park, thus requiring no architect fees, and built by a company run by one of our Directors, Peter Gilman, that swiftly went bust before any accounts could be published - there are several people out there that could give you a good insight into this, if you wished), but what I do know is that whatever actually happened it has become a millstone around our necks, one that we currently pay £509,000 a year for the privilege, and that everything about this club currently seems to be geared up to servicing that rent payment, with the football club that inhabits it being relegated (pun intended) to being the sideshow.
Whilst Jeff was in charge we had a model that somehow kept us competing(ish) in League One, with the odd flirt with the Championship, and a brief dalliance in League Two that we swiftly recovered from. However as time went by the model became more and more outdated, managerial appointments less and less successful, with hitting lucky on Dean Smith being the only exception. Jeff was never one to accept criticism from the fans, and at times, aided and abetted by his crony and Club Secretary, Roy Whalley (who was once part of a Walsall fans action group, and now only has disdain for his spiritual successors) treatment of dissenting voices could become quite draconian, leading to bans for, say, bring a Cypriot flag into the stadium (Jeff has a villa in Cyprus, and this became totemic as a symbol of disaffection).
Eventually lack of any expenditure on the playing budget, and any available miracle workers daft enough to want the managers job we were once again relegated to League Two. Then the unthinkable happened, the longed for day had finally arrived, Jeff sold up, to one of the directors Leigh Pomlett, and we were all ecstatic and incredibly hopeful that things were about to change for us, what we didn’t know was it has been for the worse!
Leigh came in and rode a wave of good will, despite the fact that he had been part of the board since 2010, supporters who had stayed away returned in droves, we appointed Darrell Clarke, who had actually got pedigree in getting teams promoted on a budget, and had previously been highly rated, Leigh seemed to want to engage with the fans, and season ticket and attendances jumped. Our first season in League Two was average, as were the players we brought in, but we didn’t mind, we had got our Walsall back, but what we didn’t notice was that nothing had really changed, other than the chairman releasing a video every now and again. The board of directors stayed the same, the same people that had been business associates, employees, or accountants of the previous owner, people who had a distaste for the fans, with no experience of running a football club, ones that were inside the machinery of the rent situation were all still there, and no new blood had been brought in. Then Covid hit and the season was curtailed.
The following season was up in the air, but fans in their droves purchased season tickets, and then we found out we would not be allowed into the stadium. The Chairman issued a plea, asking people to keep their money in the club so it could survive, 90% of us did, myself included, because I wanted my club to survive, no question. In return the club produced a commemorative 3rd kit for this season with the names of those who kept their money in, which was a nice touch, however those whose names are on it were only offered the shirt at a slightly reduced rate, not free, not cost, not even half price, and the cynic would have to wonder was that just a sneaky way of squeezing even more cash out of us, that we were now seen as easy targets.
Eventually, after another average season, one where we’d relied on freebie loans from our neighbours, then sold our only goal threat to Luton at the end of January, replacing him with a dire loanee from Oxford who Clarke had had to beg for last minute, Clarke was poached by Vale and we were happy, we blamed him for our performances, we were sick of his arrogance and constant digging out of players, but it was then the cracks in the fabric of the club really started to appear. Pomlett went for the cheap option, as has been the story for so many years, and gave Clarkes’ assistant Brian Dutton the job, claiming that he had given him a mock-interview and he’d come across really well. Dutton was a failure, but also a scapegoat, he was given no assistant, our goal threat had gone, and he had no managerial experience whatsoever, we plummeted and dallied with relegation, eventually finishing 19th, and Dutton was let go.
Leigh promised to do better, he said he’d appoint a DOF to oversee all football matters, claiming he himself knew little about football (11 years on the board of a football club by this point!). After an “extensive search” he decided on Jamie Fullarton (and gave him a seat on the board for some reason), someone with no experience as a DOF, with a poor track record as a manager, and with the sulphurous stench of bullying accusations from his time at Bolton in particular, but also at other clubs, hanging around him (a quick search of the internet shows this). We then appointed Matty Taylor as manager and we were impressed, a guy with pedigree, and who was hopefully up and coming. Jamie promised signings who had the right character and our marquee signings were Joss Labadie (gets a yellow each game, and had been banned for biting earlier in his career), Manny Monthe (who was subsequently banned for 7 games by the FA for alleged homophobic abuse during his time at Tranmere), and Conor Wilkinson (history of red cards), as well as Ash Taylor and Stephen Ward, and that was pretty much it, we made no more permanent signings after early July, which smacks of the meagre budget being wasted early doors. We signed a few loanees after that point, but failed to sign a back up full back, a creative midfielder, or any permanent striker.
I won’t go into too much detail about the way this season has gone, the first half was average, with some decent results, and some poor ones, the second half is where we are at now - sliding into non-league. Some of this is Taylor’s fault as he was rigid with tactics, and clearly wasn’t able to adjust from managing talented youngsters at Tottenham, to having to make silk purses out of sows ears. More blame should be laid at Fullartons door, he signed these players, he wasted the budget, he runs things in a certain way that clearly aren’t conducive to a happy environment (see the departure of the Head of Youth Development Miguel Llera, or Taylor, both of whose partners have in one way or another made out that Fullarton is an issue on social media). But the rest of the blame lies squarely with the board, the cosy old boys club at the top whose only interest seems to be paying their mate his rent, and posting a small profit, then congratulating each other over a glass of port down the golf club. Also appointed to the board recently was an SLO by the name of Graham Whittaker, who’s Twitter handle is @littleoldwalsall, and is apparently a lifelong fan, he is also the former boss of the Managing Director, Stefan Gamble.
Recently things have really fractured between fans and board, an independent supporters group called ISSA asked for a meeting with the club to ask some questions, they told the club they would minute the meeting as the club refused to do so (to said meeting the SLO brought a dossier of all of the negative comments about the club from a fans message board called UTS, and various other social media sites), when the club were presented with the minutes the reaction was heavy handed to say the least, ISSA were accused of recording the meeting, they then tried to enforce heavy redactions, and requested another meeting with ISSA before any publication. During this second meeting it turned out that the person wanting the redactions had not actually been present at the original meeting, ISSA agreed to including a footnote, but informed the club they are a voice of the fans, would not be bullied into changes, and would publish the unaltered minutes, the Chairman then split off to record a sarcastic and acerbic video to the fans to tacitly refute what was about to be published.
Since then the SLO took to attacking fans on social media, despite saying he doesn’t really like Twitter, and prefers email, to which he may or may not reply, the Chairman has publicly rebuked a section of the fanbase in his programme notes, and has also asked fans not to email the club in another recent video, meanwhile we wait to see who gets appointed by Jamie Fullarton to try and save our season with a squad of players who are woefully unbalanced, of which some have given up (Wilkinson for a start), and are bereft of confidence or any attacking flair. Nearly 100 years this club has been a league club (failed re-election a couple of times in the 30’s), and I can’t believe I might actually see that come to an end, probably for a very, very long time, but as long as the rent is paid, and that 13k profit is made then it’s job well done, right?
There’s probably much I have missed, but thanks for taking the time to read this, and sorry it is so long.
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Great piece!!!
Is that right the SLO is a blues fan? I haven’t seen that before?
I don’t think that’s correct.
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Still dont know why fans couldnt vote for there slo as fans should have a voice in the club, if he was a saddlers fan he would say the clubs in a really mess
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Gamble and/or Mole are Villa though, if I remember rightly. Gilman has the Leeds connection. Never mind the admission that there aren’t football people in the club, there aren’t enough bloody Walsall people.
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Sure I’d seen that somewhere recently, if not then that’s my bad and I’ll edit it.
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No …I know him but not well and he has supported Walsall for many years.
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Heslop from the media team is a Blues fan not the SLO.
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Updated that bit now.
Tom Heslop is Blues
Dan Mole is Villa
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The fans want Pomlett to come out and tell the truth.
Why did he purchase the Club. Saying he’s a fan simply dosnt cut it as he has no Finance or strategy to take the club forward. Only wooly, non committal statements.
Tell the truth re the Purchase of the Freehold
Top post, from the heart. Respect 
UTS
Hi Saddlers,
Gab here - thanks for posting this!
I’m a Birmingham fan but I also write about the EFL generally for work.
IStarted going down the Bescot in 2014-15 - first game was the Dwight Gayle one against Palace in the cup.
I was fond of the 2015-16 crop, especially Jordy Hiwula’s goal against Southend after Dan Bentley’s heroics and the subsequent carnage in the Tile Choice lower, got me into following and writing about lower league football.
Walsall have since become a club close to my heart, I like to go a few times a season among covering other clubs and it troubles me to see the super Saddlers in the current situation.
Initially, I had a lot of faith in Leigh Pomlett but as always, you evolve your perspective as you learn new things and now, there’s lots of things that sadly lead me to question whether he’s the man I thought he was.
I’ll have a piece on Walsall going out on Friday on The Sportsman, which I hope can hold the club to account, especially the situation with Jamie Fullarton.
Thank you to everyone for sending in their thoughts on the issues at the club, it really does help: I hope I can do you justice.
I may not hold the best cards, but hopefully I can play a poor hand well.
UTS
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