Meet the Chairman Evening

please ask him to remove the Fotress Bescot sign - it is embarassing

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is it time to remove Gamble and Mole from their jobs - they were Bonser yes men - time for a fresh start

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Thats not going to happen you would imagine. Pomlett described them both as outstanding in their field.

We might get to see Gamble and Mole do their thang now Bonser has disappeared. Think they deserve that chance at least.

However if the club doesnt move forward in the next five years then Gamble and Mole will need to be questioned again.

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Totally agree, Gamble and Mike have always come across well when I’ve met them, always felt like they had to approach every conversation on the defensive as the hatred towards the board grew out of control. They have a new boss now, clean slate, let them have this chance with our support and if they fail then question them. Personally I hope both of them take this chance and go on as part of a period of unprecedented success for our club and do us proud.

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I agree. Let’s see how they go about their roles with a new man in charge. Pomlett obviously speaks highly of them. I think what we may see is a better and clearer structure at the club which may mean more expertise recruited to enhance the day to day running.

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their roles are paid employees, not owners. They deal with all the paperwork like VAT returns, transfer dealings, registration, organisational things like booking the coaches and hotels for team travel. Why people think they should be spokesmen for the club is beyond me. They have media people who should be fronting the organisation. Our previous owner would not face anyone. I think the new bloke will do that very well.

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They carried the can as organ grinders for so long, give them a chance I say.

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He’s publicly backed his management team (as he called it) so they’ll either deliver and do a good job or frankly (he seems the sort of guy that won’t suffer fools) they’ll more than likely be looking for other opportunities…

Hopefully they’ll step up (out of the restraints of outdated leadership/management of Uncle Jeff) and prove Leigh right!

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Be good to see a good turn out tomorrow night to meet and welcome Leigh as our new owner :handshake:
Having been there to witness Ramsden’s helicopter arrival on the park next to the old fellows park and doing the town hall rallyies and marches back in the early/mid eighties to get rid of Wheldon, I feel duty bound to attend tomorrow.

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You’re most probably right.

But say if you had spent a career in logistics. You’d possibly know the value of a big piece of land in the middle of the country right next to a key motorway and rail line. You could build a new stadium elsewhere and have enough change to discharge your liabilities to the previous owner and landlord.

Liberation. Ironically paid for by the land that imprisoned us.

Won’t happen. But it’s a thought.

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Hope we build the new stadium in Essington :wink:

Councillor Clifft might have something to say about that…

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I have absolutely no idea whether you actually know something or are only speculating, but …

A new ground takes time to acquire and then build, and if it doesn’t already exist you can’t just walk away from your current ground - unless you are going to ground share somewhere else in the interim?

And that presupposes that you can just walk away when you want. We have a 99 year lease (20+ years down) plus a 25 year extension option; but what is the notice period we have to give to move out or are there set break points? Walk away on a whim and you are still liable for the rent until then.

Not saying it won’t be viable, but there are a lot of what ifs, and it likely wouldn’t be a free walk away.

But all that is speculating that LP wants to do that to start with. In his interview he says it’s one of his priorities to reunite the club with the ground, but he also says the fact that it’s not already has been blown out of all proportion (and even made the point that not owning your ground and having to pay rent is not uncommon). He also says that even if/when it is owned by the club, it won’t make that much of a difference anyway. He also talks about maximising our conference and banqueting capabilty - which pretty much sounds like the stadium we already have than some speculative new build.

Going by what he said, whether it’s owned by Bonser, us, or someone else, and whether we could just walk or it would cost us, I don’t see us moving from the Banks’s anytime soon.

I happen to totally agree with him - let it go! It was always the pea under the mattress rather than the real issue - which is maximising the amount available to the playing side without jeopardising the other bits (which involves increasing revenue). If we are doing well nobody cares, it’s only when things are going badly that fingers start being pointed. Would you care who owns the bloody pitch or how much it is costing us to play on it if we were playing on it in the Championship (if not the EPL)?

And for Christ’s sake, who in their right minds want to go to Aldridge anyway? To most people it’s just a place you have to go through on the way to Streetly crem.

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I agree Andy which is why I said “won’t happen”.

I don’t particularly like The Bescot but it’s where we are and what we have so it is 75% likely that LP will make the most of it and speculation about moving is just that. Speculation.

I agree about Aldridge too. Never seen it as one of the most WFC part of the borough. In fact far from it.

The ownership issue first reared its head in the real public domain in the mid 2000s. When we moved from Fellows Park there was no internet in the sense we have now, and it was only after the subject was broached in the new forums that were proliferating then that people realised what had gone on. That resulted in the second wave of stayaways (the first being those that avidly read the press and fanzines in the late 1980s and saw what had happened first hand).

It’s bubbled along ever since, and frankly, we’re talking about it now not because we’ve been relegated but because Bonser the owner has sold the club to become just Bonser the landlord. He was one of the architects of the separation of club and ground, so understandably many supporters care who owns it, as is shown in the discussions.

It may be that people moan more when we aren’t doing so well, but that’s human nature, and doesn’t mean they don’t give a flying fuck if goals are going in at the right end - they do, but they are also happy to celebrate what little success we have.

Ownership to me is securing what was rightfully ours in the first place, and having the security that comes with it. Pomlett’s take over is a step in the right direction, and hopefully it’ll lead to improvements in finances long term, although it might just be that Bonser’s left it so late we’ll only see a ‘dead cat bounce’ effect. I truly hope that is not the case. More money through the club gives us the opportunity to do some of the overdue maintenance on the stadium, which has been neglected in recent years, and enhance the matchday experience - a virtuous cycle replacing Bonser’s stalinist regime of starvation and autocracy.

The club shouldn’t be in Aldridge - totally agree.

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Is it my computer , or Mr Pomlett very softly spoken ?
I can’t hear a thing on any of the videos . However the intro music rattles the windows.

(Naff all wrong with Aldridge by the way. However I’m sure Wfc won’t be going there, and why should they).

Because they are Directors of the club, so by default should be qualified to front up the business.

That’s pretty standard for most companies around the country in this day and age. It’s no shock that Pomlett has taken on that responsibility, he could clearly see the failings.

Any new ground should be at readswood. The place it should have been built in the first place

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Im sure he told me at work he’s stepped down from it now

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I don’t know of any notice period, but there is a break point coming up in around 8 years.