Meeting with SLO

So I just sat and had a half hour meeting with Graham Whittaker.

For what it’s worth, I appreciate him taking the time to meet and, using his own words, “you wouldn’t get an opportunity like this at Man U” and he’s dead right.

He began the meeting by addressing the main point of my email, his qualifications to represent the fans. He talked passionately about being a fan, that he offered his services to Bonser before now and heard no reply. That his first meeting with Pomlett was in hospitality at Northampton Town away first game of his reign.

I pointed out I appreciate that, and genuinely believed him to be a fan, but that didn’t answer my question. My question was why was he qualified to represent the fans. He said that it’s a trial position and that we couldn’t go through the CVs because of absolutely everyone who would apply for such a position. On my reaction he asked me what would qualify him. My answer was somebody who could believably be critical of the board, and not hand picked by the chair man. He insisted that he makes the chairman aware of any criticism he sees of the club and questions them himself as a passionate fan.

He mentioned the rent and that we start every season at minus £500K. I pointed out, while I appreciate that, in the very first Q&A which I attended, Leigh Pomlett pointed out we were very much in the majority paying rent and that we actually got a good deal and that some fans get too hung up on it. I acknowledged that I actually agreed with Pomlett but that meant I wasn’t willing to accept it as an excuse.

The next point in my email was season ticket refund and that he’d misunderstood the point about losing games. I reiterated it was a tongue in cheek request but was actually to do with feeling lied too by Leigh Pomlett about our aims, ambitions and methods of achieving that. Pointed out when you say you have a top 10 or 7 budget people will expect that to be reflected in the playing squad. Beyond stick with us he couldn’t offer much else on this point.

I acknowledged that on the pitch wasn’t really his realm but I did question the long term thinking behind sacking your manager 9 days after the transfer window closed. He pointed out that was Fullartons decision. I asked him why Taylor went and not Fullarton. He said because Fullarton was brought in to create continuity at the club instead of having managers walk out, like Clarke. I asked why the man brought into the club for continuity repeatedly left massive holes around his squad. He started talking about Devante Rodney and how that was a signing scheduled for the summer brought forward because of the need for him, I cut him off and said the less said about Devante Rodney and bringing in injured players to solve problems now, the better. I asked why we’d gone until January with one 36 year old left back. He responded with Zac Mills. I said he’s barely a footballer never mind a left back, but if we viewed him as such we wouldn’t have brought Devine in, and if we did view him as such that leaves us short at right back because you’ve got 1 player covering two positions. I pointed out after losing both Khan and Phillips we’re now short of wingers and we only have one striker. He said Khan just didn’t want to stay what could they do? I asked him if the deal offered was as good as Leyton Orient, he said he didn’t know but it’s not always about money. He said we don’t have one striker we also have Conor Wilkinson. I placed a steady hand on the table and explained Conor Wilkinson is a wide player, who is terrible every time he plays as a striker. He’s scored one goal centrally, the rest while playing as a winger.

He spoke about social media conduct and that it’s demoralising for players and staff to receive replies like “f*** off” or “get out the club” to anything they post, and considering that Jamie Fullarton believes confidence is the main issue with performances, that this wasn’t helpful. I responded to this by pointing out its 2022, that is the world we live in. Is it right? I don’t know. I’m not going to sit here and say I haven’t done it, but that’s passion. And that is what leads to protests like you will see today. He said he sometimes believes the club has become too open because of the abuse they receive, despite he himself telling the board multiple times upon his appointment that it wasn’t open enough but the abuse has just gone off the scale. I said there’s only one way to fix that, and the protest and that is to stick by some of the things Leigh Pomlett says in his Q&As and to turn it around on the pitch because unfortunately, social media is what it is. He asked me if I thought it was right the ticket office girls even cop flack and I said no, but that’s passion and you can’t account for everyone.

Finally he reiterated the need for fans to stick with us and that they are genuinely trying to do the right things for this football club.

I thanked him for his time and reiterated that no, you wouldn’t get this at a football club like Man United and he spoke like a passionate man and I didn’t doubt his claims at all about his intentions from speaking to him.

I only had this meeting at his request not mine, so I wasn’t expecting anything to be answered or solved. However I do feel that at least he understands what I and some other fans might have problems with, something I couldn’t say before todays meeting.

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:rofl::rofl: I would love to have been a fly on the wall for this.

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Fair play for having the chat and for him in having it

It’s not Man United. No Sh!t Sherlock. More in common with Bloxwich United

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Fair play mate :+1:t2:

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Did you record the minutes? :smirk:

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:joy: as the meeting was at his request, I didn’t feel the need too.

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Fair play mate, good work :+1:t2:

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Well done mate nice to see you’ve been face to face and been able to ask your set of questions.May I ask how you feel about the SLO after meeting him on a very personal level?

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He seems a genuine guy. Is he the sort of guy who would inspire the sort of revolutionary change this football club needs? Probably not. He certainly seems more along the lines of feeling the club have been unlucky with certain decisions rather than questioning if they were the incorrect ones. But I don’t doubt his passion for a moment.

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Doesn’t deserve the verbals he gets there for sure

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Cheers EN appreciate your thoughts mate.It does make a difference when you get the chance to actually speak to someone rather than having a pop from the outside in(not saying you did by the way) but it sounds like his passion is what’s sort of impressed you the most about him.It sounds to me like after his trial period you’d keep him on for his passion but not for speaking up against the board which is a tough one because you’d rather him have both qualities obviously but if you had to pick one you’d rather him have the balls to speak up against some of the boards decisions than the passion right? Well I would anyway cheers for sharing it all with us.

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I could find you 4000 Walsall fans with passion unfortunately. I’m not knocking him at all, but I didn’t come away from the meeting thinking we were on the cusp of transformative action. And this club needs it.

For what it’s worth, I think the trial period thing is a bit of lip service and they have their man. Just a feeling, but he wasn’t talking like somebody who thought he was on the verge of being waved off any time soon.

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Are we going to see Whitticasts in the future

Next slide please

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Well done @el_nombre, I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that someone like you who (doesn’t suffer fools gladly) says that he seems a genuine guy,I do feel though if he was forced to choose between the fans or the board,he would choose the board in a heartbeat.

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The blokes just another puppet in a suit. He’s no supporter of Walsall Football Club, if he was he’s wouldn’t be dancing to Pomletts tune.
He’s as rotten as the rest

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I think that’s a very accurate assessment.

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Alright, that’s two :wink::joy:

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I reckon if you have a meeting every week from now till the end of the season we might just have a good go mate :joy:

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Fair play @el_nombre and thank you for posting the details of your conversation.

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Graham.
Aren’t you embarrassed at being unelected?
Aren’t you embarrassed at being selected because of your strong links to Gamble?
Aren’t you embarrassed at not being savvy with current social media culture?
Aren’t you embarrassed at not answering hundreds of fan emails to you when you are supposed the SLO?
Aren’t you embarrassed about your participation in the MinutesGate scandal when one of the Bonserite muppets redacted words and phrases that you actually heard said but you just rolled over in favour of your mates on the Board?
When you can answer the above points honestly we all might and I say might have a bit more respect.

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