I don’t want to get on the blokes back too early, but I would really like Pomlett to come out in one of his interviews and let us know what he believes has changed for us as supporters. I would also really like to hear his plans moving forward - or are we just going to be left with this half-Bonser operation forever?
Apart from appearing on social media, I struggle to see any tangible changes? This was a real chance to refresh the club from the very top to the bottom, including making changes that do not cost a lot of money but do show love for the club and its supporters.
You can’t just ask for a 5k to turn up and not make any changes to the operations. Same match-day experience, same tired ticket structure and dry offers, same music, same announcers, Mole and Gamble still running things, same questionable accounts, same dry social media content, no more dialogue with fans about what they want.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity as a Walsall fan - come on Leigh, lets start looking at how we can get rid of Bonsers stale legacy and refresh this club because other than a few empty words I fail to see anything improving. I appreicate it may take some time - but lets hear some plans!!
Mole and Gamble should have gone, music - which lets face it is one of the easiest changes to make - should have changed, social media ‘department’ needs to change or at least update copy output including graphics - a complete noticeable refresh of all output is needed.
The operations of any business can be completely overhauled with 7-10 days planning.
Like I clearly say in my post - just let us know what the plans are! I accept it’s early days but nothing quantifiable has actually changed when visiting the Banks - and most worrying of all there doesn’t seem to be any plans either.
Hes employed a new manager in the bar to resolve the issues. So already hes been notified of a problem and taken action against it, no doubt he is working behind the scenes on other projects that will come into fruition over time.
But obviously hes not a rich man so anything he does has to be prioritised to fit in with the budget, hes not going to click his fingers and everything’s perfect.
It’s going to be years before he can put right, the ■■■■ bonser left us In
The basics Dan. The food, the beer, the que’s, The general poor feel too most thing WFC related.
Didnt think we would see big changes but the little things than can be seen every game must be sorted asap, If you want people too come back make them feel like they enjoyed it not feel ■■■■■■ off you couldnt get food and the team is ■■■■. Weve got no positive’s atm on or off the pitch…If LP has been at this club for so long he shoiuld already know where the problems are and should be worknig hard too fix these things and which at this time i see nothing at all on or off the pitch too tell me this club is moving forward in a good positive way
I agree about the board but Pomlett said at the start that they now have a man who will back them, so they were never going anywhere and let’s not forget that he was part of that very same board.
I think the social media side has improved a lot personally.
There’s only so much he can do, he has said plans. He wants to return to League One as soon as possible (obviously) but he also knows you can’t just click your fingers and be in League One, it will take time.
He also said he wants to reunite the club and its ground, but won’t happen overnight.
The fans have moaned and moaned about the Bescot Bar and it looks like plans are finally in place to improve it.
He’s been in charge for about six months, what more plans do you expect him to have?
It seems the only people who are a bit fed up with Pomlett are the ones who seemed to think we’d suddenly be a totally different club. He has always said he isn’t the answer to our prayers in terms of suddenly spending vasts amounts of money. He has also said Walsall won’t make him a rich man but it won’t make him a poor man. In other words, we’ll be spending what we bring in and he won’t be dipping into his own pocket, and why should he? Really not sure what else people are expecting at this stage?
He is quick enough to ask 5k fans to turn up - a statement that didn’t bother me at the time - but okay, if thats what you want tell me your action plan for year 1, year 2 etc.
Bang on the money, it’s not even like its a fresh set of eyes wondering what the issues are…how easy is it to change the music!? And the Bescot Bar was an absolute disgrace lol, seen better facilities at step 8 so forgive me for not getting too excited.
I personally think there are changes that could have been made that don’t cost - lets hope there are plans in the pipeline…
The main thing for me is we have an owner, who will listen to fans and interact with us, something with not had under bonsers leadership, I think too many people are quick to forget how bad it was under bonser, and need to let pomletts leadership take its course without the need to criticise him at every opportunity
The bar, catering, and ticket queue problems are so easy to solve you only have to delve through the multitude of times its been done on here to solve those issues. Once more for the record…
Have a dedicated away fan ticket collection hut, combine not raising matchday admission with turnstiles that accept cash/card/phone payment.
Bar - dedicated can and bottle bar so those happy with a quick can or bottle arn’t queueing behind those that want draught beer. Keep the choice simple and pre-pour draught for pre-match and half-time. Maybe introduce a fan zone marquee or some other structure outside the ground so its not just all on the Stadium Suite.
Catering, just start from scratch, in addition to outlets inside the stadium get some local caterers to offer food from outlets outside, something a bit different than the outdated choices on offer.
As for on the pitch, it would have been nice to try and at least introduce another Dean Smith type culture to our club and pick a manager that new how to do that, even if success wasn’t instant and there was another slow burn while it was initiated. No problem with losing games if the team has an identity and is at least trying to entertain, I don’t see that from the first half of this season, we just seem to lurch from one matchday to another picking up the odd win here and there because the rest of the league’s as bad as we are.
I’m not actually criticising him, I’m asking him to let us know what the plans are. I campaigned long and hard about Bonser; this is my main issue. Everywhere I look on matchday I am reminded of Jeff - its still his operation in every way possible and I believe there are changes that could have been made that would have reinforced the fact that this was a new era.
I look at Mole and Gamble and I am reminded Jeff. I look at the queues and I am reminded of Jeff. Every direction you look in your are reminded of Jeff’s ■■■■ poor operation.
We get one chance at this and I am worried that it is being thrown away. An appearance on social media every now and then is not enough.
I went with somebody who isn’t a Walsall fan yesterday and they weren’t impressed at all with the match day experience. He slated the toilets in the lower and the service at the kiosk and the bar behind the goal. All old issues that have been moaned about before and should have been well within Pomletts reach to rectify by now. Also found the announcements about the bars at half time pretty funny as well. Basically we’re not opening the bar for you lot cos we need to get the commoners out of the ground as quickly as possible so we can put on our famous entertainment.
Nothing has changed. And it’s really not a lot to ask. But Pomlett has his apologists who will try to argue that it is.
This is all achievable with minimum cost so that argument is completely blown out of the water for a start.
They have full time staff at the club, realistically how long should all of this take to implement if you had qualified project managers running things? At my company these changes would be turned around in 2 weeks!
Basically too many people plodding along in Bonsers stale business model, with the very same people running it.
Come on, he identified all the stuff I’ve seen moaned about on here tons of times. It’s got nothing to do with expecting Premier League facilities at Walsall.
These League Two facilities have been terrible for years. Bonser got plenty of stick for them. Pomlett hasn’t changed anything.
Agreed, but I’m sure if you were to visit the majority of the grounds 2 or 3 leagues below us you would have a shock at how basic and unappealing there facilities are compared to ours
What’s that got to with anything? I’m not comparing them to teams three or four divisions below. He said stuff that WE’VE moaned about ourselves so it can’t have been that unreasonable.
The toilets being rancid and the service being ■■■■ has nothing to do with levels. They are attempting to run a food kiosk not a gourmet ■■■■■■■ restaurant. Shouldn’t be that hard.
Don’t think it’s about expecting the same level of service as a Premiership game, just managing to offer a service that can meet demand. The Villa will invest a fair amount to host games for 35,000 plus fans, so catering and stewarding etc will be a far bigger operation than at Bescot. You can bet they are focused on achieving the best possible level of revenue, though.
Similarly, when I go to watch Boldmere St Michaels they have suitable refreshments and staff to serve the 200 odd they get through the gate. It’s all about scale, and the greatest irony of asking for 5,000 at Walsall is the club currently don’t have systems in place to look after the 4,000 who currently attend.
I think it’s plainly obvious he hasn’t quite done enough yet I mean some of these things mentioned take a phone call to the right people to get things going.I actually like Leigh Pomlett as a human being I think he speaks really well and has a real passion for the football club so that side of it needs no work at all.I think he needs to show he’s improving things early in the new year because he’s starting to lose fans of himself through not doing so hence this thread me personally I want to see significant backing in January on the playing side and other stuff Feb/March time because he is starting to show signs of the old bloke who’s just left and I don’t want that had it up to here with that so from me personally he has a couple of months to show SIGNIFICANT changes.