The Alison Krauss version is way better. Wasn’t a big hit but was better.
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A lot of these owners have the disposable income to burn, but that’s not a new thing it’s been happening for 20 years or more.
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But what is your point?
You are unhappy with Trivela because you want them to fund losses?
Is there someone else out there who is prepared to do this?
Yes, without a doubt. Or they would have a plan that doesn’t incur such losses.
Are you trying to say that Trivela is as good as we can ever do then?
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Trivela are making losses off the back of their own poor management, they should have been in league 1 this season.
I don’t know what to say. At our level you have sides like Port vale and Gillingham who have owners who seem to fund losses. Why they do this would be an interesting debate.
Like Browser said yesterday, I wouldn’t object if someone came along and did the same for us. But I’m not aware of anyone out there offering this.
As investors of other peoples money I understand why Trivela don’t bankroll huge losses to finance the Walsall fc playing side, although we did make a loss last year, so accusations of penny pinching I find confusing. I’m certainly not angry with them, although charging 12% on the loan theyve put into the club seems excessive but not extortionate. I can’t see what being angry with them about this subject will acheive.
We’d almost certainly be making a loss if we were in league 1 as well.
It was a missed opportunity to go up last season. It would have brought Trivela time and a lot of good will and patience from the fans even if we’d come straight back down, but can’t change it now.
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You’re not confused Andy - you’ve answered your own questions…
Gillingham and Vale have owners (who aren’t there to make money from their asset) - we on the other hand are owned by investors (who very much want a return.)
There lies the problem for us….
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They’re not AP, it was mooted by @Timbuktu_Saddler who then corrected his estimate when the accounts were fully accessible.
It just seems to be something that’s been latched onto and repeated as fact in the standard manner on here. And despite the accusations of them not spending on us they subsidised us to yhe tune of an extra £2million last season. We won’t know how much for this season til next spring. “Penny pinching” is all relatively selective view.
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Anger rarely if ever achieves anything. It is an emotion though, I’m not sure you choose emotions, although you can choose how you deal with them to an extent.
I’m not actually angry with them, I just don’t like them and don’t think they are good for Walsall FC. It’s not entirely about money, even if most things come back to that.
Why did we make a loss last season? Was it down to the players wage bill? I’m not sure. People tend to think in a way that things could be worse, one of Bonser’s favourite lines. Where things can be worse, they can usually be better.
The link to the more detailed accounts within the following link doesn’t seem to work (for me anyway) to answer your question. But revenue was £8.2m and wages were £5.9m, so wages are by far the main expenditure.
https://www.saddlers.co.uk/news/2026/february/24/2024-25-annual-accounts-summary/
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We’re making losses, but less than other clubs as a percentage of turnover.
It seems like wages have spiralled in the football league and this has forced Trivela to bankroll us against their will to avoid us becoming a bottom third team or worse.
The best thing that could happen to us is a football regulator that controls spending and money being injected into wages and transfer fees. If clubs could only spend a percentage of turnover on wages, we’d be a big spender for the division.
On Trivela, if we’re top 3 for turnover and 12th for budget then it follows that they’re backing us less than other owners, so they’re below par owners on that front.
It doesn’t matter to them though, as reducing the mortgage by £400k last year (using the club’s money), increases the value of their shares by £400k (plus any growth in the value of the stadium). If they sold up, that £400k is paid to them for their shares, and they’ve got a return on their money. That’s the investment model.
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Wages have spiralled at the club, in that they are higher, because of the number of people employed. If you crudely average the salary per employee from 2024 to 2025, it is actually lower this year than last, something I didn’t expect to see.
Unfortunately what we can’t see is the split between playing, back room and office staff so everything becomes guesswork to a degree.
The only reality is we are p likely going to need to spend more to compete.
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Feels like all we’ve been doing for the last 20 years is saying “wow look at X club’s losses that’s not sustainable”.
I’m tired of taking the moral high ground and getting nowhere.
Wasn’t Covid meant to be a great financial reckoning? Instead we seem further behind than ever.
Might as well play by the same rules as everyone else.
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There is something a bit weird there. There’s a breakdown to ‘playing and coaching staff’ vs ‘other staff’.
In 2025 our playing and coaching staff jumped to 89 from 63, while other staff stayed pretty much unchanged.
I can’t work out what roles they could even be because we don’t have 26 extra players or coaches on the first team side.
I meant from an investment point of view. We’re not investors, we are customers.
Hmm, I think the aim was to grow the club to a level where the outlay to begin with was made back. They fell short. I never said all investments work, but I don’t think the plan was to throw money in a bottomless pit.
I’m not familiar with either of those in detail but I’ll take your word that that’s two out of 92.
If that’s what you took from what I said, then it’s misconstrued. I don’t think they’re justified in only thinking about returns now. But that doesn’t mean investing money now wouldn’t pay off for them in the long run. There’s more money to be made further up the pyramid.
Totally agreed, but we’ve gone from dinosaurs to disinterested penny pinchers. End results the same though, tbf.
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Walsall Fan TV (The joy and the pain) did a broadcast earlier on the top 9 for the job which was a good watch. He said it will be Ryan Lowe.
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Can’t see that being true mate
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Harry Williams still going to Newcastle?
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Who said that? 