Walsall CEO Ben Sadler has issued a statement that updates supporters on the various ongoings at the Poundland Bescot Stadium.Covering a wide variety of topics including backroom ins and outs, the academy, Walsall FC Women and much more.
Issued via the club's official website, Ben's statement reads: Well, that’s certainly been a fun start to the season hasn’t it?!? I sit writing this update following the home fixtures vs Bradford City & Fulham U21’s. I thought we were really good value for the three points last weekend – we battled hard through some spells of heavy pressure but this team digs deep and has found a way so far - long may it continue. A somewhat rotated - but still excellent - team then put in a very good performance against an impressive young Fulham side, leaving us top of the group stage with one game to play!
I’ve now been at the club for three months, which in many ways has flown by. I have managed to spend some really good quality time getting to know the club, community, our people and dive deep into some areas to assess our strengths and where there are opportunities, there is still plenty for me to do on that front but I’m getting a pretty good picture of where we are currently at.
I’m not going to cover all topics in this update as there is far too much, and you’d probably end up falling asleep! In line with our supporter engagement plan, Ben & I will be doing a video piece in due course, but for now, I’ll cover a variety of points below;
Football
For me, joining the club in the middle of a transfer window could have thrown up some challenges – but I don’t think it did at all. Mat Sadler and Matt Jordan, along with their recruitment team, had a crystal clear plan in place and worked methodically through the process to ensure that they put together the best possible squad that we can. Some moves were made very quickly, others we had to be really patient for and I think supporters can now see why we did this.
From the outside coming in, the environment and atmosphere at the training ground is fantastic - it is a brilliant facility to allow our players and staff the opportunity to improve day on day.
Clearly over the summer, there was movement in and out of players and staff for various reasons, but we now find ourselves where we need to be on that front. Meldrick Gomes was recently promoted from Academy Physiotherapist to First Team Physiotherapist, which is a great sign of the internal opportunities to progress here. Former club doctor, David Arundel, moved on to pastures new in the close season, and we now have Dr Rameez Sattar in as part of the team and we look forward to seeing his contributions.
Dan Still joined as Goalkeeper Coach, as did Jonathan Fenner as Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach – both have made brilliant starts to life with us here at the club.
Lewis Needham, Lead Performance Analyst, will soon be moving on as he progresses his career, and we thank him for his fantastic contribution during his time here and wish him all the very best in his new role. I’m sure he will go on to great things! Callum Matthews-Graver comes in swiftly as Lewis’ successor – and no doubt will contribute excellently to a seamless transition. Welcome to WFC Callum!
On the pitch we’ve made a very strong start to the season in the league and cups. It is pleasing to see how hard the team work for each other and for the club, I’m sure this will be a group that we can be very proud of and trust them to do everything they can to win each and every game. Football isn’t that easy, as we all know, we won’t win every game – internally, we have to try to stay as level headed & consistent as we can over the season and keep focused on the goals we set.
Academy
I was fortunate enough to attend the academy induction event earlier this week, with all boys and their parents through the whole programme attending. Far more excitingly for those in attendance – Jamille Matt, Taylor Allen & George Barrett took the time to come down and share their words of advice for our young players which I’m sure was insightful and valuable for all.
Rob Williams, Academy Manager – along with his whole team have and continue to work tirelessly to improve day in day out, and we are starting to see many of the fruits of this endeavor – we are proud that George, Ronan Maher and Dylan Thomas are all now professionals who have come via our academy system. We also have a very talented group of scholars that have started the season well, with good wins in the past few weeks over Burton Albion and Bradford City. A number of our academy players are currently out on loan, doing very well – and we will keep you up to speed with how they are progressing over the season!
Walsall FC Women
Our women’s team have had a good start to the season, progressing in the FA Cup qualifying round with a hard fought win over Leamington and following that up with a 4-0 league victory this weekend. I am passionate about promoting and supporting the women’s game, as I was at Harrogate Town, where being involved initially in the women’s team offered me my first opportunity in football – and I have seen how far the women’s game has progressed in that time.
We will continue to work closely with the women’s team and girls set up, which has expanded significantly this season, to support them in progressing, improving and offering opportunities for all girls and women in the area to be a part of our club.
Hopefully we will have news on a fixture to be played at the Poundland Bescot Stadium in the not too distant future to share with you!
NoFo Suite
Many of you may have spotted that ‘something is brewing’ in the corner suite between the Pallet-Track & Poundland stands. We are thrilled that NoFo, our proud partners, have supported us in completely renovating the suite, which will include a balcony for use on matchdays and of course as a valuable revenue stream on non-match days. Once the build has been completed, we can share visuals inside and out. It will be for private hire use on matchdays but there are ideas in the pipeline to ensure that community groups and supporters can benefit at times throughout the season!
Retail
It would be remiss of me to not update you on our retail operation – which has been an absolute whirlwind but we see it as a key area that we can develop and maximise moving ahead, so our supporters have the best experience possible. On this front, you will have seen we are delighted to have partnered with Terrace, who I’ve worked with for a number of years, to support us with our retail operations and installed a new in store point of sale system, doubling our till points which will in time decrease queue times. The new website they are building is almost ready to launch and this will significantly improve the variety of products on sale and the experience itself!
Dee Adewunmi, our Head of Retail & Product, has worked tirelessly since joining the club to improve the in-store experience, range and quality of products on offer and was the driving force behind the new kit designs which have been overwhelmingly well received. So much so, that we sold out of home & away kits within a week. This is a headache of course for us, as I completely appreciate it is for supporters too. A somewhat positive headache, but a headache nonetheless! The quantity ordered on all kits initially this year was what sold in the entirety of last season, with an increase on top as well. We had hoped the new kits would be a success, but to be honest it surpassed all expectations with just quite how popular they were! We immediately placed a significant re-order but as is often the case with major retailers, we are now in the hands of production and delivery times – we are pushing hard to get this restock in.
We completely acknowledge we’ve not quite got it spot on this time – as you can see above there was fair rationale behind the decisions, but we know will get it right in the fullness of time.
Thank you for your understanding and patience as we await the restock – it’s just as frustrating for us as of course we know we are missing out on sales and revenue from it too!
Season Tickets
We have now sold 2,923 season tickets for this season which is a couple of hundred or so down on last season. I’ll caveat this with the fact that last year's figures include half season tickets, which we have not yet put on sale – plus the change to junior tickets this season which has reduced the take up slightly, although there were a decent number taken for free last season and never used! All in all, I am pleased with where we are at and confident that by the end of the season, we will be there or thereabouts in line with last.
We appreciate everyone’s support and we will do our very best to repay your loyalty on and off the pitch this season.
Supporter Engagement/Experience
We shared our Supporter Engagement plan over the summer which we are wholly committed to delivering – and we will enhance the scope of this over future season. For me, let’s start with the basic building blocks – get that working well, then look to develop the plan!
James Gibbins, Head of Media & Marketing, is driving the delivery of the plan with colleagues from all over the club and I am impressed with the range of matchday & non-matchday activities we are trying to put in place to make it the best possible experience for all.
We have the first supporters focus groups coming up covering specific topics, some of which I’ve covered above. We will make sure the minutes and actions from these focus groups are shared with you all.
To finish, I’d just like to say thanks to everyone who has made me feel at home here in a short period of time – your support home and away has been outstanding and is very much appreciated by us all – staff, players, management and the board.
What I can’t promise is what will happen on the pitch over the season – that’s the beauty of football. But what I can say for certain is that I see an exceptional group of people at this club - on the pitch, off the pitch and in the stands. We will win games and we will lose games. Off the pitch, we will get some decisions and days right, we’re all human – we know we will also get some wrong – but we will learn and improve continually. All I’d say is please trust us, we are going to do our very best each and every day. We’re going to do this together.
Buckle in!