Comment: Evolution not revolution in friendly Walsall takeover

Anyone arriving at the Bescot Stadium yesterday expecting the Saddlers’ new majority shareholders to declare a revolution was always likely to be disappointed.

Evolution was instead the main theme of an introductory press conference reassuring for its air of sobriety.

Football supporters round this way have experienced enough takeovers to know they can be risky things. Ever since the news US investment firm Trivela had acquired 51 per cent of their club broke on Monday morning, Saddlers fans have felt the giddy cocktail of excitement tempered by trepidation.

Though only time can provide a definitive judgement, the first words from the new custodians therefore provided cause for optimism, albeit the protagonists had long enough to decide precisely what they were going to say.

“The most intricate, researched process I have ever been involved in,” was how now former majority shareholder Leigh Pomlett summed up the year-long negotiation which climaxed at 10pm last Wednesday, when Trivela formally signed the agreement to purchase a large chunk of his stake. Neither side could be accused of walking into the deal with their eyes closed.

Pomlett will be staying on in the role of co-chairman, as will chief executive Stefan Gamble and chief operating officer Dan Mole. Indeed, one of the more striking things is how little, when it comes to the day-to-day running of the club, is going to change in the short term. The key difference is the final call on major decisions now rests with Ben Boycott, Trivela’s 34-year-old managing director who now sits on Walsall’s board as co-chairman and yesterday shared media duties with Pomlett. A year of talks has seen the pair become close friends and Pomlett joked about warning Boycott not to be surprised if there was scepticism at an ‘American takeover’. “We actually sat and watched Ted Lasso at his house,” he said. “I told him: Don’t be like that!’ But he is not in any way brash.”

Initial evidence suggests that a fair description. Boycott, who will remain based in Alabama, spoke confidently yet honestly about his aims and hopes for the future. The suggestion his group might be looking to make a ‘quick buck’ was quickly dismissed, with the phrase ‘steady, incremental approach’ used more than once. Trivela, Boycott believes, can act as an ‘accelerator’ to the club’s existing ambitions. “We want to be sensible,” he said. “We are here for the long term and we are under no illusions.”

Chief among those ambitions is for the Saddlers to own their stadium and under the terms of the takeover, Trivela have committed to delivering the funds for that to happen in the next two years.

“Securing the home of this club for generations to come is important,” said Boycott, describing the level of capital investment required for the transaction as ‘significant’.

Pomlett, meanwhile, claimed making the stadium purchase a condition of any investment deal had warded off potential chancers.

“I told anyone who approached us I wouldn’t speak to them unless they bought the stadium,” he said. “Ben didn’t go away at that point.”

Trivela, only founded last year, had looked at ‘40 or 50’ investment opportunities but Boycott admitted the Saddlers ‘rose to the surface very quickly’ in part because of the club’s relatively strong financial health compared to others.

“We didn’t want to feel like we had to come in and fix everything,” he explained. His leadership team, consisting of Kenneth Polk, Wesley Hill and William Boycott, will initially act in an advisory role with an acknowledgement that, with the exception of Matt Jordan, a former sporting director in the MLS with Montreal Impact and Houston Dynamo, they are stepping into something of the unknown.

“It would be very difficult for a group like us to do anything like this without the group which is here now,” he said. “None of what we have planned is intended to replace the local leadership. It is to support it.”

Pomlett claimed to have known the Saddlers required outside investment to be successful very soon after his own takeover of Jeff Bonser three summers ago. His time in control was bruising, thanks chiefly to the arrival of a pandemic which required the club, in his words, to be placed ‘in intensive care’.

There have unquestionably been mistakes too but this deal, he is convinced, will put the club on the right track.

“This is probably the furthest possible thing from a hostile takeover,” he said.

“This is as friendly a partnership creation as you could possibly get. I’m much more comfortable about the future of the club.”