Bonser delight at £1m centre

Chairman Jeff Bonser admits Walsall’s new £1m training complex has proved a hit not only with the current squad - but prospective new signings too.

The Saddlers have been shaping up for the new campaign at the state-of-the-art site in Broad Lane, Essington, since their return for pre-season training.

Bonser said the facilities have been greeted like a “breath of fresh air” by the players and he revealed the facilities are helping the Saddlers lure new players to the club. “It’s just a different class to have a home of our own,” he said.

“A couple of the new signings have turned around and said ‘crikey, is this where we’re going to work every day?’ It makes a difference to attracting players here.

“If I was a player and I was going to look at a new club it wouldn’t interest me too much where I played for an hour-and-a-half on a Saturday afternoon. It would certainly interest me where I was going to spend five or six hours a day five times a week.”

But Bonser said the facilities were appreciated more by players who experienced what things were like before.

He added: “To them it’s like a breath of fresh air. It means more to them than the new lot coming in because they knew what it was like before.”

And Bonser admits the new facilities are a world apart from the way things used to be.

“Previously it wasn’t the most attractive place in the world,” he added. “We had no training or toilet facilities so we would change at the club and go down in the cars.

“When we had finished they had to trudge all the way back to the club.”