Walsall blog: For Sale?

You big tease Jeffrey Bonser.

On Saturday it was reported you could neither 'confirm nor deny' the story that you're selling up, tantalisingly hinting that an announcement is due at the end of the season.

Yet now Roy Whalley has stated it's all "wild speculation" and that he'd be "most surprised" if it came true. So what is going on exactly?

I do understand that if there is a possible deal in the pipeline, it may not be finalised and that potential buyers may not want their identity revealed just yet.

But, as a fan, it would be nice to know what Mr Bonser's intentions are exactly, especially given that the club are still encouraging us to buy Early Bird season tickets for 2009/10.

It's fair to say that Jeff has never been hugely popular with fans. His inability and reluctance to communicate with the very people who support the club has lead to a mutually bad relationship.

The fact that he is both the owner and effectively the landlord at the same time hasn't exactly helped matters either.

So come on Jeff, we've got 55 points, the season's pretty much over - many would argue that 2008/09 was finished the day you appointed Jimmy Mullen as manager anyway - so tell us what's going on for once.

Because if you don't, then people like me will only indulge in idle speculation.

Like this:-

Idle speculation number one – the land gets sold but not the club itself.

This would mean that the club would still have to pay rent, possibly an even higher amount. Also it would mean Jeff would still be chairman and owner, so what would be the point of that? What would be any different?

Idle speculation number two – the club gets sold but not the land.

For the figure that had been bandied about this is an extremely unlikely scenario, although it does make some sense from the current landlord's point of view – you don't get the hassle of being in charge of a club but the income keeps rolling in.

From our point of view again there's no real difference, unless the buyers are people with genuine ambition and the means to back that up. Mmmmmm!

Idle speculation number three – one gets sold initially and the other one follows on.

A possibility, but then again the issues already mentioned come into play. The football club needs to gain ownership of the land and we need owners with a vision.

Idle speculation number four – the whole lot goes as a package.

Depending on who the buyers are, this is the potentially the best situation.

My heart says Mr Bonser would only sell to someone who wants to take the club forward, unfortunately after the best part of four decades as a Saddler my head says otherwise.

Idle speculation number five – nothing happens.

Potential buyers are put off by the price, the terms of the deal - or someone scuppers it. The idiotic grin on Jack Harris's smug face on the local news when the Terry Ramsden deal was delayed for a couple of weeks in 1986 springs to mind for some reason.

Idle speculation number six– As Roy has pointed out, it is 1 April on Wednesday and the jokes on us, so no change there then.

Whether or not there's any truth in the stories that have emerged this weekend, a lot now depends upon the willingness of the people in power at Walsall to do the right thing for the club.