All change at the Banks's Stadium

Walsall blogger Mark Jones takes a closer look at the ins and outs at the Banks's Stadium this summer with the League One season fast approaching.

It's time to forget about vuvuzelas, octopuses and Uruguayan linesmen – yes it was over the line but England still got exactly what they deserved out of the game against Germany.

Put pampered, over privileged, Premier League prima-donnas who have no pride or passion for their country to one side - or preferably over a cliff.

Because the new season starts in less than 20 days, proper football is back! And there's been a few changes down at Walsall.

Most significantly is the replacement of Roy Whalley. Whalley's position as chief executive had become pretty much untenable, after some thoroughly disgraceful antics at the back end of last season.

When a senior official of a football club, one that styles itself as being 'well-run,' lashes out at its own fans in such an unpleasant and ignorant manner, then it can only be bad for the credibility of the club.

Thankfully the three bans dished out to Walsall fans for no justifiable reason in April have been overturned, although whether any apology or acknowledgement of wrong-doing has been given to Darren Rhodes, Neil Ravenscroft or Wayne Swift, I don't know.

Roy is now left to concentrate solely on his role as commercial director, which is arguably what he relatively does best, giving him the chance to help improve the current precarious nature that our finances have somehow got into. Making sure that there's a regular advertiser for that costly big board would be a start.

Emerging from the shadows as Walsall's new chief executive is Stefan Gamble, a director for the past eight years yet someone who up until a couple of weeks ago I would not have recognised even if he'd tried to flog me a 50-50 ticket.

So far he has made some positive and encouraging statements, which is positive and encouraging. Good luck to you Stefan.

Daniel Mole has made his long-anticipated step up from assistant to proper club secretary, where he should do a good job.

With David Storr - who gained much respect for the way he worked with and not against Unity at the Milton Keynes Dons game in May - continuing as stadium officer, David Malia earning a lot of plaudits for the work he is doing in the ticket office and Nigel Bond continuing his hands-on role as a director, there are plenty of good people working for the club right now.

Joining them is the newest board member, Leigh Pomlett. Like Stefan Gamble, Leigh has made all the right noises since putting some money into the club in the form of a loan.

He has talked about going to games with his family, sitting behind the goal and how being a fan comes from the heart. The reported quote that he doesn't want to be part of "a successful business and a pathetic football side" caught my eye.

Like it, I'm looking forward to hearing more from Leigh!

But before I get too carried away with all this positivity, one thing hasn't changed though – Jeff Bonser is still chairman and owner.

And another thing that hasn't changed is the rent - we've paid of it in rent since the last home game. The sooner this gets addressed in this new era the better.

I suspect that if there are to be any effects of the changes behind the scenes, then they won't be happening overnight.

Which is why we are once again entering a pre-season with a threadbare squad, hardly something that is likely to tempt people back just yet.

However much people talk of last season's 10th place, it counts for nothing if you're still trying to replace players as August 7 approaches.

Of the players that have signed on the dotted line, Julian Gray is the most promising given his form in the final few games of last season.

Aaron Lescott is the best known of the rest, let's hope he can repeat his goalscoring form of a couple of years ago - in the 5-0 win for Bristol Rovers against Walsall in case you had forgotten - while the others are all a bit of an unknown quantity, so we'll have to wait and see about them.

At least we can feel safe in the knowledge that whatever the Saddlers do next season, we'll have to go a long way to serve up anything as appalling as what we saw on that Sunday afternoon in Bloemfontein.