Express & Star

Rico Henry windfall to boost Walsall

Chairman Leigh Pomlett has revealed Walsall’s playing budget will improve as a result of Brentford’s promotion and the clauses in Rico Henry’s sale – but has warned the cash is not ‘transformational’.

Published

The Bees finally booked a spot in the Premier League last week with a 2-0 win over Swansea.

With Henry’s sale from Walsall in 2016 several add-on clauses mean the original £1.5million could rise to more than £5million and although the figure they receive from Brentford’s promotion is unclear, it will help the club.

When asked if the club benefited from Brentford’s promotion, due to the clauses in the Rico Henry sale, Pomlett said: “It did, yes. We have a deal with Brentford and them being promoted was helpful.

“It’s not transformational, but it’s certainly helpful. But you can’t spend cash you haven’t got and the money from Brentford doesn’t come for some months yet. I don’t want everyone to get terribly excited by it. It was extremely helpful but is no more than that. It’s not transformational.

“I was extremely pleased when Brentford got promoted. We should be very pleased about it.

“We don’t get anything more unless Rico is sold and the chances of him being sold are probably less than if they hadn’t got promoted, but I’d rather they did get promoted and we have some benefit from that.

“I stress though, we can’t spend it until we have it and it doesn’t come for a number of months yet.

“It does help with the player budget but I wouldn’t want to overblow that. Financially the hit of Covid will be the coming season, not this season, and I need to protect the club from that. At the same time, will it afford me a better budget for Matt? It does, yes.”