Walsall and Terry Ramsden

The larger than life ex owner Terry Ramsden is in the news for the wrong reasons again. The lawyer.com reports that he is been sued again.
To read the story click HERE
Edwin Coe has kickstarted a legal battle against its flamboyant convicted fraudster client Terry Ramsden.

The commercial law firm is suing Ramsden – an entrepreneur who is said to have gambled £77m on horse races in two years – for more than £125,000 for failing to pay his bills for professional legal services and disbursements rendered for almost a year from the end of September 2004.

Edwin Coe is claiming a total of £125,061.85, with interest of £10,059.77 to date and a continuing interest of £24.41 a day from the prolific gambler.

Of course to Walsall fans the name brings together some mixed emotions. When Walsall were in financial trouble and moves were afoot to ground share with Blues. Barrie Blower and the first Save Our Saddlers campaign saw protests and marches from Walsall town centre to Fellows Park.

The SOS campaign discovered Terry Ramsden whilst Barry read a newspaper having his haircut so the story went. Ramsden made his fortune in the 1980s by gambling on the Japanese securities market. .

To cut a long story short Terry Ramsden came flying in as saviour in a blaze of publicity. He promised a great deal, a free christmas Turkey for the oap saddler fans and the promise of promotion to what is now the championship.

He delivered both, but at a price. As the rotator blades of his helicopter slowed down, the breeze was strong enough to blow away then walsall legend and manager Alan Buckley. In came Tommy Coakley to say that was a shock appointment was an understatement. Ramsden also brought in the money to pay to bring in players such as Trevor Christie and pay there wages out of his own pocket. His money prevented the fire sale of future stars such as David Kelly. Promotion was achieved but just as a new promise land and a bright future seemed to be on the horizon things went wrong.

A fall in the market cost Terry Ramsden all his money making him bankrupt. Also investigations into fraudalent dealings meant the end was nigh. Then Terry did the best thing he could for Walsall football club, he sold it just before his assets were seized. A move which saved Walsall from not just administration but liquidation, without that final act there would have been no Walsall FC to write about today.

Of course that left us bankrupt not only in terms of money but also on the pitch as stars such as David Kelly was sold only to be replaced with the likes of Dale Banton, Howard Pritchard etc. after a record equaling run of consecutive defeats we plunged to the depths of league four. Where the club finally rose like the phoenix out of the ashes, only to fall back again in recent years.

People will argue if Terry Ramsden was good or bad for Walsall. I for one liked the cheeky cockney barrow boy. I shared his dreams of greatness and wonder what would have happened if the money hadn’t gone, would we have invested some of the 70 million he lost on the horses in getting walsall into top flight football….who knows.

I have two lasting memories of Terry Ramsden, firstly the memory of bunking off school to see his arrival, central TV camaras and all. My other memory is self made, the mental picture of Terry in his cell scanning the papers for Walsall’s results…..I wonder if that ever did happen.