As I write, we have no new faces for Saturday’s return to League action against Luton, writes Walsall blogger Mark Jones.
Mark Bradley’s quest for the glory of being a Welsh Under 21 international and the early demise of what looked a really promising loan spell by Dwayne Mattis have shown up just how stretched our squad is at the moment.
The word seems to be that Eddy Sonko will fill in alongside Wracky, leaving Paul Hall and Ish to play out wide.
To be fair there don’t appear to be many more options than this, unless DD fancies trying something radical and I can’t really see that happening.
Still having two wide players playing in midfield reminds me of our first away game of the 2002/03 season when we also had no central midfielders available.
This wasn’t just any old game though, but a local derby, and probably (actually no, make that definitely) the one match Walsall fans want to win above all other.
We actually kicked off the game against our nearest and not-so dearest with Wracky and Pedro, both fine players in their natural positions, in the middle of the park.
Suffice to say the expensively assembled midfield of our opponents were a little too strong and we went down 3-1.
Of course the major difference between then and now is that our manager at the time had spent the whole summer supposedly getting ready for the start of the season.
For some reason Colin had decided that Martin O’Connor and Danny Sonner (whatever happened to him?) were going to play all 46 league games between them.
That we didn’t need Fitzroy Simpson who ended up offering to play for us for free a few weeks later.
Or even that we couldn’t make use of Deano on a short term contract, who I’m sure would have relished one last chance to run round WV1 kicking everything in sight.
It was the kind of blinkered, illogical and dispassionate thinking that blighted the club throughout Mr Lee’s reign.
Everything seemed to unravel during the last few months of his regime but, trust me, the warning signs were always there.
You might ask what relevance this has to Walsall F.C. today, but I genuinely believe that the decline of the club which ended up with us camped out in League Two last season had its roots in the Colin Lee era/error.
I hope that whatever team Richard Money puts out on Saturday, they will show more character and pride than our last-but-two manager’s teams ever did - and I can be fairly sure that Dicky will always be able to say he left the club in a better state than it was when he took over.
On a sadder note I must end by saying R.I.P. to Saddlers fan Gary Tennant who died this week, and R.I.P. for my mate Bob - the Fitters Arms will never quite be the same again.
My condolences go out to both sets of families.
Saddlers fans, what do you think? Have your say below
Share this article:
What are these?