Saddlers blog: Here we go again

Walsall blogger Mark Jones mulls over the Saddlers’ summer ahead of the big kick off on Saturday.

The foreplay of pre-season is nearly done so let’s have a look at what’s been going on with the mighty Saddlers this summer.

Michael Ricketts and Stephen Hughes: -

The most eye catching of our summer signings is Hughesy, as he is bound to be nicknamed, a particularly pleasant surprise.

Personally I’m glad to see Ricketts back too, as I thought it made a huge difference losing him in the second half of last season.

At the risk of stating the obvious, a natural goalscorer is a big asset to any team. You can play badly or indifferently and still pick up points, if your man notches some half-chance or other.

Think of the Brighton home defeat/mugging on that wet night in March. A goal to reward our pressure, at 1-0 or 1-1, could have finished the Seagulls off and kept the points ticking over. Who knows how our season would have panned out after that.

We need to keep Michael fit and get his head right to get the best out of him. Succeed and we’ve got a very potent striker on our books.

Similarly, a match fit Stephen Hughes with the right attitude should be a bonus in League One. By this, I mean that it is a tough league and creative players who have played at higher levels don’t automatically do well, if they think it’s all gonna be a bit of a stroll.

Mark Kinsella springs to mind as someone who had the talent but never made the impact that he should have done. Then again, I can’t really see Jimmy leaving Stephen on the fringes of the first team, whilst playing lesser committed players instead.

The other new boys: -

I was pleased to see the return of Dwayne Mattis too. It was a particularly nasty injury that he got at Tranmere, just as he was making an impact on the team. We do have a 100% record whenever he plays a full 90 mins too, so no pressure Dwayne.

Marco Reich is an interesting addition, one of those names you recognise but don’t know where from. He has a good pedigree with plenty of Championship appearances and, like Mikey R, has one whole international cap.

Of course, Walsall fans everywhere will tell you this means absolutely nothing unless he can do it in a White and Red shirt. Vorsprung Durch Marco.

I hope I’m not setting Steve Roberts up for a massive fall here, but his CV has a kind of no-nonsense, been there and done that in the lower divisions ring to it that reminds me of Tony No-Frills Barrass. No pressure there either!

Continuing the theme of totally unnecessary comparisons with the past, the last ex-Derby and Notts County defender called C Palmer was an absolute legend.

If Chris is only half as good as Uncle Charlie was etc etc. Good to see some cover in the full back positions though.

It’s far too predictable to say that Ibehre and Zaaboub are worth loads in Scrabble, just as it is too point out that Orient and Swindon (both teams who finished below us last season) didn’t exactly put up much of a fight to keep them. Hopefully that’s their loss(es), welcome aboard boys.

Anyone else?

We’ve still got a smallish squad supplemented by some talented but inexperienced youngsters. I’d like to see a couple more arrivals before Saturday, just to show we mean business. Of course that assumes we actually do mean business and we all know who that depends on don’t we?

The captaincy: -

Following on from what I was hinting at about Stephen Hughes, Jimmy obviously sees him as having an important role by giving him the armband.

A bit of a surprise as a lot of people were tipping Rhys Weston and I had a sneaky feeling it might have gone to Anthony Gerrard. I am a fairly useless gambler though.

Mattis and Roberts were other potential candidates due to their positions, but maybe JM wants to send out a team with plenty of leaders.

Thinking back a decade, the glory boys of 1998/99 had Viveash, Rammell, Marsh, Walker and three or four others to back up Neil Pointon (and he was a pretty fine skipper in his own right). There is a mighty fine precedent.

Hands-off Clayton: -

He’s ours, he’s good, we need him, end of story.

You got that Roberto M? Colin C? Jeffrey B?

Pre-Season fixtures: -

The crowds have been lower than expected (home and away followings). In terms of preparation, I can’t see what benefit a League One v Premier League friendly is to either team, when the ‘big-boys’ have such a financial advantage these days.

Could it be that playing Villa for the sixth season running creates a little bit of over-familiarity? Despite reports that it’s a regular fixture at Bescot, before 2003 they only visited us three times in 13 years.

Time for a rethink in 2009 possibly?

The new training ground: -

Quite rightly, everyone is saying how good it is.

There was a bit of a shock when it was revealed that we’d splash out some cash to strengthen the defence. That was just to stop the local kids playing on there after hours.

Stadium Ownership: -

It’s gone a bit quiet on this story …

Still we’ve a long, hard one ahead of us. Bring it on!