Walsall blogger Mark Jones prepares for his first meeting with the new men in charge at the Banks’s Stadium.

At 8pm this Thursday night, the Saddlers Club hosts the return of the ‘Meet the Manager’ evening.

It should be an excellent opportunity for fans to welcome Chris Hutchings and Martin O’Connor back to the club.

By my reckoning, it’s been at least four years since we’ve had the opportunity to publically grill a Walsall boss on tactics, team selections, transfer targets or the price of tea. A

On that occasion Paul Merson didn’t turn up, leaving Mick Halsall to try to answer questions that were clearly not intended for him.

It’s always important for a manager to have a rapport with a club’s supporters and conversely for us to have a boss we can believe in. One of Jimmy Mullen’s major problems was that he never overcame his lack of credibility.

Two ‘Meet The Manager’ sessions that stick in the mind are those with Ray Graydon. Some two days before the opening of the19 98/99 season in the unusual surroundings of The Crossing at St Pauls in the town, Sir Ray shared his philosophy on the game with his public.

As we were still favourites for relegation at that point in time, our new signings were unproven – even though they included Messrs Rammell, Pointon and Wrack – and the boss himself was on his first managerial appointment, not everyone was convinced we were at the dawning of a new era.

After nearly biting the head off of one punter who wrongly suggested Jeff Peron had joined Fulham, Ray settled down and laid down his blueprint on how to manage the Saddlers. The important thing was he made sense.

Two days later we won at Gillingham and you could see some of the manager’s theories being put into practice.

Eight and a half months later at the Fullbrook, with the boys needing 2 points from 3 games to achieve a magnificent promotion, Sir Ray addressed his adoring public again.

He was obviously more relaxed – even joking about Jason Brissett’s growing collection of red cards – but he was just as convincing.

Of course managers can talk the talk without ever being able to deliver. I can remember former Wolves boss John Barnwell coming across well at the old Saddlers Club in 1989 and of course we all know what a disaster area he was.

Likewise Colin Lee’s number two Dave Merrington was good value at a ‘Meet The Manager’ – although it was hardly difficult to look charismatic next to him – only to do a bunk weeks later.

Chairman Jeff Bonser has been criticised for being starstruck with Paul Merson, but when Merse addressed the fans in the Summer of 2004 – resplendent in a pink t-shirt – nobody pulled him up on his more far-fetched theories.

You do need to scout other teams and teams don’t always give you the ball even in League One. It’s hard to believe now that so many of us fell for it at the time.

Kenny Hibbitt used to use such occasions to get to know the fans and this good relationship probably helped him through the difficult times, because in the early 90’s there were plenty of them.

I can’t help feeling Richard Money would have been less uptight about how he was perceived by supporters if he had got to meet people face to face, instead of simply scanning the message boards.

It will be interesting to hear what Chris and Martin have to say on Thursday and hopefully there’ll be a good turnout for them.

See you there.