Time for excuses is over at Walsall
Tuesday 26th October 2010, 5:00PM BST.
Questions remain unanswered and promises yet to be delivered at Walsall – the time for excuses is over.
The Saddlers’ plight has been one of their own making and no amount of apologies can justify their position.
Saturday’s shocking 4-1 defeat to Tranmere left manager Chris Hutchings’ job hanging by a thread with fans increasingly united in their belief he must go.
The team are in disarray on the pitch, a hotch-potch of a side who, on paper, should be well clear of danger.
Instead they are joint-bottom of League One as attendances continue to dwindle.
So what’s gone wrong?
Walsall have lost seven of nine home games and have won just five points from the last 30 on offer.
A run of games against strugglers Hartlepool, Yeovil, Leyton Orient, Dagenham and Redbridge and Tranmere yielded just two points.
A win over Exeter proved a false dawn and the club slipped to new lows against Rovers.
The worry is now they play five of the top eight starting with Huddersfield on Saturday. The run of so-called ‘easier’ games is over.
The players are not sub-standard – believe it or not there are some good ones – but the Saddlers missed a big chance to make some serious signings in August.
Losing Troy Deeney on the eve of the season hasn’t helped and the club deserve credit for squeezing upwards of £500,000 out of Watford.
But they have failed to invest wisely enough. In the summer signs were, after two-year contracts were penned, that Walsall were securing the future.
Yet the lack of permanent signings since then has sounded alarm bells and the Saddlers are now reliant on loanees who will be returned to sender.
Money was there to spend but, Jonathan Macken aside, permanent players were not snapped up and that has contributed to the decline.
Not for one minute can you say the loanees don’t care but they have Premier League and Championship parent clubs to go back to.
Ryan McGivern aside, will they be fighting for Walsall’s cause at the end of the season?
Martin Devaney and Andrew Davies are good players but won’t be sticking around too long and David Davis has returned to Wolves.
Reuben Reid is here until January and has expressed a desire to stay, but he must fulfil his potential.
They joined a squad who have under-performed in every way. Individual errors cannot be legislated for, and sympathy lies with the manager there, but they can’t be blamed every time.
Walsall – missing the influential Jamie Vincent – have kept just one clean sheet and while players wax-lyrical about training they don’t show loyalty to the manger on the pitch.
But such is the nature of the game the finger of blame will be pointed at the manager.
There is no middle ground now, Saturday’s defeat was a hammer blow to Hutchings.
The opening 15 games of the season have been an utter failure. That’s not an outrageous statement, it’s a fact. The team know this and the time for mollycoddling is over. Notts County’s Craig Short was sacked on Sunday for a lot less.
The board have failed to back a management team chairman Jeff Bonser has described as the best of his 20-year tenure.
Worried about the connotations of a ‘vote of confidence’ – or perhaps a face-saving exercise over the previous declaration – Hutchings and his assistant Martin O’Connor have been left out to dry.
So Jeff, what’s on your mind? It’s been almost two years since you last spoke to the media en mass following Hutchings’ appointment in January 2009.
We know you don’t court the spotlight, and in many ways that’s good, but not when the club is in this position.
The Express & Star has continually asked for an audience but things have gone too far for you to remain quiet.
You are the chairman and have a duty to the club and the fans to give them the answers they seek.
The club has been going for 122 years and the supporters have always been there – but the spirit has been squeezed out of them. You are losing them.
They deserve a lot more than silence from the man who holds the keys to the castle.
By Nick Mashiter
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
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you’ll be banned for that.
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Is there any rules against Hutchings Out banners?
I cannot assume that it is less offensive than a Cyprus flag?
Please let me know Mr. Bonser and Mr. Whalley.
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Congrats on a great article…Here, Here
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There can only be one conclusion Bonser simply does not care anymore.
He is quite happy to see the team struggle and if the club is a non-league team with 1200 followers so what?. He has killed the fans dreams only the hardy few remain.Jeff Bonser is only interested in Jeff Bonser he may have “saved” the club 20 years ago but now he is happy to watch it slowly die.
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Well said, Mr Mashiter, but why has this taken so long? It’s said the JB hasn’t been at the last few home games, so he hasn’t seen for himself how bereft we are of just about all things that matter to us fans. There is an overwhelming feeling that the good ship Saddlers is slowly sinking with no-one trying to stop it going under. It beggars belief that Hutchings is still manager. I said on the way home after the Tranmere game that he must think he’s unsackable. How wrong does he have to get things before the axe falls? You’d have been at Bescot on Saturday, Nick, did you not think that Hutch’s decisions over substitutions encapsulated his total ineptitude as to what to do when we’re heading for defeat. Absolutely baffling….
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I haven’t been on here for a while , and i haven’t been to the Banks’s Stadium for even longer , but i still look for the result’s every game , and still read everyone’s blog here , but i find myself loosing all connection with my football team each and every day , it has become an even bigger Mickey Mouse set up by the week ! It doesn’t matter if Chris is replaced ( there’s no way he’ll do the decent thing and walk away and lose his pay off ! let’s face it with his management record i should think no club in the land would offer him another job )he would still have the restraint’s forced on him as everyone before him .The like’s of Richard Money don’t come very often , and i believe he has been one of the best manager’s this club has had , yet when he met with the board to check if their ambition matched his he had quit the very next week ! A new manager will come in and do a better job than Chris ( shouldn’t be to difficult )but will only get so much from the board and then it’ll all start over again . Sorry it’s not just the manager or manager’s before , it’s down to our beloved Chairman , step forward Bonser and sell the club ( all the club that is , market , banquet’s, function’s , hotel etc etc ) Your a businessman that’s bleeding this club dry for your own gain , let some one who want’s a successful football team take it on ….PLEASE
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Thank you Nick and the E&S. We are in a mess, a real mess and as loyal supporters we deserve answers.
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As a stay away fan you’ve hit all the right notes dont forget about the collapse of the tv digital channel that has blighted us for years excuse after excuse we’ve heard it all?? Im not on my own when i say i will never go back while Bonser is there or until he has open wallet surgery..and i dont mean silly money, lower league players dont cost that much..And thats it no more express and star outside the ground..
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Time to stand up and be counted Mr. Bonser! Lets face it though, it ain’t gonna happen. I’m sure you have lots of axes to grind with Walsall Supporters and if you want to make us suffer then congratulations because your succeeding. I thought you were supposed to be a supporter at heart but i can’t see how this can be true when you are watching the club die before your very eyes. Truth is, it would’nt take much to get us back on side, show some leadership, get a manager in who commands respect from the players and when we see our team giving 100% and showing that they care we’ll be right behind the club!
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At last, I had to re-fresh this to check I was actually on the Express & Star site.
Without being patronising, thank you for taking the first steps Nick. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is going on at Walsall and the deafening silence from Messrs Bonser & Gamble.
Is this a sign that even the E&S are fed up with being cold-shouldered by WFC?
Next article could go in-depth on our decline in attendances and challenge JB’s notion that we’re in the best state we’ve ever been. Crowds are back down to the level when he took over, and falling, debt is increasing, we’re potentially going to be back at the same level next year as when JB took over. JB is taking this club down and taking this club down fast.
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At last the E and S have said what has needed to be said for months and months. Now you have started asking questions don’t stop. Try a few like the amount of rent the club pays, where to,(or who to) why we no longer own the ground or the freehold, the cost of the ground to build. How much is the club for sale for, what does the prospective purchaser get for his money, what is Mr Bonsers exit plan(any good businesman has an exit strategy), why do the club always make excuses about the falling attendances, the answer is plain to everyone exept the board. If Mr Bonser is the fan he claims to be then how can he just sit there and watch the club die. When Mr Bonser rescued the club 20 years ago we were a club that owned the ground, albeit an old one and the freehold but were in the mire. Now we are in the mire and own neither. How did we end up like this Jeff? As Nick Mashiter suggests, time for some answers Jeff, and proper ones not the usual “the fans don’t understand”, “the fans are financially naive” and so on, unless that is of course you want the club to fail. And on a final note don’t think changing the manager will make a difference, it is too late for that.
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well said!
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It had to be said!
Walsall is a sinking ship and we are the rats…and rats generally hang about in god awful places.
Does Bonser not understand? He has to act if he wants to bring back the fans.
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Walsall’s problems can be summed up in one word ~ Bonser!
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Bonser simply is no longer fit to run a Football Club and Hutch does not have a shaving mirror. If he had one, he would see a coward blaming the players for all our problems. He has no tactics that work, cannot change mid-game through substitutions and quite simply, couldn’t motivate Bonser to bank a cheque.
This club will not exist in 3 or 4 years time, it will have been bled to death by the rent man.
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As Saddler (No. 10) says, don’t let this be the end of the hard questioning of the club E&S. Let it be the start of some uncomfortable questioning of those that still claim the club is transformed since their arrival 20 years ago. Nobody should be allowed to keep trotting that rubbish out without it being challenged. Be the newspaper that carry’s out that challenge and see the goodwill of 90% of Walsall fans soar in terms of your newspaper. There are plenty of hard questions that can be asked of Bonser without fear of treading into legally suspect questions.
Just go on and do it, please!
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How refreshing to read something in the E & S that doesn’t tell us how we are “a club transformed” under the ownership of our “no1 fan” Jeff Bonser.
Don’t hold your breathe for a reply, us fans have been asking for answers for a long time now. He doesn’t care about the real fans at Walsall FC if he did we would have a new manager by now. Time to realise Jeff the blame for our demise lies clearly at your feet!
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Obvious and weak article that should have come months ago. Must try harder E&S
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Better late than never ay Mashiter?
Whats tomorrows headline? “Saddlers sign Mooney”?
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Nice article but why has it taken you so long? This is not a new situation and has been going on for years. It is important the local media keep up the pressure as you are our voice. The fans constantly try and ask questions but we are always ignored and in some cases banned!
The only time we here from the club is when they have actually done something and then they peddle it to death. If you get invited in for an interview they will undoubtedly mention the ‘state of the art training facilities’!!
The time has come for the media to expose all of this and hopefully instigate change and help attract a new owner/s. C’mon Nick light that torch and go and get em!
THE PEOPLE OF WALSALL NEED YOU. (before we all get banned)
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A lot of things that needed to be said above and a lot of things that have been said for years now that again, unfortunately, will fall on deaf ears.
I am sad to say that I no longer get that excitement towards the end of the week knowing that I will be buying my ticket and going to the game on Saturday. I never thought I’d become a stay away fan but I have been left with little choice. I refuse to pay money into my club whilst it is governed by people that are not prepared to give anything back to the fans or listen to their views.
I’m not going to point the finger, we all know whose to blame.
That glorious day at the County Ground when we really looked like a team and a club on the up seems so long ago and far away now it’s untrue. Never did I think we would find ourselves in this mess just 2 seasons on.
All I can see in front of me right now is a repeat of the 2005 season where JB stuck by a hapless Merson just to save face and they took us down to league 2. It’s just that the current situation is even worse.
In amongst that was the shocking defeat in the cup at Slough.
I can only see a repeat of that upcoming away at Fleetwood I’m afraid.
Something has to change and it has to be done fast.
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better late than neva i suppose Nick. Good points, good questions, do I expect a response from Mr Bonser? not in the near future. I feel like im watching a slow death of WFC. And by the way Nick, u need to make alternative plans for saturdays after having the audacity to question the great man, coz u’ll be cut now!!!
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I couldn’t believe the result on Saturday – what a joke, but I don’t think it was a fluke as we had already lost at home to Tranmere in the Carling Cup. There are deep-rooted structural problems at Walsall: Jeff Bonser has no ambition for the club – he proved that by not backing Richard Money – and having to fork out nearly £400k a year in rent stifles any decent squad-building. Having said that, Chris Hutchings is making things worse with his mis-management. His transfer dealings in the summer were a joke. He ripped out the backbone of the team: Ince, Weston, Hughes, Vincent, Mattis, Bradley and Deeney and didn’t bring in adequate replacements. We are crying out for an experienced goalkeeper who gives confidence to his defence (and supporters!) – Brain has had too many horror shows and must be sent out on loan to try to regain his confidence. We also need a creative central midfielder who can feed the strikers and a big, bustling centre-forward who can provide an outlet when we have to play the long ball. So, we need 3 new players and a new manager – sorry Chris, but you’ve had a go and failed. If I were the new manager, my team would be:
New Keeper; Westlake, McGivern, Davies, Smith; Devaney, Taundry, New Midfielder, Jones (or Nicholls); Macken, New Centre Forward. Subs: Bevan, Lescott, Macdonald, Richards, Nicholls (or Jones), Grigg, “that young kid who played well against Colchester”.
I would send Gray, Brain and Lancashire out on loan (after the Fleetwood game). It’s time for a change!
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perhaps as tinned said this should be the start of the hard hitting questions to the club. the next AGM would be a good place to start and use your shareholding to your advantage and ask the questions that we all want answering
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Nobody has mentioned yet that Bonser sacked Ray Graydon after a run of just 4 defeats and that was in the Championship so why he continues to stick by this chump is beyond me.
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Actually Sir Ray was sacked after a run of two single goal defeats … and two promotions in 3 seasons.
Hutch is not fit to sit in the dugout he once graced.
Not good enough Jeff.
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