Walsall blog: Foreign folly?

Last season it was Fangeira, who at least scored an important equaliser at Lincoln, but did precious little else.

The season before it was Larossa, and we can trace a whole sorry line back to the dark days of the early 90's when we genuinely pinned our hopes on the 'talents' of Athuman Chine and Pierre Essers.

Not forgetting the two dreadful Austrians who were supposed to be the answer to the gaping hole created by the ridiculously badly-handled departure of Martin O'Connor.

Then there was the procession of trialists from abroad who were brought in during the summer of 2001- Ray Graydon's dubious reward for two promotions in three seasons and everlasting proof that quantity can never be a substitute for quality.

Sure we're a small club having to work within a small budget and our Football Consultant/former Director of Football has obviously got a lot of foreign contacts to exploit (although few seemed to want to exploit them between 2002 and 2006); but when they offer little to nothing it does seem to be a false economy.

To me it must still cost us money to bring these guys over in the first place; there are still agent's fees, possible signing-on fees and relocation costs on top of wages.

Additionally there's the hidden cost that the time dedicated to doing all this could be spent looking at other (better) players, not to mention young players coming through finding their path blocked by an overseas arrival clogging up our system.

Now I feel that I need to state that this is most definitely not some xenophobic rant written to pander to the narrow-minded whims of some sad and pathetic right wing idiots.

I believe Walsall have had some fantastic foreign players who have enhanced our side, entertained us and become part of Saddlers folklore.

There should always be room for anyone who can improve the side regardless of their nationality.

However, none of these players have ever fallen into the 'let's have a look, see if they can stand up and run in the right direction, give 'em a chance and cross our fingers' category. All of the best foreign players to have worn Walsall shirts have arrived either :-

(a) when we've had, by our standards, a bit of money to spend,

or (b) already experienced in the rigours of British football.

Boli and Peron's brief but electrifying spell came after the sale of Kyle Lightbourne.

Jorge Leitao and Zigor Aranalde (summed up perfectly to me recently by a man in a cardigan as 'possibly the worst player to play over 200 games for us') arrived in the summer of 2000 when we'd had the first downpayment on Michael Ricketts.

Gino Padula and Junior came to us when we were enjoying the financial benefits of being in the First Division.

Lightbourne himself played (and scored) against us for the now defunct Scarborough before scoring a shed load in our colours, Pedro Matias (a personal favourite of mine) starred for Macc Town against us, Bjarni Larusson (not the greatest, but a promotion winner nonetheless) took a step up from the lower leagues with Hibs and, of course, our man Clayton spent many years in this country with Coventry and some other jokers before seeing the light and becoming a Saddler.

I'm sorry Mr. Taylor, the message to me is fairly clear.

You bring in quality or proven players and you've got a better chance of success and well over a decade of gambling has not paid off once.

It shouldn't take a genius to work out what you should be doing during January and next summer. I'm not holding me breath though.

Walsall fans, what do you think? Have your say below