Walsall's Team of the Decade Part 1

Walsall blogger Mark Jones' first course of action is to decide who will not be making his Saddlers' team of the 'Noughties.'

Although it doesn't really feel like it, we have now entered a new decade. So what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than to do a mischievous, highly subjective, largely pointless, space-filling 'Team of the Decade?'

In my opinion the last ten years can be roughly split into five eras:-

The Ray Graydon glory years from 2000 to 2002, the lamentable Colin Lee Years to 2004, the 'who's your manager? Really! No seriously, who's your manager?' years from 2004 to 2006, the Richard Money revivial years from 2006 to approximately 10pm on 31 January 2008, where began the same old, same old aka the post Scott Dann era.

Now there's no doubt that we had some seriously talented players in our old first division days. Sure they didn't always produce the goods for us, or maybe it was just that we didn't have anyone good enough in the dugout to get the best out of them.

Whatever you think of him as a manager or as a person, Paul Merson was in my opinion the most talented player ever to wear a Walsall shirt. The performances were often hit and miss, but take that glorious August afternoon against Albion in isolation and he was pure magic. Players like him don't turn out for the Saddlers too often.

At the same time, we had Vinny Samways in midfield and Paul Ritchie in defence, two players of immense quality, arguably better than anyone else we've ever seen playing in their position.

But Samways jetted back to Spain after every game and that can't have been good for the dressing room, while Ritchie's name mysteriously disappeared from the team sheet during the crucial run-in to the 2003/04 season.

Stories emanated that he was due more appearance-related dosh and that someone didn't want to pay up. I can neither confirm nor deny this but I will point out that we were paying Jamie Lawrence, Craig Burley, Lee Bradbury and Jermaine McSporran at the time. And that getting relegated cost us loads.

Then there was Junior. He had outrageous skills when he felt like it, scored loads of goals, formed a useful Portuguese-speaking partnership with Jorge Leitao and was a Walsall disciple in 2002/03.

But, along with Merse, Vinny and Paul, he doesn't make the cut. They were by-products of the fact that we were playing in the second tier - especially Junior, whose agent must have touted the Brazilian around half of the league - and I never ever got the feeling that any of them really belonged to us, whatever the t-shirt proclamations said.

For similar reasons I'm not including a very gifted player who I thought would be a top signing but never really delivered in the way I expected him to, well not until the end of his spell when he was playing under a much better manager, but is still well regarded in these parts. Step forward Mark Kinsella. I've not counted loan signings either, so that rules out Gary O'Neil and Julian Joachim.

As a nod to the better class of player that wore the shirt at a higher level, predominantly under Calamity Colin, the names Paul Merson, Vinny Samways, Paul Ritchie, Junior and Mark Kinsella all make my subs bench, ready to produce that bit of magic to win a game in the last 10 minutes or provide a touch of experience to close a game out.

If only Graham Failure had adopted a policy like this when he was England boss, his reputation might not be so flawed - then again maybe not, he was always a bit of a hopeless case.

No, for my first XI I want heroes and legends, or at the very least players who gave us tantalising glimpses of promise. In short a genuine Walsall team that everyone can believe in. So here it is: -

But no, sorry I've run out of space so I'll have to call it off at the last minute - Norwich fans will be furious - and rearrange it for another time.