Chris Hutchings may axe Walsall stars
Walsall boss Chris Hutchings has warned his stars they face the axe before the season has even started.
Walsall boss Chris Hutchings has warned his stars they face the axe before the season has even started.
On the eve of the Saddlers' first home friendly against Wolves tomorrow, Hutchings has spelled out what he expects of his players.
The manager watched them lose 3-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Barnsley on Saturday and declared failure to perform over pre-season will mean the chop.
He said: "Names mean nothing and numbers on shirts mean nothing. If they are not performing they won't play. I've shown that in the past and that's how I work. But I'll show faith in them as that's what you've got to do.
"You have to give people confidence to perform and they will give me the shirt back if they don't perform."
The quadruple swoop for Aaron Lescott, Julian Gray, Oliver Lancashire and goalkeeper David Bevan last week boosted the Saddlers' threadbare squad.
With Bevan challenging fellow newboy Jonny Brain for the first-choice spot, the race is on to replace Clayton Ince and Rene Gilmartin.
Hutchings ranked those two equally and will judge his new goalkeepers on their form.
He said: "The players can look at it how they want, but we have two goalkeepers and they will be judged on merit.
"Both are hungry, work extremely hard and whoever I feel is playing the best will start the season. They will both get equal opportunities in the games which are coming up.
"It's good for both of them. David has had limited experience and you can get experience with games.
"We had Barnsley and now we've got two Premier League sides (Wolves and Villa), a Championship side (Coventry) and Port Vale before the season starts.
"It's a good test for both goalkeepers."
Gray, who is likely to feature tomorrow night, will be given time to improve his fitness after re-joining the squad late having kept his options open before re-signing.
Hutchings said: "Julian's showed his quality, knows how to play the game and his retention of the ball is very good. If we can get him 100 per cent fit he'll be a threat.
"He was playing catch up with us last season and it took its toll with the amount of games.
"We're looking for him to fire on all cylinders but, at the moment, he's a little bit behind."
