Happy returns for Walsall's Mathieu Manset

Having had four clubs in two years and his career appearing to hit the buffers, the 25-year-old feels he is in the right place – both geographically and mentally – to get back on track.

As far as he is concerned, the past is the past. It is the future that matters.

"The last two years were a nightmare for me," he says with a sigh. "I want to forget it and just think about now.

"I want to play games and just enjoy myself – because for a long time, too long, I did not enjoy myself."

When asked what he didn't like about the past two years, Manset's eyes widen and you sense the real answer to that question is not a short one.

Significant

"There were many reasons," he settles on after a pause, before adding: "Right now, this feels like the start of my career, I'm very proud and happy to be here.

"I will do everything I can for the fans, the club and the coach."

Earlier this week, Manset became Walsall's eighth and most likely final signing of the summer. He may well prove to be the most significant for some time.

A tall, stocky and powerful forward, he appears to be exactly what Dean Smith's often impressive but frequently frustrating Saddlers side have been lacking.

Yet his route to the Banks's has been far from straightforward. The Saddlers are the fifth English club he will have played for since joining Hereford in 2009. A then 19-year-old Manset had been recommended to then Bulls boss Graham Turner and after a successful trial was handed a contract. Life would never quite be the same again.

"I was young," he says. "I was 19 years old and I came over from France. It was different and difficult because of the language and everything.

"But after a few months, I was loving it.

"For me, England is the best place for football in the world. The fans are passionate and they give everything. That is where I like to be."

Manset scored 18 times in a season and a half at Edgar Street, earning a move to the Championship and Reading in January 2011.

Five goals and just eight starts later, Manset was on the move, first to Swiss side FC Sion in the summer of 2012. It was the starting point of an unhappy two-year journey, which also took in Carlisle , Coventry and Royal Antwerp.

Finally he first entered the sights of the Saddlers and after impressing on a week-long trial – which included an already infamous man of the match appearance against Leicester where he was officially listed as "No.2" – the club were keen for a deal to be done.

But talks broke down over the length of the deal.

With the deal apparently dead, Manset headed out to Turkey before making his shock return to sign at the Banks's on Tuesday night.

Mathieu Manset has travelled a long way in his still young career. In Walsall, he hopes to finally lay down some roots.