Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

Nathan Briant

We’re customers, ultimately. Walsall are selling a product. And often the product is left wanting.

For far too long, Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who has been blasted out of speakers at the start of games, tempting people not to go to the next game.

Now, I try to miss it if I can. For far too long, we’ve been mediocre to bad. It’s getting dull now.

Even the commercial arm is failing. When Bjarni Larusson modelled the replica 1998/99 home shirt in November, the website stated it would be available online the following Monday. I can’t see it anywhere. I would buy it if I were able to. Walsall are letting a sale slip through their fingers.

It’s just not good enough, is it?

Tom Miner

The only thing I can liken the current situation to at Walsall is a game of Jenga.

For the last six weeks, Keates, the players and the club have been taking it in turns to pull risky side pieces from the bottom of the stack and one more bad move could bring it all down.

It’s not just the Banks’s toilets that have left a bad smell around the club.

Poor team selection, individual mistakes and Kieron Morris’s mum’s social media use all need addressing if we are to rediscover the energy and tempo we seem to be lacking from the start of the season.

I’m still confident we can turn this around, it seems to be short bursts where we capitulate rather than long periods of dross, which is somewhat comforting, but Keates needs a win.

Nick Etheridge

The feel-good factor Dean Keates had created in the summer and early months of the season has certainly passed, with fans, players and even parents bickering among themselves.

It’s easy to point fingers and say Dean isn’t up to the job, but it’s imperative he’s given time to build his own team.

We’ve looked far more dangerous going forward this season than at any stage last year.

With defensive players tied down to longer contracts, Keates prioritised our attack in the summer and we look better for it.

It will take at least this and the next transfer window to get rid of players he doesn’t want and reshape our defensive line.

We just need to be patient – something that apparently a certain player’s mum has run out of!

Richard Kendrick

Wanted: Leaders. Must be able to grab a game (and other players if needed) by the scruff of the neck and prevent the type of capitulation we saw on Saturday and have seen all too often.

Every team needs them and all of our ‘experienced’ players are clearly not that way inclined – leaders by example maybe, not by command.

At Bolton, the way we switched off at every single opportunity you would think the team had taken a dose of Night Nurse instead of their half-time drink.

Leaders would not let others consistently disregard their duties. Regardless of whether you think players are good enough to play at this level, the mistakes they are making match after match aren’t down to ability, they’re down to concentration, plain and simple.

Kevin Paddock

Despite losing 10 out of our last 16 games I have decided to put the results on the back burner for now as we have bigger fish to fry - the hierarchy at WFC.

The debacle of Boxing Day is for all to see on all fans forums and fan sites at how incompetent our board are at looking after us the paying supporter.

Limited turnstiles open, refreshments not available twenty minutes before kick off, toilets with urine two inches deep and no hot water?

How can the powers that be expect fans to return if the matchday experience is worst than non-league?

The board are once again treating us with contempt. They wonder why the fan base is deteriorating quickly (our lowest Boxing Day attendance for twenty years) - the whole place is dying and we need a shake up from top to bottom or risk falling further behind Luton, Rotherham and Bournemouth those three clubs our owner told us to go and support 10 years ago.