Brian Dutton: Walsall ‘need fresh approach’ to loan signings

The Saddlers have had eight loanees come and go since the beginning of the season to varying degrees of success.

Arguably, only Max Melbourne and Tyreik Wright have been a triumph and when asked if the club needs to change it’s loan recruitment in the future, Dutton said: “Of course it does, this is another issue that needs remedying at the football club. We want to be proactive, we’ve been very reactive in all honesty.

“We’ve had to react to situations without forward planning and that’s never healthy. You end up making impulsive decisions. It’s important that we have strong relationships with the local football clubs around us and they gain our trust. We can only do that from shrewd loan moves, such as Max Melbourne. He’s come in and had ample opportunity.

“It’s not healthy bringing these guys in and keeping them in the cold and them not getting the game time. It doesn’t help us as a football club or them as individuals. It creates a poor environment to be honest. We’re overloaded with players, we have too many at the club and we don’t want that. We want quality over quantity.

“You can only do that through forward planning and good communication. That’s something that we need to address and remedy moving forward.”

Wright, on-loan from Villa has done well while Adan George and Jayden Reid, both from Blues, were disappointing.

Going forward Dutton would like to use other nearby clubs more to get a higher standard of loanee at the Banks’s Stadium.

Dutton added: “It makes sense doesn’t it.

“You have these elite football clubs on your doorstep, it makes sense to have good relationships with them and try and cherry pick the best talent they’ve got to give them an opportunity.

“It makes sense to me and is definitely something we’ll look to use moving forward.”