Comment: Plenty of hard work but do Walsall have enough?
There can be no denying it was a busy summer for Walsall, and a lot has been done to try to make this term successful.
With 17 signings made by the Saddlers – albeit one of those is no longer with the club – Michael Flynn’s phone has been ringing pretty much non-stop over the past few months.
To get that many players through the door is a remarkable effort.
However, there is frustration that more business was not done and there are understandable concerns among fans over squad depth.
Do Walsall have enough to get them through until January?
That is the question on a fair few people’s lips following a deadline day that saw the club miss out on ‘prime targets, and the next’, as put by Flynn.
The Saddlers did find themselves in a bit of a conundrum as the boss looked to make more additions near the end of the window.
Injuries to Conor Wilkinson and Joss Labadie at the back end of last season meant two players who will be among the higher-earners would not be available until the new year.
Problems later picked up by fresh faces Liam Gordon, Oisin McEntee and Joe Riley meant a sizeable chunk of the budget was used up on players on the shelf.
Club owners the Trivela Group did extend the budget, according to Flynn, but adding to the squad with five due to return at various points was a difficult balancing act – the group potentially becoming too bloated a few months down the line.
It is also worth noting some of the deals done elsewhere in the division were ones Walsall simply could not compete with and would have blown apart their current wage structure.
Some will still believe that the Saddlers should have done more – an example being five loan players are allowed in a matchday squad and the club have four loanees.
Assessing the window, it seems they may be one or two short of what they wanted.
Central defence has quality but perhaps lacks a touch in terms of quantity.
Fingers crossed, there are no more injury issues while it is worth noting the free agent market can still be explored.
Time will tell whether the
window provided Walsall with the necessary resources, but it has not been for the want of trying.
