"Best in years" - Ex-Walsall academy boss hails pathway progress

Former Walsall academy manager Rob Williams think the pathway from the youth set-up to the first team is as strong as it has been in years.

Williams left his post in November 2025 to bring an end to his second spell within the academy set-up at Walsall.

During that time, Walsall have handed debuts to a number of academy players – including Ronan Maher, Dylan Thomas, Stan Straw, Charlie Wragg, McLloyd Oben and Paul Makavore.

Second year scholar Will Etheridge became the latest to make his Walsall bow on the final game of the season at Bromley.

In doing so, Etheridge was the first academy product to make his maiden appearance in a league game since Maher in July 2022.

‘We built a positive working relationship’

“If I'm being honest, there probably wasn't one [a pathway from the academy to the first team when I arrived],” Williams admitted.

“I think that the academy was potentially seen as a bit of a hindrance by some of the first team staff perhaps.

“Then, I was lucky because Mat Sadler was in the senior PDP role, which Darren Byfield sat in until he took over as interim.

“So I got to build a relationships with Mat during my time as academy manager before he came head coach.

“We built a working relationship which was really positive. That then helped when he became head coach to build that link across the first team and academy.”

Trivela have put a significant emphasis on increasing the output of the academy and the club utilised the EFL Trophy as a platform to provide young prospects with minutes.

Straw was a major success from this particular ploy and signed his first professional contract in March.

Desire to produce talent from Trivela

Goalkeeper Jenson Kilroy has also had his option year triggered until next summer – with Walsall also extended Etheridge's scholarship.

“There was a real desire from Matt Jordan and Trivela for that to be a really tight-knit relationship,” Williams added.

“By the time I came to leave, it was as tight as it had been. In fact, I don't know for definite, but I'm sure Mat mentioned that it had only been tighter when Dean Smith was in charge.

“We got it into a really good place and I really thought those relationships were solid.

“If you're really going to have a pathway between the academy and the first team then those relationships need to be strong.”