"Competitive and concise" - Stewart Mairs outlines Walsall summer transfer plans

Head of football Stewart Mairs insists Walsall have set a “competitive” budget this summer, but has vowed to be “effective” with where the club spends it money.

Walsall have a busy summer on their hands following the release of 12 players at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.

Connor Barrett also departed for Wigan Athletic last week - with the League One club paying an undisclosed fee for his services.

The summer transfer window officially opened on Monday (June 15) and Mairs believes the Saddlers’ collaborative approach - alongside head coach Lee Grant and head of recruitment Andy McGregor - will provide them with a strong platform during the window.

“Everybody keeps talking about budgets, but the budget is the budget. It doesn't worry me that much,” Mairs revealed.

“It will be competitive. Will it be the biggest in the league? No. Will it be the smallest in the league? No.

“But you've got to be very effective with where we put our money and where we spend our money. The experience that Lee, myself and Andy have puts us in good stead.”

Walsall currently have 12 players contracted for next season, after veteran winger Albert Adomah penned a one-year contract extension earlier this month.

Rico Browne has been offered a new deal, but his future remains unclear - with his current contract expiring on June 30.

Mairs also revealed that the club have devised player profiles for each position that they’re looking to sign, as he attempts to spearhead a more “concise” approach towards recruitment.

“Andy will have players, Lee will have players and I'll have players. We'll put players into our filters, we've gone through our data and we've watched the video,” he added.

“If Lee likes a player one day, or I like a player, we'll come back the next day and it's like: I'm not so sure on him now, or I still like him.

“It's a case of beating all of this up and coming back to what we want from that player per that position.

“That's the reason why we've put these player profiles in place. If there is any kind of ambiguity within that then we can always say: this player is maybe not athletic enough for this role.

“We've put that in the profile so he is out. Those profiles that we've all signed off allow us to be really concise with how we recruit.

“Andy will drive that. He has got a lot of contacts in and around the Football League, the Premier League 2 and Professional Development Leagues.

“I've got a lot of contacts within National League and National League North around being with Fylde and obviously Lee has got a lot of contacts on his own.

“So there's quite a lot of institutional knowledge that's going into this and hopefully that will allow us to grind out some of these players a bit more quickly and get some of these guys over the line.”