BESCOT BANTER: Editor’s notes

Since the start of the new year, not a lot has been inspiring from a Walsall point of view.

OK, Matty Richards has shown his qualities at times and Troy Deeney is showing he can put the onion in the onion bag, but we have dropped to 13th in the table and stand five points off relegation. Worried, I have no nails left!!

As we continue to look upwards, it’s no wonder the mountain that is the Playoffs is looking taller and taller by the week. We simply do not have the resources of Leeds, Norwich, Charlton, Millwall, etc, even though we have shown we can match them on the day. However, we do not have the consistent quality to overpower them and even survive in the Championship next season.

In my opinion, we need to take things slowly! A team needs to be groomed to make it into the Football League’s top division, which is something we are not going to do with players on short-term deals and one-year contracts. Realism is hitting home, and we are just an average League One side, too good to get relegated and not good enough to get promoted. I feel sorry for Hutch, and to be fair, he has performed miracles with limited resouces so far.

Many fans have criticised Hutch for not addressing the issue of a small squad, but how can you when there are no funds to spend? I have already mentioned the pointlessness of the advertising sign that has been erected by the M6 that cost £400,000. Why not invest this into the football team to make us more successful and then the money will come in. At the end of the day, gates are down, which means revenue is down, which means no players can be signed.

As an avid Saddler, I have always questioned the motives of the Saddlers board, and I certainly raised more questions when a recently re-arranged game was postponed for the second time as it clashed with a four-day event…..uhhh? Many Saddlers fans are seeing it, why can’t the board or Roy Whalley?

I am behind Hutch, I am behind the team, but it makes things so much harder when your Chairman talks of ambition, but lacks in substance to show it. ‘Get real Walsall’ is what gets said to me, and while our owner presses the snooze button on our ambition hopes, we will be sleeping in League One for the foreseeable future. Correct me if I’m wrong?

Rich
Vital Walsall Editor