Hendrie linked with Walsall

Former Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie has been linked with a surprise move to the Banks’s.

The 32-year-old is currently at Derby, but has fallen out of favour at Pride Park, and with Hutch looking for loan players, Hendrie could fit the bill.

However, with next season in mind, Hutch believes the possibility of signing Hendrie on a free in the summer could prove to be difficult.

Hutch told the Express and Star: “We are always looking at players – we not only have to look at loan players for this season, but we have got to think about players for next season.

“Whether we could afford a Lee Hendrie or not remains to be seen because he would obviously be on good wages.

‘He has got experience but he would be one of many players that we would be looking at. Whether we could afford them would be another scenario.

“We can always ask the question but whether we would be good enough remains to be seen, because I`d imagine there would be a lot of who would be after Lee Hendrie if Derby released him.’