A disgraceful day today for Walsall Football Club with the news that the club have sacked the most successful manager in their history - Sir Ray Graydon.
In a pitiful statement on the club website owner Jeff Bonser announced the decision to sack Graydon was a bid to bolster Walsall’s slim chances of avoiding relegation.
Graydon himself issued a brief statement paying tribute to the Walsall supporters, in a typically dignified end to his three and a half year Bescot reign.
Many supporters believe the fault lies not with Graydon, but with the board’s persistent refusal to invest in quality players of 1st division status. Graydon has received nothing in the way of transfer funds throughout his stay at the club. No other club in the league can boast that their transfer record was set in 1979 - twenty three years ago.
Paul Taylor, the club’s director of football, has also offered his resignation, but is staying on to help Graydon’s successor. In a statement contrasting sharply with Ray’s modesty, Taylor claimed “My knowledge of the playing structure of the club, from top to bottom, will be invaluable to Ray’s successor during his ‘settling in’ period.” It is Taylor who has recently attracted fans’ criticism for a series of controversial foreign signings who have subsequently failed to break into the first team.
Resident upthesaddlers.com columnist The Doffer today called the sacking the worst day in Walsall’s history