Michael Standing today signed for Walsall as manager Paul Merson completed his first summer signing. The 23 year old central midfielder joins from crisis club Bradford, who were forced to make all their players available on free transfers. Standing has been a long term target of Merse and the pair were teammates at Villa together for three years. Standing moved to Villa from Brighton along with Gareth Barry, but failed to break into the Villa first team and moved to Bradford in 2002.