Leeds United Manager Kevin Blackwell has issued Walsall with a “put up or shut up” warning about striker Julian Joachim.

Blackwell, despite admitting that he wants the former Villa and Coventry man off the wage bill, has made it quite clear that the player has not been freed and that he is expecting any club interested to pay off his contract. As Joachim is reputedly on something in the region of £5000 per week basic, that means a fee in the region of a quarter of a million.

Blackwell said “He hasn’t been released at all. If Walsall want him, then they have to do the right thing and pay for him. They’ve kept sniffing around, wanting this and that, but we’re not prepared to budge”.

Walsall’s attitude has always been that they want sign the player if and when he has negotiated his release from Leeds.

Roy Whalley has emphasised this:- “We want the player and would be happy to speak to him if he becomes surplus to requirements”.

This development makes any signing look doubtful to say the least and Paul Merson may well now turn his attention elsewhere.