The Express and Star was carrying a story last night about Walsall’s chances of getting the impressive Andrew Surman back on a year long loan next season.

One of the problems with Harry Redknapp at Pompey, according to Milan Mandaric, was his reluctance to use home grown talent, being more likely to try and bring a player in (and yes, I know about his record at West Ham, I’m just quoting Mandaric). Walsall fans were very hopeful, therefore, that, despite their relegation, Harry would be unlikely to want to use Surman himself in the current season.

The Star was saying last night that Merson is optimistic about getting Surman back, despite admitting that he will be reporting back for pre season training at the Saints:

“Andrew has got to report back to Southampton at the start of pre-season and I’m sure he’ll be doing his best to force his way into their plans, said Walsall chairman Jeff Bonser. But if that doesn’t happen then I’m sure Harry will be looking to get him out on loan again, and if he goes out on loan anywhere we’re confident it will be to us because Harry liked the way we played Andrew last season.

Merson has been encouraged by suggestions that Redknapp plans to build a potential return to the Premiership around old hands next season. The former West Ham and Portsmouth chief’s record suggests he favours experienced men to mount promotion challenges from the second tier of English football, and there are signs he will adopt the same policy again.”

However, events down on the South coast do not seem to be backing that optimism up at the moment, according to the Southampton Rivals site, TheUglyInside:

“Olivier Bernard, Henri Camara, Anders Svensson and Jason Dodd have all departed, Antti Niemi, Kevin Phillips and Peter Crouch look to be on their way and who has been brought in?
Exactly. To the amazement of many fans, the ‘Del Boy’ of football has not made any signings, as of yet, this is where the worries begin.
Redknapp has been linked with a number of experienced, quality players such as Dennis Wise, Lee Clark and Teddy Sheringham, all of whom you would imagine would jump at the chance of joining a sound, homely club.
But the Lowe is refusing to budge on his stance of not increasing wages, leaving Redknapp to wonder how he is going to attract any high profile players to the club”.

The suggestion seems to be that Chairman Rupert Lowe wants to “cut his cloth” accordingly this season and is not sanctioning the sort of wages ‘Arry would need for his wheeler dealing, leading, presumably, to depending more on internal resources, such as their up-and-coming youngsters. We shall watch developments with interest.