The club have now officially announced the termination of Paul Merson’s contract as Manager. Jeff Bonser has made a full statement, as reproduced below, and the club have announced that Mick Halsall will take over while a permanent successor is found. Halsall, however, has restated that he has no desire to take on the job full time and wants to go back to working with the Youths as soon as possible.

Jeff Bonser emphasised the personal sadness he had felt in having to make the decision. “I felt that we had reached a point where it was in the best interests of both the club and Paul that this decision should be made,” he said. “I hope that our supporters will never forget the euphoria created when he joined the club. He must have been the most high-profile signing ever made by us.

Nor should we forget the extraordinary skills he displayed while playing for the club. He must surely have been the most gifted player to represent Walsall FC.

He accepted the position of Team Manager at a most difficult time, following relegation from what is now The Championship and the draconian financial fall-out that followed the demise of ITV Digital.

Inevitably, relegation led to a number of key players leaving the club, and a very limited availability of funds to rebuild the team.

Nor has Paul enjoyed much luck during this period. In all my 18 years involvement in football, I have never known a time when we have been so hard hit by injuries. So far this season, as well as Paul himself having a long-term injury, Darren Wrack is out of the season with a broken leg. Players such as Steve Staunton, Andy Oakes, Chris Westwood and Ian Roper have all had lengthy absences. Our most experienced striker, Jorge Leitao became homesick and returned to Portugal.

If all of these players had been available to Paul throughout the season, I have no doubt that our results and position in the League table would have been very different.

I have always admired the way that he has been prepared to give young players their chance, and hopefully some of them who have been groomed by Paul will go on to have bright futures in the game, and will have much to be grateful to him for giving them their first chance.

All of us at Walsall FC have enjoyed working with Paul and wish him every success in the future.”

While a certain amount of speculation about Paul Merson’s reign as Walsall manager is bound to continue, let us all not forget his main legacy. We are in a relegation scrap.

No manager, in my experience, has ever divided the fans into such extremes as Paul Merson has during his time at Walsall. His departure, however, sees us hovering just one point above the trapdoor to the fourth division and Saturday’s game is important, no matter who is in charge (and let’s hope Jeff Bonser has followed his usual pattern and got a replacement already lined up).

We are also in disarray on the pitch for the game, with Gerrard and Leary suspended, Roper and Westwood struggling to be fit, and an unbalanced squad with no obvious replacements.

Saturday is a day we should all pull together, no matter what.