There are rumours all over one of the Leicester City message boards that Richard Money wasn’t Jeff Bonser’s first choice as manager – or even his second.

One poster put up the following:-

“I’ve just had a phone call from a mate who a journalist on the Walsall Observer. He was at the Bescot Press conference yesterday, when Walsall’s new manager was introduced. One of the questions asked of their Chairman, was what other people he’d considered - he wittered on about lot of interest, lot of talent etc etc, but said they had approached 2 ex-Walsall Managers. When pressed, he admitted that they were Ray Graydon and Colin Lee. He said Graydon turned them down because of travelling issues (same as us) and Lee told him that he was about to take up the offer of an assistant manager’s job at an East Midlands club!”

Jeff Bonser was quoted as saying “why would anyone take an Assistant’s job, when he could be Manager?” - perhaps something to do with the fact that Walsall are now in League 2?

Whether there is any shred of truth in this rumour remains to be seen. Money’s CV is certainly good enough that it is no surprise he was offered the job and neither Ray Graydon, nor Colin Lee have departed on the best of terms with the Chairman and it’s difficult to believe that the various parties concerned could ever have reconciled their differences.

Mind you, if Colin Lee suddenly turns up at the Walkers’ Stadium, I might look on this in a new light!

Simon Osborn has revealed in the Evening Mail that the decision not to offer him another contract was not taken by new Manager Richard Money, but was, in fact, taken at Board level.

The player, third in the season’s Player of the Season awards, seems to have been got rid of for financial reasons. It can only be assumed that, as one of the higher earners in the club, it was decided to let him go.

He also said that key players “shied away” from the challenge of the survival battle last season.

“Some players shied away from the challenge,” Osborn said. “That’s a fact and it’s the sort of hard fact the club needs to face up to in the light of a terrible season.

“They have just been relegated so they need to look very closely at what’s gone on. They say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well there were some players, including some who are popular with the fans, who shied away when the going got tough.

That was the most disappointing thing of all. I was hurting badly and some of the other players were hurting badly and doing absolutely everything they could to dig the team out of trouble. But were all the players doing that? I don’t think so.”

The question (and the suspicions) remain as to who fits the description of “players, including some who are popular with the fans, who shied away when the going got tough”.