Anthony Gerrard has been voted as the Walsall FC Player of the Season for 2005/06, the Official Site has announced.

He wins a seven-night holiday for two, including flights and accommodation, on the south coast of Spain.

Gerrard received 61.9% of the vote, despite a relatively poor end to the season, ahead of Ian Roper in second place with 10.1% and Simon Osborn who came third with 6.6%.

The remaining votes (21.4%) were divided amongst 12 other players.

Meanwhile, Ishmel Demontagnac’s emergence in the first-team this term has earned him the Young Player of the Season award and will also be going on a European City break.

The news about Demontagnac comes as little surprise, as it is difficult to see any other possible contenders, but the award of the trophy to Gerrard, especially by such a large margin, is far more of a shock. The player, especially recently, has failed to reach the heights he achieved at the end of last season and this probably says more about the poor overall performance of the team than anything else, when the leading contenders are centre backs, in a team which has the third worse defensive record in the entire Division.

The Official Site is about to announce the new manager will be former Newcastle United Jets (the Australian version) coach, Richard Money.

The former Liverpool and Fulham player born on 13th October 1955 in Lowestoft, and is a former player of both Liverpool F.C. and Fulham F.C. during the 70’s and 80’s. Money has represented both the England B and U/21 teams.

Defender Richard Money followed in the footsteps of Ray Clemence and Kevin Keegan in being a former Scunthorpe player to move to Liverpool, but unfortunately he failed to make anyway near the same impact in a Red jersey as his illustrious predecessors.
Signed in May 1980 from Fulham for £50,000, perhaps his best memory of playing for Liverpool was when he played in the European Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich in Germany. Although the game finished in a draw, Liverpool went through on away goals to face Real Madrid in the final.

After a loan spell at Derby County, Money was sold to Luton Town in April 1982 for £100,000. A spell with Portsmouth followed before injury forced him to prematurely curtail his playing career and he has since managed Scunthorpe and worked as a coach at Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Coventry City.

The local press is reporting that Wolverhampton born former Port Vale Manager and Sjoke City Director of Football John Rudge has emerged as one of the favourites for the job.

The club have called a press conference for 10.30 this morning to announce the new manager’s name and the papers say that Rudge has been at recent Walsall games.

If the reports are accurate, he would seem, with his credentials of having worked this Division successfully on a low budget, to be an ideal candidate to bring on a younger man.

Of course, it could also be the papers whistling in the dark.

The club have announced a press conference for 10.30 tomorrow morning, to introduce the new manager.

There have not, as yet, been any leaks of the possible name, although the speed of the appointment does suggest a man out of work and not too far away.

The bookmaker’s favourites list would seem to be the most likely place to find the name of the new man, assuming Bonser does not want to start riots by re-appointing Merson, so take your pick from:-

Keith Curle, Ian Atkins, Paul Hart, Mick Harford, Gary Megson, Andy King, Colin Lee, Chris Nicholl, Graham Rix, Steve Claridge, Ray Graydon, Simon Osborn, Mark Kinsella, Martin O’Connor and Mick Halsall!

I feel a bit like Captain Renault this morning.

Following the death of the leader of the Nazi agents in Casablanca, Claude Rains, as Captain Renault, delivers the immortal line “Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects”. It’s the same thing when a managerial job becomes vacant.

What tends to happen, of course, is that people who fancy the job ring up their pet contact in the local or national press and make a comment about the job, so it gets published and their name connected with the position. Sometimes it’s even a denial of interest, which is equally effective in getting your name mentioned. The kind of posturing that does go on means that “new manager” markets are notoriously difficult to read and something that it’s normally foolish to bet on.

The other scenario, of course, is that both bookies and papers look at who is out of work at the moment, who has worked at that level and just throw their names into the ring themselves.

For what it’s worth, Ian Rush, Ian Atkins and David Platt all seemed to have been talking to their local press (Atkins, presumably, in case he doesn’t get the Torquay job) and John Aldridge has gone for the second option (the denial), while current bookies favourite Keith Curle probably falls into the second category.

Whatever the truth about the chances of any of these men getting the job and no matter how much fun it is for fans to speculate about names, this will be a vital decision for Jeff Bonser to get right. His record of appointing managers used to be reasonably good (Nicholl, Graydon, Lee and, to some extent, Hibbett, as against Sorensen) but the last two years have changed all of that and he has to get it right this time.