The Express and Star are reporting that Andrew Barrowman has been told he can leaveWalsall.

The former Blues youngster always seemed to be a desperate signing by former Manager Paul Merson, once the club had sold Fryatt, let Leitao go and then missed out on the target named, Lee Peacock.

However, the extraordinary decision by Merson to grant the youngster an 18 month contract, on quite what evidence of talent no one else could see, is yet another example of the then Manager’s profligate ways with a limited budget, one which will cost us now, should we have to pay off Barrowman’s contract.

The news has not, I hasten to add, yet been confirmed by any official source.

The Express and Star has confirmed that Walsall’s interest in signing Pablo Mills has cooled and that Bradford City and Rotherham have emerged as two of the favourites to sign him, Bradford’s interest being reported on here last Tuesday:-

http://upthesaddlers.com/wp/archives/2006/05/30/moneys-priorities/

Richard Money has originally said that he would be interested in signing the out-of-contract Derby defender, but, as several fans have pointed out, a fourth centre back seems superfluous and Mills just isn’t good enough to play the midfield role that Money sees as being his next priority.

Mills’s agent Gino Culbertson said Mills was in talks with several other League Two clubs and one from League One.

“There has been quite a bit of interest in Pablo,” said Culbertson. “We’ve spoken to a few League Two clubs and Rotherham from League One have also approached us and are very interested in him.

The current position is that we’re talking to a number of clubs and at the moment Walsall is not one of them. We’ve not had any contact from Walsall for a while now, so it might be that they have other priorities.

The chairman and the manager both said that they wanted to sign him, but we haven’t heard a lot since then and we are now looking at other options.”

Culbertson revealed that Bradford had also shown an interest in Mills, but their interest now appears to hinge on the appointment of a new manager to succeed Colin Todd at Valley Parade.