More guff from the site that gives it to you straight up, if a little behind the times, during this closed season.

Players head for intensive care
The preseason begins in earnest on Wednesday, when the Saddlers squad assembles for the first time at the new traning camp in Essington, next to where our new 40,000 seater stadium won’t be.

Physio Jon Witney tells us that the players will undergo some serious fitness workouts to get them into peak shape for the season ahead. Given that the majority of the squad haven’t yet signed up, training may be even more intense for some latecomers!

Long and winding road
Jimmy “Sherlock” Mullen has warned that his intelligence reports a higher number of clubs with more money to spend on bigger squads than this time last year. As a consequence our expectations for next season have been downgraded from “let’s see if we can challenge” to “let’s see if we can match last year’s effort”. Given how hard we fought to get down to 12th last season that shouldn’t be too difficult, although one hopes the traumatic sale of key players in January is something we needn’t repeat.

Still, some entertaining football has been promised, so that should sway some of the fanbase.

New Signings
From the “next few days” comment (copyright Express & Star, any Saddlers news story filed between 15 May and 30 June) has risen a more structured battlecry, with Manager Mullen taking a more pragmatic approach. Whilst we thoroughly endorse his ‘get it right, not get it right now’ tactics, we’ll hang fire on delivering a full approval till we see exactly what the ‘get it right’ approach delivers. Now players are back off their holidays, cellphones are on and contracts honoured, perhaps someone will want to talk to us.

Transfer Gossip
The now-weekly slot where we deliver no news whatsoever remains empty.

That’s about all for now. Feel free to PM the author with any tips worth publishing, otherwise stick to [post moderated] and ‘player X’ comments on the Rumours thread on the messageboard.