Welcome to the round-up, in which the Walsall current affairs scone has the sultanas removed and dissected….

Manager’s poker bluff pays off
With the news that Ince, Gilmartin, Smith, Sansara and Palmer have all promised to sign up for next season, Hutch looks to have managed a best 5 from 7 in Walsall Hold’Em, the game in which you assemble the best squad from a rank selection and blag your opponents into thinking it’s a great deal really.

As we’re playing on the $10 buy-in tables, there’s plenty around to meet our criteria (cheap, hopefully cheerful), and it’s good news to see some shape to the squad relatively early in the close season. We’re especially lucky to have beaten off all those big clubs chasing ‘Ace’ Palmer, whose versatility as a squad player is vital.

Still waiting on Ibehre (agent issues) and Zaaboub (holiday issues).

Take your seats, please!
This week is the last week for season ticket holders to reserve the seat they sat in last season before they’re put back on general sale. Best get in quick, or if you wait till next week you might get Geoff Whiting’s old seat, complete with tea stains on the concrete underneath. At least, we hope it’s tea.

Transfer rumours
We were going to look at some of the juicier rumours but there aren’t any. The reappearance of Mark Wright ought to be good for about 10 season tickets, but will cause 15 others to be ripped up, while the possibility of signing Jimmy Walker appears to have evaporated following Ince and Gilmartin’s capture. No doubt the thought of the diminutive ex-Hammer driving North made them sign up sooner rather than later.

Barry Hayles doesn’t bear thinking about, the Walker question has been answered, so there’s only one thing left to suggest: Darren Byfield. Now old enough to think about returning.

That’s it for now, shorter than usual as there’s not much happening. I’ll leave a longer gap till 7.