In what has so far been a very disappointing season, just wondering what other posters views are on our little Alfie, and how far he can go in the game? So far he has been one of the most consistant players in side that has constantly underperformed, and he has showed a maturity beyond his years. He will always give 100%. Yes he makes mistakes, but when he does he never hides and wants the ball back straight away. He has such a strong mindset you can see that he wants to improve himself with every game.
It easy to compare him to Dele Ali and how he was suddenly catapulted into the premier league from M K Dungs at the age of 19 when he signed for Spurs. Admittedly I think he spent another season with the Dungs if my memory serves me right? Although they are probably different styles of player, Dele scored a dozen or so goals in his 60 odd appearances for Dungs, but given Alfie has only been in the first team for 3 months, so who am I to say that he couldn’t go on to be as good as, or even better than Dele Ali. I hope he does, but at the same time he would be a huge loss to the Team and the Club, even after so fewer games.
Then there is the other question. What would he be worth? Spurs paid Dungs £5m for Ali, plus add-ons. Admittedly they were in League One and compared to where we are now. But that also brings up another point as to how important it is that Walsall get back to League One as soon as possible , because we will not be able to command the maximum fees for any of our players whilst we are still residing in League Two. Unlike Bonser, I cant imagine for one minute that Pomlett, or Clarke for that matter, will roll over as easily as Bonser did when it came to accepting offers.
I’ve no idea what sort of contract that Alfie is signed up to, but in the same way that we need to agree a deal with Mcdonald, I think it’s so important that we make sure that we tie down the futures of a couple of our current players, as well as looking to bring other signings into the Club in January. I just hope the Club are looking at this as a matter of urgency!!! I am sure that there will soon be a steady flow of scouts down to watch Alfie and Wes, if not already.
Come on Walsall, let’s get these lads signed up!!!
The lads got decent potential but I wouldn’t say hes anywhere near Dele Ali’s level at his age. But if he keeps up his hardwork and keeps his head down, I definitely think he will be able to be a successful league 1 player.
You’re asking Walsall Football Club to be proactive?
With Whalley still pulling the strings in the background on behalf of the ‘real’ glorious leader, McDonald will slip out from under us and Bates will be sold for a 100 shekels before very long, should ANY other club show interest in him, after all, he has shown skill, commitment, class & ability, just not suitable attributes to play for a Walsall team under Clarke.
Where we go with the likes of Alfie Bates, Kins, CCM, McDonald, the Roberts brothers, and a few that are nowhere near the first team at the minute, (including Maz Kouhyar who I’m sure would be getting game time if it wasn’t for his injury) is the real interest story in this season for me. That’s why I’m slightly negative about some of the ones we’ve got on loan, I don’t really think they add a lot. Facey, Hardy and Adebayo are all players that could also go one way or the other, but even if one of them develops its a positive. I don’t think our squad is half as bad as a lot of other people think it is, its just glaringly lacking on the right flank and has been chopped and changed far too much by Clarke. Not sure what happened in Josh Gordon’s summer, berevement has been mentioned, whatever it was its nobody else’s business but its great to see him scoring goals and playing with a smile on his face again. Caoloan Lavery is a real quality player, incredibly only started about 70-80 games aged 27 with the way his career’s gone (many many more as a sub). With a couple of shrewd additions, and Clarke getting a few more decisions right than he has done I’m still pretty optimistic.
I would agree entirely about the chopping and changing. Clarke just needs to identify almost a best matchday 14 and stick with those as the main players to pick a team from, subject to injuries or suspensions.
I do think that Clarke does deserve some credit for seeing that someone like Alfie Bates has so much potential and playing him in the first team. It would have been easy for him to think that the side would be better with more experience, such as Liddle, which would have been disastrous. Looking back I dont think that either Whitney or Keates would have been brave enough to make the same call. I seem to recall Whitney and James O’Connor allegedly having a big half time bust up over how Whitney berated Candlin over a first half performance against Don’s a couple of seasons ago.
hard to say for me just yet but i have been impressed with him if he continues his good form it wouldnt surprise me if a lower level championship club took notice and stuck him in there development squad for a couple of years we all know we sell players at the first sign of a few hundred grand or less.
It was keates that promoted him last season and he’d have probably been more involved with the 1st team then but picked up an injury. Keates also gave sam leivesley a chance pre season but he also suffered injuries and never got a contract. Alfie has got a real future but it won’t be at walsall I don’t think
This for me is now where it’s going to be really interesting to see how Pomlett performs as our new owner. Firstly to see how we go about ensuring that we offer a deal good enough to keep Wes McDonald and tie him to a new contract. And then to see the club turn down any offers for players the first time anyone comes in and offer a packet peanuts and half a bag of pork scratching!!!
He is a really good prospect but only that at the moment. I like him a lot and hope he continues to improve. He should certainly be given a good, long (for us) contract as we see how he develops.
As for MacDonald he clearly needs to be given a longer deal with the current one ending in January and it will be interesting to see if we get to know anything about that. DC likes to keep us all in the dark as far as contracts are concerned so all we can do is hope the Club is on top of the issue.
Well the E and S has taken time out from telling us what Connor Coady likes for breakfast during the international break to inform that McDonald wants to stay
Nice to see the support given by the fans as one of the reasons.
I think he can become Championship standard. He’s been excellent for us, one of the few positives as many others have said.
He’d be best off staying here for another season or two though. I’d hate for a Premier League side to come in for him, stick him with the kids and never hear of him again until he ends up back on loan when he’s 26 having done nothing.
Stay with us for a bit, play football against men, look a cut above and he’ll soon be off to a Championship side. Could see him at a Derby kind of side.
