After the signings of Cook and Ismail I had high hopes for this Summer. Well done Walsall, you’ve managed to undo all of that with the lies and silences in June and July and now have a set of supporters feeling angry and cheated again, with no-one to blame but yourselves. You gave yourselves a shot at redemption after the Keates appointment then managed to fool up the relationship with supporters again in a matter of weeks.
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Well, that’s emphatic.
Still 46 league games to go though.
I regret to say that you are right. I am not really anti the board or the manager as my many posts on here show but the last few weeks have been a shambles. Even as recently at the meet the Manager evening DK was talking confidently of 3 possibly 4 signings by this week. This raises two possibilities either he was not telling the truth (which I doubt) or he had been conned by various Agents/players. In this scenario his lack of experience has been shown . However it is not just down to him is it? There are people at the Club who have been involved in this for years so why weren’t they involved and cautioning him over his targets. Whatever happens this week means that we will face Plymouth with a patched up eleven when it should have been the start of a new era. Very sad.
Hey, That’s my job!
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I actually see us bringing in 3-4 players still , the question will be of what quality ?
I am guessing we may see some youngsters from the Championship/Prem level. Everything the club promised they were trying to change.
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You may well be right but DK has been saying constantly that we lack quality and EXPERIENCE which looks like it is too expensive for us…what a mess.!!
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Lack of signings, shop website STILL down, Saddlers Club closed. But the taps are fixed. Normally I go into the first fixture with some optimism but not feeling it this year.
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Strong rumors this morning that we’re getting Regan Poole on loan from Man Utd.
Although Keates as manager must ensure he assembles a squad capable of completing a full season (forget quality, do we even have the numbers?), potentially he’s attempting to do this with one hand tied behind his back. Whether this is down to us not wanting to sign players till August to save some money, not dealing with agents or our wage options been unrealistic to the level we currently play at we don’t know, as the club likes to operate like some shady North Korean style set up when it comes to finances.
We now face another summer of ■■■■ poor preparation and overall recruitment, again and again this happens.
There’s a common theme here, and guess what it isn’t the managers we have, its the board. We have a board that’s absent in its duties in correctly supporting whoever the manager is in assembling a standard squad of players. I mean for god’s sake we now go wild because we signed a striker from non league who has a decent record, because similar players from leagues 1 and 2 are now supposedly way out of our level. This is not a dig at Cook by the way, this is trying to illustrate the levels of expectation Walsall fans have now sunk down to. Its gone on way too long now.
Walsall FC - pension investment vehicle first, events business second, Football club third. Just drop the FC from our name as it seems to have less relevance as each season passes.
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F C stands for Financial Concern - it stopped being “Football Club” a long time ago. The way Boner and the board are running this club is Lower half League 2 at best, and I believe that’s where we are heading. Perhaps it’s tine for AFC Walsall, a club run by the fans for the fans, not to enrich one man and his pension fund.
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How can the Club be blamed for it’s Team Manager, not being able to find a centre half , for the start of the new Season this Saturday?
Criticism of JB is certainly warranted but people embarrass themselves by banging the same drum every single time.
Keates had his targets from the off but failed - Stoke offered to help - then the triallists came in.Now we are scrapping around for a loan in time for the weekend.
The only person to blame for the current situation is Keates.
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The only blame that can be put at Keates’ door is that he was naive in his targets and that they would fit into his meagre budget.
There might be a totally plausible explanation for the delay in getting players in,and I’m sure once its all over Keates will explain what has gone on.You never know, he may get some good players in and then all will be forgiven if not forgotten…can’t believe how quickly people have turned a positive vibe into a negative one since Keates has been appointed…give the bloke and the board a chance before you write the season off.
Keates has every chance to prove himself. Nobody has written him off. The board however are making the same mistakes season after season and are rightfully being called out for it.
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Keates constant press releases about having players lined up and then constantly letting us down certainly hasn’t done him any favours. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the fans turn on him if it all goes wrong. He’s made an absolute mess of the transfer window.
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That’s one hell of a thread title.
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Has he made any unforgiveable grammar mistakes yet? That’s always the prelude to the end.
Well, that ended quickly. I wonder who the next manager is going to be.
All the optimism after Keates appointment has been spitted upon the pike of despair, the blood-mad dogs and carrion crows pick at the corpse with their gaping mute mouths, while maggots crawl through the twisted eye sockets of the Blue Pop stand, staring blankly up at the starless sky.
Because Darko, it’s the same problem almost every season. We have to wait for most other clubs to pick up the best players and then we scramble around trying to pick up the scrapings that are left. The reason for that is money. If we could add another £300k-£400k to our budget then we could bring in the 3-4 experienced League 1 players we need. But we can’t do that because we have to fork out over £400k a year to a pension fund before a ball is even kicked. That’s what is peeing a lot of fans off.
Until this situation changes, we will not have any success on the pitch and we will have more seasons like the last one - it was soul-destroying. If you take away the hope then people will just walk away.
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You have to question his judgement. He’s bought in 5 members of backroom staff but without any players. Davies, Oakes, Bowerman, Fryatt and a new head scout. What’s the point exactly. People are entitled to their opinion.
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