As it’s public, you’ll have no issue sharing it to back up whatever point you are making?
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Do your own research, you’ve got plenty of spare time on your hands.
Usually around Winter, teams seeking promotion look to bolster their options. They are checking who should be signed, loaned, sold and similar. Similar to season 2015/16, when in January arrived Wakefield, Bryn Morris, Hiwula and Pennington. You are just trying to be one step ahead.
Sounds like you have important information that all Walsall fans would like to know as it’s to do with the club.
Bit strange you’re not keen on sharing. 
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That’s got absolutely sod all to do with promotion, all teams are looking to do that in the winter (well, almost all. Us and our board seem to be the exception). It’s not some preconceived plan to not be very good until Winter.
We wasn’t bolstering though was we, we were patching a depleted squad.
Surely that wasn’t the plan.
I’m sure there is Plan A. The problem is, it became a little outdated. Other teams are doing extra 10% and it can decide a lot. Sooner or later, the place for teams not doing that extra 10% will be in the National League or lower. I think I already said it, running a football club is so easy, only a few can do it properly. But if you can make good decisions, there are many places where you earn more and will have a more peaceful life. Football is for people, who don’t get a second option in life, or are at the end of the road. Plus some people, who are doing it out of the need of the heart.
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It was a plan, but if you want to go to the Moon using a garden balloon, you probably won’t succeed.
Many clubs until Winter try not to lose too much and later they count, if pushing higher is profitable. If not, checking and improving what failed, if yes, pushing for promotion. Rinse and repeat next season.
At the start of this season, there was a sense of optimism. We had a DoF, which many people here were calling for, a bright new manager and several incoming players who looked decent choices. Ash Taylor and Ward looked as if they would keep the defence organised, Labadie would boss the midfield and Holden would be pulling the strings in midfield.
Personally, I was sceptical about a DoF at our level, when we already have a manager and a coach but maybe with a novice manager, it was not so stupid. Either way, Fullarton hardly covered himself with glory but what really hurt us was playing a system that simply did not work. I suppose we blame Taylor for that but having Miller as a lone front man was hopeless and hopeless every week too. Obviously, we needed the striker that never came but we would have done better to play Wilkinson and Phillips/Miller up front as a pair than to carry on with Miller chasing shadows.
It shows that you cannot judge a coach or a team until they play. When Graydon got us promoted alongside Fulham, we were favourites for relegation at the start of the season.
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Surely our January plans should have focussed on us fixing the short comings of the summer transfer window.
Instead, we signed a left back (Devine) as we had cover for our aging left back we signed in the summer, a CB (Daniels) to replace another summer signing who was released, turned Menayese’s loan to permanent and a striker (Rodney) to replace our loan striker who thought he could get better opportunities elsewhere.
We also lost Khan, who had been our best player in the previous months games in the lead up to him leaving.
I wouldn’t call this plan B, this was again another balls up on the boards part.
There’s not a single club that works that way. Not one.
People don’t want to be doing business in January because there’s less available and that’s why you mostly see loans. No team thinks, “ahhh wait to see where we are in January”.
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Playing higher could mean more spending. I doubt every club is ready for it. Especially if there is no money for the league finish. But if you sense promotion, you’re having some good players plus academy works well, why not. Especially when the manager/coach is ambitious and wants to have a promotion in their CV.
Except loads of people were sceptical at the time, shushed by people like you, and have been shown to be absolutely correct yet again. People were complaining about a lack of depth, relying on players like Ward and only having one striker in the squad (and yet people are still going “whY dID TayLor OnlY PlaY OnE StriKER???” even now) at the time. We still look shit now, with the system people have been pissing their pants over all year.
We lost 7 games in a row, that happened to be the 7 games we lost the one competent defender Fullarton signed in the summer. We had a bit of a manager bounce, then the same characters that have shit the bed all season reverted to type.
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I said it before, I don’t know what had been planned between the coach, DOF and owner. Maybe MT didn’t want some players, but wanted to play his way, with his players. What the club could do. You either trust your manager, or undermine him and sign players he didn’t want. I know there were expectations that he would be like DS. Sadly, he wasn’t.
Maybe your DOF does his job and recruits the players for the philosophy that will be at the club (supposedly) past the current manager anyway (shortly after sourcing the manager for that philosophy himself).
Absolutely blows my mind people are still defending him after how shit these players have been shown to be.
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But Fullarton signed the manager as well, all to fit in with the footballing philosophy which his appointment was meant to bring in.
Taylor even said he had an extensive list of targets which he passed onto Fullarton. Why would anyone accept the position if they knew their hands would be tied?
I think if as you say, the club did undermine Taylor so soon after him being appointed, then shame on them.
As i’ve said,Fullarton failed miserably. For people to still find some silver lining to his appointment is crazy.
I don’t think many academy coaches wanted to become real ones. MT wanted and was scouted, a usual thing in football, when you scout your players/coaches. Extensive list of targets? To be honest, he probably hasn’t followed League Two, so that list could contain descriptions, players like A and B, not C, D and E. And the director made it more plausible for this level. But, maybe that was the only club where he could try.
And I defend more position, not MF personally. Earlier directors, who were responsible for Dean Keates appointment for example, stayed. In this case, MT was seen as a failure, DOF was seen as a failure, the board ceded all football matters to one person. The goal is still the same, if you want to win promotion, you have to be better than 20 other teams.
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Matt Taylor (114 apps at League Two level latest being 2019, 130 League One, spent a year coaching at Swindon in League Two), hasn’t followed league Two.
Jamie Fullarton has managed 40 odd apps as late as 2004 and completely flopped as a non league manager? Oracle 
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I agree. I’m not saying the board are free from blame on this. They employed him, with little to no character checks and their own admitted ‘lack of football knowledge’ really showed. But it doesn’t get over there are very few, if any positives from Fullarton’s tenure.