Does the club avoid scrutiny?
Is there an interview asking MS or BS why the form has collapsed since Lowe departed? Or how they plan to fix it?
Any questions about the reason behind the lack of rotation or change in tactics/formation?
Questions about what has happened to Harry Williams?
Questions about whyJanuarys recruitment of Wheatley, Chang and Lipsiuc has offered nothing?
Why substitutions are always too late and reactionary?
Do you mean Mat Sadler and his BS?
Bobby Shinton? Loved him, but he left years ago.
I’m as pissed off as any Walsall fan could be. I think it is a shambles what has happened.
However, public questioning/flogging, I don’t think that will do anyone any good right now, with the possibility of promotion still in our own hands.
Get behind them, the inquest will have to wait.
As has been mentioned on here many times previously, the press genuinely appear to avoid asking anything remotely searching in either pre-game or post-game interviews etc
I have no idea why this is deemed acceptable by the individuals themselves or the club because in my opinion (and many on here I think) these guys are responsible for what happens on the pitch and the product we pay for - we therefore deserve answers to certain questions and whilst I accept they won’t/can’t/shouldn’t go into surgical detail on stuff, they should be expected and accept to be challenged on important issues in our club…
I think it does, but it’s always been this way, or for a long time anyway.
When DJ first got bombed out of the team, Sadler was never asked why, despite the club making a big song and dance about his signing.
Going back further, I remember Whitney never got asked about why Makris hardly played when he was supposedly our record signing.
The Express and Star is basically just an extension of the official club media and never looks to rock the boat.
The best bet are Radio WM as they’re all seasoned journalists/reporters. Daz Hale did a couple of really good interviews before the Notts County game last season with both Ben Boycott and Sadler where he didn’t hold back and asked the questions we wanted answering.
I get that the club interviewers won’t ask these questions.
However the normal media should, but I do know that years ago when Dan Mole was here, one reporter from the Express & Star when asking difficult questions got a call from Mole who absolutely bollocked him for daring to ask difficult questions and he was threatened with not being allowed access. The reporter himself said his livelihood relied on having access to Walsall FC and having to get so many stories out a week, so I do get it.
No idea what it’s like now though.
You are about to be called a troll by half the message board.
Some of the best. Replies I had on here said if your not happy email Graham. Because it works for everyone else !
It was deemed inappropriate to question anything during a 9 game run.
I think the new(ish) E&S guy George Bennett is quite good Both his opinion piece in this weeks paper and the Bescot Beat podcast called our recent run catastrophic and were critical of January and the use of the signings and also discussed Sadlers potential dismissal if we fail to go up. Not sure he would be as blunt face to face but as was allluded to earlier they rely on weekly news from the club for their livelihoods.
I think there will be a lot of scrutiny if we dont go up. At the moment we are simmering as a story.
Well Ben Sadler’s claim about coming out of January stronger has been total rubbish. I think we will fail to go up and it will take the fan base a long time to recover and trust the club again - that’s if they ever do given our 12 point lead. My daughter said she has given up that there is no point because if we can’t make it from that lead then we never will.
I’m undecided on this. We added more players than we lost, it was always going to be difficult to replace Lowe’s quality but Levi doesn’t look too bad, neither has Harrison until his injury. Asimwe looks a good player, is it more of the fact that Sadler has refused to use these players who actually should have been good enough to see us over the line?
Yes thats my take on it too
They are probably unmotivated by now. Imagine being a young player being brought in to get used to men’s football and you find yourself on the bench ( and generally also unused ) or not even in the matchday squad. All this is down to the Führer, Herr Sadler
The decline of local newspapers is a loss to the community in many ways, but I don’t think that they were ever much good at providing scrutiny of people in power. On another thread I posted some pages from the Walsall Observer I remembered from 1978 which pointed out the way the local council was failing to prevent the decline of the town - but the fact that I remembered them show how unusual it was for the local press to speak for the people against the authorities.
Walsall fans who wanted to learn the truth about Bonser’s ownership of the stadium were not helped by the Express and Star or any other local media.
This website does provide scrutiny of all the actions of the club. A wide range of people with their own opinions analyse the actions of the players, managers and owners and give a lot of different interpretations. Amongst those opinions, there is some truth, but also a lot of nonsense.
Context is everything:
Perspective is needed.
I also feel that Easter is the time that seasons can really become clear: 7 points from the next 3 games and we’re right back in the mix.
I know that we don’t play possession football, but with Uncs, Hall, Maher and even Liam Gordon, we need to start playing it on the deck to unlock some openings for the likes of Wheatley, Josh, Harrison and Levi. Jamma will be vital in the run in, but if we play through the thirds a little more patiently, we can move away from hitting it long to the big man, every time.
On good pitches, playing good football is much easier!
In many ways, it just shows what a major catastrophe not getting promoted this season would be.
It’s not going to get any easier. Regardless of budgets, we were in such a wonderful position it was almost impossible to fail. We didn’t need to be good, we didn’t even need to be average.
It’s done now and we are where we are.
There is still hope but my mind is just blown by what has happened here, and I think the players are now struggling with the same mental block.
And for that reason if we don’t get promoted he should lose his job mate
The penny’s dropped with me, something Sadler said post-match last week.
If we fail, which will almost certainly also involve a play-off defeat, its all going to be framed as part of some more general “learning curve”. The owners, Sadler himself, the players etc etc.
All part of “the journey”…dust ourselves down…take the positives…come back stronger etc etc
Hopefully we can avoid this incoming mumbo-jumbo fest by actually beating 3 crap fourth division teams in the next few weeks.