I remember watching the FA Youth Cup defeat to Fleetwood back in November and the forwards on display for us looked pretty uneffective. No one appeared likely (yet) to be capable of stepping up.
Luke Pearce is the most recent goal scorer we had coming through the ranks but he up sticks off to Southampton. He is only 16 though!
I was just thinking about Bournemouth letting us sign another of their young players, years ago it was a case of us blooding them to go onto playing for teams in the championship and sometimes the prem, now it looks like we are readying them for other league 2 sides 
Yes as I said further up the thread, Perry may as well pack his bags and leave. Just what is the point of Vincent coming in?
But at least he hasnāt been publically humiliated like CCM. The audacity of DC to ignore what a crock of shā¦Sinclair and Clarke have been, instead picking on a youngster is disgraceful.
I think Youngsters get disillusioned at this football club, seeing their path to the 1st team continuously blocked by utter non entities.
I want DC out of our Club.
You could be right but it would be interesting to hear, if someone has ātaken inā B team/Youth Matches (perhaps they have a relation whoās part of it?) and could give some insight into the overall standard?
One approach with these types of signings, especially in the January windows, is if they are out of contract in the summer we get them on a sort of trial for a few months with a potential view to signing them if they are released in the summer?
The vast majority of kids in Prem/Championship academies arenāt ever going to be up to that level but may well be up to League 1 or 2.
Not saying we are doing this at all with Wright, Reid and Vincent as I have no idea what their contract situation is but this approach worked well in the past with the likes of Sawyers and Mantom and if we have none or few coming through of our own why not try this route too, and even better if they are free or cheap!
Spot on. Was only thinking about some of the kids weāve taken a punt on that have come good in recent times - even Bradshaw was a bit of a āwho!?ā when he joined with a less than stellar record and heās arguably the best striker weāve had in the last decade!
I also remember Sawyers on loan before we signed him the following summer was an absolute waste of space, similarly look at him now. Defo worth taking a look at these kids from higher levels and seeing if we canāt turn them into footballers and eventually sell down the lineā¦works alright for Brentford eh?
and we recently did this with Holden and Rose and both improved although now injured.
Great idea Stig but that would require joined up thinking from the Rudderless leadership And even more clueless management
Weāll just carry on with our scatter gun approach of signing drivel
Mantom Bradshaw Sawyers Downing were brought as part of a plan to fit in to a plan
We just sign substitutes ive said it before stinks of non league under Pomlett just as much as it did under Jeff
Youāre not talking about the same ātypeā of player. Bradshaw wasnāt some 19 year old who had never played professional football.
Downing and Mantom were ok, nothing better than League 1 and ended up getting released if memory serves me right.
Sawyer and Dan Fox are the bright spots out of probably 50 attempts.
History tells us this is therefore not a good strategy. Certainly our own Youth products over the past 15 years have contributed alot more and were sold for alot more.
As Iāve said before he is a bully and has very poor person skills.
I donāt want to see change for the sake of change but I think that there are better managers out there who would be interested in the Walsall job. Clarke doesnāt live locally and lives with his number 2, who is a footballing nobody. Since Marcus Stewart has left, itās not the same.
Holden, Kinsella and Bates are under contract.
Would David Kelly improve Elijah if he stays? Yes
Would he have the backing of the fans and have a more attacking mindset?
Yes
Can Clarke take his no.2, Sinclair, Guthrie and Clarke with him? Yes please!
Would Sadler and LLera do a job too? Yes.
And if Kelly isnāt interested, I would consider Sam Ricketts because Iām sure that he has good connections with Wolves, Shrewsbury and the non league scene. Letās be honest, Iām getting a bit sick of Clarkeās miserable face and repetition of blaming young players and looking after his croniesā¦
I agree with most you say, but please not Ricketts. My Shrewsbury friends thought the same about him as we do about Clarke.
I am not seeing any reason why David Kelly would be a good Manager. On the peripheral of the game for years, no previous managerial experience or indeed playing experience for the past decades.
And certainly just because he played for us, is a total red herring which Hutchings and Keates can always remind us of.
As for Sadler and Llera, again cannot see any evidence of suitability. The jury in my eyes is out on the Academy, with the continuing preference of kids from other clubs. So I would be asking, what impact has Llera had over the past 18 months?
During lockdown, I have had time to reflect upon what made Smith so successful: it was his unerring positivity.
When Clarke was unveiled as Walsallās manager in the sunshine, wearing a crisp white shirt, I hoped that the good times would be back.
Now I see a man who looks broken, bitter and homesick. He even makes unnecessary snide remarks about the fans and bullies journalists. He even says, āIād like to thanks my fansā when thereās a win!
When someone asks me to picture our manager, I visualise a man squinting bitterly, soaked to the skin under a Charlie Brown style rain cloud. He always looks utterly depressed and hardly ever smiles and laughs. He looks fed up and that negativity spreads. Even after the Oldham away win, he was pictured spitefully leathering the ball on the final whistle.
My point about the names mentioned is that if they have local connections, a feeling for the club and a bit of positivity, we can see league one football return. I know that Keates didnāt work but I blame His naive belief in bringing in Russell Martin who was an absolute snake.
Tom Lockyer probably best example. Was about 20 when DC turned up and became Welsh international (as Iām sure youāre aware!) and now regularly in championship.
Just looking at their team that lost 4-1 here in January 2017 and itās the same as whatās here, freebies, loans etc and Sinclair, J. Clarke and Gaffney all started that day! Pretty sure they were about 8th in league one at the time which shows how much those players have declined.
Things fell apart at Bristol when he signed Tom Nichols for 500k and Stefan Payne for nearly a million so heās not the best with money really.
Here heās given Bates loads of starts in last 12 months and Holden is young player whoās really kicked on in that timeframe so can only think he dosenāt think likes of Sam Perry are ready yet but youād still like them to get some sub cameos at least.
Sloppies got him from Wrexham didnāt they so only difference with Keates is he just about kept them up in league 1 and they also got Liverpool in round 3 of the cup instead of the delights of getting thrashed away to Bolton.
As Iāve said elsewhere appointing a good manager isnāt easy. Wouldāve taken someone like Paul Hurst 18 months back and he did even worse at Scunny than DC has done here.
Given whatās rumoured Keith Hill will probably wind up here eventually given he was supposed to be number one target in summer 2019 before he turned it down.
I think heās a decent manager but weāll see if he can get Tranmere out of the league with a much bigger budget.
Keith Hill is a good manager, but when the crowd were giving Whitney some stick he pilled on with loads of abuse to our crowd saying it was our attitude and barracking that got managers sacked??
Didnāt he realise thatās why we were dishing it out??
Strange one 
I donāt follow to be honest. Itās a very, very naive outlook to think positivity and local connections is going to get us anywhere.
Smith had a blueprint - a consistent formation (even mirrored by the youth and reserve teams) so everyone knew their job and what was expected (unlike DC) He had extensive knowledge of the market in which we would be shopping in due to years as Youth Coach.He got lucky with Bradshaw but certainly made some decent signings but also his fair share of utter dross. However I always felt the transfer strategy was sound and not the scatter gun approach as per DC.He also benefited greatly from Academy products (Patterson ,Grigg and Henry) who were all of Championship standard at the time.
Far, far more involved than positivity and local connections.
Thatās a tad patronising @MAVRAKTHEMAGICIAN2 but I donāt want to get into a slanging match with anyone on here: there are more important things to life than winning an argument.
However, I do agree with your points about a good youth system and good transfer policy under DS. I also agree that the Chelsea game helped to put the club on the map for future loan deals due to Mourinhoās complimentary comments about our football philosophy. George Evans is a case in pointā¦
I think that the influence of Martin Ling on Smith should not be under estimated either. His very public battles with depression probably taught Smith a lot about the pressures of the job. Iām pretty sure Smith gave him a scouting job at Walsall and I got the impression that Deano was hungry to learn from others as well as being very ambitious.
The affection that many players show towards Smithās man management remains key though. Iām sure youāve heard the story about an unnamed player eating fast food at training (my guess would be Jamie Paterson). Mal Benning was also singing his praises on Sky this week, too. Remember, also, how Smith showed great dignity when he lost his father, who had been a steward on the Holte Emd at Villa Park. Itās that class and respect for the community and the fans paying your wages that Iām talking about.
I think that the points above prove the point that I was trying to make though. Weāve all had people in our lives that weād run through brick walls for, weāve all looked up to successful people. But to compare Trump with Obama, some people mistake confidence for arrogance. And arrogance comes before a fall of monumental proportionsā¦
In my world, humility is crucial in both commanding respect from others and achieving success.
Billy big b******cks customers (like Clarke?) tend to get found out in the endā¦
Keith Hill has just gone up in my estimation.