Very minor point of order, but it was Merson who re-signed Keates. DK was a regular, for the last third of the season, in the team that finished bottom of the old Division Two.
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Totally agree (for once!) Have to be challenging for automatic promotion after being what was a seasoned League 1 Club for a so long.
Not saying it is going to be that easy - but this has to be the ambition.
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Sniffer and George was one of the best(other than Bucks and George Andrews ?) combinations in Walsall 's history. Oh for that calibre of player now …
If only …
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We had a mid league 2 table budget last season, this year it will be lower league 2.
It’s still June. Let’s see where we are in 3 weeks. Darrel has work to do.
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PS: I’ve been Underwhelmed by the Saddlers for much of the last decade tbh
you have to give DC time the rebuild is not going to happen overnight you have to give a manager 2 years to see what they do all i want to see is the players giving there all and fight for the Badge because i hated having losers in my team last year i would be happy with finishing in the play offs this season in DC we trust !!
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I agree for a club that says it wants championship football this should be a huge wake up call and prompt them into loosening the purse strings a bit and give it a real go this season to get straight back up.Will they do that though? recent history suggests they wont if the next few signings are similar to the last 2 it shows what the ambition is for me lets hope its early days and some more experience is bought in along the lines of Clarkes first 2 signings.
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Exactly. Whether people like it or not, it’s how it is and with an entirely new squad needed near enough it’s very harsh to expect Clarke to perform miracles right away.
Remember, if our budget is lower half League Two next season (I think it’s realistic to think that) then if Clarke even had us in the top half he’ll be over achieving and that is the difficulty of the job.
Seen some also suggest just because we went down we should automatically be trying to get promoted and it’s absolute rubbish. Football isn’t that simple.
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I don’t think automatic promotion is realistic tbh. Already you have Salford with their massive budget, think Orient will do well although of course massive loss what happened to Justin Edinburgh so will probably take a while for them to hit good form. Likes of Mansfield and Exeter have been nearly clubs for last few seasons so will probably challenge for top 3.
Ultimately these teams like Tranmere, Bristol Rovers and Lincoln have all bottomed out in non league and come back up with momentum and a bit of money to spend. With little difference between league 2 and non league that’s resulted in back to back promotions for two of them.
Compare that to here where the whole club got very comfortable and stale in league one and will now have to suddenly readjust in league where there’s more expectation to challenge and against hungry clubs.
I think a proper rebuild will take a season tbh although should be no excuse for not being in the mix for a play off play given it goes down to 7th so even teams in 12-14th can still be in the mix relatively late in the season as Newport showed.
Edit: It would actually be good to get the Tranmere fan’s views of why they got relegated the season they dropped into league two. Was it general bad decisions from ownership or just a malaise on the pitch that couldn’t be shook off in time? Big warning for Walsall anyway as Tranmere had also been in league one for over a decade at that point and couldn’t re-adjust to league two that season.
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I was more referring to the stuff the club have come out with in recent years about championship ambitions agree with a lot of what you said can see our budget being bottom half but it would be nice to think getting relegated would give the powers that be a kick up the arse but maybe thats me being hopeful there.
Sorry have to disagree Dan G we as supporters of Walsall fc in league 2 should be expecting promotion. And our chairman and board should be targeting that as well and doing everything in there powers to support and make this happen at the first attempt.
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Please please don’t take offence but if anyone thinks the club seriously want Championship Football you are deluded.
There is zero evidence to suggest this is the case and it’s another load of Bonser Bull from the past decade.
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I dont think they do but they dont help themselves coming out with that kind of garbage every year which they have.It just gives fans more ammunition when something like last season happens.
No league 1 football is what we should all expect and demand from our club ASAP.
3 seasons fighting relegation and bagging a load of cash along the way.
Damn right I expect us to be fighting for promotion!!
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It is indicative of how far we have fallen as the last time we were relegated to the 4th division in 2005/6 absolutely no one had the slightest doubt that we would come straight back up.
And of course we did as champions.
Now, we are talking about re-building, consolidation, stabilise the club etc.
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I agree totally that the board SHOULD be doing everything but the budget, even if same as last season, which it won’t be it’ll be less, shows that they aren’t so it’s unfair to expect Darrell Clarke to somehow perform miracles without the tools for the job.
I’m expecting to finish somewhere like 16th. If we finish anywhere above 12th he’ll have done a good job in my opinion.
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Again the clubs needs to release some comms so the fans can manage expectations.
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James Hardy has turned down more lucrative offers from non league to come to us!!
To be fair, I wouldn’t read too much into that and it could even be seen as good negotiating by using league football as the bargaining chip.
I think it’s more concerning where we’re losing out to other club’s in our division, as that’s where our budget will get shown up.
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