Controversial opinion, which no Walsall fan I have ever said this to has agreed with. Wrack was better than Peron, all be it they played on the opposite side of the pitch.
That isn’t anything against Peron, his performance v Macclesfield in the FA Cup is one of the best performances I have ever seen by any player.
Jeff that day was without doubt the best individual performance I’ve ever seen from a Walsall player. He contributed to what could and should have been a 10-0 win
Weve had so many over the years. It would be good seeing this in a “vote” table to select from.
I would go (based on a midfield 4)…
Pedro (or Peron)
O’Connor
Samways (or Preece or Childs)
Wrack
So difficult to choose.
Mini, Martin O’connor, Samways, peron
I have always liked Gabor Bukran.
Oh yes. 
So did Sir Ray, until he got sent of (against Bury I think)
He had a spell out of the team after that.
Am in complete agreement - the best football I’ve seen a Walsall team play in all my 50 years of watching - as you say we made arsenal look like the lower league team and gave Liverpool, at that time the best club side in Europe, a tough game. Would add ‘skip’ Martin O’connor ro complete the 4.
And you’re in as left back of course.
Wrack didn’t have the sublime touch and balance of Peron but what he had that Jeff didn’t was goals.
Wrack had an uncanny knack of timing back post runs to perfection. Quite a lot of his goals looked like tap ins but his industry and intuition gave him that knack. Of course there was the odd belter too (Bournemouth away!!!).
No he wasn’t as silky as Peron, but his output with goals and assists was just so good.
I have probably mentioned this before, I asked Sir Ray about Peron, and his response was “He was okay when he had the ball” Which says more about how Graydon wanted us to function. Probably why Peron was an unused sub v Northampton at home, before he was sold, even though it was 0-0.
There is no denying that Peron was a pleasure to watch, I’m not sure he turned up as consistently as Wrack either.
Yes, it’s always a balance between talent and playing for the team. In the old days, tackling back never happened. I am not sure Colin Taylor or Tommy Watson made a tackle in their career. But the game changed and I can understand the Peron-type players being kept on the bench for impact substitutions if the team is going for it.
The extreme example of a luxury player was Willie Naughton. I don’t think Graydon and definitely not Sadler would have had anything to do with him but Buckley did. On his day, he was unstoppable but on other days he was a passenger. Lots of happy memories though.
You could argue Merson was a luxury player. He certainly didn’t track back. Whether he made up for that with his goals and assists is open to debate. Arguably Ledesma too. I actually don’t mind luxury players as you still get entertainment.
Unquestionably though our more successful league seasons have been when we had players who played for the team. It annoys me when folk criticize selfless players.
Footballs so athletic now, the days of carrying exceptional talents has probably gone.
Lee Tomlin, the last of his kind for Walsall.
Nothing wrong with selfless players, but they still have to be fit for purpose. Anyone can run around a lot, if you aren’t doing the required job well enough then it is pointless.
I agree flair and individuality are being removed from the game with over analysis on every stat going, with each team trying to counter the opposition. There is still room for some freedom but not many use it nowadays, even at the top level. I can’t think of any midfielders like one of my favourite players of all time, Glen Hoddle for an example.
There’s more to selflessness than running around a lot
Always feel number 10’s are a little bit of a luxury in the lower leagues.
Sawyers, Oztumer and Hutch examples of really impactful technical players, but the teams they played in were reliant on them as a focal point and tended to be tactically rigid in order to accommodate them (three at the back, lone striker etc).
Also highly unlikely you’ll have another player in the squad as an adequate replacement.
I refer you to Josh Gordon.
This is pretty much all he does now, and he isn’t very good at that either, and I’d still choose him over Jamma as he is now, we are carrying him, in my opinion.
The point is that when you play with 2 strikers (not many teams do these days) One of them needs to be a goal threat and have good movement in and around the box, even if they miss chances, they keep doing the same thing and not let it affect them.
All our strikers bar DJ are just so static, it has been a huge problem.
Sawyers no doubt the best of the 3 you mentioned but you could afford to carry Hutch and even more so Oz because of their numbers.
We had Bradshaw to score the goals when Sawyers played for us, I dread to think where Whitney’s team would have ended up without Oz.
That’s a really good point, and I’d never say ‘carry’ because of what these players give offensively lifts the burden on other players, though that’s a risky game in itself.
Oz would be my prime example of us having to accomodate him though, particularly the shift to wing-backs when Devlin and Leahy were signed.
Your point about not having a replacement was a good one too. I mean if he had got injured long term, we were in trouble.
It wasn’t the best times watching Walsall but I must admit I used to look forward to going because Oztumer could have you off your seat at any moment. The kids were young when he played for us but they still mention him now and again. I do feel it is a shame there are less and less players like him nowadays.