In the first of his soon-to-be regular columns, Walsall legend Jimmy Walker looks at several subjects, including this afternoon's clash with Oxford United, the planned fan protest and what he wants to emerge from last week's Fans Focus event.
I hope today Walsall are 3-0 up on 80 mins so fans can show their feelings in the protest and not have to miss supporting their team when they may be needed to help get a result over the line. A loss today against oxford would be a disaster, which none of us want to see. For the record, I think we will win 2-1.
Leaving aside any issues I personally have with the management, I have actually put on record I hope Jon can turn it around and with the budget he has I think he’s actually done a decent job acquiring the points he has! He chose to forget these bits though and focused on me joking about him putting a better strapping on than picking his team/tactics. I thought the banter was funny anyway!
More seriously though, the club for me have gotten away from what really matters - the fans and producing homegrown players or nurturing raw talent that a good scouting system ie; Paul Taylor had picked up, playing good attractive football that the fans and town can get behind!
As with the 'Fans Forum’ there is a lot of talk but never any action follows. It has always been the case even when I was there. Seems now the fans have put up with it long enough and rightly so in my opinion. Fans aren’t stupid they're loyal, big difference! Why should they part with their hard earned money week in week out to follow a team with some good players in it, but always 5-6 players away from having a good enough squad to actually challenge!?
The seeming lack of a decent scouting and recruitment policy has baffled me for years, I’ve questioned this many times, pleading with the club to get ex-players with the club at heart to head this (Wracky would've been perfect) this has let the club down massively, having to rely on loan players, which some have worked some haven’t.
Even if realistically we nurtured the talent and had to sell down the line (Rico Henry springs to mind in recent years), surely this money could be invested in the team making us stronger every time!?
There seems to be no plan or direction from the top down. No plan to change this and most importantly no progress, we are just treading water. I wouldn't spend my money on supporting that. Fans want to see the club progressing and so do I. This is not going to happen unless the fans put the pressure on forcing change, that is why I support the protest today, but not at the expense of a result that is much needed!
I hope this can be done in a constructive way as we all want what is best for our great little club. There is some good stuff at times on the pitch, the fans deserve a lot more of this!
By: Jimmy Walker.