Walsall Chief Execitive Ben Sadler has issued a statement, updating supporters on a variety of topics icluding who will take charge of the club following the recent departure of head coach Mat Sadler.Issued via the club's official website, Sadler said: I would firstly like to take this opportunity to recognise your outstanding support that once again has been shown in recent weeks, with a fantastic number travelling to Shrewsbury and then over 1100 backing the team at Crewe last Saturday.
It is greatly appreciated by everyone at the club and never taken for granted. We are also looking forward to welcoming a bumper home support this Saturday, with our fixture vs Newport County also coinciding with another School Partners game and our dedicated Military Matchday.
Thanks go to our brilliant Foundation and ticket office colleagues who drive the Schools Partners initiative, and to James Gibbins and all of our teams who work tirelessly to best improve the matchday experience for all, game on game.
I would also like to offer an update and be clear with our supporters on what the immediate direction of travel will be for the club, as we navigate another important period that we want to ensure we get right.
On the pitch, our excellent coaching & technical staff, led by Darren Byfield, have prepared the team for the last two fixtures – resulting in a dominant win away at Crewe, backed up with a hard-earned draw last night at home to a strong Cambridge United team.
Following this, I am pleased to share that Darren has agreed to lead the team as interim Head Coach for the remainder of this season, and we are all aligned that we will be giving it everything to finish the season strongly and push to reach the play offs – something which we all believe we are capable of going on to do.
We have for some time been reviewing and considering how we can continue to evolve our football structure to give ourselves the best chance of long term, sustainable success at the club – which of course is driven by what happens on the pitch.
As such, we have been working through a process to identify and appoint the right person for this club into a new football leadership position, in the form of a Head of Football, which will sit on the Executive Management Team.
This is a key hire and will help us on the ground to continue to drive the delivery of our footballing strategy, along with providing day to day leadership and support to all functions of the football department across the Men’s First Team, Academy, medical & performance, recruitment and analysis.
The development of young players remains of high importance to us, and this role will be a crucial bridge between the Academy and the Men’s First Team. It will also collaborate with all other areas of the club, as we recognise our strength here at Walsall is in our shared purpose and our unity.
In respect of progress, we are now some way into this process and it will be the key priority at this time, for us to bring the right person into the club in this role.
Concurrently, the process to identify our next Head Coach has started and will run alongside this.
We will ensure that we are thorough and diligent in this crucial work to ensure that the most suitable person for this job is appointed to lead the next phase of our club’s development.
We see the Head of Football as having valuable input into the final decision on the next Head Coach – so that is the order to expect the appointments.
Just in the spirit of being clear and up front – I do not plan to share much by way of updates on these two recruitment processes over the coming weeks until appointments are made.
It is not because there’s no work and effort going into this, quite the opposite - but simply because there is nothing of any meaningful value to say now until we finalise each process and firm appointments are made.
For now, we have 8 games to go and attack. We are right behind Darren, our coaching staff and the team to go and give us an end of the season to remember. Please continue to back the group from the stands home and away – this makes a bigger difference than many would appreciate!