- Alan Buckley - The former Saddlers striker, famous for his club record transfer to Walsall of £175,000 in 1979, went on to manage a number of clubs including Walsall, West Brom and most recently Grimsby.
- Adrian Viveash - After over 200 apps for the Saddlers in Defence, Viveash went on to play for a number of small town clubs such as Kidderminster and Aldershot. He now works in a coaching role at Chelsea's academy.
- Jimmy Walker - The popular former Walsall goalkeeper left Walsall for Premier League football. After five years at West Ham, he joined Spurs on a short-term contract before being released in July 2010.
- Jorge Leitao - After 230 apps for Walsall over six years, Jorge moved back to Portugal due to 'homesickness' where he still plays football for Arouca.
- Don Goodman - The former Saddlers Striker is now a commentator and pundit for Sky Sports.
- Ray Graydon - After leading Walsall to promotion in 2002 to the 2nd tier of English football, the ex- Saddlers manager went on to manage Bristol Rovers and in 2004, was part of the coaching staff that managed the Chinese national football team.
- Paul Merson - Merson has become somewhat of a cult since leaving Walsall. He appears weekly on Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday as a pundit and also features in Nuts magazine. Merson also continues to play for England Legends.
- Matty Fryatt - After leaving Walsall, Fryatt joined Leicester City where he remains to this day.
- Ian Roper - The former Walsall defender went on to have a brief spell at Luton before moving to Kettering Town. He is the favourite to win the Player of the Year award for 2010.
- Anthony Gerrard - After four years at Walsall, Gerrard moved to Cardiff City. He is now playing for Hull on a season-long loan from Cardiff.
- Zigor Aranalde - The former Walsall left-back went on to have a lengthy spell at Carlisle. After his retirement in 2008, he became chief scout at Brighton and Hove Albion.
- Richard Money - The former Walsall boss has been manager of Luton Town since leaving the Saddlers in 2008.
- Clayton Ince - After retiring from football at the end of the 09/10 season, Ince moved back to his home country of Trinidad and Tobago to work with young goalkeepers. He occasionally plays for local teams.
- Troy Deeney - After launching his career at Walsall, the striker left the Saddlers in August for Watford in a deal reportedly worth £500,000. He still plays for Watford and has scored 2 goals in 8 apps.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Where are they now?
Many memorable faces have come and gone at Walsall FC. Here are what some of them are doing now:
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Money Talks
At first glance of the facts, it would seem that money does actually make a difference.
The two new boys seemed to make an impact at last weeks game against Exeter but we were due a win anyway right?
Either way, the promised funds were delivered and not a moment too soon as the Saddlers recorded their first win in NINE games!
It's a sad reminder that football is becoming more and more capitalist. The bottom line is - the more money you have, the further you'll go. My favourite underdogs Blackpool are irrelevant.
Dagenham on Saturday then...they are one of the very few teams below us in the league so the coupon definately has us down as favourites.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
UTS
The two new boys seemed to make an impact at last weeks game against Exeter but we were due a win anyway right?
Either way, the promised funds were delivered and not a moment too soon as the Saddlers recorded their first win in NINE games!
It's a sad reminder that football is becoming more and more capitalist. The bottom line is - the more money you have, the further you'll go. My favourite underdogs Blackpool are irrelevant.
Dagenham on Saturday then...they are one of the very few teams below us in the league so the coupon definately has us down as favourites.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
UTS
Monday, 4 October 2010
That sinking feeling
It's not an easy job being a Walsall fan and it's not hard to see that we are a dying breed.
With five midland teams in the premier league at the moment, more and more people are beginning to disregard the 'other' Midland team lying rock bottom of League 1. And who can blame them? Any football fan would rather see the glitteratzi of the premier league as opposed to a small town club avoiding relegation into the basement of the English football league.
But one thing you can be sure of is that if...scratch that...WHEN Walsall finally fight their way back to the 2nd tier of English football, the fans will start pouring back in. Patience it seems, is not a quality of the part-time Walsall fan.
The dying few though will understand the frustration of watching their team lose week in, week out. Yet, they turn up the week after, ever hopeful of goals.
The question is...does a bad support have an affect on the players?
What about the players though?
It's always easy to blame players in football, but players can only do so much. The problem with Walsall FC is that it is a forever changing team. Every six months, players come and go like every other club but for the Saddlers, it's a total team change.
There's no team bonding, no togetherness...no team. Maybe we could ask more of the players but you can only ask so much.
The sad truth seems to be that the quality on the pitch just does not match that of the opponent.
And so we move on to the manager. Chris Hutchings seems determined and seems up for it but is he truly the right man for the job. Out of all the managers we've had in recent years, he seems the most promising, but in truth, we've seen nothing special, nothing exciting.
But a manager can only do so much too. As a club, Walsall make a lot of money selling players (much to our dismay) and even more frustrating is that this money is never seen again.
It's true we're a small club and money is an important factor for success nowadays but look at Blackpool!
Apparantly, funds are available for squad strengthening and we're supposed to see these funds in action very soon.
Once again, we play the waiting game...
With five midland teams in the premier league at the moment, more and more people are beginning to disregard the 'other' Midland team lying rock bottom of League 1. And who can blame them? Any football fan would rather see the glitteratzi of the premier league as opposed to a small town club avoiding relegation into the basement of the English football league.
But one thing you can be sure of is that if...scratch that...WHEN Walsall finally fight their way back to the 2nd tier of English football, the fans will start pouring back in. Patience it seems, is not a quality of the part-time Walsall fan.
The dying few though will understand the frustration of watching their team lose week in, week out. Yet, they turn up the week after, ever hopeful of goals.
The question is...does a bad support have an affect on the players?
What about the players though?
It's always easy to blame players in football, but players can only do so much. The problem with Walsall FC is that it is a forever changing team. Every six months, players come and go like every other club but for the Saddlers, it's a total team change.
There's no team bonding, no togetherness...no team. Maybe we could ask more of the players but you can only ask so much.
The sad truth seems to be that the quality on the pitch just does not match that of the opponent.
And so we move on to the manager. Chris Hutchings seems determined and seems up for it but is he truly the right man for the job. Out of all the managers we've had in recent years, he seems the most promising, but in truth, we've seen nothing special, nothing exciting.
But a manager can only do so much too. As a club, Walsall make a lot of money selling players (much to our dismay) and even more frustrating is that this money is never seen again.
It's true we're a small club and money is an important factor for success nowadays but look at Blackpool!
Apparantly, funds are available for squad strengthening and we're supposed to see these funds in action very soon.
Once again, we play the waiting game...
Introduction
Just a brief introduction.
If you are reading this then first and foremost let me thank you for taking the time to do so and to 99% of the readers, thank you for following me on twitter...if you're yet to do so, you can here - https://twitter.com/TheSaddlers
So this is my blog to go with my Walsall FC twitter page (currently the biggest page devoted to Walsall FC on Twitter). This is where you'll see my personal opinions and notes. Feel free to contribute.
UTS
If you are reading this then first and foremost let me thank you for taking the time to do so and to 99% of the readers, thank you for following me on twitter...if you're yet to do so, you can here - https://twitter.com/TheSaddlers
So this is my blog to go with my Walsall FC twitter page (currently the biggest page devoted to Walsall FC on Twitter). This is where you'll see my personal opinions and notes. Feel free to contribute.
UTS
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