Blazing_Saddler wrote:It's a reality any Walsall manager has to deal with, everyone knows this. Dean would have known this when he took the job. Lets face it, no one else was ever going to offer him a managers job.
Next season, he HAS to do better. By better I don't mean I expect a promotion push. Just start to cut out some of his repetetive errors, that cost us goals/games/points.
When you have a small budget, it is even more vital that you get things right first time. I am willing to let Chambers go as a decent attempt of a signing, he hasn't quite worked out, but I think there was a chance he could have. Gnapka the same, he was a gamble (that failed) but it could have gone the other way with him, and for what it's worth Smith should definitely have tried him up front, the way we played early in the season.
There is absolutely no excuse for Hurst and Jarvis though. I'm no football scout, but I am almost certain if you gave me the wages they are on to find two players in those positions, I could find two better. It would be hard not to, utter bilge both of them. Peterlin also, why sign him, to leave him on the bench most of the season? The reason being he isn't really good enough. Needs to do better this summer, but I doubt he will. Just to remake my point, Jarvis and Hurst aren't gambles that might work out, they are utter dross, that were always going to fail.
Smith has had patience from Walsall fans, by our own terrible standards of giving people a chance, he won't be afforded such a luxury next season, and I think at some point next season, unless he does things better than he has so far, he will be out the door. Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen, but it is certainly what I see happening.
Great post - can't disagree with much of that.
The key is that Smith learns from this season - more so than he did last time around. Equally, he needs to learn from his mistakes in the transfer market, but also remember the gems he did ultimately manage to recruit just in the nick of time.
He needs to realise that his primary concern has to be his team - not the opposition. As soon as he does that, I genuinely think we'll see things start to come together. Let's worry about how we can hurt our opposition rather than how they might go about hurting us.