No other player in the current Saddlers squad divides opinion among supporters quite as much as Michael Ricketts. On the face of it his signing by Jimmy Mullen seemed a very shrewd move and was, by and large, welcomed by our fan base, as a regular goal-scorer is what we've needed for several seasons. Even when we won the League Two title our leading goal-getter turned out to be a combative mid-fielder - Dean Keates - and our last prolific striker left during the reign of Merse-The-Curse. It seemed that if we could just get Ricketts playing to his potential we'd have a very decent player, and Michael himself would benefit by putting an end to his nomadic life-style of the previous few seasons. Some say he's worth persevering with because, quality wise, he's the best player we have and because younger players such as Deeney and Nicholls can learn from him. For others he's the player that drives them up the wall more than any other, seemingly being completely unreliable. They'll ask how the manager is supposed to build our attack round him when a suspension seems always to be just around the corner.
We got a very early pointer to the way the season would eventually pan out when he gave us the lead in our League Cup tie against Darlington but was dismissed not long after for an off-the-ball incident that hardly anyone saw but is said to have featured a flailing elbow. A goal and a red card in the same game and we'd gone from one extreme to the other in one match. The Ricketts season in a nutshell.
Mention is often made of the players' injuries and the games they've caused him to miss, in much the same way as susceptibility to injury is constantly thrown in the face of Michael Owen. Does Ricketts ask to be injured? No, of course not. Can he help the fact that those injuries cause him to be unavailable for selection? Again, no. Then there's his apparently lazy demeanour and the times when he gives the impression that it's all a bit too much trouble. One thing guaranteed to get right up the nose of supporters, from those in the cheap seats to the inhabitants of the posh seats in the Werther's Original Stand, is a player who appears not to be putting in a 'shift'. If a player is having a poor game but is trying hard then fans will cut him a bit of slack, but if he appears to be wandering around nonchalantly then he'll eventually cop a volley from the crowd. Particularly if he's getting sent off regularly.
In Michael's defence It's fair to point out that we don't know what goes on verbally during a match. It would be naive to assume that, as a well-known black player, Michael doesn't suffer racist abuse. Racist abuse from fans, although far, far less prevalent than twenty years ago, still goes on but tends to be in the form of sly comments by a single moron rather than concerted chanting, and, as such, might be fairly easy to shut out during the heat of a game. It must be very difficult, however, to ignore if an opponent is abusive in this manner during a lull in play, or at a set-piece or as both players go for the ball. I'm not saying this is a widespread thing but does anyone really believe it doesn't go on? If Michael has experienced treatment of this sort then, quite frankly, the perpetrator deserves an elbow in the mouth.
What we haven't really seen from the man is the terrorising of the opposition that some may have expected. Michael ought, really, to be head-and-shoulders better than most defenders in our division but it hasn't panned out that way. His ability has never really been in doubt so we've expected him to give the run-around to whoever's marked him but has he ever really done so? He's netted twelve goals so far this season and has scored in eleven different games which seems pretty average by anyone's standard. How many more he might have had if he'd not missed around a dozen games due to suspensions is anyone's guess but he'd surely be hovering around that magic twenty mark by now.
The very fact that Michael is with us probably says something about both parties. Given a choice between a fairly big club and the Saddlers, he's not going to come to us. If our offer was the best that he could do then it says much about his reputation among other clubs. He had a chance at making it big but has become a journeyman, seemingly never staying anywhere for very long. Maybe he just gets restless and needs a regular change of scenery and maybe clubs don't rate him very highly any longer. Only Michael knows.
As for us as a club, well, we only get quality players when they're on their way up - Clarke, Parkes, Kelly, Fryatt - or on their way down as with Merson, Samways and Ricketts and usually with a bit of 'baggage' as well. If Michael is going to remain with us - it's said he signed a two-year deal - then we have to accept him how he is, lethargic demeanour and all and he has to realise that he's a bit too old to keep losing his temper and letting the side down.
Will we see him again this season? There are those who've said he ought never to play for the club again after getting red-carded three times in three-quarters of a season and, on the other hand, there are those who think the frustration he brings is the price we pay for getting a player like him to our club. Can the man himself change now that he's nearing thirty and well into the second half of his career? That would seem unlikely but not impossible.
So, has the signing of Michael Ricketts been a good one for Walsall Football Club? The jury, as they say, is still out and could probably only manage a six/six split decision at best. Michael wasn't a Chris Hutchings signing and won't have put himself in the Gaffer's good books with his antics so far but one thing in both of their favours is that Hutch has coached at the highest level and may just, finally, be the one to get the very best out of the player.
We can be pretty certain that Michael will be at the club next season and a fired-up, 'at it' Ricketts could be the difference between a serious tilt at the top six places and another neither-here-nor-there mid-table finish.
If we can get him going.
If.