Walsall fans now know that their team will now end the season somewhere around mid-table and, if they're at all reasonably minded, they'll admit that it's exactly where we deserve to finish. I can only speak of home games as I don't attend away games and, in those home games, once or twice we've been excellent, sometimes we've been abysmal and much of the time we've been, well, okay. The game against Tranmere fits snugly into the latter Category. No-one had their best game of the season and no-one played poorly. What we saw was a text-book end-of-season performance, with very little in the way of urgency apparent and none of the players, seemingly, too bothered about putting on a decent show. Typical fare for a team in our position you might say. But shouldn't the players have shown a bit more 'oomph'?, a bit more desire?, an intention to end the season on a high? In the days leading up to the game we were told, in the Express & Star and on the WFC official site, that the team were determined to go unbeaten for what remained of the season, and that there were still positives we could take from a decent finish, but is it all just talk?
This is a squad of players who, we're told, are mostly approaching the expiry of their current deals and who are looking to land new ones. Or are they? Now, I have no access to inside information regarding players' contracts so I know no more than most of you as to who has a deal taking them past this summer and who doesn't, other than what we see in the local rag and in the speculation to be seen on 'sites such as this. It's said, however, that in excess of a dozen of the current playing staff are due to see their current deals reach an end during the coming close season, in other words most of the more senior players at the club and, therefore, surely most of those who made an appearance on Saturday.
So, I ask those of you who were present whether this looked like a team of players out to do their level best to impress Hutch enough for him to decide to make them a part of his plans for next season? Did any one player seem as though he wanted to be noticed? And did any of them look like they were all that bothered about winning the game? How many of those players appeared to want to win a future for himself at Bescot Stadium and do some of them actually want to be included in the 'released' list?
Hutch will be considering all his options regarding who he wants to keep and who he doesn't rate and some of them might, on Saturday, have helped to push him one way or the other with their part in the side's overall lacklustre performance. It's not that we played poorly, it's that we just showed up and went through the motions and that really isn't good enough. The man-of-the-match award should surely have gone to Rene Gilmartin as, kicking aside - something there's plenty of time to work on - he was excellent and saved us from being beaten comprehensively by what was a very average Tranmere side. Young Gilly, I felt, was the only one who could go home reasonably satisfied with his performance but, then, he's possibly the only member of the squad to be playing not just for his Saddlers future but, perhaps, his future in the pro game and it showed.
The fact that so many of the squad will soon become free agents is, of course, something that could ultimately play into the Gaffer's hands. What a fairly newly-installed manager must fear most when preparing a new squad of his own design is to be in the position where he's lumbered with players he doesn't want due to them being contracted to the club beyond the end of that season. In those circumstances he's faced with the choice of trying to fit the unwanted player into his plans or going to the Chairman and asking him to pay up the remaining time on the players' contract in order to be rid of him and Jeff, particularly after the farce of the Merson tenure, is hardly likely to agree to that.
I don't think many fans would disagree that we need a bit of a clear-out but to suggest making wholesale changes would seem to be going a bit too far. We have the basis, for me at least, of a decent squad which would be improved by the additions of new arrivals, as long as they're the right ones. Our young players - Nicholls, Deeney, Taundry, Bradley, Sansara, Adkins, Davies, Bacchus etc - will continue to improve but will need experienced professionals beside them to facilitate this. This is where Hutch has to get it right and his contacts in the higher divisions could just be invaluable during the summer.
Remember how Everton didn't consider it worth their while to retain Gerrard and Fox? Well, the Gaffer will be aware of young players at bigger clubs than our own who might not seem ready for their club's current level of football but might blossom if given a go by the Saddlers, and maybe this fact played its part in Jeff giving Hutch the nod.
As usual, expensive signings will be out of the question and Hutch will face the same dilemma as every Saddlers manager in living memory, in having to make a silk purse from a sow's ear. He knows the current squad isn't going to take us anywhere but the hard part will come in trying to build one that might move us forward and, possibly, see us have a serious tilt at a top six place next season.
As ever, it's up to the banker!