Marked for Thomas Phillips
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 May 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 May 2034
Sam Aston in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Walsall this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2034
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Attila Bence Szalai is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout29 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Max Guerrero, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 May 2034
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Walsall, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market29 May 2034
Sam Aston linked with a move away
The name of Sam Aston keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Walsall say nothing, which says plenty.
Market29 May 2034
Walsall have made Kamil Pędzich available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market29 May 2034
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Walsall could get for him.
The dugout29 May 2034
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Owen Hayden-Taylor has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2034
James White hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Walsall can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2034
Sam Aston was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Attila Bence Szalai is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 May 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Phillips and Walsall agree another 3 years.
Squad8 May 2034
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Victor Adeboyejo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 May 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market8 May 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout8 May 2034
Martin Jankto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market8 May 2034
The Toby Bell talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Walsall know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jan 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Jan 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings16 Jan 2034
Martin Jankto, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets16 Jan 2034
The paperwork begins on Tom Wright
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Walsall have done the hard part with Blackpool, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Victor Adeboyejo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Jan 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets16 Jan 2034
Walsall asked and Newcastle United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match10 Jan 2034
Walsall caught on 88 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cambridge United scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Jan 2034
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Crawley Town, and it could have been more.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Jan 2034
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Walsall, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Jan 2034
Martin Jankto, 19, steals the show — 8.24
Marked 8.24 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match7 Jan 2034
The drought breaks for Walsall
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Crawley Town were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad9 Jan 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Óli Valur Ómarsson and Walsall agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toby Bell is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces9 Jan 2034
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad9 Jan 2034
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jan 2034
Oliver Mitchell damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market2 Jan 2034
Sam Aston hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Walsall can pretend not to have heard.
Match31 Dec 2033
8 matches without a win for Walsall
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Walsall are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Jan 2034
A fracture rules Thomas Phillips out for 28 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Walsall will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match31 Dec 2033
8 matches without a goal for Walsall
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout2 Jan 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Walsall may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Jan 2034
Sam Aston in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Walsall this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jan 2034
Toby Bell falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match27 Dec 2033
0‑1 to Northampton Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.