Christopher Smith

Central Defender - Walsall U18
13 May 2029
Sunday
Process

Marked for Christopher Smith

108 Edition

The Walsall Chronicle

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Walsall turn down Asante Kotoko for Fábio Tavares

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Real improvement from Jack Porter at Walsall

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jack Porter is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

4 matches without a win for Walsall

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Walsall are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Fábio Tavares signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fábio Tavares commits to Walsall for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Walsall

Sydie Peck 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.

Squad

Jamie Jellis has improved at 27, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 5 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Boardroom

4 academy players handed senior numbers at Walsall

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Market

Walsall promote Henry Green from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Henry Green has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

Andrew James steps up from the Walsall academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrew James has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief