Alexander Phillips

Defensive Midfielder - Mansfield Town
6 Aug 2035
Monday
Process

Marked for Alexander Phillips

411 Edition

The Walsall Chronicle

12 Jun 2034
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Lamin Sillah 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.

Squad

Darko Gyabi 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.

Market

Talks stall between Walsall and Stevie Bausor

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Player ratings

Lewi Richards stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.55 on the card, and the Walsall support went home talking about one name.

Squad

Walsall pick somebody else ahead of Tom Davies

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Market

Charlton Athletic expected to open talks for Miller Megson

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Walsall will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Squad

When it matters, Alex Hartridge plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Match

Walsall and Gillingham cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Gillingham came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

Market

The Tom Davies 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.

In brief