Former player excited by Saddlers' progress...
CHRIS Marsh is looking forward to seeing The Saddlers continue to progress next season.The 43 year-old, who came through the Fellows Park ranks with Dean Smith before appearing in almost 500 competitive games, follows the fortunes of the club closely.
“Walsall FC will always be close to my heart,” he said without hesitation. “I have extremely fond memories of my time at the club and have kept in touch with Dean Smith.
“He has done fantastically well; we all know that the club is so well run off-the-field, which is the right way to go, and Dean has developed a team that would have got promoted had it not been for that blip during the Autumn.
“The run that they had in the second half of the season was fantastic and hopefully they can build on that and hit the ground running going into the new season.
“Dean will know what he needs and the type of players that he wants to add to the squad. He will have been preparing this for the last few months.
“We all know that Walsall are not renowned for going out and spending money on players, so it’s always going to be a case of spotting rough diamonds and nurturing players through the youth system, like Dean and I were.
“The club has good coaches and good staff to be able to do this; the development line is in place and that can only bode well for the future.
“The club just missed out on the play-offs last time around, so it’s going to be an interesting watch. As I say, The Saddlers mean so much to me. I’ve played for other clubs in my career but none of them are a touch on Walsall and I love coming back here to play in Charity games and things like that.”