Following the news that the Club had exercised the option of extending his contract early last month, we caught up with striker Elijah Adebayo to get his thoughts on staying with the Saddlers for another season.
The 22-year-old forward arrived at the Banks’s Stadium last summer as the fourth signing in what turned out to be a very busy transfer window for the club and the former Fulham man revealed that he is ‘absolutely delighted’ to have extended his stay with the club.
“I’m absolutely delighted to have extended my stay here,” said Adebayo.
“With the circumstances that have come at the end of the season when we were looking to carry on building where we came from after new year when we thought we were heading in the right direction.
“I think we were going in the right direction so I am just happy to be part of this group again and hopefully we can go on and achieve more this season.
“It’s all about taking the next step now but I am delighted to have extended my stay with the club.”
The striker scored his first goal of the 2019/20 way back in September last year and finished the season strong with three goals in his last two games, one against Port Vale and a brace against Exeter City.
Adebayo admitted that he was a little bit frustrated how the season came to an abrupt end but he also conceded that you can’t dwell on the past and it’s now all about looking to the future.
“I would have loved to have carried on going the way I was going before lockdown kicked in,” he continued.
“I was a bit frustrated at the time but we can’t dwell on the past and we have got to move forward and just be ready for when the season starts again.
“It’s just about bouncing back. You’re always going to have little setbacks but it’s the bouncing back that counts.
“It was tough at the start and I did think about it a lot. I now know that the focus is on what’s to come. I’ve got time now to go and put things right and show what my standard is and carry on where I left off.
“I think having a settled group will be massive next season because we now know the strengths and weaknesses of everyone.
“It took us a bit of time last season to figure those out at the start of the season and we showed that after we have had time together when training and playing, we start to know what peoples strengths are and where we can use that to hurt other teams.
“I think that keeping the core team together is another step in the right direction to carry on building relationships all over the pitch.
“I feel like the group has settled and everyone gets on with each other and we are a very tight knit group so it’s just about using that for next season and using it to our advantage.”