Walsall Head Coach Mat Sadler is eyeing an assistant who will challenge him and share the same core values.
The new Head Coach will be looking to add an assistant and first team coach to his backroom staff as he prepares for the 2023/24 campaign.
Sadler and the club are undertaking a thorough process to identify his assistant and the 38-year-old stressed the importance of ensuring it’s the person who is the best fit.
“I think it’s important that it’s that,” said Sadler.
“The thing that is running right through the middle of this is everyone needs to work together and there can’t be any aspect of the football club, I believe, that is separate from it.
“That right person who comes in is somebody who will foster those values and beliefs that I have.
“I want it to be somebody who challenges me, I want it to be somebody who, when I give a certain thought, says ‘but have you seen it from this point of view?’
“I also want it to be somebody who has that same value, that same desire to improve players that I do so all of the values that I stand for, that person needs to stand for as well.”
A busy summer is expected at the Poundland Bescot Stadium but it’s one Sadler is relishing.
“I’m extremely excited about it,” he commented.
“There will be a lot of hard work, endless hours of hours of discussions, communications and I look forward to all of that.
“Of course, there is a routine that needs to come in to place and the end point of a lot of this stuff is the first day of pre-season and making sure that we’re all boxed off and that side of things is spot on.
“It’s going to be a busy summer but it’s one I’m looking forward to.”
Sadler has his own vision and identity for the team that he will be looking to implement.
He is looking to evolve and grow having shown glimpses of his style in the final three games of last season.
“That was a microcosm of a full season if you like,” he explained.
“I hope it’s not all like the Salford game was in terms of the madness of that game. I want to play front foot football, desperate to be on the front foot.
“I want us to be organised in how we play in our structure and when the time is right, I want us to move the football.
“I’m here to create an identity of who we want at the football club, how we want to play and I hope when that first fixture is out, first home fixture, first away fixture – we’ll start to see how that is and we’ll start to evolve as a football club.”
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