The Week That Was

By OneNil
February 16 2003

It’s here every Sunday, The Week That Was is a look back on everything Walsall FC and sometimes elsewhere in the world of football.

It’s here every Sunday, The Week That Was is a look back on everything Walsall and sometimes elsewhere in the world of football. 

The week began with the promise of a new signing being confirmed on Monday; naturally everyone began to speculate – would it be Southampton’s Mark Draper? Or Michael Branch form Wolves? Or even Mark Robins? Instead the big news was our signing of Manchester United youngster Kris Taylor…but didn’t we already know that last week? 

Tuesday brought about far more excitement though. On trial at Bescot is Francis Grandpa Doe, a 17 year old Liberian striker currently earning rave reviews for Cameroon side Konnerre KC…apparently. Walsall don’t often take players such as these on trial – Colin Lee himself has admitted it is a gamble – and when they do they don’t announce it to the world. The youngster comes highly recommended by none other than George Weah, but if he is any good, there’s bound to be interest from elsewhere. The likelihood is that he won’t be…did anybody else see the piece on Milton Nunez in one national newspaper (adapted from Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the souring of English football by Tom Bower?). The Honduran striker came to Sunderland in 2000 billed as a star striker…but managed just one substitute appearance. Sunderland tried to send Nunez back to former club Nacional (Uruguay) only to find that Nacional knew nothing of the transfer…then Uruguay Montivideo demanded the rest of the transfer fee; a murky side of the football world involving agents, lies and illegal payments. Which leads me on to the point of this story…can we trust clubs from the nether-regions of the footballing world? 

Later on Tuesday night, a Saddlers reserve side boasting the likes of Gavin Ward, Pedro Matias and Gary Birch moved into the semi finals of the Birmingham Senior Cup with a convincing 5-0 victory over Nuneaton Borough. Our two Australian internationals, Corica and Zdrilic each netted twice, but it must have been a case of wrong place, wrong time – the pair would much rather have been at Upton Park, representing the Aussies against England. Again, the less said about this particular match, the better. Incidentally, youngster Matt Fryatt grabbed the other goal. 

Utility man Neil Emblen returned to Norwich after his loan spell at Bescot came to an end. Colin Lee flew abroad to check out possible signings, while closer to home, Saddlers targets joined bigger Midlands clubs. Nottingham Forest confirmed that they will sign Darren Huckerby later this month whilst Matt Jansen dropped in at Highfield Road, choosing Coventry ahead of us. Colin Lee admitted making a move for Jansen , who later telephoned Lee to explain his reasoning for rejecting the Saddlers. Lee had hoped to sign a player with Premier League experience this week but saw the move delayed by complications at the player’s club. However he hopes that the deal can be completed later this week. Also on trial at Bescot was 24 year old Aussie midfielder Jacob Burns, currently out of favour at Leeds. 

Incidentally, Francis Doe – whose web-page you can visit @ [url=http://www.liberiansoccer.com/francis_doe.htm]Doe Webiste[/url]
- has already had troubles in England. Described as ‘lightweight’ but ‘sharp’ and ‘quick’ by Lee, Doe was held up by Immigration officials upon arrival at Birmingham airport, this after already having missed his intended flight to England. 

It was nice to see so many Saddler-supporting cars and coaches on the way to Brammal Lane, shame about the result though. The general consensus amongst fans up there was that it was a professional job by the Blades, although Walsall were described as having done ‘splendidly’ on a small budget. It was interesting to note the opinions of the Rotherham fans on the local radio after Darren Byfield netted his 13th of the season to move the Millers into the play-off zone. If only he was still at Bescot..? 

Talking of ex Saddlers, it was nice to see the likes of Paul Simpson, Clive Platt and Wayne Evans live on the TV against Wolves today. Unfortunately their luck ran out when it mattered most. Gino Padula also netted this weekend, in QPR’s 4-0 victory over Port Vale. It was only his second goal in England, the last came against us for Wigan two seasons ago.