Who Will Be The New Manager?

By Neil Ravenscroft
April 19 2004

We try to get to the bottom of the rumours to see what the likely outcome will be in the new Manager stakes both for Walsall and for Plymouth Argyle.

So, what is likely to be happening with the management merry go round at Walsall? After all, the bookies will be offering odds on who the new man at the helm will be and everyone needs to know the best place to put their hard earned cash. I've spent a lot of time trawling around the various unofficial web sites, rumour sites and message boards across the country this weekend to come up with the following pretty fair bets, as a service to all of our readers who like to minimise their risks:-

Colin Lee will be announced as the new Plymouth Manager this week, with Paul Bracewell as his Assistant. This is now the club's favoured option, as the lack of any need to pay compensation means that they will have a bigger transfer kitty ready for mounting their assault on the First Division.

Where does this leave Caretaker Manager Kevin Summerfield (who, as an ex Saddler, we are interested in)? Going to join Sturrock at Southampton, just as he was always going to.

The big question is, of course, will Bonsor be prepared to give the job to Merson full time? The answer to that one is a "yes", but my sources around the club (and this isn't hard to guess) tell me that he would prefer to bring an experienced head in alongside him, in the same sort of relationship as Wise and Wilkins at Millwall.

Well, that means the big unanswered question is who will be the man to come in with Merson? A completely different source has come up with the name of someone being considered. Experienced at different levels, knows Merson, has managed in the Premiership and, most importantly of all, is out of a job at the moment, so no need to pay any compensation to anyone? Step forward star of Dream Team, ex Wycombe, Villa and Derby boss, John Gregory.

Of course, these are still just rumours, but there are some pretty reliable sources involved here and it all makes some sort of logical sense!