What Are Your Ambitions For The Club

By Neil Ravenscroft
August 26 2004

I came in for a lot of criticism for daring to suggest that Paul Merson should be given time limits in his attempts to get us back into the 1st Division (I really have problems calling it the Championship) at the first attempt.

There have been an awful lot of sterile and completely false comparisons with last season, but that was never what this was about. I actually like Paul Merson’s style, as I have said on more than one occasion (although it's probably time he hung his boots up), but firmly believe that his only job this season is to get us promotion. This year, we are getting 'parachute' payments from the League, which is one reason we have such a large squad for this Division (how many others could make ten changes for a League Cup tie, with one senior player, Corica, unable to play in either game?). These will vanish after this season. Like it or not, gates will fall if we are not at the top of the table and income will reduce. Worst of all, the likes of Matt Fryatt are unlikely to stay at a mid table club in the lower leagues. To me, we have one shot and one shot alone at going back up and Merson seems to realise this himself, as he says promotion is his only priority this season. That's not Dingle like arrogance, saying "it's because it's where we should be", it's because I want to see the football team playing at the highest level it can achieve against the highest quality opposition.

That leaves an important question which needs to be answered, judging by the reaction to my first article and that is; "What are your ambitions for this Football club?"

There was a certain element (thankfully few) who, in May, were talking in terms of "walking the league" and finishing as champions and, in one case I seem to remember, saying they could only see us losing two games all season. Hopefully, they have now woken up.

There seems to be an element who are in some sort of denial phase, as all they seem to be able to regurgitate is "it's better than last season" and "I’d rather we lose attacking than trying to defend a lead". They are continually harping on about how bad it was under Colin Lee and seem to be completely unaware that a new season has started and we need to move on. It seems to be a case of they don't care what division we are in as long as they like the manager and we score some goals and we win a few games. I'm sorry, but that's the way it appears and, if it is the case, good luck to them, but I can't follow that philosophy. If we went down to the Conference, would it be "never mind"? I can only think they take some kind of perverse pleasure in the references to "little" Walsall, being everybody's "second team", being called the "Super Soaraway Saddlers" and have everyone call the stadium "The" Bescot, instead of just 'Bescot Stadium'.

There is also the group, probably the big majority, who think that Merson should be given a chance and that he is a breath of fresh air. Contrary to popular belief, I'm one of them. This group is, however, split into three.

Some think it might take this season and next for him to succeed and that's OK. For the reasons I've already stated, I cannot accept that, as I think the chances of promotion will recede with time and, if we don't make it this year, we are unlikely to do so for a long, long time.

The second group (probably smaller) agree that we need to go up this season, but they have faith that he will get it right and will succeed.

The third group (me and a few others) agree with them, but think that we should still have a plan 'B'. What no one has answered is what happens if we reach January and are 15 to 18 points off the play offs? Do we write off the entire season? I, like thousands of others, have targets set at work and am measured against them during the course of the year. Merson himself has set his targets (promotion) and I am asking when should he be measured against them? If your ambitions are promotion this season, there is a point of no return by which we must be winning games and showing promotion form, it's as simple as that. What makes this whole argument that people have been throwing at me all the stranger is that the one person who would probably agree is Paul Merson himself!

To repeat, this whole argument is about ambitions and where you want this football club to be in 12 months time. My answer is simple. Playing Albion or Wolves at home, in front of a full house, in the first match of the season in the Championship.