How Come You’ve Ended Up Here?

“I don’t wish to be rude but how come you’ve ended up here?”

The question came in the last knockings of Darrell Clarke’s first Q&A night with fans and was very much meant as a compliment. For the best part of an hour and half Clarke breezed through what was the very friendliest of supporter examinations. He had charm, he was cohesive, he had a track record, there was humour, charisma, confidence, flamboyance, warmth and a belief. Most of all, he appeared to be bringing a credible plan, a blueprint out of League 2. It was a first class opening to his time here, he literally had the entire room feasting from his palms. We lapped it up – the post-Bonser boom was up and running.

I’ve honestly returned back to that question many times over the past 20 months. Yet, whilst I suspect any deeper meaning was completely unintended, the clues to ‘why here’ were already evident. Hindsight, once again, proving to be the most belated of guides.

“I don’t talk contract lengths”, “each game is a project”, “I don’t discuss injuries”, “my players, my coaching staff, my chairman, my supporters”, “winning football” – all were magical soundbites from the blossom of a new romance. Yet all became particularly tiresome and irritating as mounting numbers of defeats and draws combined with irrational levels of post-game chutzpah and “nowhere near a top 7 budget” soundbites to ensure that those honeymoon memories had long since faded. Opinions on Clarke have been split for quite a while but it’s clear that there were still many who still believed Clarke was the best man for the job he held. However even within the staunchest remaining believers, and I was absolutely amongst them, there must have been a level of fatigue around the nonsense, belligerence and pretence. I certainly felt it.

The collective shoulder shrug as news broke of Clarke climbing onto the M6 and heading six junctions north highlighted the likelihood that the ‘kids have grown up and moved on’ conversation really wasn’t all that far away.

Being completely fair, this was and remains a really tough job. For all the benefits of improved openness, communication and the willingness to listen that Leigh Pomlett re-introduced to the football club, a transformed budget wasn’t one of them. And whilst it is painful to admit, there aren’t many of our contemporary football clubs that currently appeal less. The rarity of long term, multi-contract stays at Walsall in recent times is a decent indicator of this.

A near decade and a half of decline (one short period aside) will never be turned around in a couple of months, even when it comes alongside an upgrade of owner. The major things Clarke needed was time, patience and transfer windows and Pomlett undoubtedly gave them him. He also found the budget to provide Clarke with his top two transfer targets in the very first days of his appointment, with trusted allies James Clarke and Stuart Sinclair recruited to support and patrol the manager’s tone and expectations.

The blank canvas Clarke inherited also offered a sizeable opportunity to place an immediate stamp on his playing staff. Granted it came with the bargain basement, rough diamond recruitment challenges that building a squad here invariably brings but the opportunity to quickly fill the dressing room with your players is rare for new managers. One or two windows were never going to put everything right, but it did offer Clarke a real chance to make some good strides really quickly.

Frustratingly there were at least as many misses than hits in Clarke’s first season acquisitions. Whilst work-in-progress signings such as Elijah Adebayo and Rory Holden evolved and have impressively thrived within Darrell’s project, others like James Hardy, Jack Kiersey, Nathan Sheron and Rory Gaffney had fleeting and genuinely forgettable Walsall careers. Clarke’s inability (or dogged refusal) to see what everyone else could in Gary Liddle whilst seemingly freezing Zak Jules from plans caused below waterline damage that he never fully repaired.

Summer 2020 was an altogether different proposition. Covid-19 undoubtedly implicated the budget available to the manager but with a settled squad requiring only minor tweaks, hopes of a competitive season were high. Not least when Bristol City agreed to sell us Rory Holden. But amid the glow of a super bit of business, the permanent securing of Holden overlooked one massive point – this wasn’t actually a squad strengthening activity. This was a deal that returned that area of the squad to where it was when the season ceased in March. Essentially, we’d done our biggest and best piece of summer business on standing still.

On top of this I’d contest any opinion that suggested that the other recruits this summer improved upon what was there before. Because they haven’t. In short, we wasted the opportunity that the rarity of squad stability provided and, if anything, the team and squad went backwards over the lockdown. And that’s before I begin to rant over Danny Guthrie’s second season contribution.

However, for all of the above, there has been plenty to be positive about. In that first meeting, Clarke talked proudly about his net profits from developing players during his stint at the Memorial Ground, and this continued just a fortnight ago with the deadline day scramble for Adebayo and Jules. Others have similarly improved under Clarke – Holden, Norman, Scarr and Gordon to name but four and the risk that they depart for greener pastures, or follow Clarke to North Staffordshire, is very real. Similarly, youth got its chance and whilst Alfie Bates is probably the only tangible evidence of Clarke’s willingness to bring players through, I think we’ll see more of a few others before this season is out.

On appointment, Clarke’s immediate focus rightly revolved around re-setting standards and dressing room cohesiveness. To his credit, the ethos of the dressing room is exponentially better than the snake pit that he inherited. Clearly, improvement on the stench that did for his predecessor wasn’t going to be difficult but amid the many post-defeat frustrations a perceived lack of effort from Clarke’s team never joined justifiable jibes about tactics, formations and individual errors. Under Clarke they never produced less than 100% and this shouldn’t be forgotten. He also found decent (undisclosed, obviously) money for Cook and Ferrier, this despite the fact that the entire football world knew how desperately we wanted rid. Don’t underestimate how well he & Pomlett did here.

Last season’s opening day at Northampton was one of those moments that we’ll all remember fondly. Sold out away support – twice, a new era arrived with temperatures rocketing and hope restored. Clarke opened his Walsall career with the kind of 1-0 win that gets teams promoted. An afternoon where an organised, disciplined, combative, resilient and streetwise Saddlers team took energy from a raucous, high spirited away following and ground out a win that set a benchmark of what could be achieved. They didn’t win that day because they were better that their hosts, they won that day because we all wanted it more. Frustratingly, it was little more than a fleeting glimpse of what could have been – a football version of the speedboat in Bullseye (kids, ask your dad). Look at what you could’ve won… and it was gone long before it got close to getting wet.

Indeed, whilst a Saturday special at Salford, a fabulous win at Tranmere and home win against Bolton intermittently hinted what this team was capable of, their lack of clean sheets, the litany of individual errors and an inability to put teams away when on top in games proved the legacy from which Clarke walks away.

And then there was the football. “Winning football” as Darrell likes to describe it. We can argue long and hard over about hoof ball, long ball, the percentage game or pass-pass-lump but only a very few would described it as pretty. And his Saddlers average of one win in three doesn’t exactly feel like the dictionary definition of winning football.  Similarly, it’s hard to ignore the lack of clean sheets, 13 in 62 league games to be precise and a full 17 games since the last one. Add in the fact we only managed one solitary 1-0 win since the opening day of the season and the issues become relatively obvious. When you need to score multiple times to win, it tends to limit the regularity of picking up 3 points. Nicking a 1-0 when you haven’t played well or created much is a beautiful and productive habit that we didn’t see or have, and yes, I also struggled to recall the last time we did that.

So, returning back to the original question. How come he ended up here? For all the talk, all the bravado and all the promise, the Emperor’s clothes proved just a little too transparent. System flexibility is all well and good but after 62 league games I still don’t think Clarke knew his best system, his best goalkeeper, his best centre half pair/trio, his best defender or midfield make up. Elijah was his front man, Holden his number 10 and Scarr an automatic choice in defence. The rest wasn’t exactly bingo, but it was over complicated by projects, bluff and overthinking. Apologies for being somewhat disrespectful but you don’t need a ‘project plan’ to beat Darlington or a no-wins-all-season Southend, you just need to turn up and execute what you do well. The first time I heard Ray Graydon talk he discussed putting round pegs in round holes, players knowing their roles, having a system that works and players can understand, “they’re generally not the brightest” he quipped. And whilst I fully accept that football has evolved in the past 21 years, these are common sense basics that haven’t.

And does it really matter if we keep the length of Zak Jules contract secret? Irrespective of a 2 or 3 year deal, he left anyway. All it actually achieved was to irritate season ticket holders and alienate the manager.

His record at Salisbury and Bristol Rovers suggested Pomlett had struck gold when appointing Clarke. He was a popular appointment and judging by his performance at that opening meet the manager evening his interview would undoubtedly been first class. In reality, Clarke probably struck gold in finding a very patient Pomlett and Burslem Carol’s willingness to part with hard cash probably saved us and Leigh from a messy mid-late summer divorce that, in reality, neither party could realistically afford.

The basic reality is whilst turning this football club around is a pretty sizeable task, I honestly don’t think that we’re any further forward than where we were on that brilliant opening afternoon at Sixfields. There’s another summer rebuild ahead, probably on the back of a player exodus, new players to develop, a budget that doesn’t stretch that far and a bastard of a league to escape from in the right direction. Truthfully, I’m not sure Clarke fancied it and I suspect he could see the sands of his Bescot time running low. Certainly, the first part of that sentiment has been reflected in some of the interview snippets that have come from his first press conference in Burslem. I’d also evidence the latter by suggesting that Leigh Pomlett’s post-departure video reeked of the fact that he had become jaded by the histrionics and extremities of working with ‘his man’ and our lack of progress.

Clarke’s decision to jump ship ensures he leaves WS1 with his headline stock relatively undamaged. However, the baggage that came in the small print was incredibly tiresome and unproductive. I had a lot of time for Darrell Clarke and was happy to cut him, and the doubts I perceived, some slack but there’ll be no sleep lost in my house at his departure.

As Clarke admitted, he’s done what’s best for him, and that is absolutely his prerogative. You certainly can’t knock his honesty. Right now, however, I think that we need, and the chairman deserves, someone who’ll do the best thing for the football club. Not just today, but tomorrow and the day after.

Good luck Brian.

The King has chosen to be dead. Long live the King.