By Alan Stokes
November 4 2002

We are about to take on one of the Premiership elite and the so called Big Guns from Leicester. How far have we come in the last 10 years and do we deserve to be on the same pitch as these teams? We will not spend money we don’t have. We will not buy players that are no better than we already have. These are the sounds that have been booming out of the Bescot boardroom for the last 10 years.

We have watched with envy the progress made and monies spent by our East Midlands neighbours. We watched with green eyes as the Baseball ground was transformed into Pride Park and looked on in envy as Leicester and Derby competed in the promised land of the Premiership. How we all wished we could afford to spend millions on top quality players, see attendances spiral upwards as the stature of the club grew year by year. How the tables have turned.

Both of our East Midlands neighbours have fallen on stony ground. They are crippled by financial debt as they spent more and more money to unsuccessfully secure their premiership dream. Now it has all gone wrong. They are on our playing field. As we have grown steadily from a poor division 3 side to an established first division team so our East Midlands friends have fallen from grace. We have already shown this year that we can compete with these so called big guns with high profile players on top wages by our results at Pride Park and Highfield Road.

As we see the season unfold in the Premiership we can see how West Brom are struggling. However, it is now reported that Chairman Pearce is issuing Bonser type warnings. He is quoted as saying that they will have to see where they are in the league come January before deciding how much money they can spend. If the Baggies are bottom of the league then they will be keeping the purse strings firmly shut as they do not want to go the same way as Leicester or Derby. The thoughts being that if they are bottom at Christmas then it is almost a certainty that they will be relegated at the end of the season. Is this a sign of optimism and speculate to accumulate or a dose of financial prudence and reality. A lot of clubs are now coming back to the real world. With a lot of uncertainty surrounding various clubs nowadays due to past financial mismanagement a number of football supporters are currently thinking that in hindsight it would have been better if their Chairmen had been more like that bloke down at Walsall.

Let us go out on Saturday and really do ourselves proud against the so called big guns from Leicester. There is also the small matter of the current cup holders on Wednesday. I feel confident we can produce some good results. Come on you Saddlers.