By 4two
January 26 2004

Colin Lee has reveled he is going to release some fringe players at the end of the season.

Lee told the press...

"I've told Karl Hawley and Craig Stanley that we will let them go at the end of the season," 

"Mark Wright has got between now and the end of the season to prove himself and I'm having further talks with the likes of Andy Bishop. I think it's only fair to tell them now so we give them a chance of finding themselves new clubs."

"If you look ahead to next season we are going to have to trim around another £500,000 in addition to the savings we've made this year. So we're not going to be able to keep any fringe players."

It seems obvious that Lee is hoping someone will come along and take them off our hands before the end of season, freeing up space on the wage bill.

Fans are unlikely to be disappointed by the decision, because none of the players Lee mentions have made any kind of impact in the first team.

It will be difficult for young pro's like Stanley and Hawley to find other clubs in what is a depressed transfer market. It is possible that they could land themselves a lower division club, but so many youngsters released by the Saddlers seem to make there way on to the non-league circuit.

Since the early 1990s it has been one long woeful tale for our youth system. Ricketts, Keates, Platt, Tolson,  Butler and Roper have all managed to make some sort of impact in the Football League. Youngsters like  Carter,  Richards, Scott, Rowland, Demtrious, Winter, Brown, Knight and scores of others have sunk without a trace. The football climate is bleek, this trend looks set to continue.