By Neil Ravenscroft
September 20 2004

Paul Merson got the vote of confidence from the club owner Geoff Bonser today, or was it really the dreaded "vote of confidence"? It's hard to say. Stev Madeley in the Express and Star is reporting that Walsall owner Geoff Bonser today backed Paul Merson to turn the clubs form around after the manager admitted that he feared the sack. Merson said after Saturday's game at Chesterfield that he was worried about his job but Bonser today gave the player-boss his support.

Bonser said:
"Although I'm very disappointed by the position we are in in the league at the moment I'm very encouraged by what Paul is doing.
I knew Paul would find it tough going for ten games as we settled down but I believe he is learning all the time.
He wants to play as often as possible but it is difficult to do that and take on all the responsibilities of management.
This was always going to be a tricky period but what Paul needs to do now is settle on a system and a team and stick with it to try to get some consistency.
I'm sure that the consistency will come."

The question is, reading between the lines, is this a vote of confidence, or the dreaded "vote of confidence"? It looks to me that Bonser is getting a little fed up with the situation, but not enough to take action yet, and is basically saying, "pack in playing, pick a settled team and show what you can do".
If that is Bonser's intention, it's probably the best thing he could say at the moment and I'm fully in agreement with him. 10 games into the season, the manager should know his best tactics and best team and be settling down to getting some solid results, rather than continually experimenting. Let's hope that Merson takes this to heart and we start to see some results, starting with Brentford on Saturday. As I have said before, I'd much rather Merson succeed in management, so it's time to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk.