Walsall Misses Champions League Spot

2023-2014 Premiere League Season

Manchester United managed to win the 2023-2014 Premiere League Trophy and their 3rd in a row and their 5th title in 6 years.

Walsall finished in 6th place on 70 points which means no Champion League matches for next year season.

Premiere League Season 2023-2024 *UPDATE*

Game Date: 16th Feb 2024.

With more than half of the current season gone, now is the time for a mid-season update on how Walsall 6th year in the Premiere League is going.

At the moment, Walsall sits at the 7th spot on the English top league with 12 matches remaining, so there's still time left to get into a Championship League spot.

New arrival Kris Rees is the team top performer leading the squad in goals with 13 across all competition while adding 7 assist.

New striker Wayne Lockwood who replaced Odsonne Edouard has bagged 12 goals and has added 9 assist which is a lot for a striker.

Jesus Noriega Injury woes.

The face of Walsall, Jesus Noriega injury problem has remained during the new season by missing an additional 3 months with an torn hamstring but he's currently back on the squad healthy. His form hasn't been so good since his returned but we're hoping with time, he'll be back to his extraordinaire form.

Premiere League League Leaders in Stats.

Arsenal's striker Tim Van Gool leads the league in goal with 18, followed by Tottenham striker Harry Kane who has recorded 17.

Van Gool is also the best rated player at 7.54, followed by Manchester United James Rodriguez at 7.48.

Manchester United Goalkeeper David De Gea leads the league with 18 shutouts.

Guillermo Arastey Injury

Arastey injury is a bit upsetting because he was finally putting all his skillsets together by having the best season of his career stats-wize, so to see him go down with a broken leg which will keep him out for 4-5 months is bad. Spending $46M pound on him to buy him  from Villarreal was heavily criticized, so it was fun to see him repay us back by having a great year statistically.

The good news is that Jesus Noriega was coming back when he got injured, so we were able to slot Jesus into his right-side striker position, but our preference was to be able to play both of them together at some point.

Guillermo Arastey season 2023-2024 statistics

Players expected to Leave or have already left Walsall F.C

Central Midfielder Ryan Guald, a player who has been with us for the past 5 years has been sold to Hull City for $13.25M pound. Great servant for the team but he had a few young player ahead of him in the pecking order + only had 1 year left in his contract, so we had to move him.

Paul Dummets was sold to Leed United for $575k pound. Played 4 years for Walsall before moving on. Was original brough to Walsall for $375k pound.

James Tarkowski and Odsonne Edouard are the 2 rotational players who are very likely to be sold before the transfer window closes.

Premiere League Season 2023-2024 - Walsall Lose first game

After a decent transfer window bringing a few new players in, Walsall manages too lose their first match of young season, going down in defeat 2 to 1 against Newcastle United. Despite controlling possession on a 55% clip and putting more shots on target 23 to 13, we still could not manage to come up with the 3 points to start the season.

Guillermo Arastey scored Walsall lone goal which was set up by Jesus Noriega.

2023-2024 Walsall new Arrivals so far

So far we've signed 3 new players,  Forward Gareth Bale,  striker Wayne Lockwood and  Cental-Back Carlos Delem.

Wayne Lockwood was signed from Championship outfit Crystal Palace and will be counted on to replace the soon departing Odsonne Edouard who hasn't been the same since his first year with Walsall when he won the FWA English player of the year.

Gareth Bale is now 33 year olds but still retain great mental attribute, so we decided to sign him to help out with the younger players and give the team an extra left footed forward that can play across the 3 forward positions.

My key signing for this season is French central back Carlos Delem who will strengthen our defense and start alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers which means Hause will have to move to LB in which he has plenty of experience playing.

Walsall 2022/23 Season Best Eleven

Jesus Noriega was Walsall player of the year while Steve Smolarczyk was the signing of the year. Smolarczyk was signed to replace World-Class Full-Back Almamy Toure and he did a decent job doing it by finishing with an overall rating of 7.28 in all competition.

Noriega also collected Walsall goal of the year + young player of the year at 23 year old.

F.C Barcelona Fire Luis Enrique

After failing to win the Spanish league and getting eliminated By Manchester United in the semi-final of the Champions League, Barcelona decided to fire Luis Enrique and are now searching for a new manager.

Luis Enrique has been managing Barca since 2014 and has won the Spanish League 6 times alongside 11 cup titles. He also won the Champions League on 2 occasion, 2015 and 2019

Early speculation on who may replace him are Walter Mazzari of Napoli, Jurgen Klopp of Arsenal and Antonio Conte of Juventus.

Tim Van Gool Wins 2022-2023 PFA Young Player Of The Year

Arsenal young Phenom Tim Van Gool has won the PFA young Player Of The Year.
The 22 year old dutch scored a phenomenal 37 goals in just 35 appearances, started in 30 of them.. Overall bagged 42 goals across all competition on 46 appearances(40 starts).

Manchester United Wins 2022-2023 Premiere League Title.

Manchester United, led by manager Jose Mourinho has again won the English League title for the second straight year in the 4th time in 5 years. Very impressive fit to accomplish.

Marcus Rashford and Mauro Icardi had great year as for scoring goals. Rashford scored 14 league goals in 29 appearances. across all competition Rashford bagged 20 goals in 44 appearances. 33 of them where he started.

Argentinian Mauro Icardi on his part, scored 16 goals in 23 appearances(16 starts). Across all competition, he got 19 goals on 33 appearances(22 starts).

 

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Wins 2022-2023 FWA and PFA Player Of The Year

Arsenal's World-Class Winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain won the 2022-2023 PWA and PFA Player Of The Year Awards. Oxlade scored only 7 league goals but set up 26 goals which is a remarkable total of assist. Oxalde is currently injured with  hop problem and has missed the last month of the season.

Arsenal ended finishing in 2nd place behind Manchester United who won the 2022-2023 Premiere League Title.

PWA Footballer Of The Year

PFA Football Of The Year

Noriega Named in Players Team Of The Year 2022-2023

Jesus Noriega had a great year bagging 22 goals in 28 league appearances and if he hadn't torn his hamstring which caused him to missed the final 2 months of the season, he probably would had been in line to win the player of the year which was won by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Walsall Wins UEFA European

Walsall 2 - 0 OGC Nice

After an underwhelming 10th place finish in the Premiere League, My Walsall managed to win the UEFA Title by beating French outfit OGC Nice 2 to 0. Zach Clough bagged the 2 goals with 1 being a penalty kick well taken. Arastey and Tavina played played well throughout the tournament and were major contributors in Walsall winning the title.

Walsall Premiere League Update 2022-2023

The Premiere-League 2022/23 season has now ended and unfortunately, Walsall took a step back from last year by finishing 10th in compare to last year 5th place finish. Walsall ended with 49 points this year in compare to 62 points they accumulated last year.

Jesus Noriega

Jesus Noriega was the top goal scorer by finishing with 22 Premiere League goals in 28 appearances. In all competitions, Jesus ended with 29 goals in 32 appearances. Unfortunately, for the second year in a roll, Jesus got injured and was unavailable for the final 2-3 months of the season.

Walsall Player Stats 2022-2023 Season

Almamy Toure Sold To Tottenham

After 4 full season with Walsall, Almamy Toure was sold to  Champions League outfit Tottenham for $24M Pound but with incentives, could rise up to $37M Pound in a few years.

Losing Toure is a huge blow to Walsall since he was not only a key contributor, but also the vice captain of the team.

Toure has been pressing for a move to a bigger team for the past 2 years and I was only able to keep him last year because walsall finished 4th that year thus having Champions League matches to satisfy. This year, we will not take part in Champions League matches because of last year 5th place finish, so Toure saw no reason to stay.

The money will be spend on buying a replacement at right back. Italian National Davide Vatturini did a nice job starting last game replacing Toure, but I may still need someone better for competition.

Walsall 2022-2023 Preview

With all the friendlies having been played, the Premiere League 2022-2023 opening day is right around the corner. Walsall did not make any big signing except buying Guillermo Arastey, on was on loan at Walsall last year.

It took me $46M pound to bring Arastey on the team full time which was an overpay but I felt he was worth it since he had a good year with us scoring 9 PL goals and helped us finish in 5th place. We were able to withstand injury to key player Jesus Noriega because Arastey stepped up and played well.


Defensive midfielder Rodri was sold to Russia league Champions Zenit for $12.75M Pound. I had brought Rodri 2 season ago for $19.75M Pound from Club Brugge in Belgian. 

Louis Schaub was also sold for$5M Pound to Norwich. He was bought from Crystall Palace for $7M Pound.

2022-2023 Premiere League Early Schedule

Walsall 2022-2023 Projected Starting 11

Both Tavina and Rama are young players who have improved enough to merit strong consideration for starting spot on the opening day starting 11 sheet. 

Key player Jesus Noriega who missed most of last year season through injuries, will be back fully healed and will be expected to once again lead Walsall in goal scored and created through assist.

Almamy Toure is getting attention from Real Madrid but I've put myself in a way so far and Toure is not too pleased about not allowing to leave but Real Madrid refuses to pay his release fee clause which is at $31M Pound..  If they pay up, Toure can go. Until than, he should forget about leaving.

I may have to still look for a replacement if Madrid comes up with his release clause money.

England Wins 2022 World Cup

The English finally wins a World Cup, beating France on Penalty shoot-out. The game was tied 2-2 before it ended with the English winning the shoot-out.

Tottenham Striker Harry Kane scored the 2 English goals while Anthony Marshall and Thomas Lamar scored France's 2 goals before the match ended on a penalty shutout.

 GK Joe Hart saved Djibril Sidibe penalty kick to win the 2022 World Cup

The U.S National team was knocked out in second round kick off by Portugal.

FIFA World Cup 2022 In Canada

With the World Cup 2022 opening match only days away, here a list of Walsall players who will take part in the tournament in Canada.

Luis Fernando Tavina, CM , Colombia
Jesus Noriega  ST ,       USA
Cameron Carter-Vickers, CB , U.S.A
Ryan Gauld , CM , Scotland
Paul Dummett , LFB , Wales
Ronaldo Viera , CM , Guinea-Bissau

Walsall Finishes in 5th Place in EPL 2021/2022

after last year surprising 4th place finish which bagged Walsall a place in the Champions League, we could only muster enough point to finish 5th this year thus missing out on Champions League game for next year.

Our best player American Striker Jesus Noriega missed about half of the games because of 2 long stint on the injury list and this probably cost us our Champions League status.

French Striker Odsonne Edouard who had a superb award winning year and regressed greatly and only bagged 8 PL goals in compare to last year 25 goals.

Young Spanish phenom Guillermo Arastey who is currently on Loan at Walsall from Villarreal, had a very good year scoring 9 PL goals on 19 PL appearances. He had 15 goals in all competition while making32 appearances. One of my main priority for the summer is to try to buy him from Villarreal.

Season Review

Mourinho-led Manchester United recaptured the Premiere League title after losing to Tottenham last year. That 3 PL titles in 4 years. Harry Kane of Tottenham scored the most goals  bagging 28 PL goals.

Eden Hazard won both the PFA and FWA player of the year...New Tottenham signee Kylian Mbappe won the FWA young player of the year.

Walsall Competition Review

Walsall finished 5th in the Premiere League, managed to make it out of the Champions League group stage but got knocked out of the first round elimination by Milan A.C.

EFL Cup: Walsall got knocked out in the quarter final by Manchester City.

FA Cup: Walsall made it to the finals but lost to Tottenham there.

2021/22 Premiere League Season Update

With half of the 2021/22 finished, Walsall currently occupies the 7th spot on the Premiere League table, but things looked much worse a month ago where we were ranked much lower with a terrible patch of bad result. At the moment, we're on a 4 game winning streak in the Premiere League.

Key performer Jesus Noriega is currently injured and will be out for an additional 3 weeks. Noriega.
Noriega leads the team in goals through all competition with 9. Second behind him is Zach Clough with 8 goals across all competition.

Odsonne Edouard is having a terrible year this year after winning the top 3 Premiere League Award last year.  "English Player, player of The Year" and "Player of the year" and Young Player of the year" were awards captured by Edouard but so far, with more than half the season gone, he's only managed 3 Premiere League goals. Last year, Eduard ended up with 25.

Premiere League Player Statistics.

Champions League Update

After getting out of the group stage which had Napoli as the strongest opponent, Walsall knock out round will see us match up against A.C Milan, the Italian Champions.

New 2020/21 Arrival - Cameron Carter-Vickers

Having finished in the top 4 in the league which guaranteed Champions League matches, this year target will be to again reach top 4 status. For this, Walsall needed to improve on defense since we gave up 62 goals. That was the 4th worst record.

So far, as of 6th August 2021, my only signing has been ex- Tottenham youngster Cameron Carter-Vickers, the central-back. Has very good potential but wasn't getting enough game was the league-winning Totttenham.

Stating this paying 33M pound with adds-on that could push the price to 40M pound, was clearly a gross-overpay for a young guy with good potential. I'm hoping Cameron will play well enough to justify this massive transfer fee. I purchased him because he was British and needed a young guy with good potential, so he was 1 of very few who fit my criteria I was looking for.

Cameron is on the shorter side of what I'd expect from a central back, but he makes up for that with quickness, pace and comfort ability on the ball.

2021/22 Transfer Window

Kylian Mbappe the ex-Monaco player was the highest transfer-buy this season. He will be going to the English-League Champion, Tottenham.