By Neil Ravenscroft
October 31 2002

In this week's column, Neil Ravenscroft anounces the Player of the Month and also looks at whether Crozier's departure will mean trouble for the club. But why should Crozier's departure from the F.A. mean problems for Walsall?
It goes back to a couple of old sayings, one about the fox being loose in the chicken coop and the other about lunatics running the asylum.
Crozier has done a wonderful job at the F.A., changing it from an outmoded institution, run by boring old f****, to one which makes money and is efficient. However, that was the source of his downfall, as it led to jealousy from the Premier League Chairmen, who, with the remnants of those people at the F.A. who had had their noses put out of joint by Crozier, had enough influence to make his position untenable.
What this means, however, is that the game is likely to end up in the hands of those Chairmen desparate for extra revenue to put them in a position to challenge or survive in the Premier.
These are the very people who want Celtic and Rangers to be playing down here to increase their revenues.
I see the proposals for the creation of Premier 2 or the Phoenix League being back on the agenda, with so called little clubs like ours being frozen out again. I'm worried!

As for the Player of the Month award, I didn't feel too much like giving one after Tuesday, but you can't let one result change that.

Honourable mentions for the continued improvement of Wrack and Aranalde, the consistency of Bazeley and Hay (before Tuesday!), the influence of O'Connor and the exploits of Leitao and Junior.
However, for the second month running and despite a lapse against Palace, the award goes to :-

Ian Roper