Lee Grant Linked to Walsall Head Coach Shortlist

Lee Grant is linked to the Walsall head coach shortlist, and the club still has no permanent successor to Mat Sadler. Walsall have already released 12 players, so the next appointment goes straight into a rebuild. That gives the search more weight than a routine coaching change.

Walsall and Lee Grant

Grant left Huddersfield Town in January after eight months, and he was in charge of a side sitting sixth at the time. His Huddersfield spell ended with a 41.7 per cent win rate, a record that has put his name into the frame for a different kind of rescue job at Walsall.

Walsall were three points off the play-offs when Sadler was dismissed in March, but they finished 13 points adrift. Sadler won two of his last 14 matches, and his two-and-a-half year reign included the club’s first run of three straight defeats.

Sadler Exit and Byfield Run

Darren Byfield took over as interim head coach for the final 10 matches. He started with five unbeaten games, then lost four of his last five, leaving the club to close out the season without a permanent answer in place.

Byfield said after the season that he was unsure about his future. Before the final game, he suggested an update on the permanent appointment should arrive within a week, but that week has passed without a public development.

Mairs Holds the Line

Stewart Mairs said last week that the appointment was close and described the process as “intense and thorough”. South Shields boss Ian Watson has also been mentioned, although South Shields chairman Geoff Thompson has twice dismissed the idea on social media. Luke Garrard was another linked name, but he signed a new contract on Monday.

That leaves Walsall with one pressing job: naming the coach who will shape a squad that has already been cut by 12 players before summer planning and pre-season gather pace. The shortlist has narrowed in public view, and Grant now sits among the names tied to the vacancy.