George Bennett and Jonny Drury discuss professional deals for two Walsall youngsters - and potential non-league loans.
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00:00 Professional deals for Dylan Thomas and George Barrett, two Walsall youngsters that have
00:10 been in and around the first team last season under Matt Sadler. Doesn't really seem surprising,
00:18 George. Something for the other youngsters at Walsall to maybe look at and use as a bit
00:25 of a yardstick. It seems that Matt Sadler's motto is if you're good enough you're going
00:30 to have a bit of a chance.
00:32 Yeah, well I had some really interesting chats with the academy manager Rob Williams and
00:37 one decision that the club made as soon as Matt Sadler arrived on a permanent basis was
00:41 to merge the two together in terms of academy players training at Essenton. That then gives
00:49 them the opportunity if they need to, to grab a couple of the academy players so they can
00:52 get involved with the first team. So it kind of eases that integration. So that's a great
00:57 thing to see. Dylan Thomas is someone that Matt Sadler has spoken highly about previously,
01:02 as has Rob Williams when I spoke to him. He was given his debut age 16 in a defeat against
01:08 Brighton under-21s in the EFL Trophy and he then got cameos off the bench against Sheppey
01:15 United and Shrewsbury Town in the EFL Trophy. So clearly a player there that fans could
01:22 potentially be excited about still very early on in his development. He's still 17 years
01:26 old so you don't want to put the pressure on him. But yeah, definitely an exciting talent
01:31 there and someone that has a good mentality because I wrote a story actually which went
01:36 out this week about the fact that after the Sheppey United game he played three or four
01:40 minutes off the bench. But I remember how arduous that journey back from the Islay Sheppey
01:45 was and yeah, he was back in the starting line-up for the under-18s the following morning.
01:50 So clearly someone that's desperate to play, desperate to prove himself. So a really good
01:54 example there that he's set of his character and his mentality. George Barrett has been
02:02 sort of within the first team set up really for the past season. I mean, he's been on
02:10 the bench a few times in the senior squad. So someone that's been in and around the likes
02:16 of Owen Evans, the likes of Jackson Smith and Watson. So, you know, another person there
02:22 that hopefully can have first team opportunities in the future. But yeah, back on Thomas, I
02:29 mean, he's kind of trained with the first team more regularly than the academy now.
02:35 So it'll be interesting to see what the future holds for him. I mean, I spoke to Matt Sadler
02:39 three or four months ago now around sort of has Ronan Meyer kind of paved the way for
02:48 potential and even Joe Phelps actually with Kiernan Minster kind of paved the way for
02:52 players to go and gain experience elsewhere with the Russian Olympic link. And, you know,
02:59 although he didn't allude to the fact that Russian Olympic would be a definite option,
03:03 he did say that, you know, that would be something that the club would consider. So whether that's
03:07 something that could be in the pipeline in the next season or so, it would be interesting
03:11 to see if he goes out and gets some senior minutes.