George Bennett discusses Walsall's latest transfer window signing - as Alfie Chang arrives on loan from Birmingham City.
It is the first piece of business to be done at the Bescot today - as Chang becomes the latest man through the door.
It is the first piece of business to be done at the Bescot today - as Chang becomes the latest man through the door.
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00:00Good afternoon Sadler's fans, Walsall's deadline transfer day is finally up and running with the arrival of midfielder Alfie Chang on loan from Birmingham City until the end of the season.
00:18Chang becomes Walsall's fifth signing of the January transfer window after the loan arrivals of Nathan Asinwe and Ethan Wheatley from Charlton Athletic and Manchester United respectively.
00:33Striker Levi Amanche joined permanently from Bromley last week and of course Alicja Ahoy, the defender, joined from Drogheda United after his contract expired there, only to then return to the fellow Traveller-owned club for the remainder of 2025.
00:51Walsall do have a re-co-option in his contract. In terms of Chang's career so far, a Birmingham City academy graduate captained them in the 2018 FA Youth Cup, made his debut for the first team in 2021, went on to make 13 championship appearances.
01:15But his progress and development has really been stalled by a serious knee injury which he suffered in 2023 and he only made his comeback at senior level as a substitute during Birmingham's 2-1 victory over Lincoln City in the FA Cup last month.
01:32So it will be interesting to see how he is eased into the fold. Will it be a similar situation as to what we saw with fellow Walsall and Birmingham midfielder George Hall? Obviously himself suffered a series of hamstring injuries prior to his loan arrival at Bestcott on deadline day in September.
01:52Eventually had a purple patch around November to December time before suffering another setback when he suffered a hamstring injury on the eve of Walsall's 1-0 win against Bowery in mid-December. He was initially ruled out for 6-8 weeks and that's now been extended to around late March to early April after he returned to Birmingham as parent club to see a consultant and had to undergo surgery.
02:19So with Hall out and Jack Earing who is expected to be out for around a similar time with an ankle injury, that's left Walsall a little bit short in midfield so will provide help and cover for the likes of JB Jellis, Charlie Lakin and Oshin McKenty.
02:35And it's a continuation as well of Walsall's strong connections with Matt Sadler's former club. There's former Blues Academy graduates in the form of Ryan Sturck, Charlie Lakin, Rico Brown the defender who arrived in September.
02:54So as we've seen across Matt Sadler's spout really utilising those local connections and yeah just gives Walsall that extra cover as they make that push in their lead to title charge.