Megson: No panick buying

10 August 2001

Albion go into tomorrow's game without any last minute additions to the squad in place of the departed Lee Hughes. Although he has around £5 million to spend from the proceeds, coupled with the funds already made available, Megson clearly wishes to take time to find the right players:

"We have been really busy in the last 24 hours and players who were targets before - when we had £486,000 to spend - have changed. I will utilise the money available to make us a better squad and then bring someone in who I'd hope would go on and replace Lee, but is not yet proven."

Clearly, Megson is not looking for a direct replacement for Hughes, as this would probably wipe out most of the funds that are available without allowing us to strengthen elsewhere:

"It's impossible to replace Lee Hughes like for like. If there's another 20-goals-a- season striker out there they will cost the same if not more, so it will be counter productive."

Fortunately, Megson has almost a full squad to choose from - with Ruel Fox fit again, only Jason Roberts and Brian Jensen are unavailable. Given Megson's previous statement that he only has 16 experienced first team players on the books now, the options are obviously somewhat limited. However, although Walsall will be fielding a number of new summer signings against us, former Albion defender Matt Carbon won't be among them. Ray Graydon broke the news thus:

"The only one who will not play is Matt Carbon who has some personal problems at home and he is not with us."

It turns out that Matt's mother is seriously ill and has been for some time - this has been a factor in his difficulty at finding a new club. Let's hope Matt's back to play a blinder against everyone else in the Division...

Previous Stories:

  09 August 2001:  Hughes: It was time to move on

  08 August 2001:  Hughes on his way

  07 August 2001:  Brown: Bid rejected

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