Dean Keates confident of Walsall signings

With less than a fortnight to go until the new season gets under way, the Saddlers squad is light on numbers – particularly in defence where Jon Guthrie is the only senior centre-back.

Keates is currently monitoring a number of trialists who impressed in Walsall’s friendly win over Ajax. The Express & Star revealed last week that Tomas Egert, Christian Mbulu and Tom Brewitt were three of the four defenders given an opportunity to impress in that game.

But it’s now understood New Zealand international Adam Mitchell, formerly of Bolton, was the other centre-back to feature. And Keates will have another look at all four players this week as he continues to work to strengthen his squad.

“I’m confident we’ll have the right bodies in soon enough,” Keates said.

“We know the structure we want and which way we want to go.

“We know what type of players we want in each position and we will look at adding more. With the trialists we have now got a week’s worth of training so I think we’ll look at an in-house game and invite them back for that.

“We’ll see how it goes over the next few days.” Alongside the trialists, Stoke boss Gary Rowett has also offered to loan Walsall players for the new season with Ryan Sweeney and Harry Souttar understood to be available. Rowett made the offer in the wake of Kory Roberts suffering a double leg break in a friendly against his side.

“Stoke were unbelievable after the game,” Keates added.

“I first had contact with Gary afterwards just to thank him and their medical staff for the attention and help they gave Kory.

“There have been one or two messages we have swapped since regards help going forward. But they have been out in Germany so it’s something we’ll chase up.”