Steve Davies: Walsall must set sights high next season

After a mixed start to the campaign, the club turned a corner in the second half of the season when they began to pick up more consistent results.

Those positive performances were disrupted when football was suspended due to the coronavirus and Davies believes, if Walsall can emerge financially stable, that they will be in a good place to improve their side and mount a promotion charge next season.

"It's going to be a tough one because I think there will be some very good players that will become available next season because of the current situation," he said.

"A lot of clubs won't be able to afford the wages that they've been paying and if we come out of this stronger than other clubs, we'll be in a good position to pick quality players up for possibly a fraction of what they're worth.

"We should be aiming for minimum play-offs – we're starting to get a squad together that work well together."

Meanwhile, Davies believes that the club needs more strength in depth, rather than a complete overhaul, to get ready for a promotion race.

"Danny Guthrie is still coming in and out of games with fitness levels so it would be nice to get a midfield enforcer, somebody that breaks play up and strokes the ball around," he added.

"We have Wes (McDonald) out wide, I think (Caolan) Lavery is a decent striker, Josh (Gordon) works his nuts off – I think it's more competition for players rather than signing for different positions.

"We need to get a squad where people are competing and know they have to play to the best of their ability otherwise there's somebody waiting to come in.

"I don't think there's anything majorly wrong with the squad, just give them a bit more competition for places and hopefully we'll see more of the kids coming through next year.

"Miguel (Llera) is doing a decent job with the academy compared to last year – it was an unmitigated disaster with the academy last year.

"This year it's picked up and I have actually seen a lot more of the youth development lads this year and we have some decent lads coming through that can challenge to get into the squad."