Walsall have offered professional contracts to three youngsters. Sam Adkins, Darryl Westlake and Will Grigg have all been offered deals after impressing on their Apprenticeship programme.
Adkins is an all action midfielder who was given his debut as a second half substitute at Peterborough United in January.
Right full-back Westlake is a reliable defender who possesses pace and ability, he was the BBC WM Young Player of the Month in September and has impressed for the reserves with some mature displays.
While front-man Grigg (pictured above) is an exciting talent who has been a regular on the score sheet for the youth team as well as making an impact at reserve team level. His performances this term saw him rewarded with a call-up to the Northern Ireland Under-19 squad and like Adkins he made a promising first team debut earlier this season.
Head of Youth, Mick Halsall believes that this is now where the hard work begins in earnest;
“There is a lot of hard work and commitment ahead. I would like to think that they’ve learnt with us and we’ve given them a grounding, but now I can’t stress enough how difficult the road ahead is going to be for them.
“Things become even more ruthless and they have to be able to stand on their own two feet, work hard and show what they are capable of.”
(Darryl Westlake left | Sam Adkins right)
Manager Chris Hutchings added:
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for these three lads to further their careers in the game. We’ve had them training with the first-team in recent weeks and they have stood up well, which is a testament to the work that Mick Halsall has done in moving them in the right direction.
“It’s down to them to work even harder now to make an impact at this level and continue to move in the right direction. We had to make some tough decisions and will be giving the lads that were released every assistance to find new clubs.”
