Walsall have signed James Connolly after he turned down a new deal from Crewe.
I have posted a video below, but here is my analysis from Claude (my knowledgable assistant)
On the player himself, here’s the unvarnished version:
The case for
- Left-footed centre-back, 24, 6’1″ (185cm) — decent age/size profile, still has resale/development value
- Two full seasons of regular League Two football at Crewe, so he’s proven he can start week-to-week at this level
- Wales U21 caps in his background suggest there was real promise at academy level
- Free transfer — no fee, so low-risk from a business perspective
The case against, and it’s a longer list
- His FotMob ratings this season are underwhelming — mostly 5.5-7.6 range, nothing that screams standout performer, and Crewe have been a poor team (they’re battling relegation form, losing 1-3, 2-3, 0-2, 0-3 in recent games he played in)
- He’s now on his fourth club by 24 (Blackburn released him → Cardiff, loaned out, sold → Bristol Rovers, 73 apps but eventually moved on → Crewe, turned down new deal). That’s not necessarily a red flag on its own, but it’s not a settled, in-demand career trajectory either
- Injury history — significant hamstring issue in Jan 2025 that kept him out
- Turning down a new deal at a struggling League Two Crewe side isn’t the same as being chased by promotion-chasing sides. It could mean he wants a step up, or it could just as easily mean no one’s fighting hard to keep him
- Scored precisely one Crewe goal in nearly two seasons — not indicative of much attacking threat from set plays
Bottom line: If Walsall genuinely are looking at him, it’s a low-risk, unspectacular free-agent punt on a still-young centre-back with League Two experience — not a marquee signing, not someone who’ll transform a defence. He’s the kind of player you sign as squad depth or a projects-based punt, not someone to build a promotion push around. I’d want to see his underlying defensive numbers (tackles, aerial duels won, errors leading to goals) before getting excited, and those aren’t something I have to hand right now.
Want me to dig into his actual defensive statistics this season, or check whether there’s any credible transfer link at all beyond rumour sites?
yes, what are his defensive stats
Synthesized player data to deliver defensive analysis
Synthesized player data to deliver defensive analysis
Here’s what’s actually out there — worth flagging that detailed per-90 numbers (tackles won, interceptions per game, aerial win %) aren’t publicly broken out in the search results, only WhoScored’s qualitative strengths/weaknesses tags and FotMob’s season totals. So this is a partial picture, not a full data dump.
Season totals (2025/26, per FotMob): 3 goals, 0 assists, 3,143 minutes, average rating 7.05, 8 yellow cards. FotMob
WhoScored’s style profile (based on his last two seasons):
- Rated “Strong” for aerial duels, ball interceptions, and blocking the ball WhoScored
- Rated “Weak” for tackling WhoScored
- Tendency to play long balls, doesn’t dive into tackles, and commits fouls often WhoScored
Being critical about what this actually tells you:
The good bit — strong in the air, good at reading the game to intercept and block. That’s a genuine defensive centre-back profile, not a ball-playing luxury option. If Walsall need someone who wins headers and cuts out passing lanes, that fits.
The concerning bit — “weak” tackling combined with “commits fouls often” is not a good pairing. It usually means he’s mistiming challenges or getting drawn into situations he can’t win cleanly, then fouling to compensate. 8 yellow cards in a season as a centre-back is on the high side and often signals a player who’s a bit rash or exposed 1v1. That’s the kind of profile that gets exploited by quicker forwards, and at Walsall’s level you’ll face plenty of those.
8 yellows + weak tackling together should worry you more than either stat alone — it suggests a discipline/technique issue rather than just bad luck, and it’s exactly the sort of thing that either gets coached out in a good defensive setup or gets a player sent off in a relegation six-pointer.
One more honest point: the rating of 7.05 average and 7.21 detailed rating look decent on the surface, but remember this is Crewe — a team that’s been getting battered in recent results (3-1, 3-2, 3-0 losses in that run I found earlier). Individual ratings at a struggling side can be inflated by “did fine in a losing team” scoring, so I wouldn’t take that number as proof he’d perform the same in a more competitive Walsall side.
My honest take: aerially dominant, reads the game well positionally, but the tackling/discipline numbers are a real red flag for a fourth-tier centre-back who’s already had one serious hamstring injury. Not a “no,” but not someone you’d sign without checking his underlying defensive numbers (tackle success %, duels won, errors leading to shots) directly via Opta or similar — which the free search tools I have access to don’t break out in enough granularity for a confident final verdict.
