Former Walsall manager Colin Lee is prepared to patch up his differences with the Saddlers by once more putting his name in the frame for the Bescot Stadium hot-seat vacancy.
Lee was sacked by the Saddlers just four games from the end of the campaign two seasons ago, when chairman Jeff Bonser took exception to him talking to Plymouth Argyle after being officially approached by the Devon club.
It rebounded on the relegation-threatened Saddlers; following a tactically-inept 5-0 defeat in Paul Merson's first game in charge as playermanager at Norwich, they then lost their next two games and fell out of the Coca-Cola Championship on goal difference.
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After more than a year out of the game, Lee made a return to management at Millwall on the eve of this season. He swiftly found himself caught up in another game of politics that was to see him first move upstairs at the New Den before losing his job altogether in January.
Despite having taken a long time reaching a financial agreement with Walsall, the former Saddlers and Wolverhampton Wanderers boss is keen to get back into management and, in the wake of the respective failure of Merson and Kevan Broadhurst to halt Walsall's decline, he will certainly not let what has gone on over the past two years prevent him applying for the vacancy.
"Life's too short to bear old grudges," said Lee. "I'd certainly be prepared to speak to them and let bygones be bygones.
"I'm saddened by what has happened to all of the clubs in the Midlands this season, especially as I used to manage two of them. But I'm particularly upset by what has happened at Walsall, especially as it does not seem so long ago since we were beating West Bromwich Albion 4-1 on the opening day of the season. I really enjoyed my time at the club and will always have a fondness for them."
Lee points to the January departures of Matty Fryatt and Julian Bennett to Leicester City and Nottingham Forest respectively and also Jorge Leit?o's return to Portugal, as the crux of this season's events.
"At this level, it's a case of getting your recruitment right and doing it within your budget but I also recognise that when teams like Walsall get offers for players, they have to be tempted," he said. "But, what baffled me as an outsider was not so much allowing Bennett and Fryatt to move on, but why they also let Jorge go.
"He is a good player at that level, who scores goals and would have made all the difference. I just wonder whether the club thought they already had enough points on the board by then and could afford to let the players go."
