Warren

Yes, he never felt right to me. Slightly dismissive by me, but he's been successful at Morecambe and done OK at Tranmere. He's not worth the relatively high wages he likely wanted. I suspect he was very well managed at Morecambe (a non libellous hint).

Very well written. Aside from sharing concerns about the style of play adopted by Crosby in terms of entertainment - which he seems to have addressed - I disagree with you. At the top of English football, the Premier League is the strongest top division in the world and the strongest national league there has ever been. It's spectacularly entertaining every week. This means the leagues below are also stronger than ever. Players are pushed down the pyramid. The top clubs loan out talented players that can't get into the first team squads yet. Some run a subsidiary business dedicated to loaning players out (e.g. Chelsea). Port Vale was a big investment to buy and has required a lot of money to put right the infrastructure. We were about to follow Bury under Smurthwaite and if Covid-19 struck with him in charge. So I am deeply respectful of Carol and family's funding of the club. Port Vale and clubs like us are not good business investments. They are opportunities to enjoy running an expensive community asset. Port Vale needs to be exceptionally well run to compete at L1 level. There is clearly a significant barrier to going higher in the league structure for clubs of our size. I expect the wheels to come off at Barrow in the next five years as they have done at Forest Green. Barrow has a population of 55k stuck on the southern tip of Cumbria. Even the street lighting columns had obsolete electrical systems when I audited them in 2011! Plus its located in a position people dont go to. Inherently off the main roads in Cumbria inclufing the M6 and the coastal route towards Whitehaven and Workington et al. It's in rugby league land as well. Go figure.

Devine has replaced a loanee from Everton who has gone back due to injury. Plymouth are 8 points above the bottom 3. They need to push on in the remaining games to stay clear of trouble. I think Devine will get regular sub appearances to start with and if he develops could get starts. He's not gone to a club cruising and will get good real life experience.

Devine has gone down to Plymouth.

He clearly needs rehabilitation from a staying fit perspective and re whatever went wrong at Aberdeen. There is big money at stake here for Liverpool. Plus we can see in the current Liverpool squad, as we can in the Port Vale squad now, a commitment to bringing young players through.

He's played 9 games for the Liverpool first team including 5 in the PL. He's capped at England U18, U19 and U21 levels. One of the reasons I'm of this opinion is the Financial Fair Play Rules. All the top clubs are going to be severely restricted by these. Arsenal can't afford a striker for example. Liverpool clearly need new cover at fullback and are second favourites to sign Mbappe from PSG behind Real Madrid. They could do with not having to spend £50 million on a new centre half. But we are 100% sure they need a new centre half at the end of the season.

Manip is leaving. They need 4 centre halves. They'll have 3.

To be fair I think flights Manchester to Aberdeen are possible. So I'll withdraw my concerns on that front if so.

He made 17 appearances for Blackpool in 2022/3. But I get your drift. To me the taller you get the more issues there can be to back / spine. I made a comment about Aberdeen being a long way away. I know it is because I go to Arbroath quite a lot which is 50 miles south. The point is that will not help in getting fitness / injury issues fixed, whereas Port Vale is only 70 mile from Liverpool. Hence this is a good move for him. Standard of football between the SPL and EFL L1 is about the same. I think Liverpool will be desperate to get him fit and playing regularly. They need a new central defender for next season and if he comes through at PV he is the man saving them £ millions. Matip is out for the season and at the end of his contract.

Head everything out of our box, block all the shots in the centre and be better than our midfield on the ball. Oh, and score from our corners and freekicks.

Smith will still be here when all these are gone.

Signing Rhys Williams is brilliant for us. He's exactly what is needed. For Liverpool, they have issues at centre half with injuries and contracts ending. If Williams proves his fitness over 20 games he could save them say £50 million by going back into their first team squad.

There is risk to be managed which was done poorly last Jan. But a big difference this time is the large number of our young players we have brought through to the first team squad. We need to give them a lot of opportunities whilst not over playing / relying on them. The loan players we've brought in recently fit the development model the club has. In general we are not now taking on loan old farts. I'm an old fart by the way, so I can say that!

On the injury / recovery front, PV is much closer to Liverpool than Aberdeen. It should be easier to have a managed fitness programme using the resources of a Premier League club close at hand.

This looks a good signing to me if true. He's big and likely very skilfull at L1 level. He would only come to play and not mess around on the bench. Get Jesse Debrah fit and the back three starts to look big and able to play footie. This concept of being able to give a player / parent club assurance they'll play regularly is an advantage PV has in the transfer market. It's a way to close the gap in the transfer market on bigger clubs like Derby who wouldn't provide that assurance. But it's slightly a double edged sword if we take on loan players who aren't ready for L1 level like Kofi Balmer.

Weir has come to play. Looks a good signing.

Retirement. I thought Smith was good, but clearly Beterbiev is exceptional. No point hanging round not to fight him again. Time for a coaching career.

We got alarmingly played through v Charlton. But the biggest issue is giving the ball away. That ruined the whole night v Middlesbrough.

I think the standard of the Premier League is the strongest in the world but also the strongest of any league there has ever been. This means that players who may have played at that level in the past are pushed down. In other words every level is stronger than ever.

I'm sort of in agreement with this and sort of not in agreement. The main difference is information technology and data analysis. That should help in targetting scouting and player comparisons. Also in the physiological field. However, I get some users, e.g. Man Utd and Chelsea, can still waste billions on the wrong players.

Set aside injuries. I think where we are at is an emerging big centre forward whose size enables the target man role and occupies defenders at set pieces. Not prolific but good for 1 in 5 to 1 in 10 goals to games. Then attackers playing alongside or behind who are scoring goals in Chislett and Garrity et al. Plus I think Loft can be a significant threat from the bench and his size offers defensive capabilities. The issues with strikers are the ones in current form are expensive to sign and pay. The ones that we develop and perform well will get signed by bigger clubs - accept PV gets a fee. At our size of club and L1 level it's hard to create and keep an effective strike force. We can't afford a lot of risk which I define to be a striker / forward who costs a fee, has high wages, gets injured a lot and doesn't score that many. It's tough to manage and we ain't doing too bad in recent games!? It's the back where we have stuff to fix to get safe in mid table.

Uche played the whole of the game v Charlton, scored and was man of the match. He's now up to speed and deserves a run of games.

My thinking is structured, if you like, on the basis that we have quite limited funds available. We seem to have slightly too few attackers but they can do a job. However, also too many defenders who are not quite good enough at L1 level. Hence I would like to prioritise defence - but we need to move some defenders on first.

The front end of the team looks OK to me. I'm up for a clever signing. But surely we have to be able to defend better. It's the key to climbing into the top half. This is a multi facetted problem and the backroom team need to analyse it and recruit a player to help solve it if possible.