Warren

Brian says lots of sensible stuff on here.

We play Peterborough on Tuesday. They have lost their last 3 games. That is a difficult fixture but I feel we have more of a chance than expected when I did my research. Obviously coming up this month are Cheltenham, Reading and Fleetwood. The euthimistic 6 pointers. We play Lincoln at Vale Park. Nothing easy but points to be had. Some confidence returned to the team yesterday. We did alright against a side where I could see why they are top 6-8. But Ojo has to stay fit and playing because he is running midfield. Yesterday we were better at corner routines. Can see efforts gone in on the training ground. We had more strength on the bench, but Lopata is possibly a big loss if he's out a few games. This wing back system drives me bananas now. On the train home yesterday I looked at the Premier League games. It's a minority system in the Premier League with most playing 4 at the back. The new in thing is the 4 becoming 3 in possession with the right back stepping into central midfield. That is what the the top two teams do with John Stones and Alexander Arnold. To be fair they have top level players comfortable on the ball and Alexander Aronold has a better cross field wang than Jones! I don't know which way our season will go, but I am worried about midfield. Ojo is the man. Weir did better. Massey good going forward. Stevenage targeted Grant at LWB second half because he was too isolated and I might conclude this system is particularly vulnerable on big pitches.

Tranmere have signed Ousmane Kane on a 6 month deal with the option to extend for 12 months. He is 22 years old and has 8 caps for Senegal. He's been on trial and now got his visa / permit ratified.

PV 6 shots, none on target, 64% possession. 1-0 to the opposition. Sounds like classic Crosby.

You obviously need an organisation structure that is adequate for all the functions that need to be carried out. The manager manages the team and relevant media work etc. Quite clearly there is a much bigger body or work than that and which needs overall oversight. Honestly, set aside the fact Port Vale is a football club, and many businesses have what would often be called Director of Operations. They sit alongside the Director of Finance, Director of Sales et al and work to the Managing Director / Owner in overall charge and responsibility.

Port Vale is a corporate entity. It is owned by Carol Shanahan et al. The fans are the customers. The customers are benefiting from better facilities invested in by the business / owners. I've not seen any valid business reason to invest in any football club like Port Vale. There are many other ways to make successful business investments. Football clubs like Port Vale quite simply consistently lose money. Therefore Carol et al are putting much of their personal wealth at risk and ultimately all most certainly some loss - likely several million. Eventually another benefactor owner will be needed to keep it going. Go back to fantasy world mate! As an accountant I have an objective perspective.

If Flitcroft left PV tomorrow. He'd point to being behind a promotion, establishing a young player structure that has brought many players through to the first team and resulted in many players being sold on to big clubs and having a team establish itself in L1. His reputation is at risk if relegation occurs. I don't think it will, but I think the manager Crosby keeps going across the cliff edge too often. The club is massively in a better place than the Smurthwaite years and Flitcroft has been important in that.

We need to win some games right now. The players in the side / squad since the start of the season have got us 5th bottom of the league. Crosby also being in charge as manager. One thing that annoys me above all else is losing games by way of the wrong strategy and wrong changes in a match. Where I am going with this is that the players recently signed, and particularly Lopata and Mighten, need to come into the team straight away. We also urgently need Ojo and Debra playing again regularly. This is about defensive resilience. People are correctly in my view observing our goal scoring is challenged. The answer to that is Chislett must continue to step up and Wilson needs to get fully back up to speed. It may help Wilson's fitness that it's Winter and a fly won't land on his head. They're both very good players at this level.

He went down for a medical..... It's all too late now. Portsmouth broke our player and he's gone to be super glued. Loft has to come in and be made effective. I think Loft must play because of his physicality. If he doesn't opposition teams will more easily target Chislett and Wilson.

Best keep Ethan Chislett fit.

RK NAME TEAM P A 1 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing Derby County 29 10 2 Harrison Burrows Peterborough United 28 8 Aaron Collins Bolton Wanderers 27 8 4 Josh Sheehan Bolton Wanderers 26 7 Kwame Poku Peterborough United 25 7 Ethan Chislett Port Vale 24 7 Karamoko Dembele Blackpool 22 7 8 Christopher Hamilton Blackpool 29 6 Femi Azeez Reading 29 6 Jack Sparkes Portsmouth 29 6 Cameron Brannagan Oxford United 27 6 Corey Taylor Derby County 27 6 Conor Hourihane Derby County 27 6 Tom Barkhuizen Derby County 23 6

NAME TEAM P G 1 Devante Cole Barnsley 28 16 Jamie Reid Stevenage 27 16 Alfie May Charlton Athletic 26 16 4 Colby Bishop Portsmouth 28 15 Jordan Rhodes Blackpool 25 15 6 Sam Hoskins Northampton Town 26 14 7 James Collins Derby County 29 13 Dion Charles Bolton Wanderers 26 13 9 Chris Martin Bristol Rovers 19 11 10 Ephron Mason-Clark Peterborough United 27 10 11 Corey Taylor Derby County 27 8 Kwame Poku Peterborough United 25 8 Victor Adeboyejo Bolton Wanderers 25 8 Ben Garrity Port Vale 23 8 15 Harvey Knibbs Reading 28 7 Jordan Gibson Carlisle United 28 7 Cameron Brannagan Oxford United 27 7 Liam Sercombe Cheltenham Town 27 7 Paddy Lane Portsmouth 27 7 Stephen Humphrys Wigan Athletic 27 7 Luke Leahy Wycombe Wanderers 26 7 Mark Harris Oxford United 26 7 Gassan Ahadme Cambridge United 20 7 Charlie Wyke Wigan Athletic 18 7 25 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing Derby County 29 6 Ruben Rodrigues Oxford United 27 6 Ruel Sotiriou Leyton Orient 27 6 Tyler Goodrham Oxford United 27 6 Herbie Kane Barnsley 26 6 Kieron Bowie Northampton Town 26 6 Ricky Jade-Jones Peterborough United 26 6 Ethan Chislett Port Vale 24 6 John Mcatee Barnsley 23 6 Shaqai Forde Leyton Orient 23 6 Sam Smith Reading 18 6 Jonson Clarke-Harris Peterborough United 18 6 Will Goodwin Oxford United 16 6 Martyn Waghorn Derby County 13 6 39

I voted for Brexit, like the majority of the country, would have voted this window for a good striker. Most strikers are expensive and not very prolific. So, if we have got enough forwards to share goals around fair enough. Otherwise Crosby will have to use his defensive prowess (gulp) to make us a 1-0 team. I'm not missing the German Euro woman spouting on our TV everyday. Would like to help the EU by selling them one of our aircraft carriers so they can put Belgium Chocolate sailers on it. The EU really knows how to run things.

Yeah for sure. This half a season stuff needs to be ironed out imo I don't think it's acceptable and just adds pressure to the team when they just chip off elsewhere It's a double edged sword. Lose one you want to keep, lose one you want to lose.

I'm in Liverpool One but it's too late to buy a striker now.

Whoops sorry, I lost the plot!

Away at Exeter on Saturday, home v Orient on Tuesday and home v Stevensge week Saturday. If we have 7 points from those games I'd be pretty confident about having enough in the squad to stay up.

I haven't studied FFP rules closely enough. But the breach of rules consequences seem to be sporting. That is a deduction of points. If a club gets in overall financial trouble then the directors have a duty to address that. They need to bring income and expenditure back into line. If they cant do that they should stop trading or maybe sell the club to someone who will introduce new money. What they should not do is continue trading at a loss so they run out of money when creditors of all types cannot be paid. HMRC are often the ones to bring the final curtain down then if NI and Tax due haven't been paid over.

Looks like a good window to me. A concern about the young players in midfield stepping up to the level. Concern up front that with the mix of players now available we find an effective approach to score enough goals. Concern the defence can be rejigged and made more robust. I bet every team at our level in the table has these challenges.

If I was the accountant I'd see it this way ..... The club should have a total annual budget and also likely a total medium term budget over say 2-5 years. Accounts are produced on an annual basis. The budgets should have separate cost centres covering all the different types of income and expenditure. So player wages is likely one cost centre, depreciation will be another, season ticket income another etc. The owners and managers should set up budgets that are realistic and reflect what they want to do. They will decide what should be spent on player wages. What needs to be charged as depreciation is a little more deterministic since it's a calculation based on accounting standards. Coming to your question the respective budgets are separate but ..... The total budget for the club reflects the overall financial targets. At the extremes that is influenced by the needs to remain solvent and trading whilst also complying with the financial fair play rules etc. Hence real life comes in to play. Most obviously if season ticket sales / attendances are significantly different than expected that should impact the wages budget. If attendances are down 2k then all the club's expenditure budgets are challenged and a reduction in the budget for player wages should be expected. Otherwise the club will sooner or later run into significant financial trouble. We've been there before! Very bad.

Matty Taylor wasted a vast amount of chances and don't want him back.

There are three acceptable reasons. First we got promoted in 2021/22 and needed new players at a higher level. Even after building up the team we werent good enough and lucky to avoid relegation in 2022/23 prompting more change. We are making max use of players on loan. They are often changed at each window and especially young players.

I'm very surprised by this one. If he was good enough to play in the Premier League this season or Championship next season then surely he'd be playing regularly for PV now. But what will be will be. Close the cash register / print off the debit card receipt. Good luck to Tommy. Take the chance.

If the club sticks up a new block of toilets. That's capital expenditure and will create fixed assets that go in the balance sheet. This asset will then be depreciated over an acceptable number of years - say 30 years. Some parts of the asset like the building might be 50 years plus. The charge to the profit and loss account annually will be depreciation. On the funding side the club may take out loans or leases which would also create charges to the profit and loss account.

Yes, Barnsley are trying to play at Championship level next season. I think Kacper Lopata needs to play games but is part of their long term plans. I was disappointed Williams didn't start last Saturday. He's out now. But I've been fed up of Port Vale having a central defence that's too small - albeit Debra helped on that front. Surely Port Vale had some contractual influence over Williams loan from Liverpool. If he's not fit very soon he can't come .....