TJHValiant

Didn’t know that. I thought they had a bargain. Maybe wily old Carol might try to get some money to fund a deal for Clarke Harris? Stranger things have happened!

I didn’t actually know that, it was all in the papers about JCH.

They won’t pay 400 to 500k for Uche! They got Clarke Harris for 580k! If they offer anymore than 50k, I would be stunned.

Granted permission to speak to other clubs? That’s him off then. The January strengthening appears to be underway as usual. Given that Charlton have just bought Clarke Harris, I hope Uche has a nice warm coat, as he won’t be getting off their bench much. I just hope we are not that stupid, unless there is another class, proven striker lined up. Uche has impressed me recently and I’d be pleased if he extended. Any takers for Loft? Course not!

Plus Boro outplayed Chelsea in the first leg of the semi and have a deserved lead.

That’s a fair point. Also £12 million isn’t really, in football terms that much cash entering nearly half a decade of ownership (took over in 2019). Dai Yongge, Reading’s rogue chairman has put in over £200m of his own money into Reading during his tenure. In fact, he put so much in, they broke financial fair play rules at one point. Yet, now the money has dried up, their fans are throwing tantrums because their natural base without sugar daddies is League 1 or 2.

I would seriously challenge the idea that our natural finances are only league 2 level and that we are in league 1 due to some kind of charity off Carol and Kevin. We have attendances that are far above most league 2 clubs and are average for league 1. We have significant corporate and hospitality services far and away above a league 2 club. The only time we really struggled in league 2 was due to prats like Smurfwaite and MOLD taking money for their own pockets. Carol and Kevin have saved the club and have it running better than ever, but no way is this club purely being sustained in league 1 through their charity. It is a big enough club to be sustained in league 1 through the size of fan base and existing structures.

That’s the problem. You can’t build teams around players who leave after a few months back to their parent clubs. Loans should be support acts, but Arblaster and Devine have been key men. Develop the players yes, but we have relied on them a lot for our best results.

A lot cheaper than buying a player and committing to their wages for 2 years or so, yes.

Agreed. You do wonder if it was a Norman Smurfwaite or Bill Bratt if we would be so tolerant to the obvious cheapo approach to building a squad around loans, no matter how good. It doesn’t really do anything for the club except maybe help us build financially by staying in league 1 and saving money through surviving on loans for our star players.

Yes, I agree. I know he isn’t our player but it seems a season long loan is a pretty meaningless term.

Would be excellent if that’s the case!

Agreed. Plus we had two seasons in league 2 where we nearly dropped out of the football league when we had a whole troupe of non league level nobodies. Rawlinson should never, ever have pulled a Vale shirt on but we had nobody better in the dark, dim days of Smurfwaite killing us off. While I liked Manny, none of those guys would see us stay in league 1 now. They were sad, desperate times and we signed non league players because that’s all we could afford. We even had a non league manager in Aspin. Non league players are for non league clubs. Not for a club looking to push on in League 1. I’ve supported Vale for long enough to know the only man who could deliver rough diamonds was Rudge. That’s what made him great. A unique, great man who deserves respect for that. Nobody could do what he did, so don’t expect Flitcroft and Crosby to.

Gambling with non league players has been done far too much at Vale and has never worked. It has never been done properly and it seems we poorly scout for league standard players so god help our efforts to find non league gems. There are enough players at Vale already who should be playing non league, we don’t need to invite more. What Peterborough do is that they have a small number of top class pros on very good wages who encourage and raise the standard of their side. They also have a massive catchment area with Cambridge United miles away and the likes of Norwich and Ipswich equally so.

The best Vale signings were not part time footballers stepping up to the football league but unwanted, talented guys from the big clubs. Reading through Rudgie’s book, it is remarkable how many of our greats like Guppy, Aspo, Robbie Earle, Glover, Mills, Ainsworth, Foyle etc etc all shared a history of having been on the books of big clubs before coming to us. The number of non league legends is actually very very small. Even today, our best signings like Wilson, Chislett (Southampton), Garrity (Blackpool) had a history of being coveted for their talent by bigger clubs. Our most likely route of success is to look to the big clubs. Look at the talent in those u23 paint trophy games and look for rough diamonds there to improve. As the standard of Premier and Championship has moved far away from league 1, so has non league from the league 1 and 2. Don’t be fooled by a few strong clubs in the national league, the standard is worse than ever down there.

Rudgie’s book highlights that we regularly bought players in the 80s for £30-50,000 which adjusted for inflation, that’s £140,000 today. It makes you realise that tight old Billy Bell wasn’t so miserly compared to our modern era. Of course we also have the the Bosman ruling to contend with now so good players rarely command big money in the lower leagues and the best guys remain well out of reach.

Conlon gone to Oldham. A great signing for them and has been a real pro for us. Despite a few duff games I still admired a lot of his skill and ability. Stunned he is not still in the Football League.

Very similar to Garrity on paper, even having had the experience at Blackpool.

I think we need to do proper business in January. Charlton will probably go and get promoted now they have Clarke Harris. We do have some games in hand over teams above us. Lincoln for example. If we do get dragged in, it will be due to a poor Jan window.

I agree but sadly ultimately the club that owns the player calls the shots. I’m not a fan of clubs having to use loans at all, except for when a first teamer is injured.

Depends on his wages. No doubt if he went for nothing in June clubs would then do battle to push up his wages.

That’s actually a bargain. Rovers had agreed 800k odd in August. I see we are looking at unproven league 2 chancers as usual. You sometimes get the impression from the club that they preferred being in league 2.

Totally agree with you about Yak, but we have a lot of sub league 1 guys who are out of their depth.

The research is vital totally agree. However given that this year we have looked clearly short up front and have been wanting across midfield and defense since October, you’d think it has been clear and obvious that it needed to be done and done well. Last season I sort of understand why we didn’t bother too much as we had exceeded expectations and were doing so well until the slump. This year, no excuses. We need quality to keep us in the division.

Very true. In fact, even if Mansfield or Notts Counry go up, you can’t see them doing as badly as the weakest lot this season in league 1.