[January Transfers and Rumours]

27 minutes ago, Shropshire_Valiant said:

Sometimes players can pass a medical one day or week then on another given day/week could easily fail it if they have an underlying issue.  I'm sure I read about a player once who'd spent most of his career at one club but had he ever tried to sign elsewhere he'd have failed a medical, however was fit enough to play a decent amount of games every season for the club he was already at, can't for the life of me think who it was but it was someone fairly well known(i.e. premier level 90s era). 

I agree with the salient point though doesn't say a lot for the numerous staff we appear to have and doing due diligence before it gets to the point of a medical.

Who was the midfielder that played for Ipswich - never missed a game but I can't remember his name either...I think that might be who you're referring to

[January Transfers and Rumours]

14 hours ago, MBE said:

I would snap your hand off but we have no chance with Wrexham and Oxford chasing him. 

Wrexham are supposedly tabling a £1.5m bid for Langstaff! 

[January Transfers and Rumours]

1 minute ago, Vtid said:

let me know mate 👍🏻 

All working fine for me mate

[January Transfers and Rumours]

56 minutes ago, Vtid said:

anyone else use their spotify for ale & vale podcast? Cant get mine on last couple of days it seems to have gone down? Cant say i'm missing Amos & his waffle like but quite like Bezza 😂

I haven't listened to it for a little while now and then forgot all about it - so that might be one I listen to, to see out my working afternoon today.

 

I've just had a search on spotify and it took me a little while to find it but I have now found them and it started to play the latest one which was uploaded on wednesday 

[January Transfers and Rumours]

4 minutes ago, Emile said:

I do agree let's see on Feb 1st but...

Arblaster > Jenson Weir. Unproven loan replacement replacing our probably best player this season so far
Devine > Gore probably coming in. Unproven loan replacement replacing arguably our best player in December
Balmer > Williams = proven not good enough, unproved loan replacement
Thomas > no replacement yet
Conlon > no replacement yet 

I don't think you can argue we are replacing departing players with better permanent signings because we haven't made a permanent signing so far. Balmer wasn't good enough so his replacement is potentially better already. The other two might be better than what we had, or they might not.

Like I say, I am waiting until Feb 1st to really judge things but I really hope we do improve our squad for the second half of the season.

Agreed, you can't argue that we've replaced the players with the same or better quality until they've had time to gel and settle. 

Both Arblaster and Devine, were both unproven when they arrived at the Vale. My opinion, Devine took longer to settle than Arblaster because he came later than the Blaster did. 

I've no objection if we're getting loan players in, in January - as they can't return to their parent club until the season has finished (unless they pick up a long term injury obviously - then their fitness and wellbeing will be managed by the parent club).

I'm looking forward to getting some signings, get them integrated and hopefully push up the table for a stress free end of the season.  

[January Transfers and Rumours]

1 minute ago, Osh said:

I know i'll get pelters for this, but I think Loft is a far better 'footballer' than Uche.  Uche's just brilliant at pulling defences all over the place.  I know Loft has taken over from Conlon/Benning/Jones (insert your favourite hated player here) - as Vale fans always seem to need someone to hate, but I still think he'll come good for us.

Just my 2'

No one wants to know about your 2inch Osh 😆

[January Transfers and Rumours]

1 hour ago, darren1810 said:

To be fair Warren they are a division above and the gulf was huge. 

And they also knocked out Chelsea in the following round

[January Transfers and Rumours]

14 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

The absolutely farcical striker market is in evidence again as Will Goodwin is subject to £400k bids from Oxford.

He's pretty decent and young, but it's £400k for 6 goals and a bit of potential, these days. Imagine what a 'proven goalscorer' as we often bang on about fetches.

They only signed him for £20K from stoke in January 2023 too - scored 6 in 28 games for them.....and that's what £400k gets you - obscene 

[Blackpool (H) match thread - 29th Dec]

1 hour ago, Valiiant said:

 

This is dreadful! Crosby out, you utter goonie. We won't score if we're still playing this time tomorrow.

Well, this aged as well as I was hoping it would…..

[January Transfers and Rumours]

54 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

Just the overall standard of performance, considering the fact that "Alfie's at Spurs".

I actually felt that is how he originally played when joining us too, that he felt he was too good to be at our club or level - what do parents expect when the kids are in a huge setup like spurs. Dropping down to clubs like ours allows them to become accustomed to toughness of mens football rather than the u12/u23 setups. He has started to shine through a little more but I think he still has more to offer. When the chips are down, that is when the character of the player should shine through to see what they're really made of. 

[Managerial merry-go-round]

1 hour ago, Guppys left peg said:

Seems a strange move as Askeys done a really good job overall there. Doesn’t seem to be a popular move either so maybe to do with a falling out behind the scenes over money possibly?

 

You're right the sacking doesn't really make sense given the promotion and then sitting 12th in the league. Unless the club feel that they invested in players this season and that they ought to be in a better position than they are. The comments from the club do make it sound like a possible falling out as they've been 'having on going discussions for the past few weeks'. 

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

With the Bruno era I think we could all see from the start of the season that it was going to eventually come crashing down at some point. We picked up results but I’m not sure how, as we were truly awful in most games and getting overran on most occasions. I imagine scouting us for the start of the season would also have played a part - as we were a pure unknown.