MBE

Writing on the wall with Thomas. If he's over his injury I expect to see him back out on loan at L2. Don't ever see him being anything more than a 10 minute sub for us.

You can't watch a lot of football at non league. The standard of NL is the strongest its ever been even outside the likes of Chesterfield. 95% of clubs in the league are pro, 50% of those clubs compete with L2 salaries and NLN &NLS leagues is full of young lads who for whatever reason have dropped down to get football rather than sat in u23's football. There are some very good footballers down in those leagues. The trick is to catch the right age and background to develop them. Players with a good football education will look much better playing with better players. Non league is a great route. Would you rather take a 20- 22 year old with 50+ appearances at NL league level who was at a cat1 academy or a 20- 22 year old released from cat1 academy who has not played mens football? I know which ones I would take.

I’m expecting Denver Hume to be resurrected and I would love Kirk as well. We are light in CM, I wonder if we will bring a player in or just treat Sang as a CM and recruit a RWB. A player who really stands out at NL level RB/RWB is Kieran Coates. He has genuine electric pace to burn and is exceptional defensively with a really good delivery. He’s better than Mitch now from the handful of games what I’ve seen of him this season and last year. Only a young lad but with lots of appearances already.Certainly the type of player who I’d like us to add with a long term view but could more than hold his own now.

Great thread to start. When the Jan transfer window closes I think we will it be much clearer to pick but based on teams played my bottom 4: Cambridge Shrewsbury Carlisle Fleetwood Leyton Orient could do a Vale and get dragged into it!

That was great bit of knowledge JRC. Who’s next?

I'm not a fan of these season long loans with a recall clause in the Jan window so the player can be recalled and sent to another club from a higher league or even a club in a higher position in the same league. Think it makes a bit of mockery for competion over a 46 game season allowing bigger clubs to cherry pick talent from the the 1st half the season. Can you imagine the uproar if Blaster signs for Portsmouth,Bolton or Derby? Hopefully we could take advantage ourselves but either way not a good thing for football.

Do you think? He would be available for nothing in June. Terrible deal. Peterborough chairman pulled a blinder.

It’s going to be tough now with the budget. A position we surely will have to reconsider now.

I get the impression it’s more than that after Crosby post match. He’s described Ben as now going to be “long term”

Unofficial Vale with one of his critic pics…possibly Dan Gore.

Damn!

They are desperate for a striker. Maybe they would be interested in a deal with Loft? Just need to recoup back what we paid.

I would also add a RWB to the wish list. With Sang and Mitch injured relying on Massey and a kid is not ideal. When Sang is fit I still think he would be better in CM.

I wouldn't let him go for less 1.5mil. Heartbeat of this team, anticipation to win balls is 2nd to none, workrate is incredible and for any player to score 10 goals at this stage of the season is a fantastic return. To have a midfield player to be able to do it..well they are like a unicorn.

Pretty fair. I would say for L2 ( the league they initially signed to play) Cass and Jones were very good signings rather than mixed and Chizzy for me is mixed but that’s splitting hairs. Either way signings are more good than bad however this highlights L1 signings we have struggled. Doesn’t fill me with confidence we will get a good January transfer window.

There is some <ovf censored> no doubt but for balance you should be listing every player signed by Flitctoft to give an accurate picture. The signings for L2 were very good with the likes of Walker,Pett,Wilson,Proctor,Jones,Cass, Garrity etc.

Taken from X today. Do you think it rings true or wide of the mark?

I disagree with the strikers. In the 1st 2 months of the season we were desperately lacking a physical presence up front in the box. We’ve bought to lads to be that but neither are have produced.

I’ve posted many times in other windows about Charlie Kirk. He’s a quality player at this level and I think he would suit our play very well. He would certainly make us look more threatening.

The romance of Carol selling, making a nice return on profit for herself and family then attending as a fan watching the club move on to better things.

That’s a very romantic notion predicated on a new owner having the funds required to be successful to get into Champ. Football doesn’t work like that.

I don’t see why we would extend Wilson.

Interesting your idea returning Balmer. I’d not thought of that but if it frees up a wage to help get players in areas we need then it’s a good shout. Conlon and Cass you’d expect to leave as they can’t even make the bench. I think we need pace at both WB positions and a Striker. Using the same logic with Balmer I’d return Thomas if it helped to free up cash for a 1st choice Striker.

I agree. Cracking prospect but thats all he is. Our selling point is we can offer a genuine crack at 1st team football now. If he went to Champ team he will just sit in the age group teams. Remember Joe Davis? Looked a good prospect who looked like he could have a very decent good but left to take more money to sit in Leicester Under 23's team.

A change in the managers approach would yield better results with either striker in my view, that’s not to say we don’t need a no.1 striker in the mould of a Mark Harris because we definitely do. I know I’m probably a lone voice on this but I’m convinced Loft can be a decent 2nd striker but think he’s is actually injured and we are just managing him. At his previous clubs I saw a player who wanted to run in behind, who was very physical and an all round bloody pain in the arse to play against. With us I see a player who just labours around and looks like he can’t be arsed. Somethings definitely not right with him. Maybe that wonderful manager and salt of the earth guy Joey Barton ruined him. Who knows? I just know he used to be half decent. Uche….well he probably shouldn’t be a footballer . He literally can’t run. Maybe he should try boxing ? He got a great body. I should know the wife had great pleasure taking a photo of him without his top off when he came over to the fans after Burton game.