Clayts

Or maybe because today our squad got a bit littler?

So happy for Lucas, great character, had his struggles with us, good to see him smiling again

I'd like to see the addition of one ST and one LB, and I do mean an actual LB who has the pace to play LWB, rather than another converted LM/LW, to give more flexibility in the squad to switch to a back 4 if required. Ideally one of those would be permanent, more likely that would be the LB given the price of strikers in Jan, but you never know. Guinness-Walker would have been pretty much ideal. MF/AM is sorted for me, especially with Ojo on the brink of returning, Walters and Dipepa as back-up, and Planty and Garrity to come back. Happyish with DF too, think the main problem at the back has been the continual chopping and changing in the back 3 and DM due to injuries, (often in-game), leading to various breakdowns in communication and lack of understanding of who exactly does what (especially in transition). When Jones and Debrah are back, and with the Yak playing himself back to fitness, I think we'll be ok, then reassess in the summer.

That was a bit of a tantric signing, hell of a build-up to it, pretty impressive result 👏

Not sure about that, I heard he has family connections with Wolves. He's not going to Elland Rd though, he hates Leeds

Whilst I agree about the effect on the lad, if it is his agent I can't help but admire the chutzpah of it. Trying to get him a pro contract, could say he's had interest from/discussions with Championship clubs, or someone relatively local and bigger like Derby or Forest, but no. We ask the agent 'who's enquired about him then?' and he says "errrm... Borussia Dortmund, Barca, a few prem teams, you know, the usual people I definitely regularly talk to as a big name agent for league one youth players". The cojones on it...

Be just our luck if we agree to sign a cracking young player on loan from Utd and the next day he gets eaten by a lion... 🦁

Excellent, looked really worrying when he was stretchered off a couple of weeks back

Why is it underwhelming to have a promising youngster contracted until 2026? I'd say it's great news. Get Lomax and Shorrock signed up next!

Beat me to it!

Doesn't it work both ways though? All of a sudden Bradford want him because he's done well at Swindon, but the fact they farmed him out on loan to L2 rivals Swindon in the first place suggests Alexander didn't have him in his plans, so tough luck mate.

Yep, we want fewer players from L2 like Chislett and do more business like Burton and Lincoln did in the summer with Cole Stockton and Tyler Walker. We won't have been touting Uche around trying to flog him, but if a Charlton come in who obviously have £500k burning a hole in their pocket and can pay double the wages, (much higher income, richer owners, more success over last 25 years), offering us a fee for a player with only 6 month on their contract who will no doubt be more than happy to head back to London on double the wages after a brief sojourn in Burslem, then how do we stop that? Port Vale FC is not football, we do not control everything. I'm not doing us down with the 'little old Port Vale' bit, but the reality is we are a small cog in a much bigger machine, with Carol, DF, AC and everybody else at the club doing what they can to optimise our position, which has objectively improved over the last few years.

Devine going is a bit gutting, especially after my lad got to walk onto the hallowed turf with him when he was mascot v Charlton (haven't had the heart to tell him yet 🥺). It's doubly annoying knowing it's a direct result of the gits down the road nicking Schumacher and Cundle from Plymouth. Still, been a real pleasure to have Alfie and Ollie with us for half a season, very best of luck to both of them in their no doubt bright futures