Trumpingtonvale

What I like about the Mirror article is that it ‘bigs up’ the club (Andy Crosby particularly) too ( not just Brazier) on how good we are with giving young talent from ‘elite’ clubs opportunities to shine. It’s obviously a load of tosh about the potential big transfers but otherwise puts the club in a good light regards young player development.

If a player can’t get fit after being here over 3 months then there may well be an underlying medical issue.

It might have been a military style medical and they noticed he’d got flat feet - or possibly two left ones 😉

Deep Throat* strikes again Osh? Has your source said anything about Dan Gore signing today? *Disclaimer - For clarity I mean Deep Throat in the Watergate Scandal context. Not the alternative I was made aware of yesterday after an earlier post - what a sheltered life I’ve led.🍌🍆

If it was, with our defence I’d be picking an extra keeper 👐🏼😉

Haven’t Bradford already loaned a striker to Stevenage this week? How many ‘L1-level’ strikers have they (Bradford) got? Suggests they don’t think Young is going anywhere and have put a price tag on him accordingly.

How much is Jordan Rhodes costing Blackpool? We did something similar (signed a ‘proven’ goal scorer) with Taylor last January but are there any goal scorers warming the bench in the Championship (rather than L1) we could chuck the transfer fund at in wages (if Uche stays or goes)?

Agree, but your last sentence is the kicker, along with if we’re made an offer we can’t refuse.

Uche too, Whichever end of the spectrum we are in judging his ability, apparently we’ve at least two other L1 clubs prepared to pay us money for a player that cost us nothing (wages apart) when they’ve only been with us for just over 3 months. There’s still nearly half a season to go and the transfer window is still open so am in the camp of waiting until the end of April before commenting on how good/bad/indifferent our recruitment (for this season) has been.

Yes indeed. Osh, has your ‘deep throat’ sent you Dan Gore’s medical report yet

I’d like to see him play with JW and Chizzy. Might be no coincidence Uche’s recent better form has correlated with Willo’s return and Ethan playing better with our recent change to playing 2 up front too.

He may be going nowhere, a lot of folks seem to be already assuming he’s definitely going. Surely he’d only be let go if we can find a suitable replacement beforehand - our having learned from the Connor Hall situation last year? Big gamble accepting a fee now (unless our hand is forced because there’s a release clause in his contract) and then assume we can still get someone in.

Get him on a free transfer, get him fit, playing OK then sell him - would be how the club are probably looking at it. Isn’t that our business model - sign a player increase his value and then sell him on?

DF will obviously have a release value for every player and if it’s met for Uche then he’ll go. Perhaps there’s also an element to this of Uche and/or his agent trying to get Vale to extend/improve his current deal, especially if he’s happy here.

I’ve only really seen Dunkley at Shrewsbury get close to ‘handling’ Uche single-handedly. Most if not all other L1/L2 teams have ended up having to at least double-up on him, just in case he creates opportunities/chances because of his unpredictable ‘style’. Our challenge, as a team, has been maximising those opportunities/chances when they occur.

I guess our DoF thinks playing half a dozen or so games in the Champions’ and Premier Leagues alongside one of the world’s best defenders (VvD) equates to “great experience”. Nah, unless you’ve played cold Tuesday nights in Burslem alongside ‘Pincher Smudge’ any European or PL experience means nowt.

Is Mr Williams fully fit and available for Saturday? I’ve seen lots of comments about his injury record but not seen anything to say he’s currently injury free.

They certainly did a good job with big Jesse (assuming he’s not out long term now 🤞) when other clubs didn’t seem to want to take the risk. If Rhys plays regularly and is as good/better than Jesse then happy days.

No mention of overseas leagues (apart from UK & Ireland) ? We may be once bitten twice shy because of the Bruno season but there may be as much value in still looking overseas than in the lower English tiers. Have proportionally more overseas players been successful than our non-league recruits? -can only think of Robin van der Laan ( Dutch 2nd division) as being really successful (Heald, Andoh, Jensen?) but we’ve not brought in a huge pool of players compared to those with a non-league background (admittedly Bruno year was an exception).

The number of injuries has to be taken in the context of the make up of the squad where the 23 outfield players allowed can all be over 21 supplemented by as many as you like under 21 yo (year old) contracted players plus as many as you like academy (under18?) players. According to the EFL website EFL Squad List: Season 2023/24 - The English Football League WWW.EFL.COM Vale have 22 contracted players (if big Uche is added), listed below. All other L1 teams have bigger squads (the majority being 27+, some 40+ contracted players, Middlesborough, mentioned above, have 52 contracted players) so when we have the same number of injured players as other teams it’s a bigger proportion of our squad that is unavailable for selection so is it not unreasonable therefore, to assume that has a bigger, detrimental impact on the quality of the team we can put out? Port Vale - In Squad Players Player Home Grown 1 Balmer, Kofi 2 Cass, Lewis Graham Yes 3 Chislett, Ethan Alexis 4 Clark, Mitchell Reece Yes 5 Conlon, Tom George Sawyer Yes 6 Garrity, Benjamin Matthew Yes 7 Grant, Conor James Yes 8 Iacovitti, Alexander Yes 9 Jones, Daniel John Yes 10 Loft, Ryan Yes 11 Lowe, Jason John Yes 12 Massey, Gavin Alexander Yes 13 Ojo, Funso-King Ayorinde 14 Sang, Thomas Roy Yes 15 Smith, Nathan James Yes 16 Wilson, James Antony Yes Port Vale - Under 21 Contract players Player 1 Arblaster, Oliver Luke 2 Devine, Alfie Sean 3 McDermott, Thomas Vincent 4 Plant, James John 5 Thomas, Joshua John

Possibly sliding doors moment last summer ? If we’d been successful signing him would we have still signed the Blaster and/or Devine, changed the way we play etc..

Even if he is injured having “pulled up in training “ , then it’s guaranteed we’ll sign him, it’s what we do with strikers in the January window if last year is anything to go by (but Young might actually be worth the wait). If it’s a ‘mystery’ injury then is he the type of player we’d want to sign - is that type of behaviour conducive with passing our recruitment team’s di??head test?

If there can be any positive to the news about Ben Garrity it’s that most clubs will lose interest in signing him while injured. Some may still have a punt though with a cheeky lower than market value bid because he is injured - saw on twitter Garrity to Bolton for £300k but am assuming it’s utter bolox.

Makes you wonder why he’s been recalled unless Spurs want him to play in/be available for the first team otherwise he’ll just be limited to non-league (u23) football.

Dane Scarlett (striker) recalled by Spurs (not really hit it off at Ipswich 12 bitty Apps no goals) , perhaps Alfie can put a word in?