JoeB2

The farcical 2 club rule means (I think) that Scarlett can't be loaned out again - played for Spurs in the League Cup. Spurs have cracking forward called Jamie Donley who reminds me of Wilson a bit.

Devine started slowly but he's much better than average-poor.

Watching a bit of Aldershot and I would quite happily ask them how much they want for Tolaj and Stokes. We couldn't afford it, like.

I didn't see him at Wrexham, but I've been pretty unimpressed by Walters in his appearances. Subbed at half-time in his two league starts. Shorrock and Lomax have done more in their fewer opportunities. There's a decent player there but not worth mithering about if Constantine is being daft with demands.

Just pulled up some stats on Chislett - again, data has to be taken with a grain of salt at this level. He is the most productive player at this level for dribbles per 90 minutes, and (brace yourself) 'expected assists' per 90 (this is just the quality of the chances he creates, without taking into account how useless our donkeys up front are at putting them away). The blue is Chislett, the rest are all the other players categorised as 'attacking midfielders'. To put it simply, he's one of the most creative players in League 1. He's miles ahead of anyone. Combine this with an improving work effort and 7 G+A in his last 5, at the age of 25 so still room for improvement, and I think there could be a few data-savvy clubs showing interest.

Just looking back at the summer, I think Ethan Chislett is proving to be a great signing. 7 goals and 7 assists at this point - on course for a double-double. 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 5. His workrate seems to have improved massively - he covers a load of ground without the ball. Really like him. Chislett and Garrity are our leading lights. Devine and Ojo aren't far behind. A dominant CB, an athletic LWB, and a quick striker on loan and be rayt.

To be clear, I don't want him. I just think it's the sort of signing we'll be after.

Brad Hills, CB on loan from Norwich. Joe Taylor, ST on loan from Luton. Denver Hume, LB, on loan from Portsmouth. Punts - Ben Krauhaus/Chris Conn-Clarke/Josh Stokes/Lorant Tolaj (would all cost probably low 6 figures with sell ons) Send back Thomas and Balmer. Sell/release/loan Cass, Jones, and Conlon. I have a sneaking suspicion we will go back in for Gibbons and Harratt.

Taylor would be cracking.

In terms of players I'd be looking at, I think our persistent issues from crosses (though we were resolute vs Blackpool) could be helped by loaning Brad Hills from Norwich, who is currently at Accrington.

I think there's a very fair argument that part of the success criteria for the second half of the season is how many minutes we can safely give to Plant, McDermott, Lomax, Shorrock, Walters, Dipepa, Brazier, Cousins, and Buah. I'm a lot more comfortable with inconsistency and losses when its the above involved than I am with Gavin Massey.

This all being said - up the gunman wilson

It shouldn't be either/or. My personal view is there are strikers out there who could offer a lot more than Loft but with greater durability than Wilson.

I do think it's a sad indictment of the striker recruitment that we're all saying 10 games from Wilson > 24 games of our other strikers. This is a forward with 6 League 1 goals. I really, really rate him - but to pin our hopes on him really illustrates how wrong we've got it in that part of the pitch.

I've been fairly clear that I wouldn't extend Wilson's deal so don't want this to be seen as a opportunity to criticise the recruitment team. Wilson is an excellent footballer, but for the 2nd season in succession is failing to hit 33%, or 1/3, of minutes. We are always a better side when he's fit, but how often does that happen? Very popular and an easy win with fans on a day a very popular player leaves, but how much of a tangible impact will he have on our season? History suggests about 1 in 3 of the remaining games, or around 8-10 games, some of which he won't be fit for. He could be the difference between going down and staying up, but I will always question the wisdom of sinking a wage into a player who is going to have to have a massive fitness turnaround to be anywhere near a consistent contributor. Genuinely, fingers crossed he can turn a corner - I have just put up a picture in my office of his Wembley goal. Would proper love there to be more positive memories of him.

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

Having sat in front of the Devine family on Boxing Day, who weren't best impressed and not shy of letting folk know, I think there's a decent chance he is recalled next month.

Would drop Thomas, Johnson, and Edmonson down a tier. Would move Benning to good. Would move Martin to good.

For a laugh, here is the list of signings made by Port Vale since David Flitcroft became DoF: Summer 2021 - Garrity, Benning, Covolan, Johnson, Jones, Martin, Pett, Stone, Walker, Wilson, Proctor, Amos, Cass (loan), Politic (loan), Lloyd (loan) January 2022 - Hussey, Hall, Charsley, Robinson, Edmonson (loan), Harratt (loan), Holy (loan), Cooper (loan) Summer 2022 - Cass, Ojo, Massey, Agyakwa, Forrester, Holden, Harrison, Small (loan), Stevens (loan), Odubeko (loan), Butterworth (loan), Politic (loan), McCarron (loan) January 2023 - Donnelly (loan), Taylor (loan) Summer 2023 - Grant, Iacovitti, Leutweiler, Ripley, Sang, Clark, Lowe, Loft, Debrah, Ikpeazu, Balmer (loan), Arblaster (loan), Thomas (loan), Devine (loan) EDIT: Doha has done a far better list.

Liam Brazier being tracked (according to the Sun, not going to link) by Dortmund, Bayern, Leverkusen, PSG, Marseille, Nice, Juventus, Benfica, Rangers, Brentford, Wolves, West Ham, Bournemouth, Palace, and Fulham Worth £750,000. Seems like a monumental load of rubbish pushed by an agent, but something to discuss and evidence of the much-improved academy process if even one of those clubs know who Brazier is. I was very sceptical about chucking money into the academy, but the Youth Cup run + the emergence of Plant, McDermott, Walters, and Shorrock suggests its bearing fruit. Well done Vale. EDIT: Sorry, just seen it's already been mentioned. Again, feel like its the work of an agent. I remember Sam Johnson being linked with Celtic (the press mixed him up with Sam Johnstone of Man Utd) and James Lawrie attracting the attention of all and sundry.

A thread by a lower league Twitter lad on some potential targets. Tolaj is a lovely shout:

I don't think she'll ever make a profit on us - she'd have to sell for £10m+.

Football doesn't work like that in that a new owner won't have the funds, or football doesn't work like that in that having more funds won't get us into the Championship?

For a while, I have held the controversial view that things are only likely to get worse for the Shanahans from here - I think mid-table League 1 is about our ceiling as a self-sufficient club, which is what we're trying to be. Anything sustained beyond that requires external investment with no guarantee of return. We hit the exact same bump when Smurthwaite wouldn't fund us to the next level in 2014-15, which precipitated him trying to go outside the box with the Bruno experiment and failing spectacularly because he was offensively unintelligent. The work the Shanahans have done, with a few bumps on the way, has been very successful and we're 10x the club we were when they took over. If I was advising Carol, and thank God I'm not, I'd tell her to leave on a high, retain a seat on the board, make most (if not all) of her money back, and depart as a legend of PVFC with something named after her. She'd be kept on as a valuable source of information, be able to enjoy hospitality as a fan, and goes down as saving PVFC and turning us around. Not many would object to the Shanhan Suite, or the training ground being Shanahan Park - and I'd personally go as far as renaming the Hamil End the Shanahan Stand. There simply wouldn't be PVFC without her. We'd be in the 10th tier as AFC Burslem Vale, Norman laughing his socks off. I do fear that the longer she stays though, the more difficult it will be to marry progression with cost-cutting, and fans will start to (as you say) grow disappointed at what they felt was another false dawn. This isn't me wanting her gone, and I'll back her till the day she goes, but it's just my honest take about what the next few years will look like. Of course, this is all contingent on there being buyers.

I think, considering both the cost of forwards and the recruitment team's record on signing them, there's a solid argument to focus on Garrity as our forward this year and put some proper money into an athletic, durable LWB. Taking a risk on overpaying for another Loft is one I'm not comfortable with. We're not going up this season and I don't think we'll go down, so I'm not sure of the worth of committing 150k a year to a forward bought in panic when history suggests he has a good chance of being naff. We're stuck with Loft for another season (unless anyone is daft enough to take on his wages), but otherwise it's a clean sweep of forwards in the summer. Spend the next 6 months hammering the non-league, Irish, and U23 leagues to find Dion Charles/ Colby Bishop/Clarke-Harris before the big clubs. Don't spend the next year whining about how we can't compete with teams with 3x the fanbase, and wonder why they beat us to striker targets. Get ahead of the game instead of signing journeymen lower league strikers with questionable scoring and fitness records. Spending all summer chasing clearly over-ambitious targets, inevitably missing out on them, whining about it, starting the season with no strikers, then panic signing a finished James Wilson and Ryan Loft is up there with Flitcroft's very worst offences. He's done some decent stuff (especially in 21/22) but he had an absolute horror show there.