Emile

I'm afraid I'm not privvy to the budget but there are players in the squad who don't justify their wages.

No doubt league one wages are higher than league two. That being said, we have less of our own players now and youth players will be on a much lower wage than the squad players of league two during our promotion season. I think we are spending our money badly.

Changes to the league table; On the down; WAS 13th - Charlton NOW 18th WAS 14th - Port Vale NOW 20TH WAS 16th - Wycombe NOW 19TH On the up; WAS 18th - Wigan NOW 13TH WAS 19th - Cambridge NOW 16TH WAS 20th - Exeter NOW 14TH Bad form last 5 games; Fleetwood 1pt Charlton 2pts Carlisle 3pts Cheltenham 4pts Port Vale 4pts Exeter seem to be turning it around. Gap is closing on the bottom 4 but Carlisle and Fleetwood still look dead and buried. I still expect more shenanigans at Reading will send them down, plus losing all their best players. So that would leave one spot still to be decided - and on current showing it seems to be between us and Wycombe. Charlton could get dragged in but I think once they get a new manager they will be fine. Lincoln are also in dire form but 5 points above us so not sure if they have just enough to not get dragged in. I'm sure lots will change in the next few weeks

We didn't really lose a key player last season. Connor Hall was in and out of the team for the first half of the year despite being one of our best defenders. We have however this season lost our best player and probably second-best player in Arblaster and Devine. We have replaced those with potentially good players, but its all potential. Last January was rubbish for sure, but I'm really not sure this one is any better, so far.

Yes can't see it myself either. I understand two loanees might be the best option to keep us going but in all honesty this feels like last season 'weve got enough to stay in the league and keep our cash until the summer' It's a gamble and last season it didn't work out very well.

I still think we need a left wing-back and a striker

We've replaced three lost loanees with three potential as good / better players. Fantastic work Now, we need to replace the striker we've lost and strengthen the existing positions we were looking to strengthen before we lost a load of players.

Yes. But you are replacing a proven player with an unproven one. Just like with Balmer the other way. He proved he was <ovf censored> so his replace can either be better, as <ovf censored> or shitter.

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.

I'm not judging the entire window as it hasn't finished but if it did finish today this would be an absolute disaster of a window. I do believe we will strengthen before the window closes though, so no panic here

Surely we are only letting him go if we have a replacement lined up. We've already lost one striker that needs replacing

Think it's a good signing personally. We at least knew Balmer wasn't good enough - he's got a chance to be better or worse.

Can't do more than 3 years at a club.

I thought Shrewsbury too but changed my mind to Exeter as I just think they're rubbish and unable to really change anything.

I think Fleetwood are as good as down and couldn't happen to a nicer club. Despite a better run of form currently Reading will also go down due to the off-field chaos and the forthcoming redundancies. I think Carlisle will also drop down as I don't think they have enough quality even with the new owners slapping a bit of cash about. I think Clarke will keep Cheltenham up looking at the upturn in form since he took over and so place for a team to go on a stinker of a run. Could be us, Cambridge, Burton, Shrewsbury or my pick, Exeter. Bottom four; Fleetwood Carlisle Reading Exeter

Starting up a little thread for the facts and figures for relegation to see how this one develops. The standings as of 09.01.24 13th - Charlton 14th - Port Vale 15th - Shrewsbury 16th - Wycombe 17th - Burton 18th - Wigan 19th - Cambridge 20th - Exeter 21st - Reading 22nd - Cheltenham 23rd - Carlisle 24th - Fleetwood The odds; 24th - Carlisle 1/5 23rd - Fleetwood 1/5 22nd - Cheltenham 4/6 21st - Reading 5/4 20th - Exeter 7/5 19th - Burton 2/1 18th - Shrewsbury 5/2 17th - Cambridge 4/1 16th - Wigan 11/2 15th - Wycombe 14/1 14th - Port Vale 16/1 13th - Charlton 25/1 Form last 5 games; 13th - Cheltenham - WDLWW - 10pts 14th - Reading WDDWD - 9pts 15th - Burton DLWWD - 8pts 16th - Cambridge LLWWD 7pts 17th - Exeter WDLWL - 7pts 18th - Wycombe DWDLD - 6pts 19th - Port Vale DLWLD - 5pts 20th - Carlisle - LWLDL - 4pts 21st - Wigan DWLLL - 4pts 22nd - Shrewsbury WLLLL - 3pts 23rd - Charlton DLLLD - 2pts 24th - Fleetwood - LLLDD - 2pts Historic Points total needed to stay up; 22/23 - 46pts 21/22 - 41pts 20/21 - 48pts 19/20 - not considered due to pandemic 18/19 - 51pts 17/18 - 51pts 16/17 - 50pts

He's looked great at County and I would have loved him at Vale but clearly has suitors a bit higher up. Was also surprised to see Chesterfields manager linked with a championship job instead of a top league two / league one team despite him having done it all before

Perhaps a nice time to bring up my spreadsheet again https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pgJIbYqtRCoAzMq40Tb7sm9yuKPqBeNIEhM9diFEp6Y/edit#gid=1580827280 For what its worth, with the emergence of Shorrock I think we still need a wingback - ideally one that can play on both sides. If Balmer were to go back it would be good to get another left-sided centre back in and with Arblaster and probably Conlon going we need another centre-mid - probably an attacking one as Devine seems better in a deeper role (presuming he isn't being recalled). I don't think we need to replace Cass right now if he goes and I'd expect Thomas to be recalled so we will need a new striker. Would like to see someone with pace who can change a game. 4 incoming - Wingback, Left footed centre back, Attacking Midfielder and Striker 4 outgoing - Cass, Conlon, Arblaster, Thomas

I'd play plant in his correct position above all the others. Let's develop our own

I don't think Devine was a planned signing - we just got told he was available and put our hat in the ring. I don't think we should have signed him though, we should have signed a left-back and let Plant play in his natural position behind the striker. That is of course if it was either/or

I think we need a left wing back but not in January - now. In Jan I think we will see Conlon, Cass and Wilson out so hopefully like for like replacements to come in

Wouldn’t worry about it, we won’t be.

Hi Rob, sorry if I put this thread in the wrong place - is there a better place in the forum? I switched to the app and it works totally fine. I'm on android 11 and chrome 110 - let me know if you need any further information Glitch is still happening so I can send over more screen grabs if needed. I haven't experienced this with any other website. No problem at all here - just wanted to let you know about it - you always do a wonderful job!

Had to move to the app as the browser version is totally unusable.

Hi Rob,. Getting some ugly looking things on my android when viewing the forum through chrome. Doesn't seem to be happening on any other website.