Emile

Players who should play Ripley in goal Polish lad at centre back Ojo as holding midfielder Chis centrally behind striker Wilson as the poacher like he was against Swindon and Mansfield in playoffs Mighton as a left sided winger Then build the rest of the team around them and that system. I think its 4 2 3 1 personally Ripley Lowe / Smith / Polish lad / Jones Ojo / Walters Massey (if we had any other option I would) / Chis / Mighton Wilson Subs; Rotweiler Dipepa Debrah Sang Loft Shorrock Weir

Time to go. Bye bye

Only takes a couple of minutes to turn a few cells on a spreadsheet red

Updated my transfer record sheet; Copy of Port Vale transfer analysis - Google Sheets DOCS.GOOGLE.COM

I think reading will go down instead of Shrewsbury

That is really disappointing news. We were all concerned by his injury record when he signed At least it's happened today and not tomorrow - time to bring in a replacement 3 players needed before the door shuts tonight

Agreed but would Wrexham but looking to move him out? Thus a chance to lower wages?

With Wrexham splashing the cash do you think Ollie Palmer might be available? 32 years old and a goal every 3.75 appearances over his career. Went to Wrexham for big money but is now 3rd or 4th choice there.

Funny post but I think personal attacks aren't great. Were all vale fans and we want the best for the club

Reckon Hudlin was a target but I think he will turn out to be <ovf censored> so glad it hasn't worked out

I think we will but I really hope I'm wrong. I think injuries haven't helped but we've also signed players with poor injury records / not many games in the past seasons. We're also not the only team to have injuries but i can accept We've had it tough with a smaller squad/ budget (for example Portsmouth who also suffered bad with injuries but have a bigger squad and more budget) We also knew there was a chance that the loans would be recalled. I don't buy that as an excuse. In general though, I don't think we have done well enough in the recent transfer windows and that's coupled with a very poor management appointment. Like I say, I really hope im wrong and we can stay up and build on again in the summer

We either don't have enough money to compete in this league Or we have enough and haven't performed well with our signings Or we are doing fine. Competitive in this league and our signings are working? I personally feel we do have money to be competitive - not top 7 but midtable. I also think we have some good players and I agree with the way the club are investing in the long term and the facilities. But I also feel we are underperforming on the pitch. What do you think?

I think it's far from guaranteed we would be challenging for promotion next season if we went down. Look at the four that dropped last year; only mk Dons in a playoff place. Would be an absolute disaster to go down and put us back minimum 3 seasons to get back to where we are now.

If Uche is out for an extended time we need two strikers

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