JRC

Ernie Moss was the best centreforward in the air I've seen at Vale. Beckford, Pope and Mills were all good. The one who doesn't get much of a mention was Proctor. If it wasn't for injuries Proctor would have played many more games in The Championship. Overall ability wise (not just heading) I'd say he was on a par with Mills.

Tom Pope scored 12 goals in yotal during the 3 seasons prior to 2012/13. He was never a regular goal scorer for most of his career. He scored 10 plus goals 5 times, 4 of which were in league 2. He had 2 fantastic seasons as a goal scorer, first season back being the other. If you discount the promotion season he scored around a goal every 4 games. That's a good record for someone whose game was more than just goals but not a prolific goal scorer. The fact is most fans were disparaging of him in the summer prior to his dream season. I made quite a few posts on here saying he deserved the chance to prove he could be the main man and was pretty roundly condemned for saying he could score 15 goals. Tom Pope was paid more than 3k a week at Bury.

He does win a lot of headers, mainly outside the box. If he stays he needs to start winning them in and just outside the 6 yard box.

A manager's job is to sign players who will do well next season. Uche has at times done OK in terms of goals in the relatively distant past. If Moore believes he can do it again with his coaching and system then he should sign him. Like all managers he will then be judged on the outcome. What I think (somewhat sceptical) or any fan shouldn't come into it. Not many fans wanted us to sign Pope in 2011 and some wanted to get rid of him in summer 2012. Signing him and keeping Pope is arguably the defining reason Adams is remembered so fondly at the club.

Realistically players are never going to average more than about 32 games a season. That's roughly what Earle and Walker played; who I've always thought of as pretty robust. Almost every player has write off serious injury seasons and some stop start seasons; alongside a few 40 plus appearances ones. Gibbo is at about 24 since he started playing "regularly. " Plenty of players barely play in a season then have a full season straight after, or vice versa. Ultimately that's why the medical is so important. The big worry with Gibbo has been the number of hamstring injuries. Historically that's been a death nell of a footballer's career in the past. Not sure how far medical science has progressed in that regard; in my lifetime cartlidge injuries were once career threatening. In Gibbos favour I think his main injury at Bristol was a fracture. Not sure if he also had any hamstring issues. If his hamstrings are no longer an issue then he would be a very useful addition. One would imagine his most likely destination would be to remain at Cambridge.

Crosby commented on the Charlton story in a press conference, the Wycombe link was speculation so possibly untrue. He was 100% at Charlton with the expectation of signing. I don't believe the reason he didn't sign was ever officially made public; so might not have been medical.

Pretty much. He was also baffled that Adams preferred Griffiths over him and there were a number of other issues with the manager. Some players also didn't like Sam staying behind after training and doing things like free kick practising on his own for a couple of hours. Ironically one player from the promotion team has played in a World Cup, is a multi millionaire and will be playing in The Premiership next year. Maybe the hard work paid off. He was offered a two year contract and pretty much said he wasn't going to sign it straight away. Adams and Morsy had a difficult relationship. Ironically for such a bad egg Sam has Captained Chesterfield to the league one playoffs, Captained Wigan and then Captained Ipswich to 2 promotions. In addition he was player of the year in his first season at Chesterfield when they won promotion from league 2 and played for Wigan when promoted from league 1. He's been in 2 PFA teams and twice supporters player of the year. Sam Morsy was always a polite, incredibly well mannered young man off the pitch and remains so. Why Adams was unable to manage him remains a mystery and also leads me to believe there was probably more than one side to the Burge story. The difference was he kept his head down and got out. Sam has Captained sides for 9 of the 11 seasons since he left the club; yet he really hasn't changed.

I never have a problem with players getting in the box and missing chances. I used to date a girl who was friends with Ian Rush. Rush said he scored between 1 in 3 and 4 chances; he just worked hard to get into those positions. My issue with Uche this season is he's only missed 1 every 3 or 4 games. For a lot of his career he's scored 1 in 4. More recently he hasn't. If Moore believes he can get him scoring 1 : 4 (11/12 a season) he's not a bad signing. Moore will be judged on what he achieves; if he signs.

Micky Adams didn't kick him out; he offered him a contract. Morsy was never going to resign because he did not feel his career would progress at the club.

If Moore wants to play based around a target man I wouldn't discount him. If he was playing for us this season I think we would have stayed up. Salford have also released Elliott Watt. 12 months ago some big clubs were looking at him and he was in the EFL league 2 side. FGR have released Matty Stevens who scored a heap of goals when they got promoted. Also Dominic Bernard who I think was their main RWB/ Rightback when they were good; although he also takes the same accolade now they are pretty poor.

He's not quite unique their have been similar players. Akinfenwe was largely similar, slightly less mobile but if you got the ball into his body nobody could take it off him. Uche has been dreadful infront of goal for us but still averages 1 : 6 across his career. Akinfenwe was closer to 1 : 4. I could imagine systems where he would be useful and he has scored 14 goals in a season at league 2 level. I'd have let him go but Moore must (hopefully 🤔) have a plan for next season. Bottom line is he needs to bring in and keep players who can execute his plan.

Couple of players who are left field Charlie Lakin .... out of contract at Burton but had a fantastic spell at Sutton and scored goals from midfield Zach Robinson ... released by Wimbledon but done well in 3 loans at Dundee, only 20 I think

My grandfather, father and uncle all watched football at The Old Rec, so moving grounds isn't something new. You could equally argue moving grounds lead to possibly Stoke's best period under Pullis/Hughes.

To be fair he was very good for much of the 2012-13 promotion season. The he had his argument with Adams over lunch and whether it was agrees he could make his own way to an away ground. As talented as Sam Morsy who had had a very good career.

He had a heart problem recently.

Really can't see that; he's managed 26 starts in 2 seasons. Senior and Bedeau are the 2 players clubs are likely to be interested in.

Never quite worked out why it all went wrong for Louis. He never had pace, so in theory could have carried on playing far longer in the lower leagues. His first season at Shrewsbury was probably his best. Not sure he was ever quite suited to playing 442. There was a little run of games when he partnered AJ Leitch-Smith when I thought both were outstanding as almost 2 false 9s. Never quite understood why Aspin signed him as he never really suited the way he ended up wanting to play. Maybe if Aspin had been brave enough to stick with the 3 5 2 he kept trying in preseason Louis would have done well as a 10.

Cheltenham have been almost as bad as us since we lost to them. They did quite well for a period when he took over. Big loss selling Goodwin during the window, although he's not pulled up trees at Oxford. His two transfer master strokes seems to be Pett and Taylor. Both of whom are now bottom half league one players. Our problem in January was trying to sign the next 4 Arblaster's and not signing anyone who was bottom half league 2 standard.

Remains a mystery why Ellis wanted away. Seems a player who likes collecting signing on fees. I agree I think he would have scored about 10 goals; which would have seen us stay up. His general hold up play was also pretty good.

I've worked on fixed-term contracts for 14 years. I know if my current employer let's me go tomorrow .... I get all the money I'm owed until September 2025. I know fixed term contracts offer a lot better protection than being on a permanent contract; with statutory redundancy being a fraction of what I'll get if I'm let go.

He's under contract.

The truth is there was a mini league of poor teams with little between them. Those 3 and the 4 relegated teams. We had an awful record in games against those other 6 teams; which is why we've gone down. Some was bad luck Burton at home springs to mind), some was a lack of heart and sometimes we just weren't good enough.

From the 30 minutes I watched I'm glad I forgot there was an early start. I'm assuming some players have already been told they are leaving. Massey, Loft and Connor Run not in the squad. Think one or two are having a go at Ojo unfairly, he was the only player I saw put in a tackle. Every time he had the ball he was looking for a player to get into space but a lot of players looked like they just didn't want it. Hope the first 60 minutes was more entertaining than the 30 I sat through. We do currently have a core of a team, Ojo, Smith, Lacovitti, Clark, Ripley, Chislett possibly Debrah are good enough to survive in league 2. Plant, Shorrock, Walters and Dipepa are not bad squad options; though not sure any are really first choice starters yet. In the ideal world we just need 11 new players. In reality we are probably stuck with players like Lowe and Jones. We have the retained list, which could well be out on Monday to look forward to. Can't take long to tell Massey, Uche and Wilson and Cass they won't get new contracts. I'd imagine they all know it's coming. Then it's really a case of whether we are that desperate to get rid of one or two we are just going to pay them up. It'll be expensive so they need to decide they just aren't worth keeping in the 22 man squad we are allowed.

Dan Kemp is our of contract this summer. Does well everywhere he goes on loan; never works out for him at MK Dons. There's also a young player at Hartlepool who is pretty quick and started scoring goals called Joe Grey. Both can play as a second striker, either wing and as a 10. Both score goals. We need to have 4 or 5 goal scorers in the group. Even someone like Ben Whitfield would improve us. He's developed a lot over the past couple of seasons and has become quite versatile. He's played wingback and centreforward for Barrow as well as on the wing and as a 10. The bottom line is someone like Ray Walker was never in the side to score goals. Our 3rd highest scorer has 4, something Walker regularly exceeded. We had Devine at the start of the season for a few games, more recently Dipepa and when we stupidly put Chislett on the bench for a few games the manager has not had any options to change a game.

Dan Kemp is our of contract this summer. Does well everywhere he goes on loan; never works out for him at MK Dons. There's also a young player at Hartlepool who is pretty quick and started scoring goals called Joe Grey. Both can play as a second striker, either wing and as a 10. Both score goals. We need to have 4 or 5 goal scorers in the group. Even someone like Ben Whitfield would improve us. He's developed a lot over the past couple of seasons and has become quite versatile. He's played wingback and centreforward for Barrow as well as on the wing and as a 10. The bottom line is someone like Ray Walker was never in the side to score goals. Our 3rd highest scorer has 4, something Walker regularly exceeded. We had Devine at the start of the season for a few games, more recently Dipepa and when we stupidly put Chislett on the bench for a few games the manager has not had any options to change a game.