Pope in Millwall for talks

[Santa]

I think it has been a while since it has been "quite calm" at Vale though..... :)

Since your mates cleared off I would say that in relative terms, they have been.

[Rampant Zebra]

Apart from the manager leaving suddenly you mean?

[RAF Vale]

Plenty of decent places within an hour of Millwall, Rich, even if Bermondsey isn't exactly the nicest place on Earth.

 

Cheeky git, especially as I live a 5 min walk to Den.

 

The locals down here have being going on about them buying Pope for about a month now. I am trying to convince them that he would be no good for them and is allergic to jellyied eels.

[Trentham Lakes Valiant]

Apart from the manager leaving suddenly you mean?

 

The same manager your mates dragged back in a desperate attempt to save their own scrawny hides?

[sheffield61]

If the lead poster has erm ''Herd a rumour'', why didn't he put a ''?'' after his thread title!?........

[Lady_Vale]

I think the only reason Pope is still here is that he dug his heals in and didn't want to go to Millwall on loan.

 

He'll have to go at the end of the season if nothing changes on the financial front i.e 5th round of the FA Cup...

[Yukon]

I'd put this purely down to half term

[Andyregs]

Apart from the manager leaving suddenly you mean?

 

You do realise that he also left during V2001 stint, as well as us having about 4 different managers, most while scratting around the bottom of league 2. I do wonder at the mental gymnastics you have to go through to balance your view of what went on over the last 5 years.

[Student of the game]

Here's an idea Norman, why don't you make room for our top scorer in the wage budget by not signing scores of players who aren't even playing?

 

To complain that one player is too expensive when there are 31 on the books is a joke.

 

Sorry is it Normans fault that these young premier league prospects arent getting a game? No its the manager who keeps pickin the same **** every week.

[Trentham Lakes Valiant]

I'd put this purely down to half term

 

I'd put it down to Half-Baked

[Rampant Zebra]

You do realise that he also left during V2001 stint, as well as us having about 4 different managers, most while scratting around the bottom of league 2. I do wonder at the mental gymnastics you have to go through to balance your view of what went on over the last 5 years.

 

The point was about relative stability at the club regardless of the ownership.

[stupers]

A classic football club thing to do is to cut costs when things are quite calm then end up overspending in a crisis.

 

If Pope leaves and we still intend to remain in League One then we'll still have to spend the going rate to get a proven goalscorer at that level, which may not necessarily be much cheaper, if at all. The other option would be bringing in a cheaper, unproven player.

 

Well we're definitely overspending at the moment! Mainly due to Adams not sorting out the two main problems we had from last season, a lack of a 2nd centre-half and strength in depth at striker. Whilst I understand other problems arose (Our midfield leaving) he never sorted out those. McGivern looked better at left-back Saturday than he has done in all the games at centre-back, hardly surprising because he's a left-back who can play centre-back.

 

Anyway, if Pope leaves we'll have to spend a decent amount to get a like-for-like striker in, I understand that. But I don't think that's where Smurf's taking this club. We'll be looking at options like Panayiotou that could (but won't 100%) step up and be a good player. That's what he wanted to do with the development squad when Adams was here. I can't believe that the development squad won't be back in some shape or form in January or the summer now he's got a manager that won't totally ignore the idea.