Retained list

[werstayinup]

Clutching at straws there. 13 games in a season of over 40 games.

 

He sin't a first teamer he is BACK UP and thats why he is on a pittance,so yes imo he did ok when called upon

[butt lane vale fan]

FFS will you lot get a grip.

Johnson out on loan, so we aren't paying a penny in wages. In the meantime Page gets to review his progress during the Season, without any risk.

Ditto the same for Lloyd probably.

Now onto Birchall, OK he isn't Messi, but he didn't exactly let the side down when called upon last Season. He's the type of player who can be brought on when your trying to protect a lead by packing the midfield. Also I bet if you looked at the stats he provided a few assists last Season. Remind me how many O'Conner provided.

Is he a world beater no, but he ain't the Anti Christ either and can be a useful back up player for limited funds, thus leaving more money for a quality striker.

[werstayinup]

A position Page will probably need to look at also is CM. O'Connor is going, for better or for worse which means Foley and Grant will be the first choice two in the middle. Something I'm pretty happy with tbh. Brown will serve to cover Grant so we will need another ball playing CM.

 

I would be surprised if Inman wasn't the CM tbh

[werstayinup]

Page the plonker strikes again!

 

That's £345 staying in my pocket.

 

No way am I paying top dollar for a season ticket to watch the likes of Yates, Birchall, Dodds and Duffy struggling to play football!

 

P*** of to Cardiff Page!

 

There you go,one of those i was talking about...i bet all your Christmases have come at once today,so go on chief get them digs in,knock your sen out and enjoy it

[werstayinup]

Having digested the list, I can probably understand the contract offers to Johnson and Lloyd. They'll probably go out on loan again or we'll get a fee for them if someone decides to buy them .

 

Moore I can kind of understand. I doubt you'd get much better as a backup right sided player and I can take that. Duffy I get as you still need experience as a backup in there plus McGivern has a lot of errors in his game.

 

The two I still don't understand are yates and birchall. They're not even up to the standard as backup and with their combined wage you could probably get a decent backup plus a youngster on loan.

 

I'm just concerned that the only major decision page has had to make is over McGivern. Unless we bring in 4 really useful signings I just feel like we will have stagnated by keeping these two.

 

Yates can play in both full back rolls and birchall can play all across the midfield maybe thats why

[SuperHuman]

Back up players tend not to play 46 games.

Including sub appearance I would expect a bench/ back up player to appear more than 13 times, which suggests Page himself doesn't rate Birchall much. Page knows all 3 aren't good enough or else they'd have played.

[SuperHuman]

Personally I don't think that Yates and Birchall should have been offered terms. However, I'm not going to sit here and slag them off like others. They have been great servants to the club (including playing when they weren't being paid) and it isn't their fault that they have been offered terms, that's down to the manager. The same is true of one or two others like Moore who I personally feel is extremely fortunate to be getting an offer.

 

What concerns me more is that Rob Page said in a post match interview on Sunday - or at least indicated - that the bulk of the wages budget would be spent on the starting eleven. I don't see how that squares with the number of players that he has offered terms to.

 

Is he hoping (dangerous in football management) that a fair number will turn them down? All in all I'm rather at a loss to understand what is going on.

 

As ever, just my personal opinion and I'm certainly not losing sleep over it.

I really don't think Page has got the bottle to sit in a room with Yates and Birchall and tell them face to face he's releasing them. That's half the problem.

[bycarspete]

Adding a few player to a stable group is the way to go.a group working for each other as we have have seen this year can work.we were not far off,Page and his back room safe seems to have good man management skills.looking forward to new season,look for positives not negatives, keep the faith, as I have said before together we can achieve our dreams

[smithie]

I really don't think Page has got the bottle to sit in a room with Yates and Birchall and tell them face to face he's releasing them. That's half the problem.

 

I'm sorry that's nonsense. Page is no mug, and he ain't going to risk his own job by keeping people who may let him down.

 

He's got the necessary steel in him - he had it as a player and I'm sure he's got it now.

 

He's got no hair, and I don't care.

[old sage]

I must admit that I don't see how the figures stack up. McGivern and Neal apart I don't think the budget has been cut enough to attract a decent commanding centre back or a ball winning forward.

Offering players greatly reduced contracts in the hope that most of the fringe players with leave isn't the answer. The ones most likely to reject the deals will surely be the ones we would actually like to keep.

[Little_Al]

I am extremely disappointed that Neal who is easily our best keeper (he actually catches the ball) and McGivern, who has been a major player in a much improved defence, have been released. However there may be behind the scenes reasons for their release (possibly wanting to go or having better offers in the pipeline as happened with Pope last year). I am pleased that the majority of the squad have been given offers, although I don't know how good those offers are, and realise that some of them will be turned down. The very good news is that the back room staff have had their contracts extended.

[Jacko51]

Including sub appearance I would expect a bench/ back up player to appear more than 13 times, which suggests Page himself doesn't rate Birchall much. Page knows all 3 aren't good enough or else they'd have played.

 

Birchall played less games than Andoh but scored more goals and had more assists. Should we release Enoch as well????

[Warren]

I can't honestly say I've ever known anyone decide to buy a season ticket, based on what players are/aren't LEAVING a football club. No one knows what the budget is going to be for next season (Smurfs fault for that uncertainty), so we don't know yet what players we're going to have in the new squad. We don't know who is going to accept their offers, we don't know what new players Page has got lined up to target. Making your decision about whether to buy a season ticket, based on a retained list, seems a very strange approach to me. I think now is the time for smurf to come out with a really good piece of PR to attract fans. I'm not asking him to lie or sugar coat anything (I know that means a lot to him), I'm asking him to attempt to promote his product, which he is so desperate to sell. He needs to, because as things stand, it's chicken and egg. People don't know the squad / budget etc so they're reluctant to buy season tickets, Smurf won't set a budget though until we know the number of ticket sales. Yet again we have another pre-season upon us, where smurfs actions / or lack of, has created uncertainty amongst the fanbase. I think the next move is Smurfs, and if we're going to sell tickets, it needs to be a really positive one.

 

Smurf has made the budget completely clear at the supporters meeting. It is the amount permitted by the fair play 60% rule. The budget uncertainty is therefore limited to the number of season tickets sold. He has been completely transparent. He also went in to a lot of detail about the cost pressures the club faces. He is doing his best, and financial fair play doesn't leave a great amount of freedom. But lets be clear, we got beaten by Burton home and away convincingly and they have a budget about 2/3 of Vale's this season ending. So we can get more for less with good management.

[SuperHuman]

Birchall played less games than Andoh but scored more goals and had more assists. Should we release Enoch as well????

Well it says a lot about Birchall that he played less games then someone who was injured three quarters of the season, doesn't it?

[Jacko51]

Well it says a lot about Birchall that he played less games then someone who was injured three quarters of the season, doesn't it?

 

My point is that when he was needed he didn't let us down. So should we release Enoch - one goal, no assists, not likely to play until October? On the basis that you are judging folk it's a no brainer surely?

 

I don't believe we should, I'm just pointing out the odd logic of your position.