Player contracts

[For Us All]

I get the point of not making a wholesale in the squad, again again again. But then again; keep the squad, keep the League position.

Something HAS to happen. HAS TO!

Read The Sentinel article said "tough choices" for Aspin. How can they be tough? Who would he want to keep?

 

We have the core players for a good squad! But we have to sign at least one CM, who can actually move for 90 minutes, without getting their walker out 60 minutes in.

We already have Kay for experience in the middle of the park. So get some mobile guys in there with him!

 

If Chesterfield go down I'd make a move for Andy Kellet.

[Warren]

Significant turnover is required since staying the same will result in the same outcome or worse.

[wwindsor]

I'd rather he kept Kay and just released Pugh and Tonge. Cheaper and he's been the better player for me infront of the defence.

 

I'd keep Turner and Knops (If fit and willing), and pay up Barnett - but agree with the rest.

Totally agree mate..

[wwindsor]

Got be other keepers bar Chris Neal as much as I liked him, best since Goodlad.

 

The Crawley keeper was decent, I also like the Accy keeper , though realistically none of those would come to Vale in a month of Sundays.

 

Surely to goodness there is a decent keeper with L1 or L2 experience without us continually dipping into the well and coming up with the name Chris Neal.

As I said best keeper in a decade at Vale but I can't see a chance of him coming back here. Who knows I might be totally wrong....won't be the first or last time

Thought the chesterfield lad did well, would have to be a loan but local lad not wanting non league footie maybe..

[PV1973]

We need some stability throuhghout the club to build something again. If we keep changing manager every year then we will be stuck in the same cycle of squad culls and rebuidling.

 

Look at Saturdays starting 11 and how many players will realistically be starting next year. Some will go back to their parent clubs whilst others probably need replacing anyway.

 

Hornby

 

Gibbons

Raglan

Smith

Montano

 

Worrall

Kay

Tonge

Hannant

 

Whitfield

Pope

 

Theres 5 players theres - keeper, a centre half, 2 midfielders and a forward there alone that need to be able to start games.

 

Plus we need some competition for places as well, right back, left back (I'm convinced Montano can nail down left back for himself), right wing, left wing, up front.

 

So I think we have a good core squad of starters, but I feel we need probably up to ten new players. We can supplement that with loans as well.

[davehartshill]

I’d love us to sign Whitfield if he’s available. Wouldn’t we have to pay a tribunal fee, though? Can’t see us doing that, plus I expect him to end up in the league above anyway. I can’t seem to find anything to say he is out of contract only that he signed an 18 month deal in January 2014.

 

Him, Hannant, Montano, Worrall, Gibbons and Pope have been integral to our attacking play and they all seem to link up very well. I’d keep Kay to sit in front of the defence then add a mid-late 20’s central midfielder who would be experienced at this level or League One and would have to be an all rounder.

 

After watching the last few games I don’t think we are that far off being an alright side we just need a little bit more quality and a bit of luck.

[TheSage]

I don't think we have a good team at all and haven't had one for three years at least. The majority of the squad are not good enough. The Table, as they rightly say, doesn't lie. We can't keep clean sheets, struggle to play football on the ground and can't score goals, one man apart. The last couple of years have been disastrous for me and very hard to watch.

I'm still to be convinced by a number of players and our talisman will be a year older next season.

 

The big problem we've got is that we need quality in all areas of the pitch - and real quality at that, not filler ins.

A good experienced keeper and centre back are not easy nor cheap to find.

A couple of creative energetic midfielders cost even more. Strikers too are like diamonds.

Above all, we have to score more goals and find help for Pope. Ideally we need another 2-3 lads who can get double figures, up front and from the middle of the park. But where do you find them from?

 

We don't just need a couple of good new players but 5-6 of decent quality to move us up the League. It isn't going to be easy to do that. We've slowly dismantled the squad and ripped any quality we had from the team over the course of the past three years. The chickens have come home to roost and we're more or less back to square one and having to start all over again.

[PV1973]

We've slowly dismantled the squad and ripped any quality we had from the team over the course of the past three years. The chickens have come home to roost and we're more or less back to square one and having to start all over again.

Maybe I'm overly negative but at the start of the season I was surprised by the optimism, we were starting from nothing then and we will be starting from nothing again next season. At the moment its about consolidation and then hopefully kicking on within the next couple of seasons. What a disastrous couple of years its been.

[philmpv]

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/port-vale-keeping-tabs-trialists-1449383

 

At least we're not sending scouts to retirement homes and local Hospitals as you would think that Michael Brown did based on his signings.

[The Kalamazoo Kid]

I’d love us to sign Whitfield if he’s available. Wouldn’t we have to pay a tribunal fee, though? Can’t see us doing that, plus I expect him to end up in the league above anyway. I can’t seem to find anything to say he is out of contract only that he signed an 18 month deal in January 2014.

 

Didn't he sign a new contract at Bournemouth in January, before his loan with us was extended?

 

I don't think there's any chance whatsoever that Whitfield and/or Bournemouth would want him back at Vale next season, after the way he's been managed since the turn of the year - not picked regularly, on the subs bench or taken off early, plus it seemed that he was criticised in the media by Aspin (who talked about young players from higher up thinking they've made it but not putting the effort in, particularly in training - Whitfield wasn't mentioned by name but it all pointed to being about him).

 

I'm not an Aspin-knocker but IMO he's cut off his nose to spite his face with his non-selections of Whitfield. He proved in the Chesterfield game, as he has in other games earlier in the season, that he's got the ability to create problems and score goals to win games.

 

I reckon if he'd played more we'd have a few more points on the board and be safe from relegation by now.

[Samwelo]

I actually think the 14 who are under contract beyond this season form the basis of a decent squad. All the players you'd want to retain - Pope, Worrall, Smith, Hannant, Monty et al - are all there, and there's not a single player who is out of contract that you can say deserves to be offered any renewed terms. Some would argue for Boot, but I really don;t see him making it in the professional game.

 

If we add 6 new permanent signings, plus a couple on loan we start the season on 22 players, mostly quality. If we start next season with anything over 25 players contracted I'll be unhappy.

 

Agree, we need some consistency!

[Seamus O'Wye]

I think Aspo will keep Pugh because of his versatility but release Tonge.

 

... I suspect both will be here next season. Personally, if I had to keep one it would be Pugh, but would prefer it if both disappeared into the ether.

[matt 381]

If Bournemouth offer him a contract and he chooses to join us we’d have to pay a tribunal fee, if Bournemouth don’t offer him a contract they are not due any compensation

[Bald Eagle]

I think a huge squad overhaul again would be counteractive.

 

1) it's not optional given how many players are out of contract. That is the norm at our level where many players live year to year on just a 12 month deal.

 

2) counter active? Who on the out of contract list is a 'must keep' to make replacing them counter productive?

[SourceOfTheTrent]

I don't think Aspo will be particularly looking for radical change but he knows we need some fairly significant improvements to avoid a repeat of this season, assuming we don't go down which is still a possibility! I think he'll keep who he sees as core players who've done as well as can be expected this season, probably release most of the out of contract brigade including, unfortunately, youngsters who he considers are not going to be ready sometime during the next season even if they may be good enough eventually, he may try and offload under contract players who aren't up to the mark, if he can, and then fill the squad slots with the best players he can get for his budget without ending up with another massive unwieldy squad of 30+ players.