Hi,

As this was swerving a bit off topic away from the retained list to players you'd like to sign, can I point you in the direction of this new thread:

The new thread is there for all transfer gossip, released players you rate, media rumours etc to be discussed

45 minutes ago, Joe B said:

I get what people say about McKirdy, I was never keen when watching him.

However, one of our model professionals is David Worrall, who I witnesseed (live) swing for a player at the end of the away game at Scunthorpe. People can dispute it with blurry video evidence, but I saw it, and immediately said 'that's him banned'. The bloke had been winding him up for a while and had his part to play but Worrall got a red card and a ban.

Pope got himself needlessly sent off at FGR by getting in the face of a player on the ground, and he was a long-time captain and club legend. Mitch Clark put in a horrendous challenge in the same game and got a deserved red. This is just within the last season.

Point being, footballers do daft things in the heat of the moment. Chucking players over hoardings, diving etc is irritating but its not Gary Roberts levels of lacking professionalism. McKirdy is young, impressionable, full of himself, and probably needs a bit of guidance.

Questions I'd ask; does he train well? Is he reliable? Does he fit into the squad? Does he represent the club well off the pitch?

I'd back our dressing room to sort him out. I'm not that keen on him, mind, but he's the sort of player we lack; 20 goals and assists last season for a p!ss poor team. That bit of guile to help us finish teams off.

I think fans are making a bit too much of the push on Whitfield - it happens a lot and wasn't that hard. I understand he fellout with a few of the players at Carlisle over a prank call he made to one of the players pretending to be from Wigan and trying to sign one of the Carlisle players during the window. The issue at Carlisle has more been he fell out with a section of the fans who accused him of being lazy. For me if that is the case then that is the prime reason Askey wouldn't be in for him. Of course its equally possible he just appears lazy at times, or appears lazy because he goes into positions the manager wants him to rather than where fans would like to see him go.

I'd agree he comes across as full of himself at times from the little I've seen of him.

I rewatched the Carlisle game last week and he out muscled Gibbons a couple of times, so he's not as weak as some make out. He doesn't always track back - which kind of supports the view he is a bit lazy. 

There have been lots of players with the socks down!

I believe he supports Chelsea not Stoke but regardless being a Stoke fan doesn't preclude players having being good for us in the past, or in the current team (Smith and Conlon were allegedly Stoke fans when younger, Conlon was on Stoke's books at one time).

 

Just now, JRC said:

 (Smith and Conlon were allegedly Stoke fans when younger, Conlon was on Stoke's books at one time).

Smith 100% grew up a Stoke fan; he was seen signing Delilah at a Bongo's Bingo night at the Regent around Valentine's day I think.

It doesn't bother me; he's been excellent for us. It does make a slight mockery of the 'he's one of our own' chant, mind.

2 minutes ago, JRC said:

I think fans are making a bit too much of the push on Whitfield - it happens a lot and wasn't that hard. I understand he fellout with a few of the players at Carlisle over a prank call he made to one of the players pretending to be from Wigan and trying to sign one of the Carlisle players during the window. The issue at Carlisle has more been he fell out with a section of the fans who accused him of being lazy. For me if that is the case then that is the prime reason Askey wouldn't be in for him. Of course its equally possible he just appears lazy at times, or appears lazy because he goes into positions the manager wants him to rather than where fans would like to see him go.

I'd agree he comes across as full of himself at times from the little I've seen of him.

I rewatched the Carlisle game last week and he out muscled Gibbons a couple of times, so he's not as weak as some make out. He doesn't always track back - which kind of supports the view he is a bit lazy. 

There have been lots of players with the socks down!

I believe he supports Chelsea not Stoke but regardless being a Stoke fan doesn't preclude players having being good for us in the past, or in the current team (Smith and Conlon were allegedly Stoke fans when younger, Conlon was on Stoke's books at one time).

 

For me, it all sounds fixable. Silly jokes, a temper, a bit of laziness; all can be culled by a rigorous Askey pre-season and a stern chat with Leon Legge.

4 minutes ago, Joe B said:

For me, it all sounds fixable. Silly jokes, a temper, a bit of laziness; all can be culled by a rigorous Askey pre-season and a stern chat with Leon Legge.

Maybe he worked on that with Rhys Browne this season and I think Browne is decent now tracking back. Probably with Brown the issue was more losing concentration without the ball rather than being lazy full stop.

2 hours ago, Joe B said:

We're probably not going to come close to signing Harry McKirdy but I'm thoroughly enjoying the debate

👍🏻  McKirdy can knob off.  There’ll be decent players with better attitudes.

2 hours ago, robf said:

Hi,

As this was swerving a bit off topic away from the retained list to players you'd like to sign, can I point you in the direction of this new thread:

The new thread is there for all transfer gossip, released players you rate, media rumours etc to be discussed

Bring it on.  Come on, let’s have those juicy rumours boys and girls.

Johnny Maddison on Twitter.  Best of luck to you for the future Johnny 🤞🏻

1 hour ago, JRC said:

Maybe he worked on that with Rhys Browne this season and I think Browne is decent now tracking back. Probably with Brown the issue was more losing concentration without the ball rather than being lazy full stop.

Browne was exceptional in his defensive work in the dreadful conditions against Colchester. Remember him winning a tackle near to our corner flag that day .

Of course though most forwards are noted for their work at the other end of the pitch. But fans love a trier .

6 hours ago, CambridgeDon said:

It would be amazing if we could get Taylor and Clarke back but you never know. There's been a paradigm shift with coronavirus and clubs, players and fans will all have to change their expectations. As we've seen this season, many lower league clubs are already struggling and those that have spent beyond their means are going to find that they can't cope any longer. We may also find that even premiership and championship clubs will be releasing many more players than previously and moving to much smaller squad size. 

So we are going to see the unexpected and attracting the calibre of players we could previously not have afforded may indeed become a reality.  

I agree CD, just depends whether we've any funds at the end of the day and if they want to come to Vale on a longer term basis. if it happened then great, if not and Vale tried then we can't do any more.

3 hours ago, darren1810 said:

Browne was exceptional in his defensive work in the dreadful conditions against Colchester. Remember him winning a tackle near to our corner flag that day .

Of course though most forwards are noted for their work at the other end of the pitch. But fans love a trier .

I think he's a better footballer than Amoo in all aspects, except one - pace. The way his tackling and tracking runners improved last season I think he could end up playing further back.

15 minutes ago, JRC said:

I think he's a better footballer than Amoo in all aspects, except one - pace. The way his tackling and tracking runners improved last season I think he could end up playing further back.

Not sure I would agree at this point in time. Amoo also has the advantage of experience. And a bit more physical presence, Browne is slight, Amoo is quite a big bloke. So not surprised Askey still had Amoo down #1 in that position. This is not slagging off Browne. He has potential. Hope both sign up.

Edited May 19, 20206 yr by toyahw

I think Amoo has shown pretty much all season why he’s ahead of Browne in the pecking order. 

Jak Alnwick released by Rangers.

Edited May 20, 20206 yr by Warren

i think Amoo shows glimpses in games of what he can do. he sometimes lets fullbacks off the hook. he can be terrorising his defender one half but doesn’t have the killer instinct to really kill his defender off and lets him regain confidence and get back in to their game. in other words he’s too nice. we need 2 strikers a CM and LB and possible CB if smith leaves. we wait and see other retained lists to see who we can pick up