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Transfer Rumours Pre-Season


robf

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27 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Fully agree. Far too many leaks over this striker. UV hinted about Maynard 2 months ago. Alan Nixon mentioned Hope. There is another name which apparently we were after if Maynard fell through (no idea what happened there). Also a winger who we failed to sign.

I'm not even close to ITK; I know literally no one in the club and simply peruse social media. Some people on Twitter were predicting things accurately weeks in advance. 

You're also correct in this farcical Maynard chase, which has wasted our summer, has impacted fans' perception of Robinson signing.

The source needs to be found pronto.

I have some very good contacts in the club but never discuss possible transfers. As a general rule I believe it's better not to know. I do ask about players once signed.

It's hard to keep secrets in football now negotiations involve agents, players, lawyers and family members; particularly if they drag on for a long time. That and rabid fan speculation are sadly part of the football.

What the club did well was in keeping links with Robinson under the radar. My guess is they'd given up on Maynard before Friday, and before Askey talked to The Sentinel confirming we had talked to him. Everyone knew Maynard was looking for a club and there would be interest. There was no whiff of Robinson even though he was guaranteed to find a club  in league 2 based on his goals at Colchester and Swindon. I'd imagine about 18 of the clubs in this league would have liked to have signed him. They clearly completed the agreement pretty quickly with him.

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4 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

We had four strikers last season - the two who left contributed 6 league goals. Robinson got 11 and Rodney got 8 in the league below. 

Not disputing that Jean, merely providing a counterpoint to the initial assertion that Pope, Cullen, and Robinson will muster 50 between them when they got 24 between them last season, one of whom was not competing for minutes with the other two.

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2 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Not disputing that Jean, merely providing a counterpoint to the initial assertion that Pope, Cullen, and Robinson will muster 50 between them when they got 24 between them last season, one of whom was not competing for minutes with the other two.

I’d already provided a counterpoint to you so your response here is a countercounterpoint. 

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23 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Interestingly we have retained the most 'minutes played' of any League 2 side; 89.1% of our 'minutes' from 19/20 are still at the club  (46 games x 11 players x 90 minutes, so 40,576 of our 45,540 minutes from last season are still at the club, roughly):

image.thumb.png.6ea6a6b4380225a6e8fd8d8de3ac68ef.png

Initial thought process would suggest this is great; settled squad, continuity, familiarity with system etc etc.

Somebody asked the bloke behind the above graphic (Ben Mayhew of @experimental361, who is brilliant) if there was any correlation between having no 'squad churn' (retaining as much of your minutes as possible, and having a settled squad) and promotion.

This was the answer:

1146515208_Screenshot2020-08-24at18_27_09.thumb.png.0be5b0f370439c90f534ec3b21ff563d.png

There may be a slight correlation, but last year in the Championship, League 1, and League, 2 of the promoted teams from each league (out of 3 for C'ship and L1, and 4 for L2) were in the top 6 for lost minutes, implying high squad churn/turnover.

Crewe were 5th for most retained minutes, but Plymouth, Swindon, and Northampton had the 3rd, 4th, and 7th MOST LOST minutes, respectively. They had massive turnovers of starting 11. There simply isn't a correlation evident between settled squads and promotion winners. 

The most settled teams last year, lacking churn? Salford (11th), Mansfield (21st), Orient (17th), Crawley (13th), Crewe (2nd).

Just an interesting thing to think about, in my view. Just trying to provoke discussion. I'm not suggesting we're bad. Just a very clear narrative has emerged amongst Vale fans that we're set for the playoffs, and whilst I think there's a very decent chance of that, I'm not quite as confident at present.

That obviously makes me a big moaner, ultra-negative, and not a real fan.

I think we indisputably have a better squad than last season. Every season is a new season and as such you have to expect surprises.

Stability may well have a much bigger impact this year with such a truncated preseason.

Vale fans do seem at times to be prone to fits of despair,  followed by over euphoria.  Regardless of the first few games 10 games in and then Christmas are good times for reflection. I feel we have a squad capable of the play-offs. That doesn't always equate to achievement. 

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41 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Robinson has never scored 15-20 goals in a league season in any capacity, at any level, ever. His record is 13, which occurred in 2008.

He has - he scored 16 in a season while on loan at Hereford Utd in League 2. 

However, in 15 years he has 26 different spells (what with all his loan moves) and only three of them have been at L2 level. He's played over 150 of his 400-odd appearances at Championship level, two grades above.

Quite a few players are less prolific at higher levels - Mr Maynard didn't reach double figures in the Championship/League One for seven years, he dropped down to L2 and has been super prolific. 

In terms of L2, Robinson has got 19 goals in 50 games in his spells at Swindon and Colchester.

 

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At the end of the day Robinson managed not too far from a goal every other game for both Swindon and Colchester United while playing in League Two. It's not unrealistic or daft to think that if he starts for us then he could score 15+ goals if he has a decent season injury permitting. And that's only a decent season.

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I'm quite interested in if JA sticks to the 4-3-3 that served us so well.

If he does that's possibly 3 unhappy strikers on the bench .

I'm repeating myself here but I felt that Cullen wasn't the man away from home due to his lack of physicality. The thing was he had to keep the shirt as he scored regularly at Vale Park. Be a real and welcome conundrum for JA to solve 

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48 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Not disputing that Jean, merely providing a counterpoint to the initial assertion that Pope, Cullen, and Robinson will muster 50 between them when they got 24 between them last season, one of whom was not competing for minutes with the other two.

Don’t be a gimp all your life please Joe. Theo is a good signing at this level. Chill brother. 

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10 minutes ago, robf said:

He has - he scored 16 in a season while on loan at Hereford Utd in League 2. 

However, in 15 years he has 26 different spells (what with all his loan moves) and only three of them have been at L2 level. He's played over 150 of his 400-odd appearances at Championship level, two grades above.

Quite a few players are less prolific at higher levels - Mr Maynard didn't reach double figures in the Championship/League One for seven years, he dropped down to L2 and has been super prolific. 

In terms of L2, Robinson has got 19 goals in 50 games in his spells at Swindon and Colchester.

 

He also scored 16 at Huddersfield in The Championship in 2009/10. In both cases it was league and cup games. As a coincidence 2009/10 was Maynard's last good season before he joined Bury.

3 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

I'm quite interested in if JA sticks to the 4-3-3 that served us so well.

If he does that's possibly 3 unhappy strikers on the bench .

I'm repeating myself here but I felt that Cullen wasn't the man away from home due to his lack of physicality. The thing was he had to keep the shirt as he scored regularly at Vale Park. Be a real and welcome conundrum for JA to solve 

Askey will play with 3 upfront. He has talked about a more fluid front 3; which was partly the attraction of Rodney. So at times we may see two or three of Cullen, Robinson and Rodney playing, with them being flexible about who is playing through the middle.

For me Cullen can do the job away from home as our results were good when he played. His holdup play is a least on a par with Pope's so provided long balls aren't always high balls he's ok. Being blunt he's got a surprisingly large arse for his size and is pretty good at using it to shield the ball. If you are going to lump up high balls Pope is clearly better. Pope only got one league goal that wasn't a penalty away from Vale Park, so in reality none of our strikers were that prolific away.

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43 minutes ago, robf said:

He has - he scored 16 in a season while on loan at Hereford Utd in League 2. 

However, in 15 years he has 26 different spells (what with all his loan moves) and only three of them have been at L2 level. He's played over 150 of his 400-odd appearances at Championship level, two grades above.

Quite a few players are less prolific at higher levels - Mr Maynard didn't reach double figures in the Championship/League One for seven years, he dropped down to L2 and has been super prolific. 

In terms of L2, Robinson has got 19 goals in 50 games in his spells at Swindon and Colchester.

 

A league season, Rob, as I stated in my original post

I'm yet to have offered a comment on Robinson, yet have had personal insults directed at me by other members of the forum.

 

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19 minutes ago, Boslem's Brazil said:

Don’t be a gimp all your life please Joe. Theo is a good signing at this level. Chill brother. 

Completely necessary that mate! Good one!

I'm not as besotted with the signing as you, and get names thrown at me.

You seem completely chilled out, to the extent you go around calling people 'gimps' because they've posited an alternative view to the prevailing narrative on here. 

Without this gimp (among a few others), you wouldn't have a Port Vale to be debating mate.

This forum, man. Peace out. Enjoy the season.

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16 minutes ago, Mario said:

Thank goodness football is played on grass and not on a spreadsheet.

Yes, Liverpool famously had the most successful season of recent years without using any stats.

(They didn't. They employed a physicist to engage in statistical modelling).

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35 minutes ago, Mario said:

Thank goodness football is played on grass and not on a spreadsheet.

 

Just for a laugh, could you explain to me how Brentford have transformed themselves into a club fit for the Premier League whilst making close to 100m profit in transfers on the past half decade? 

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9 hours ago, SuperHuman said:

I’m very underwhelmed and it’s a bit of a comedown from Maynard. The whole Maynard situation was handled poorly in terms of how we were led to believe he was due to sign and all the hints on social media etc. For us then to announce Theo Robinson. ..

No, it hasn't been handled poorly at all! We all chose to believe the rumour because it was exciting to think NM might be joining us. JA only mentioned NM as a possible signing, last week - nobody else has mentioned him! "Tideswellgate" was a bunch of you putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 42. Carol's mention of "signage" was clearly not a signing hint, but reference to the new signage...ie, signs, etc, in the Club Shop! 

We all (most of us, anyway) have been guilty of letting hope triumph. Had Maynard never been mentioned, Theo Robinson would have exactly fitted the bill many of you wanted - tried, tested, been around and scored goals! Plus, I dare say he's a bit lower on the wages, so, maybe, there will be a little left in the kitty for the next window in case we need to strengthen in other areas?  

Me? I'm ok with this signing - a little underwhelmed because I was convinced those of you "in the know, nudge, nudge..." might have been right? Obviously not! Let's see how he does, this time around, instead of writing him off already? UTV VTID Love the shirts!!!

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