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McKirdy & Robinson...Goodbye ?


blackdog

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McKirdy will be a player in a good side. We're not a good side under Askey. He has a goal in him which makes him a damn site more useful than many of our other players. He might not be a great influence around the place but he's not been given a proper chance, as in a run of games, so he's going to be far from happy.

Come back to me when the likes of Worrall and Amoo score 10+ goals a season from out wide. You're lucky if you get 10 full games out of Amoo.

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3 hours ago, blackdog said:

McKirdy has annoyed me, I don't get involved in criticising individual players for a number of reasons, they maybe playing with an injury, they may have personal problems, they maybe struggling with any kind of off field problems, but in McKirdys case I was pleased when he signed and said so on here, he scored alot of winning goals at Carlisle last season and I wrongly thought he would contribute to our team this season, when it was suggested by WV the day before he signed that he would never play for Port Vale because that was what he told him, the alarm bells started to ring, reading the Carlisile forum despite the fact he was leading scorer, the manager of Carlisle and the vast majority of supporters were glad to see the back of him.

I don't wish the lad any ill will, but he needs to get his act together if he wants to make a career out of football, also I would be interested in who facilitated his move to Vale Park given the lads previous attitude to the game,

word is Rudgey is mates with Mckirdys grandad and plays golf with him, that is who wanted Harry at the club and the signing was taken out of Askey’s hands when at the time we also had Joel Grant on trial at the same time. Harry was offered a contract and Grant ended up at Swindon. also believe Grant has a wife who lives in the area so it would’ve been very ideal for him to join the club. He obviously got a better deal because he’s now playing in league 1 

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5 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

 

"their disruptive attitude has been at the heart of our terrible form"  Honestly?  Rank bad defending is down to Robinson and McKirdy?  They may be disruptive, I've no idea, but I'm not buying your suggestion that a couple of clowns in the changing room is behind players simply not marking, tracking back, or failing to clear their lines.  Smith's balls up for the Barrow first goal had nothing to do with Harry McKirdy or Theo Robinson.

Re. your other points, we could look at it another way, and say we need to remember we were then, as we are now, in the midst of this pandemic and the rules that meant for clubs.  Realistically we had to fill the squad.  JA almost certainly missed out on several of his primary targets, probably down to wages.  Also, we almost certainly got messed about by what was being trumpeted as our "marquee" signing, Maynard.  I think we simply ended up with Robinson and McKirdy because we thought they were the best of what was available, and by that point we needed bodies.  The view being that, on paper at least, they were decent back up signings, which I'm sure they will be somewhere where the system/style of play suits.  Nontheless I think we all scratched our heads at these pair.  Signings are always a gamble. 

If Gibbo stayed fit we'd have never have seen Clarke.  In fact if Clarke had've been older we'd have had to look elsewhere. We signed him on a 6 month.  We all know Clarke is a good player at this level, but whatever's happened there affected his form like someone throwing a switch.  Fingers crossed Gibbo can get back up to speed as quickly as possible.

So, whilst you may well be right with your views, there's 2 sides to the coin.  The bottom line though is that JA has to get the best out of the squad.  He certainly hasn't got the best out of Robinson or McKirdy whatever has gone on behind the scenes.

 

Totally agree with your first paragraph.

In hindsight...... if only Maynard hadn’t played us off against Mansfield, if only we’d have signed one of the other wingers on trial, if only we’d have protected our right back instead of having him play 2 games so close together after coming back from an injury. All those factors and decisions lead us into signing 3 players who have allegedly rocked the boat in Robinson, mckirdy and Clark. That’s a lot of players characters to get so wrong when that’s supposedly one of the things Askey prides himself on. 

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I think the biggest lesson is probably the Maynard one. With hindsight we held out for his signature far too long. When he resigned for Mansfield so late in the window there wasn't many options left at centreforward. Would we have signed Robinson or gambled on someone less experienced if Pope hadn't had a 6 game ban at the start of the season? 

We do know Vale came in very late for his signature and stole him from Grimsby, which would indicate we weren't looking at him for most of the window.

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People were instantly aggrieved with the Theo Robinson signing as everyone was convinced we were getting Maynard, and everyone felt like signing Maynard was some sort of cheat code to winning the title. When you look at Robinson's record over the past 2 seasons it's decent - 7 in 16 for Swindon and 11 in 28 for Colchester.

I've always said that styles make strikers, so is our style of play not conducive to Robinsons strengths? If so, why was he signed? You wouldn't sign a 5'4 striker to play long ball tactics (although we probably would!)

I felt that talent wise, McKirdy was the missing piece of the jigsaw for us, we're very much a workmanlike huff-and-puff team so a little sprinkle of flair should have been welcomed to break down those stubborn bus-parking teams we always struggle with. Again, why was he signed?

It always begs the question - who is doing our scouting?

There are literally 1,000s of Prem/Championship youngsters released every year. So rather than sign Robinson and McKirdy, why couldn't one of our scouts advise something like "there's a winger released from Man City who is raw but has pace to burn and gets 20 assists a season at U23 level" or "Liverpool paid £100,000 for this striker when he was 14 and he's been prolific at youth level, he's 6'3, good in the air and reminds me of a young Tom Pope". 

What are our scouts doing?!

The players we sign seem to fall under 3 categories:

  • Played for Askey at Macc
  • Played well once or twice against Vale/Macc
  • Recommended by Sproson for his own personal gain

Have a look at Accrington's recruitment - I work in football so feel I have an above-average knowledge of players but I've rarely heard of some of the obscure signings they make - they're masters at it and have phenomenal recruitment. If they can, why can't we?

 

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We all knew Robinson was rubbish. It was called the moment he signed. This is a damming indictment of his own transfer policy. 

McKirdy probably won’t get a better deal and we may as well keep as it runs out in the summer. 

Robinson has a two year deal. Who on earth will match his wages and security at the club? 
 

 

 


 

 

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Dreadful signings. 
 

Mckirdy seemed a panic buy, was always going to be a risk. I hate players like this their attitude just makes no sense. He’s literally throwing his football career away. Not sure will take him though? 
Robinson, worst striker I’ve seen for vale and the clown has had two spells with us. Couldn’t believe it when he signed (couldn’t have been more underwhelmed) and has been lazy and uninterested from the start. Useless. Again I really don’t see who would want to take him off our hands. I think we will end up terminating both contracts, another error in giving the ageing Robinson a 2 year deal. 

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9 hours ago, Joe B said:

Again, it seems like we're doing mental gymnastics to excuse poor recruitment.

I personally don't believe that Carol Shanahan or Head of Coaching Development have a bigger say in signings than the manager. 

Is it not more reasonable to assume it's just a misstep in recruitment, ala Whitehead, Mills, Lloyd, Evans, Archer, and Kennedy?

We all seemingly want to believe that Port Vale is some sort of soap opera, instead of coming to terms with the idea that maybe our current manager doesn't have the best record when signing players.

Indeed. I doubt Frank Sinclair for example, has anything to do with these rubbish signings and Carol is a Vale fan, so I doubt she’d be running to sign Robinson again after last time. 
 

There are no conspiracy theories, Askey is simply awful. However he should be pushing to improve our scouting network. 

 

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For me the McKirdy one is simple. Alex Hurst has now barged into the first-team picture which wasn't the case when McKirdy was signed. Hurst offers more discipline tracking back and more of a threat out wide then McKirdy. Vale have a squad limit and with Worrall, Amoo, Montano, Hurst and McKirdy they have five wingers but only need four. So McKirdy is no longer needed due to Hurst's emergence and the squad limits on numbers.

I'm bemused by Robinson and it shows why I am no football manager. I genuinely thought it was a good, solid signing by Vale in the summer but it clearly hasn't worked. At least John Askey is showing some positive intent by acknowledging it hasn't worked and looking to move him on ASAP.

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