Transfer rumours, targets & new signings

[darren1810]

4 hours ago, Playa Amodores said:

Drove past the ground today and there’s either a heavy scarifying process having taken place or has DC got rid of the pitch, as well.?

If the latter then Speedie should be pleased.

Couple of pics here from Saturday when I popped in the shop 

[LancyTony]

1 hour ago, Warren said:

I don't disagree, but Montano has gone the Livingston in the SPL. 

Tom Pope? Scott Brown? Luke Joyce?

[stupers]

38 minutes ago, wotsyobeef said:

When managers have been successful somewhere, players more often than not tend to praise their man management skills. When a team is winning it is much easier to keep people happy. Players are happy because they are winning games, the atmosphere around the club from staff and fans is upbeat and players out of the team appreciate that they have to wait for their chance.

When players praise a managers man management skills when they don't do so well I think it carries a bit more weight.

Look at the praise Mourinio got for his man management skills in his first spell at Chelsea. Now that things aren't going so well for him he seems to alienate and upset players to the extent that they take swipes at him in the media when he leaves.

I am not critisicing Clarke's man management skills. In fact I think when you see the way Clarke interacts with the players he appears to have a great rapport with them. I have certainly warmed towards him from the prickly character he appeared in his first few weeks.

I take your point. Lines said that if they lost, Clarke was not a lot of fun to be around, often still angry on the Monday morning at training. The players knew that though so tried to avoid it as when he was happy, laughing and joining in the fun it made life easier. But that's good man management isn't it? The players trying to win to make work more fun? The two promotions happened for Bristol Rovers, but then I think they settled in at L1 level. So there would have been a period of time where it was a bit shaky for him in terms whether he kept the players in line or not. I wonder if he did, there was certainly no suggestion he lost the dressing room from Lines.

My question re: Clarke would be whether he said things to players in the middle of that poor run to get them going, get the win only to move away from what he said when it came to contract time. It's possible, hence the perceived confusion around some of the released players. I have no idea whether that's the case or not. I like him, I suspect there won't be much bs'ing to the players when the new season trots around. They should know exactly where they stand with him.

[philmpv]

I think that the fact that both Joyce and Brisley thought that they'd earned a new contract says more about the low standards that footballers seem to have than anything else. Bizarre to me

[dishydave]

Any player that thought he was getting a new contract from a manager who was brought in to rescue a team from relegation because those same players were that poor they won 3 from 25 is deluded. As for what Clarke told them he said that they had a chance to earn a contract and obviously they didn't take that chance.
As for players being mis treated they had a contract they were paid until the end of the contract and that is how contracts work.

[darren1810]

11 minutes ago, philmpv said:

I think that the fact that both Joyce and Brisley thought that they'd earned a new contract says more about the low standards that footballers seem to have than anything else. Bizarre to me

Donaldson has said exactly the same at Bradford. Was reading earlier he was shocked at being released !! 

[MBE]

23 hours ago, Rampant Zebra said:

Brown has started all 46 league games this season and recently was involved in our unbeaten run. So he is reliable and a good goalkeeper. Are we going to get a better keeper for less money? If not why get rid of him? Or are we planning to save money by getting a poorer keeper for less money? Or worse, a poorer keeper for more money?

It really doesn't matter how many games he player last year. The manager and DOF have decided he's not good enough to play GK for a progressive L2 club looking to win promotion. 

We have no idea who his replacement will be so no-one can make a judgement until we have seen the new GK next season. If the new GK is on more money or not it doesn't really matter - its about the using the overall budget for the squad as as whole to construct a team for promotion. If that means a cheaper GK and more money spent elsewhere or vice versa so be it.

[toyahw]

I  personally think that a clear out was needed, but it went too far. There were a few proven players for us that would have been useful to keep. 

But DC has put his chopper on the chopping block. The ball is in his court. If it works he is a hero. If not he is a zero. Talk and sacking people is cheap.  We'll see. 

But based on my Vale experience of many years I fear the worst. On this very site you were spunking your pants over the Bruno revolution. Remember?

[Mellor!]

13 minutes ago, toyahw said:

On this very site you were spunking your pants over the Bruno revolution.

I was when we signed Seb 😍

[MBE]

11 minutes ago, toyahw said:

based on my Vale experience of many years I fear the worst. On this very site you were spunking your pants over the Bruno revolution. Remember?

I completely understand why you would have reservations but I think there is a huge difference between now and the Bruno revolution. 

We have the structure in place to do this properly, a DOF and manager in place who have a track record of big turnover of squads building promotion chasing teams, a proper data analysis and scouting system rather than watching clips of part-time players in Portugal and France on YouTube clips. 

I'm not saying it will be successful with promotion next season but the infrastructure is in place for the medium and long term. I think signings will reflect this and we can expect to see a variety of players signed with  1,2 & 3 year deals. 

This time there is a very clear plan in place rather than a cost cutting exercise.

 

[Joe B]

Massive parallels between Norman using Saide Mousellati to sign non-league players from abroad and have them managed by a guys sacked by Ludogorets as part of a hair-brained, rioja-induced nuking of a very decent League 1 squad, and Carol using a promotion winner as DoF to help a promotion winning manager to assemble a promotion winning squad to replace the second oldest squad in League 2 who have spent way more time in the bottom 7 of this division than the top 7 in the numerous chances they've had as a unit.

Yep, certainly not a reductive 'load of players gone, so must be similar!'.

I really fail to see how keeping any player bar Brown would have made a concrete impact next season. They were all for the bench anyways, and there's every chance Brown continued to regress at the rate he has recently and we were forced to bench him.

He's released a few old bench players (if we wanted to go up) and a 36 yo goalkeeper who was clearly getting worse. Be sound. 

[Guitar Ray]

1 hour ago, toyahw said:

I  personally think that a clear out was needed, but it went too far. There were a few proven players for us that would have been useful to keep. 

But DC has put his chopper on the chopping block. The ball is in his court. If it works he is a hero. If not he is a zero. Talk and sacking people is cheap.  We'll see. 

But based on my Vale experience of many years I fear the worst. On this very site you were spunking your pants over the Bruno revolution. Remember?

Fair comment, but looking at it from another viewpoint, you could say at most we've only cleared out a couple or three players more than was required, so hardly a revolution.

What you say in your second paragraph is just stating the obvious, and would apply whether Clarke had released 2 or 20.  A manager has always got his chopper on the chopping block and results, performances to a lesser extent, will define when the blade comes down, which ultimately it will in time, unless we have success, in which case he will move on to bigger things.

Have to say I don't remember the spunking over Bruno incident.  I thought all the "dirty" protests were aimed at Smurthwaite?

[gavcradd]

I have no issue about the clearout, with the exception of Brisley. He hardly had a chance under Askey yet came into Clarke's back 3 alongside Smith and Legge and did exceptionally well, keeping numerous clean sheets. He also surely wouldn't have been on massive wages. He worked his socks off based on Clarke's promise to judge every one with a clean slate, did everything asked of him and still got released.

It's not that I think Brisley is an exceptional player, but as a person, he's been treated shockingly. 

Everyone else released was a combination of past it, expensive or crap. 

[Bald Eagle]

13 hours ago, Warren said:

I don't disagree, but Montano has gone the Livingston in the SPL. 

So that 1 out of 15 snapped up then! 

Monty said he’d spoken to Clarke about Livingston interest / offer.  Maybe we were going to make him an offer, but that was inferior in terms of value / length of contract.

I am a fan of Montys and would have preferred him to stay, but I would have been loathe to offer a 2 year deal with an option for a 3rd.

Aside from him I may have kept Brisley, but he is probably a victim of Legge and Smith already being under contract, and to inject fresh blood into that position someone needed to go.

[dishydave]

I have no issue about the clearout, with the exception of Brisley. He hardly had a chance under Askey yet came into Clarke's back 3 alongside Smith and Legge and did exceptionally well, keeping numerous clean sheets. He also surely wouldn't have been on massive wages. He worked his socks off based on Clarke's promise to judge every one with a clean slate, did everything asked of him and still got released.
It's not that I think Brisley is an exceptional player, but as a person, he's been treated shockingly. 
Everyone else released was a combination of past it, expensive or crap. 

He was never going to keep brisley and Legge maybe if Legge didn't have the clause in his contract he would of kept him but for me if that was brisley at his best then he's not good enough