January Transfers and Rumours

[Walka003]

No . Because i remember him at Derby away in October. 
Either way. January is notoriously a time for other people's cast offs. 

Liam McCarron joins the Vale on loan | News | Port Vale

WWW.PORT-VALE.CO.UK

Signed summer deadline day

[valiant steve]

This time last year, we'd played 24 games and sat 9th in the league with 35 points! Our goal difference was -5 and we had a 13 point cushion (and a game in hand) over Burton who sat in 21st position. 

Burton were the only team in the relegation zone to escape. 

From our 24 games so far this season, we currently sit 15th with 29 points. Goal difference is -10. We're 6 points above Exeter who are in the relegation zone in 21st place. Bottom team Fleetwood are 11 points behind us. 

We can't afford another rubbish January window, otherwise we'll likely be getting relegated come the end of this season. 

The defeat against Carlisle was a terrible result and the team need to respond with a win today. 

[bomber]

We could very easily get sucked in to the relegation zone if we are not careful. Difficult one today who will turn up? Desperately need a few points and quick. It is somewhat concerning clubs around us are doing business, it’s vital we have a decent window but I just can’t see us doing much business. 

[worldsendvalefan]

The sad thing is Mipo looked more likely to score than Loft

That is one of the most scary posts ever put on here. More so because it is true

Sent from my SM-A528B using onevalefan mobile app

[robf]

I don't think it's as black and white (pardon the pun) as "you must get in early" or "you get bargains if you leave it late" but I would argue the rule is not to panic buy and research your signings in advance.

For instance, Harry Charsley (certainly an asset in our promotion run) was a late Jan signing wheras Kurtis Guthrie (certainly not an asset) was an early Jan signing.

However, I think in general the list shows that the later you leave it the less quality you seem to get (presumably because you've missed out on your first choices by then) but it's not a hard and fast rule.

Last three January windows...

First-half of Jan:
Chris Hussey, Connor Hall, Ryan Edmondson, Kian Harratt, Kurtis Guthrie, Jake Taylor

Second-half of Jan:
Matty Taylor, Aaron Donnelly, Sammy Robinson, Harry Charsley, Joel Cooper, Tomas Holy, Mustapha Olagunji, Will Swann

I think it's also worth noting that arguably our best Jan signing (Connor Hall) didn't arrive till January 11th so I don't think we should be panicking just yet. It would be good though if next week saw some incoming.

[Wrex]

https://www.weareimps.com/news/2024/january/shodipo-and-vale-leave-imps/

Former loanee Olamide Shodipo has been released from Lincoln, as has Jack Vale. Vale sign Vale? With a name like that we've got to make it happen!

 

[saintvaliant]

12 hours ago, darren1810 said:

No 👎. Because i remember him at Derby away in October. 

Either way. January is notoriously a time for other people's cast offs. 

And the summer isn’t? We very rarely sign anything other than other people’s cast offs because most players we sign are on free transfers from other clubs.

[wotsyobeef]

Most of this frustration is down to boring football at home bar a couple of games and in my view the capitulation to Stevenage and Boro plus unfathomable substitutions costings us points.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app

In recent games I have often looked at the bench and not fancied any of the options available to change the game in our favour. Even if we had someone who was awful but fast it would make Crosby's job a bit easier.

[valiant steve]

Signings in the summer that were excellent:

Ripley, Chislett, Arblaster, Devine.

Signings in the summer that have been decent:

Iacovitti, Lowe, Sang

Not a bad summer really. We need to add a left sided player and a striker in this window. Plus, we need to replace with better anyone that leaves. 

Strong rumours that Conlon, Cass and Walters are going to leave. 

I'd be amazed if we can get better than Arblaster, so we need to strengthen other areas, especially strikers. (Unless Loft and Uche start to produce) 

UTV! 

[valiant_593]

I don’t rate Yak personally. Think he flattered to deceive at the start and is a league 2 player. We over signed in midfield and left LWB wide open as well as up top. Same errors over and over again. I’m not concerned about the lack of signings yet it’s very early days, but given our injuries I would hope we are in advanced stages for a couple of signings - I very much doubt it though. We didn’t take the chance last season and went backwards and I think the same will happen this time. 

Edited January 6 by valiant_593

[JRC]

3 hours ago, Walka003 said:

Liam McCarron joins the Vale on loan | News | Port Vale

WWW.PORT-VALE.CO.UK

 

Signed summer deadline day

 

First half Derby away was the only time I thought McCarron looked useful (probably our best player first half). He wasn't quite as effective 2cd half, though not awful but was clearly furious when he got taken off. I suspect there was some kind of an argument after because I don't think he ever played well again. If he'd play throughout his loan period as well as he did for 45 minutes at Derby he would have been an OK loan signing. Sadly he didn't. 

Edited January 6 by JRC

[JRC]

30 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

I don’t rate Yak personally. Think he flattered to deceive at the start and is a league 2 player. We over signed in midfield and left LWB wide open as well as up top. Same errors over and over again. I’m not concerned about the lack of signings yet it’s very early days, but given our injuries I would hope we are in advanced stages for a couple of signings - I very much doubt it though. We didn’t take the chance last season and went backwards and I think the same will happen this time. 

First spell in the team he looked pretty solid. Struggled since his injury. 

[TJHValiant]

2 hours ago, robf said:

I don't think it's as black and white (pardon the pun) as "you must get in early" or "you get bargains if you leave it late" but I would argue the rule is not to panic buy and research your signings in advance.

For instance, Harry Charsley (certainly an asset in our promotion run) was a late Jan signing wheras Kurtis Guthrie (certainly not an asset) was an early Jan signing.

However, I think in general the list shows that the later you leave it the less quality you seem to get (presumably because you've missed out on your first choices by then) but it's not a hard and fast rule.

Last three January windows...

First-half of Jan:
Chris Hussey, Connor Hall, Ryan Edmondson, Kian Harratt, Kurtis Guthrie, Jake Taylor

Second-half of Jan:
Matty Taylor, Aaron Donnelly, Sammy Robinson, Harry Charsley, Joel Cooper, Tomas Holy, Mustapha Olagunji, Will Swann

I think it's also worth noting that arguably our best Jan signing (Connor Hall) didn't arrive till January 11th so I don't think we should be panicking just yet. It would be good though if next week saw some incoming.

The research is vital totally agree. However given that this year we have looked clearly short up front and have been wanting across midfield and defense since October, you’d think it has been clear and obvious that it needed to be done and done well. 
 

Last season I sort of understand why we didn’t bother too much as we had exceeded expectations and were doing so well until the slump. 
 

This year, no excuses. We need quality to keep us in the division. 
 

 

[TJHValiant]

1 hour ago, valiant_593 said:

I don’t rate Yak personally. Think he flattered to deceive at the start and is a league 2 player. We over signed in midfield and left LWB wide open as well as up top. Same errors over and over again. I’m not concerned about the lack of signings yet it’s very early days, but given our injuries I would hope we are in advanced stages for a couple of signings - I very much doubt it though. We didn’t take the chance last season and went backwards and I think the same will happen this time. 

Totally agree with you about Yak, but we have a lot of sub league 1 guys who are out of their depth. 

[JRC]

2 hours ago, TJHValiant said:

The research is vital totally agree. However given that this year we have looked clearly short up front and have been wanting across midfield and defense since October, you’d think it has been clear and obvious that it needed to be done and done well. 
 

Last season I sort of understand why we didn’t bother too much as we had exceeded expectations and were doing so well until the slump. 
 

This year, no excuses. We need quality to keep us in the division. 
 

 

The only player signed in January who really improved our team in recent years was Hall. Quite a few improved the squad. I think it's unlikely we'll sign anyone much better than our first 11, as those players would be expensive. I'm pretty hopeful we can improve the squad in 3 or 4 positions. We can bring in 2 loans, I suspect we have money to buy a player and there are normally a couple of decent players who agree to contract terminations towards the end of the window.  Part of the problems this season has been other sides bring on much higher quality than we can off the bench. I don't see us picking up someone as good as Ojo, Wilson or Clark; for example. I do think they learned a lesson last season and we will, hopefully,  end the season with more competition in some key areas. LWB and central midfield definitely; maybe another wingback and a forward if Thomas leaves. Assuming Conlon and Cass leave there may be one or two more. At the moment I think we only have 18 players who count to the 22 registered outfield players, which is an incredibly small group of experienced pros compared to most teams at this level. I think that needs to be at least 20 to avoid the problems we had last season.