January Transfers and Rumours

[Howjy04]

6 minutes ago, aspin for england said:

From what I gather , Gibbo is on less than 3k a week.

 

6 minutes ago, aspin for england said:

From what I gather , Gibbo is on less than 3k a week.

Life’s a bitch.

[robf]

On 07/02/2024 at 20:20, valiant_593 said:

Connor wickham for me. Just until the end of the season, but I would take any of the above as well. 

Wickham may technically be a "free agent" but I'm not sure he wants to play anymore. I can't remember the article but he was linked to another club earlier this season and the piece was saying that it's not entirely clear if he wants to continue to play.

I guess that's the thing with "free agents" - they are not necessarily fit, available and have the desire to play. After all, a lot of them are free agents due to long-term injury issues and I would suspect it takes an awful lot of commitment to get back from that sort of thing.

Wickham's had loads of injuries and probably also earned a decent amount from the game - he may have decided to move into another job now.

I personally hope I'm wrong as we need a short-term fix upfront but I think there's sometimes a grey line between "free agent" and "retired"...

 

[pete vale]

2 hours ago, Rockape99 said:

Yeah we could but out of them only Gale is near match fit  , the others would be fit by end of march 

How would we afford Gale?

[robf]

I think the fact we are desperate to see if there are any free agents who can come in and immediately do a job shows just what an awful January we had.

• The problem with free agents is most are nowhere near match fit (look at Ikpeazu who took weeks) so they are not going to be a quick fix.
• Then there's the big names who will probably expect wages way beyond us (Gayle for instance who's rumoured to be attracting the deeper pockets of Derby)
• Then there's the "free agents" who may not even be interested (Wickham, as I've posted above, may have just moved on from football after his injuries)

I think you may want to take on a free agent who hasn't played for a bit if you've got a decent squad and you're not in a rush to play them. However, we haven't got a decent squad and we are in a rush so if we bring in someone who hasn't played at all this season it's going to be weeks till they are anywhere close. By then we'll have played loads of games and the players he was brought in to cover are likely to be close to coming back anyhow. 

I think we're made a massive hole for ourselves with the January business and adding a free agent just isn't a quick fix - unless we're really lucky and there's another player like Dwight Gayle, who is match fit, wants to join us, is on reasonable wages and would improve us. I doubt there is, frankly, and I think we may be stuck with what we have - which is a real worry until the likes of Garrity and Ikpeazu come back.

[jeffers]

12 minutes ago, pete vale said:

How would we afford Gale?

How can we afford relegation 

[pete vale]

Just now, jeffers said:

How can we afford relegation 

We can't but your question really needs directing at our DOF and owner. Perhaps they will 'bite-the-bullet' with Moore and a striker?

[robf]

Regardless of Dwight Gayle's wage demands would he want to move to Vale Park? He's rumoured to be interesting the likes of Ipswich, Sheff Wed, Barnsley and Derby, so he may think one of them is a better option for him. 

 

[jeffers]

1 minute ago, robf said:

I think we're made a massive hole for ourselves with the January business and adding a free agent just isn't a quick fix - unless we're really lucky and there's another player like Dwight Gayle, who is match fit, wants to join us, is on reasonable wages and would improve us. I doubt there is, frankly, and I think we may be stuck with what we have - which is a real worry until the likes of Garrity and Ikpeazu come back.

Do we actually know what Ben’s injury is, I hear rumours it’s his Achilles, in which case I would not expect to see him again this season.

[robf]

Just now, jeffers said:

Do we actually know what Ben’s injury is, I hear rumours it’s his Achilles, in which case I would not expect to see him again this season.

According to Crosby's interviews with the press it was a calf injury. I've seen mention of a "mid-March" return in a Crosby pre-match press call but that was an interview held in mid-January, I'm not sure if there has been a more recent update?

[nodge]

7 minutes ago, jeffers said:

Do we actually know what Ben’s injury is, I hear rumours it’s his Achilles, in which case I would not expect to see him again this season.

I heard that too and that he'd been playing on injections for most of the season. I'll be surprised if we see Ben or Uche play this side of Easter

[worldsendvalefan]

Do we know how long Loft is out for

[Vtid]

2 minutes ago, worldsendvalefan said:

Do we know how long Loft is out for

Could be back in the squad tomorrow Ryder said after Saturdays game mate 

[DazFred]

22 minutes ago, jeffers said:

Do we actually know what Ben’s injury is, I hear rumours it’s his Achilles, in which case I would not expect to see him again this season.

He has

[Armers4eng]

Haven’t looked back on this thread,

 

but ryan Edmondson could take some load off wilson . Sure I saw he was released 

[Vtid]

10 minutes ago, Armers4eng said:

Haven’t looked back on this thread,

 

but ryan Edmondson could take some load off wilson . Sure I saw he was released 

He’s moved to play in Australia mate