As has been stated by ourselves and Flitcroft, a few need to leave so that we can get fresh faces in.

The goalkeepers are sorted, no issues there.

I would say we have an abundance of centre halves

On the right we can play Cass or Lowe

On the left we can play Jones or Iacovitti

That leaves Smith, Debrah and Balmer all vying for that ‘no-nonsense’ position. I don’t think we need all free, so maybe Balmer will go back? That said, I think it’s more likely we will see Cass leave, although I do like him on the right.

Holding midfielders we have Ojo, Arblaster and Walters. I’d argue Sang too although he has been pushed out wide due to our severe lack of wing backs. Lowe can also cover there (although I’d rather he didn’t). Conlon also fits here although out of favour.

We also have a number of no.10s - Devine, Garrity, Chislett, Massey… even Grant before he became a LWB (admittedly before he joined us).

My main concern is the lack of natural full backs. As I have stated on previous posts, we only have Mitch Clark as an out-and-out natural wing back. We need a pacey LWB and one more on either side as back up. Then maybe we can stop playing people out of position.

 

As much as we all would love a striker, we are so over stocked in some areas, and under in others. Wing back has to be our priority

3 hours ago, PV1993 said:

As has been stated by ourselves and Flitcroft, a few need to leave so that we can get fresh faces in.

The goalkeepers are sorted, no issues there.

I would say we have an abundance of centre halves

On the right we can play Cass or Lowe

On the left we can play Jones or Iacovitti

That leaves Smith, Debrah and Balmer all vying for that ‘no-nonsense’ position. I don’t think we need all free, so maybe Balmer will go back? That said, I think it’s more likely we will see Cass leave, although I do like him on the right.

Holding midfielders we have Ojo, Arblaster and Walters. I’d argue Sang too although he has been pushed out wide due to our severe lack of wing backs. Lowe can also cover there (although I’d rather he didn’t). Conlon also fits here although out of favour.

We also have a number of no.10s - Devine, Garrity, Chislett, Massey… even Grant before he became a LWB (admittedly before he joined us).

My main concern is the lack of natural full backs. As I have stated on previous posts, we only have Mitch Clark as an out-and-out natural wing back. We need a pacey LWB and one more on either side as back up. Then maybe we can stop playing people out of position.

 

As much as we all would love a striker, we are so over stocked in some areas, and under in others. Wing back has to be our priority

Interesting your idea returning Balmer. I’d not thought of that but if it frees up a wage to help get players in areas we need then it’s a good shout.

Conlon and Cass you’d expect to leave as they can’t even make the bench.

I think we need pace at both WB positions and a Striker. Using the same logic with Balmer I’d return Thomas if it helped to free up cash for a 1st choice Striker.

Centre forward and left sided wing back are our obvious key areas.

8 hours ago, fuzzyvalefan said:

Centre forward and left sided wing back are our obvious key areas.

Totally agree but i think going out of the Trophy and FA Cup haven't helped

Totally agree but i think going out of the Trophy and FA Cup haven't helped

On the flip side though the fact that we can't cup tie anyone in those competitions may be a factor

I appreciate Halloween has been and gone but I worked out something very scary earlier - Nathan Smith has more career league goals than Loft. A centre half.

If Wilson doesn't get re-signed, by christ do we need another forward signing.

24 minutes ago, Doha said:

I appreciate Halloween has been and gone but I worked out something very scary earlier - Nathan Smith has more career league goals than Loft. A centre half.

If Wilson doesn't get re-signed, by christ do we need another forward signing.

If Wilson isn't signed up then i think we will need 2 to come in especially if Thomas goes back,ideally an experienced one and maybe a young one but they have to be the goal poacher types and not Uche/Loft types

I don’t see why we would extend Wilson.

21 minutes ago, MBE said:

I don’t see why we would extend Wilson.

Neither can i tbf

48 minutes ago, MBE said:

I don’t see why we would extend Wilson.

he will be on the bench today.

Will play a part all the fixtures between now and up to & around the 6th January. Sign a contract extension around the 6th too. 

Play a part in 2 or 3 more games then will be injured for the rest of the season

Edited December 16, 20232 yr by Brian Johnson

Can we actually trust anyone at the club to operate efficiently in the transfer window.?

I think, considering both the cost of forwards and the recruitment team's record on signing them, there's a solid argument to focus on Garrity as our forward this year and put some proper money into an athletic, durable LWB. Taking a risk on overpaying for another Loft is one I'm not comfortable with. We're not going up this season and I don't think we'll go down, so I'm not sure of the worth of committing 150k a year to a forward bought in panic when history suggests he has a good chance of being naff.

We're stuck with Loft for another season (unless anyone is daft enough to take on his wages), but otherwise it's a clean sweep of forwards in the summer.

Spend the next 6 months hammering the non-league, Irish, and U23 leagues to find Dion Charles/ Colby Bishop/Clarke-Harris before the big clubs. Don't spend the next year whining about how we can't compete with teams with 3x the fanbase, and wonder why they beat us to striker targets. Get ahead of the game instead of signing journeymen lower league strikers with questionable scoring and fitness records.

Spending all summer chasing clearly over-ambitious targets, inevitably missing out on them, whining about it, starting the season with no strikers, then panic signing a finished James Wilson and Ryan Loft is up there with Flitcroft's very worst offences. He's done some decent stuff (especially in 21/22) but he had an absolute horror show there.

Edited December 16, 20232 yr by JoeB2

2 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

I think, considering both the cost of forwards and the recruitment team's record on signing them, there's a solid argument to focus on Garrity as our forward this year and put some proper money into an athletic, durable LWB. Taking a risk on overpaying for another Loft is one I'm not comfortable with.

We're stuck with Loft for another season (unless anyone is daft enough to take on his wages), but otherwise it's a clean sweep of forwards in the summer.

Spend the next 6 months hammering the non-league, Irish, and U23 leagues to find Dion Charles/ Colby Bishop/Clarke-Harris before the big clubs. Don't spend the next year whining about how we can't compete with teams with 3x the fanbase, and wonder why they beat us to striker targets. Get ahead of the game instead of signing journeymen lower league strikers with questionable scoring and fitness records.

Joe, I understand what you’re saying regarding finding an unknown but I don’t think we have the resources to do this and each day makes me wonder if the owners have come to the end financially or the novelty has worn off. With everything in life, you have to be careful what you wish for. If it wasn’t for all the hard work done by Rob F and I’m sure others are involved, we’d have nothing to debate . You cannot expect your fans to have to pay foras there’s no dialogue coming from the club. It’s almost as though they’re ignoring the fans that’s why there’s become an opening in the market for Baggers. I have subscribed but can see from ppl on here that it’s informative. Football is an expensive hobby for fans to follow, so I feel let down by the club. It’s almost as though they’re divorcing us.

7 minutes ago, Playa Amodores said:

Joe, I understand what you’re saying regarding finding an unknown but I don’t think we have the resources to do this and each day makes me wonder if the owners have come to the end financially or the novelty has worn off. With everything in life, you have to be careful what you wish for. If it wasn’t for all the hard work done by Rob F and I’m sure others are involved, we’d have nothing to debate . You cannot expect your fans to have to pay foras there’s no dialogue coming from the club. It’s almost as though they’re ignoring the fans that’s why there’s become an opening in the market for Baggers. I have subscribed but can see from ppl on here that it’s informative. Football is an expensive hobby for fans to follow, so I feel let down by the club. It’s almost as though they’re divorcing us.

For a while, I have held the controversial view that things are only likely to get worse for the Shanahans from here - I think mid-table League 1 is about our ceiling as a self-sufficient club, which is what we're trying to be. Anything sustained beyond that requires external investment with no guarantee of return. We hit the exact same bump when Smurthwaite wouldn't fund us to the next level in 2014-15, which precipitated him trying to go outside the box with the Bruno experiment and failing spectacularly because he was offensively unintelligent.

The work the Shanahans have done, with a few bumps on the way, has been very successful and we're 10x the club we were when they took over.

If I was advising Carol, and thank God I'm not, I'd tell her to leave on a high, retain a seat on the board, make most (if not all) of her money back, and depart as a legend of PVFC with something named after her. She'd be kept on as a valuable source of information, be able to enjoy hospitality as a fan, and goes down as saving PVFC and turning us around. Not many would object to the Shanhan Suite, or the training ground being Shanahan Park - and I'd personally go as far as renaming the Hamil End the Shanahan Stand. There simply wouldn't be PVFC without her. We'd be in the 10th tier as AFC Burslem Vale, Norman laughing his socks off.

I do fear that the longer she stays though, the more difficult it will be to marry progression with cost-cutting, and fans will start to (as you say) grow disappointed at what they felt was another false dawn. This isn't me wanting her gone, and I'll back her till the day she goes, but it's just my honest take about what the next few years will look like.

Of course, this is all contingent on there being buyers.

Edited December 16, 20232 yr by JoeB2

14 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

For a while, I have held the controversial view that things are only likely to get worse for the Shanahans from here - I think mid-table League 1 is about our ceiling as a self-sufficient club, which is what we're trying to be. Anything sustained beyond that requires external investment with no guarantee of return. We hit the exact same bump when Smurthwaite wouldn't fund us to the next level in 2014-15, which precipitated him trying to go outside the box with the Bruno experiment and failing spectacularly because he was offensively unintelligent.

The work the Shanahans have done, with a few bumps on the way, has been very successful and we're 10x the club we were when they took over.

If I was advising Carol, and thank God I'm not, I'd tell her to leave on a high, retain a seat on the board, make most (if not all) of her money back, and depart as a legend of PVFC with something named after her. She'd be kept on as a valuable source of information, be able to enjoy hospitality as a fan, and goes down as saving PVFC and turning us around. Not many would object to the Shanhan Suite, or the training ground being Shanahan Park - and I'd personally go as far as renaming the Hamil End the Shanahan Stand. There simply wouldn't be PVFC without her. We'd be in the 10th tier as AFC Burslem Vale, Norman laughing his socks off.

I do fear that the longer she stays though, the more difficult it will be to marry progression with cost-cutting, and fans will start to (as you say) grow disappointed at what they felt was another false dawn. This isn't me wanting her gone, and I'll back her till the day she goes, but it's just my honest take about what the next few years will look like.

Of course, this is all contingent on there being buyers.

That’s a very romantic notion predicated on a new owner having the funds required to be successful to get into Champ. 

Football doesn’t work like that.