4 hours ago, MBE said:

That was great bit of knowledge JRC.

Who’s next?

There's always one 😉

7 minutes ago, valeparklife said:

I believe it expires in the summer.

didn't Flickers say something about targeting these types of loans where their contract is nearing an end?

I remember him saying that a season or two ago, but that was when we were signing less good loan players.

Think we're now mostly pitching ourselves as a good vibes introduction to men's football for talented prem youngsters now.

Interesting that we tried for Weir in the summer. Anyway I hope he does well for us

2 hours ago, JRC said:

He's been fit for the last 2 seasons. I believe his biggest problem at Portsmouth is he's a winger come left wingback,  rather than a leftback come left wingback. When they changed to a flat back 4 he's never really fitted in. His weekly wage is so high he's out of the price range for most league 1 clubs. There aren't many footballers today who haven't had a prolonged absence by their mid 20s. Grant and Wilson have historically had problems season after season. Very few players haven't had a single injury disrupted season by 24 or 25. Really it's then down to the medical to determine if it's a chronic problem which will keep recurring. In modern football Smith is a freak in terms of fitness.  

Realistically you want players to be over 30 games a season. I think Ray Walker was around 32 league games a season, Robbie Earle 33 on average for us. Both had pretty much full seasons for us and some pretty long periods out. Grant has averaged 25 games in his career (the same as James Wilson). Grant actually had a strange career at Plymouth,  two injury disrupted, followed by 2 where he was almost ever present, then last season. The big problem is if they have a chronic injury which keeps repeating.  If we discounted every player whose missed 3 or 4 months of the season at some point we'll be recruiting from a pool which is really a puddle. Whether Hume has a chronic issue only medical staff can make a judgement.  

Hume is listed by Sunderland and Portsmouth as a left back. Neither refers to him as a wingback nor a winger and, as far as I can see, he's never played in either position though he has made 3 appearances for Pompey on the left of midfield.

Technically he may be fit but after he came back from injury in August 22, he played on 10 or so occasions in that season. In 23-24, he's played once - in an EFL trophy match but never in the league. So, in two seasons, he's started very few league matches and this season has been limited to a few appearances as a sub. 

So here we have a player with a history of injuries whose return to fitness has never been tested by the regular hard grind of competitive league matches. I know we have a tendency to sign injury-hit players but signing even one more would, imho, be too much. 

Shallow puddle or not, I would suggest we've had enough of such signings - a few who are rarely on the treatment table would suit us much better. 

Edited January 9, 20242 yr by CambridgeDon

55 minutes ago, valeparklife said:

I believe it expires in the summer.

didn't Flickers say something about targeting these types of loans where their contract is nearing an end?

Exactly the kind of loans we should be going for imo 

I know some people slag off flitcroft but imo I think he has brought some good footballers in at the vale but I'm not including Loft in that cos don't rate him .

3 hours ago, Macc Lad said:

Looks like a good all rounder, shoots on sight, excellent passer and as someone who can break up opposition moves, very much a Jensen interceptor 

This video makes Morecambe look good last season. 

19 minutes ago, Nippy Naylor said:

I know some people slag off flitcroft but imo I think he has brought some good footballers in at the vale but I'm not including Loft in that cos don't rate him .

I know some people slag off Crosby but he has brought some good footballers in at the Vale but not including Loft.

You can’t blame Crosby for some of the crap he has to work with but not compliment him when happy with the signings, it’s either or.

It's all about opinions isn't it , you have your opinion and I have mine , that's life . 

Philip, crosby is learning on the job so is getting a lot of slack from fans , The last game was the right way to go about getting fans onside setting the team to play with attacking intent long may it continue but fans can criticise when they feel the need.

1 hour ago, Hitcher said:

 

Interesting that we tried for Weir in the summer. Anyway I hope he does well for us

Possibly sliding doors moment last summer ? If we’d been successful signing him would we have still signed the Blaster and/or Devine, changed the way we play etc..  

38 minutes ago, Nippy Naylor said:

Philip, crosby is learning on the job so is getting a lot of slack from fans , The last game was the right way to go about getting fans onside setting the team to play with attacking intent long may it continue but fans can criticise when they feel the need.

Fans have every right to criticise should they wish but can’t blame Crosby for bad signings then compliment someone else for the good signings.

4 hours ago, Guppys left peg said:

Seems like Michael Mellon set to go to Dundee on loan.

Is it a Dundee-l?

Wonder if we’ll consider Jephcott again as he’s doing FA in Scotland?

On 08/01/2024 at 22:37, MelbourneValiant said:

What I am saying is, we can't use injuries as an excuse, it is part of the modern game.

 

Of course we can use injuries as an excuse for some of our performances - we seem to have had an above-average amount over the last couple of seasons! And, again - it doesn't matter to us how other clubs fare? If we win against a weakened side, that's football...but it's the same if we lose for that reason, too.

Edited January 10, 20242 yr by LancyTony
Spelling

24 minutes ago, LancyTony said:

Of course we can use injuries as an excuse for some of o0ur p0erformances - we seem to have had an above-average amount over the last coup-le of seasons! And, again - it doesn't matter to us how other clubs fare? If we win against a weakened side, that's football...but it's the same if we lose for that reason, too.

Are we really above average with the number of injuries compared to the rest of the teams, as I mentioned on an earlier thread, this is the normal now and we need to get on with it.  It would be interesting to see someone post our injury record compared to other teams, I might be wrong but every team i see team news I hear lots of teams without 6 and 7 players every single week.  Tonight was watching Middlesbrough and they had 14 out, don't know what it is, if the number of games, the boots players wear but it is getting beyond a joke all over the country.  You say we can use the excuse for our performances, if we go on another winless run whilst Garrity is out, will that be the excuse.