10 hours ago, Nippy Naylor said:

A Peter Swan type defender , but I still think we need 2 more striker's thru the door cos don't think loft is a great back up option.

My thinking is structured, if you like, on the basis that we have quite limited funds available. We seem to have slightly too few attackers but they can do a job. However, also too many defenders who are not quite good enough at L1 level. Hence I would like to prioritise defence - but we need to move some defenders on first. 

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Warren

10 hours ago, valeparklife said:

2nd worst keeper in L2 based on saves % this season.

Seems his form has dipped after a move to Barnsley fell through. Lewis admitted he was "mentally affected" by this in the summer.

6th best in L2 last season for same metrics.

Ah fair enough, I was basing that on what I saw of him last season.

9 hours ago, 1 said:

Uche, Wilson and Loft as the only strikers  will not be the plan I’m sure. I always saw Thomas as a 10, but we have 3 decent ones and that’s with Devine dropping back to fill the Blaster role, so he’d be 4th choice. Meanwhile we are short of out and out strikers who can do the business consistently. I reckon we’ll be signing someone to finally lead the attack, and then have Uche off the bench to harass tired defenders into the ground.

Uche played the whole of the game v Charlton, scored and was man of the match. He's now up to speed and deserves a run of games. 

53 minutes ago, Doha said:

Ah fair enough, I was basing that on what I saw of him last season.

I was the same as you tbh. He seemed so highly rated last season so I was surprised to see him go to Carlisle.

But seems he's not been the same this season.

Carlisle do seem to be splashing the cash a bit - how does that all work under FFP? I hear they've spent upwards of £300,000 on transfer fees this season!

17 hours ago, Brian Johnson said:

Chesterfield have got a record this season of getting mis firing strikers scoring again. Will Grigg and the best example is they have got 7 goals out of Joe Quigley.

Hopefully, they need some cover & "experience" in the forward line to make sure they get over the line with promotion this season.

Will Griggs is reportedly on £5k a week, so, I'm sure they can afford Loft

That could be a reason why they can't . They maybe already stretching their budget.

We've had some success when looking at non-league recently. Hugill did very well, signed from Whitby. Others like Oyeleke, Hannant and Rawlinson all did good jobs for us in L2.

Set aside injuries. I think where we are at is an emerging big centre forward whose size enables the target man role and occupies defenders at set pieces. Not prolific but good for 1 in 5 to 1 in 10 goals to games. Then attackers playing alongside or behind who are scoring goals in Chislett and Garrity et al. Plus I think Loft can be a significant threat from the bench and his size offers defensive capabilities. 

The issues with strikers are the ones in current form are expensive to sign and pay. The ones that we develop and perform well will get signed by bigger clubs - accept PV gets a fee.

At our size of club and L1 level it's hard to create and keep an effective strike force. We can't afford a lot of risk which I define to be a striker / forward who costs a fee, has high wages, gets injured a lot and doesn't score that many. 

It's tough to manage and we ain't doing too bad in recent games!? It's the back where we have stuff to fix to get safe in mid table. 

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Warren

11 hours ago, Warren said:

My thinking is structured, if you like, on the basis that we have quite limited funds available. We seem to have slightly too few attackers but they can do a job. However, also too many defenders who are not quite good enough at L1 level. Hence I would like to prioritise defence - but we need to move some defenders on first. 

I see your point but goals win games , I'm ok with the defence if they cut out the daft mistakes . But defo need a few more forwards cos if willo and uche get injured we are royally screwed., imo .

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Nippy Naylor

35 minutes ago, Nippy Naylor said:

I see your point but goals win games , I'm ok with the defence if they cut out the daft mistakes . But defo need a few more forwards cos if willo and uche get injured we are royally screwed., imo .

I think with Wilson it's really important there is some cover in the ranks. Not only do we know he can be out injured for spells but I would imagine the club would like the option to take him off if we've got games in quick succession (i.e. the pitches are not going to be great at this time of the year and they may want to option to take him off after an hour if there's another game in a few days). I think Baylee Dipepa has done brilliantly for a 16 year-old lad but he's not the experienced option that can potentially help close down games, he's still learning. 

4 hours ago, Walka003 said:

We've had some success when looking at non-league recently. Hugill did very well, signed from Whitby. Others like Oyeleke, Hannant and Rawlinson all did good jobs for us in L2.

Hannant was truly awful.

20 minutes ago, Wise Owl said:

Hannant was truly awful.

Agreed. Plus we had two seasons in league 2 where we nearly dropped out of the football league when we had a whole troupe of non league level nobodies. Rawlinson should never, ever have pulled a Vale shirt on but we had nobody better in the dark, dim days of Smurfwaite killing us off.

While I liked Manny, none of those guys would see us stay in league 1 now. They were sad, desperate times and we signed non league players because that’s all we could afford. We even had a non league manager in Aspin. 
 

Non league players are for non league clubs. Not for a club looking to push on in League 1. I’ve supported Vale for long enough to know the only man who could deliver rough diamonds was Rudge. That’s what made him great. A unique, great man who deserves respect for that. 
 

Nobody could do what he did, so don’t expect Flitcroft and Crosby to. 

5 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Agreed. Plus we had two seasons in league 2 where we nearly dropped out of the football league when we had a whole troupe of non league level nobodies. Rawlinson should never, ever have pulled a Vale shirt on but we had nobody better in the dark, dim days of Smurfwaite killing us off.

While I liked Manny, none of those guys would see us stay in league 1 now. They were sad, desperate times and we signed non league players because that’s all we could afford. We even had a non league manager in Aspin. 
 

Non league players are for non league clubs. Not for a club looking to push on in League 1. I’ve supported Vale for long enough to know the only man who could deliver rough diamonds was Rudge. That’s what made him great. A unique, great man who deserves respect for that. 
 

Nobody could do what he did, so don’t expect Flitcroft and Crosby to. 

Sorry m8 but I don't agree with that.  There are rough diamonds out there in the lower leagues that will make the jump up to EFL2/EFL1 and the Championship.  Good scouts will find them today the same as they did in the 1980's and 1990's.  Tim hasn't stopped the progress of such players

31 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Agreed. Plus we had two seasons in league 2 where we nearly dropped out of the football league when we had a whole troupe of non league level nobodies. Rawlinson should never, ever have pulled a Vale shirt on but we had nobody better in the dark, dim days of Smurfwaite killing us off.

While I liked Manny, none of those guys would see us stay in league 1 now. They were sad, desperate times and we signed non league players because that’s all we could afford. We even had a non league manager in Aspin. 
 

Non league players are for non league clubs. Not for a club looking to push on in League 1. I’ve supported Vale for long enough to know the only man who could deliver rough diamonds was Rudge. That’s what made him great. A unique, great man who deserves respect for that. 
 

Nobody could do what he did, so don’t expect Flitcroft and Crosby to. 

I'm sort of in agreement with this and sort of not in agreement. The main difference is information technology and data analysis. That should help in targetting scouting and player comparisons. Also in the physiological field. However, I get some users, e.g. Man Utd and Chelsea, can still waste billions on the wrong players. 

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Warren

For me it’s a balancing act. You can’t sign a team of kids on loans and you can’t sign numerous players from non league at once. If the scouting is done correctly there are definitely players out there that kind make the step up

I am hoping that we can bring in some permanent signings and not just loans during this window