Poll: rate Port Vale's January transfer window

[Valiiant]

 

Four good signings on paper. But in the area where were needed strengthening the most we somehow managed to do absolutely nothing. I'm sure we tried. But sometimes trying just isn't good enough. That area of the park has been a concern for a bloody long time now and we just don't seem able to rectify it.

Wouldn't want any of our current strikers to be at the club next season .

[MBE]

10 minutes ago, Birches Head Fred said:

Quick question - are we still allowed to sign 'free agents' ?
And if so, who may be available striker wise.
Sorry to go off topic, regards topic, we really should have found another 1 or even 2 strikers.
Having said that, we must still have quite a large squad even now.

You can sign free agents whenever you like Fred. Only issue is how long it takes to get them match fit.

[MBE]

Abysmal wasn’t an option.

We only did business to replace like for like loans which look OK but the primary objective to sign a Striker and LWB, as stated by Flitcroft, failed miserably.

 

[grand prix pants]

2 minutes ago, MBE said:

Abysmal wasn’t an option.

We only did business to replace like for like loans which look OK but the primary objective to sign a Striker and LWB, as stated by Flitcroft, failed miserably.

 

And the stated objective to sign a striker was made before Uche’s injury (I think)!

[southport vale]

I would rate it shocking and even miss management. I can see why they want to go down the road as being a youth progression club but should we go down this year which premier clubs would loan us players in the 2nd Div.
I hope we survive but sorry C&K this plan is not going to get you where you want to be. Football is a result based business no a community project. Everything you experienced at Wembley should have shown you what results and excitement on the pitch can give you. TBH as a club we're pretty much well supported if the likes of Accrington/Barrow/Harrogate can survive on their crowds why can't we. I thank you for saving the club but IMO your lack of experience running a football club have led you to trust a DOF.
In hindsight you should have given Darryl gardening leave until he was mentally right. If he was still manager I don't think we would be in this place.
I hope with all my heart I am wrong and you are right. Time will tell.
Thank you anyway for trying.

[MBE]

11 minutes ago, grand prix pants said:

And the stated objective to sign a striker was made before Uche’s injury (I think)!

Yeah it was.

[Paul6754]

Give gore and weir a chance to show what they can do, mighten just mighten be the key that unlocks lofty, it’s a team game after all.

[Guitar Ray]

1 hour ago, Paul6754 said:

Give gore and weir a chance to show what they can do, mighten just mighten be the key that unlocks lofty, it’s a team game after all.

The vast majority of fans have been incredibly fair and patient with our previous loans.  Weir has some experience so should be OK whereas Gore maybe suffered a bit for all the hype and the focus on him in his first game.  The dilemma is can we play them both together just now?  Hopefully Mighten has the skill and trickery to conjure something from nothing, at the very least the pace to get us up the pitch.  Have to say I’m really looking forward to see him play.

[Powerline]

It’s a dereliction of duty. Absolute <ovf censored> disgrace. They can shove their campus.

[JohnJames]

Vale are still 9-1 to be relegated. As a lot of fans now think that’s a certainty why not have next years season ticket money on it and go on holiday abroad on the winnings?🤷

[JRC]

It's incredibly hard to pass overall judgement after 2 or 3 games. As people have said Devine did little during his first month and was inconsistent for a couple of months after. Arblaster was the one who hit the ground running. People will be disappointed with the failure to land a striker.  In terms of having a better squad a lot depends on whether Gore can hit the heights of Arblaster.  Weir looked OK when Sang came on against Portsmouth and he go a little more freedom to push forward. He might not hit the heights Devine did in his final month but he was no worse than Devine for the majority of his loan. I think the other 2 are definitely upgrades. 

What needed to push us forward was a striker. That became desperate last Saturday. If Uche had got injured today I'd probably give it 6 or 7, out of 10. The odds on any loan player doing as well as Arblaster from the off were remote, so edging towards 7.

The fact remains Uche did get injured last Saturday.  It looks increasingly likely we gambled on pulling off a bit of a coup on deadline day. As with the Maynard deal I suspect that will haunt the club somewhat. If we'd brought the player we were allegedly after from Wednesday I'd have rated it a good window. A good PL2 player probably average. As it is we got nobody. I think very poor is harsh because I think what we recruited is good but it has to be poor as they knew all week that Uche is pretty much done for the season. 

[Rampant Zebra]

I think it was always going to be difficult to recruit a striker when it is public knowledge that the club doesn't think they deserve to get paid the going rate.

[JRC]

7 minutes ago, Rampant Zebra said:

I think it was always going to be difficult to recruit a striker when it is public knowledge that the club doesn't think they deserve to get paid the going rate.

I get your point, although deserve probably isn't the right word. Does a league 1 striker deserve to be paid 4 times a nurse?

Our current budget structure certainly means we don't have sufficient funds to compete for good established strikers at league 1 level. It does leave us scrabbling around trying to unearth the new Jones or Sodje. The market for strikers this window has been outrageous with Aaron Pressley attracting a 200k bid after a massive 2 goals so far this season, yet a free transfer in the summer.

There are some signs in this window that some of the excess over spending higher up the leagues is moderating. We've also probably seen squad sizes in the top tiers and hoarding of players due to PL2 probably reach saturation.  There will be more 22/23 year old leaving bigger clubs each season, getting discarded as they have outgrown their usefulness. That will increase supply at our level. Although they will leave clubs with an over inflated sense of their financial worth as more players enter the market that should help bring wages to a more sustainable level for "normal" league 1 and 2 size clubs. How some young players on 4 or 5k at Chelsea react to 1.5k at Walsall will be interesting. 

[Shropshire_Valiant]

Seems nearly 85% think it's not a good window(not surprising really).  I've said elsewhere it borders on negligent not to get at least 1 striker considering the squad and position in the league.  Surely a young loanee could have been sourced in the first couple of weeks of the window to take the pressure off a bit, once Thomas had gone back and Garrity gone off injured at Carlisle(who is our main source of goals outside of the forward line)? Even that wouldn't have been ideal as we probably needed a more experienced striker as well but at least it would have been like for like on numbers in one sense. We're told the recruitment team work 2 or 3 windows ahead and having built the links with Premiership academies I don't believe no one in that ball park was available.

I guess you can have a little sympathy on not signing an experienced striker depending on how you look at it(wages, Uche was moving then not moving ultimately getting injured late in the month and a possible late deal fell through) but that's 3 or 4 consecutive transfer windows now striker recruitment is clearly proving a problem.  Surely something has to change as we are getting it wrong?

[Raveninblack]

22 minutes ago, Shropshire_Valiant said:

Seems nearly 85% think it's not a good window(not surprising really).  I've said elsewhere it borders on negligent not to get at least 1 striker considering the squad and position in the league.  Surely a young loanee could have been sourced in the first couple of weeks of the window to take the pressure off a bit, once Thomas had gone back and Garrity gone off injured at Carlisle(who is our main source of goals outside of the forward line)? Even that wouldn't have been ideal as we probably needed a more experienced striker as well but at least it would have been like for like on numbers in one sense. We're told the recruitment team work 2 or 3 windows ahead and having built the links with Premiership academies I don't believe no one in that ball park was available.

I guess you can have a little sympathy on not signing an experienced striker depending on how you look at it(wages, Uche was moving then not moving ultimately getting injured late in the month and a possible late deal fell through) but that's 3 or 4 consecutive transfer windows now striker recruitment is clearly proving a problem.  Surely something has to change as we are getting it wrong?

It has been announced that uche is out for 12 weeks which only leaves Loft, Chislet and Wilson in attack