Summer transfer rumours and speculation

[werstayinup]

Would anyone fancy us signing Chey Dunkley ? a defender Moore knows who seems to be stalling on his contract offer as is striker Daniel Udoh

[Phil]

3 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

Would anyone fancy us signing Chey Dunkley ? a defender Moore knows who seems to be stalling on his contract offer as is striker Daniel Udoh

We had him watched when he was at Kidderminster but didn't follow it through!

[valiant_593]

26 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

Would anyone fancy us signing Chey Dunkley ? a defender Moore knows who seems to be stalling on his contract offer as is striker Daniel Udoh

I would take both but if they’re stalling for a side in the league above I can’t see them dropping to us. 

[JRC]

3 hours ago, valeparklife said:

I didn't mention all 22 have to be first team standard.

I just want 2 players for every position, so when injuries/suspensions/loss of form happens, we don't have to play Ben Garrity up front or James Plant at left back.

Ben Garrity is a better centreforward than quite a few reserve forwards at league 2 and lower end league 1. Last season I thought he was our best centreforward.  There's not much point having substandard players in a squad. Similarly James Plant has been better at LWB than Grant this season and Benning last (and he's got an extended contract in league 1). Plant played on the left for all his loan at Salisbury and sometimes for the youth team, although on the left of midfield. Good players adapt pretty easily. Ojo did well at centrehalf because he's a good player. Sang has been poor at RWB and centre midfield because he wasn't league 1 quality. Devine and Garrity played as 10s and holding midfield well because they are good players. With the exception of flying wingers, centreforwards and Alan Tankard I can't remember a good player we've had who wasn't beyond functional in a second position. Even the wingers, Guppy got his England cap at leftback and Mccarthy played wingback and sometimes rightback at Birmingham. 

There's way too much blaming selection out of position for poor performance.  The players playing poorly in more than one position last season just weren't very good in any position. When Simon Mills (an attacking midfielder at York) signed to cover for Ray Walker as a 4 nobody said he was out of position,  or when he moved to rightback.  Under Rudge we never had two players for each position.  He did play the loan market but he had a lot of good players who could play a number of positions because they were good players (Glover, Aspin, Walsh, Swann, Mills, Walker, Porter, Earle, Van der Laan). The issue last season was we had a number of players who weren't league 1 standard in any position. I could easily name a Vale 11 from the last 50 years of players playing "out of position " which would be better than any combined 11 from last season. 

[Bald Eagle]

11 minutes ago, JRC said: I could easily name a Vale 11 from the last 50 years of players playing "out of position " which would be better than any combined 11 from last season. 

Let’s start with Liam Burns in goal

[PVFC FAN]

I didn't think I would be excited for this season but I'm really looking forward to it and seeing who we bring in. I hope the recruitment team will do a job this time.

[Paul6754]

32 minutes ago, JRC said:

Ben Garrity is a better centreforward than quite a few reserve forwards at league 2 and lower end league 1. Last season I thought he was our best centreforward.  There's not much point having substandard players in a squad. Similarly James Plant has been better at LWB than Grant this season and Benning last (and he's got an extended contract in league 1). Plant played on the left for all his loan at Salisbury and sometimes for the youth team, although on the left of midfield. Good players adapt pretty easily. Ojo did well at centrehalf because he's a good player. Sang has been poor at RWB and centre midfield because he wasn't league 1 quality. Devine and Garrity played as 10s and holding midfield well because they are good players. With the exception of flying wingers, centreforwards and Alan Tankard I can't remember a good player we've had who wasn't beyond functional in a second position. Even the wingers, Guppy got his England cap at leftback and Mccarthy played wingback and sometimes rightback at Birmingham. 

There's way too much blaming selection out of position for poor performance.  The players playing poorly in more than one position last season just weren't very good in any position. When Simon Mills (an attacking midfielder at York) signed to cover for Ray Walker as a 4 nobody said he was out of position,  or when he moved to rightback.  Under Rudge we never had two players for each position.  He did play the loan market but he had a lot of good players who could play a number of positions because they were good players (Glover, Aspin, Walsh, Swann, Mills, Walker, Porter, Earle, Van der Laan). The issue last season was we had a number of players who weren't league 1 standard in any position. I could easily name a Vale 11 from the last 50 years of players playing "out of position " which would be better than any combined 11 from last season. 

JRC, IMHO a good player can adapt to other positions, a not so good player doesn't or can't. 

Eg, I made the point on the Gavin Massey thread that after seeing the majority of his Vale games I couldn't say with any conviction what his best position is (I'm not trying to claim I'm any budding Alf Ramsey). Massey was certainly no wing back as be couldn't defend, his best position appeared to be  as a winger but the number of times he did the hard work and got to the byline but his cross/cut back didn't beat the first man or got cut out, it was frustrating.

Compare to David Worral, he could play well at wing back or as a winger, he delivered loads of superb crosses/cut backs which the likes of Pope and Harrison scored from. Worral was a far better player than GM.

The guy Atkinson that John Askey signed for a short period as a central midfield player was also used successfully as a right back,  I was surprised we didn't sign him the following season.

[TJHValiant]

8 hours ago, ethan and archies dad said:

possibly out of our wage bracket, and doubtful he would drop to league 2 or move north but Clarke-Harris released by Peterborough. A few years ago he was touted as the next player from their production line for a big money move

Clarke Harris was not going to sign for us in League 1. More chance of seeing Elvis in league 2 than him. 
 

The Vale problem has been money. Frankly if we signed him on good wages, I’d be even more annoyed we were not doing it last season. 

[Bimbleabout]

I didn't think I would be excited for this season but I'm really looking forward to it and seeing who we bring in. I hope the recruitment team will do a job this time.

Was thinking the same today. Can't wait to see what happens and am missing watching Vale already

[Vale Ball]

Clarke Harris was not going to sign for us in League 1. More chance of seeing Elvis in league 2 than him. 
 
The Vale problem has been money. Frankly if we signed him on good wages, I’d be even more annoyed we were not doing it last season. 

You don't know what the circumstances of any deal were last season.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app

[blackdog]

There's enough evidence on many Podcasts that transfers are not straight forward, many elements come into play to allow a deal to go through, it's very early days in the close season, anybody signing now will have had all their demands met and are probably extremely expensive. 

[Walka003]

It's a nonsense when people bring up rocastle and Miller as an argument to say early business is bad. Look at last year when we "held our nerve to squeeze value out of the market", where did that get us? Ryan Loft on deadline day and relegation.

It's the same as the "don't listen to fans from old clubs" posts everytime we sign someone who old clubs say is rubbish. 9 times out of 10 they are spot on and the only example people can come up with is akpo sodje. I get why people do it, it's a comfort blanket in the face of evidence that things aren't great.

[JRC]

1 hour ago, Paul6754 said:

JRC, IMHO a good player can adapt to other positions, a not so good player doesn't or can't. 

Eg, I made the point on the Gavin Massey thread that after seeing the majority of his Vale games I couldn't say with any conviction what his best position is (I'm not trying to claim I'm any budding Alf Ramsey). Massey was certainly no wing back as be couldn't defend, his best position appeared to be  as a winger but the number of times he did the hard work and got to the byline but his cross/cut back didn't beat the first man or got cut out, it was frustrating.

Compare to David Worral, he could play well at wing back or as a winger, he delivered loads of superb crosses/cut backs which the likes of Pope and Harrison scored from. Worral was a far better player than GM.

The guy Atkinson that John Askey signed for a short period as a central midfield player was also used successfully as a right back,  I was surprised we didn't sign him the following season.

The decision to sign specialist cover players ultimately cost Askey his job. Atkinson started life as a wide player (played left wing when we had him on loan years ago). He could play all across the midfield pretty well and both wingback positions.  We signed a few specialist instead and none of Whitehead,  Mills or Fitzpatrick were any better as backup players in their specialist positions than Atkinson.  He wasn't the most gifted footballer but he clearly understood the game. Ironically I don't think he ever played for us in that holding role Luke Joyce played. He played mainly fullback or in the 8 position on the right or left of the midfield 3. The demise of Askey was the Tranmere home game when we were due to go top leading 2 0 at halftime.  Joyce looked knackered all through the second half until his sending off. If he'd had Atkinson on the bench I'm pretty sure Joyce would have come off early in the second half and we wouldn't have lost 4 - 3. 

Worrall also played as a 10 in his career. He had a really good home game against FGR years ago where he played centre midfield.  A very good lower league footballer. 

I suspect with Massey he relied a lot on pace earlier in his career. Once that was diminished there wasn't a lot else he offered in any position. 

[werstayinup]

3 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

I would take both but if they’re stalling for a side in the league above I can’t see them dropping to us. 

No idea but some Shrewsbury fans seem to think that their finances are very tight so that could be a reason if terms have been reduced

[Brian Johnson]