James Wilson - out for the season

[darren1810]

2 hours ago, Hoppers said:

I feel for JW, not just cuz he is a Biddulph lad, but because for whatever reasons, he could go down as one of the great unfulfilled potentials - such a shame for the lad. Personally, I'm not so sure we have seen the last of him. And if the stats on his games are correct, he has been available for far more games than I seem to remember.

Staying or going, I wish him all the best.

He's the Vale equivalent of Nick Powell was at Lard.

An injury prone enigma. Capable of brilliance or being anonymous. Both had the opportunity for better standard of football than they achieved. 

I'll miss him though. Not often we see gifted footballers up the Vale. 

[Old School]

Football is an emotive and emotional game and long may it continue to be so. Us fans like nothing better than a vigorous "discussion" about the successes, failures, highlights, lowlights and quite literally anything and everything about our and every other club. It's fantastic. 

For the club itself however, all the emotion has to be put to one side and decisions made on analysis and logic. There must be good people making the right decisions for the right reasons, not the psycho babble we have been subjected to these last few seasons with "trust the process". You would think/hope that behind the scenes pragmatic decisions are being looked at on the basis that we will be in league 2 next season. Hopefully we will by kick off time have a balanced, fit and competitive squad (wouldn't that be nice) for us to get behind. There will inevitably be hard decisions made and players released for a variety of reasons. I personally have very fond memories of Willo scoring at Wembley in the playoff final, but do accept that unfortunately for him his body is letting him down. There will be other fans favourites leaving, but hey ho, maybe balanced by future fans favourites arriving. I wish all those leaving well and welcome the new arrivals to our promotion campaign.

Who wants to argue that?

Everyone?

Fantastic, let's go. 

Edited April 6 by Old School
Predictive text

[darren1810]

12 minutes ago, Old School said:

Football is an emotive and emotional game and long may it continue to be so. Us fans like nothing better than a vigorous "discussion" about the successes, failures, highlights, lowlights and quite literally anything and everything about our and every other club. It's fantastic. 

For the club itself however, all the emotion has to be put to one side and decisions made on analysis and logic. There must be good people making the right decisions for the right reasons, not the psycho babble we have been subjected to these last few seasons with "trust the process". You would think/hope that behind the scenes pragmatic decisions are being looked at on the basis that we will be in league 2 next season. Hopefully we will by kick off time have a balanced, fit and competitive squad (wouldn't that be nice) for us to get behind. There will inevitably be hard decisions made and players released for a variety of reasons. I personally have very fond memories of Willo scoring at Wembley in the playoff final, but do accept that unfortunately for him his body is letting him down. There will be other fans favourites leaving, but hey ho, maybe balanced by future fans favourites arriving. I wish all those leaving well and welcome the new arrivals to our promotion campaign.

Who wants to argue that?

Everyone?

Fantastic, let's go. 

Very good post.

Beyond belief given their injuries that him and Dan Jones ended up being retained .( that's gone well ).

We are meant to have state of the art analysis and stats. Something went badly wrong. Can't all be on Flitcroft? Why were we signing crocks. 

[kevin_struggles]

Lets face facts he has the odd decent touch plays the occasional flashy diagonal pass and if his body wasn't made of tissue paper he might have been a good player but in reality he is an injury prone striker with no pace and no strength who doesn't score enough goals. Two of our midfield players have outscored him this season and another one has equalled his total. He has only got into double figures once in his entire career and that was two seasons ago at a lower level. I am sorry but I don't get why people think we are more of a threat when he plays he isn't much of a threat full stop and his record proves that. If we signed a new striker with his stats people would be going mental.

 

We should have let him go last season 8 goals in two seasons at this level is a joke and he is part of the reason why we are in the bottom four.

[southport vale]

Enjoyed watching him play when available but I think teams knew he was easy to crock and gave him heavy treatment.
I'll never forget that brilliant pass and the goal at Wembley.
Good luck James.

[Stockleys_socks]

1 hour ago, southport vale said:

Enjoyed watching him play when available but I think teams knew he was easy to crock and gave him heavy treatment.
I'll never forget that brilliant pass and the goal at Wembley.
Good luck James.

He gets the same treatment as any other striker. This is the problem, fans keep making excuses for him. Personally, I'd keep him on a pay as you play deal as back up to hopefully 2 or 3 much better ones.

[TJHValiant]

2 hours ago, kevin_struggles said:

I am sorry but I don't get why people think we are more of a threat when he plays he isn't much of a threat full stop and his record proves that. If we signed a new striker with his stats people would be going mental.

 

We should have let him go last season 8 goals in two seasons at this level is a joke and he is part of the reason why we are in the bottom four.

At his best he was capable of creating chances and we did look on the whole as a more dangerous side. He wasn’t some Haarland esque goal hog who simply scored goals, he could run with the ball, pass and open up defenses for others. You just wonder if he wasn’t so fragile if he would have been better used as a Danny Sonner style playmaker opening up chances for others as his football intelligence is very high. 
 

Even so, I won’t dispute that he has been injured far too often and his best has been distant memories for most of this season. Yes, he should have been released in the summer, but he rejoined but was only on the basis that Flitcroft could find nobody else.

I dread to think who the alternative was if he had not because Flitcroft thought Loft was worth chasing all summer. It has been a bit like chasing the hot girl in the park all summer but when you get a chance of a date you find out she has a penis.
 

 

[TJHValiant]

1 hour ago, Stockleys_socks said:

He gets the same treatment as any other striker. This is the problem, fans keep making excuses for him. Personally, I'd keep him on a pay as you play deal as back up to hopefully 2 or 3 much better ones.

That’s always what ideally should have been done. If he had been the 4th striker of a good group we’d have been ok with his contributions. As it is, despite all his injuries he remained someone needed on the pitch because there has been nobody better. 

[kevin_struggles]

1 hour ago, TJHValiant said:

At his best he was capable of creating chances and we did look on the whole as a more dangerous side. He wasn’t some Haarland esque goal hog who simply scored goals, he could run with the ball, pass and open up defenses for others. You just wonder if he wasn’t so fragile if he would have been better used as a Danny Sonner style playmaker opening up chances for others as his football intelligence is very high. 
 

Even so, I won’t dispute that he has been injured far too often and his best has been distant memories for most of this season. Yes, he should have been released in the summer, but he rejoined but was only on the basis that Flitcroft could find nobody else.

I dread to think who the alternative was if he had not because Flitcroft thought Loft was worth chasing all summer. It has been a bit like chasing the hot girl in the park all summer but when you get a chance of a date you find out she has a penis.
 

 

I am aware that there are different types of striker and maybe at his best as you say he is capable of the things you mention but having watched almost every game this season I don't think he has been doing much of anything apart from maybe linking well with devine and arblaster when we were tip tapping it around and not creating any chances earlier in the season. He hasn't been effective in terms of scoring or creating. Being honest, and not exactly being a fan of loft, but I honestly believe loft would have scored more than 4 goals if we had got him in at the start instead of signing wilson. Willo is living on his reputation for me.

[rider1308]

Gifted player who unfortunately is injury prone. Get a proper job with some Part time/semi professional football congleton Newcastle town, kidsgrove athletic etc 

[Loggerheads Sage]

9 minutes ago, rider1308 said:

Gifted player who unfortunately is injury prone. Get a proper job with some Part time/semi professional football congleton Newcastle town, kidsgrove athletic etc 

Surely he will get fixed up at national league level,  if not L2?

[rider1308]

2 minutes ago, Loggerheads Sage said:

Surely he will get fixed up at national league level,  if not L2?

What lower league club would take that financial risk !!!!!! 

[Loggerheads Sage]

6 minutes ago, rider1308 said:

What lower league club would take that financial risk !!!!!! 

Well, I did say national league or L2.

I don't know what the financial risk is as I'm not privy to Wilson's contract details.  I'd assumed that as he was released and had not got fixed up, we negotiated a more realistic deal, along the lines of a low basic wage along with a higher play/ goals bonus?   Could be wrong because, as I said , I have no information whatsoever as to his contract details.       

Some sublime moments off him, but I think this ship has sailed now personally 

[rider1308]

19 minutes ago, Loggerheads Sage said:

Well, I did say national league or L2.

I don't know what the financial risk is as I'm not privy to Wilson's contract details.  I'd assumed that as he was released and had not got fixed up, we negotiated a more realistic deal, along the lines of a low basic wage along with a higher play/ goals bonus?   Could be wrong because, as I said , I have no information whatsoever as to his contract details.       

Some sublime moments off him, but I think this ship has sailed now personally 

Indeed, but it’s time  to part company me thinks and all the best to him. 

[valefan79]

11 hours ago, Stockleys_socks said:

He gets the same treatment as any other striker. This is the problem, fans keep making excuses for him. Personally, I'd keep him on a pay as you play deal as back up to hopefully 2 or 3 much better ones.

We can't keep him for another season, I don't get this pay as you play, he is taking up the space of another player, every team should have 4 strikers on the books.  With Wilson you are then restricting yourself to 3 and a half as you know he will be out for more than half. For too long we have carried out players who are injury prone, I hope next season is different, I am sorry but 8 goals in 2 seasons for a striker is not enough.