Just now, Brian Johnson said:

Mansfield fans think that they are getting into the play offs too with their signings 

90% of teams’ fanbases are ‘a proven striker from pushing top 6’.

Every fanbase thinks this summer’s signings are better than last.

Anyone else couldn't give a toss about Bradford? 

Say aye. 🤣

I think we need a little more faith and optimism that these signings will work out and be to our benefit, and less doom and gloom pretending that what’s better is continuity and keeping lads forever. 
 

Let’s enjoy the journey forward and not put a downer on things are being risky or dangerous, or we’d still have Pope up front, Yates and Smudge in defence and Stone as our goalie or something. 
 

Trust in Darren. UTFV. 

Edited June 26, 2025Jun 26 by NW9Valiant

9 hours ago, queenybantam07 said:

Not here to disagree or agree, but I’d be interested to understand your meh judgement in a bit more detail. 
 

CM - Max Power - captained Wigan and Sunderland - won L1 three times - Smallwoods replacement. 

CB - Joe Wright - Killie’s player of the year - solid L1 experience

CB: Curtis Tilt - Critchlow’s back-up - who will be squad player at best - won L1 with Wigan 

RWB - Josh Neufville - Wimbledon’s talisman for the past couple of seasons  -umpteen clubs tried to sign him  

LB - Ibou Touray - played 40+ games for Stockport last season - who finished third. Won L2 the season before. 

ST - Stephen Humphrys - very capable attacker at this level. 

CB - Matt Pennington - solid L1 defender, with 70 Champ appearances

No where near the finished article, but if we’re judging signings thus far in comparison to all those promoted from L2 last season, I think we’ve had the best window so far.

Game of opinions, however. 

 

Heres your 'weve had the best summer transfer award' 🥇 . 
 

 

1 hour ago, Bobnewtonian said:

  2 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

 None of us have a clue.

 

1 hour ago, Bobnewtonian said:

That should be the OVF mantra….. harsh but true. 
Made me smile anyway.

 

utv

But then it follows, logically, that none of us have a clue whether or not any of us have a clue.

So some of us may have a clue without knowing it ourselves or having it recognised as such by others ...  🙂

(Yes I do, urgently, need the football to restart ... )

No problem to disagree Queeny, time will tell.
Powers are long gone. 31 playing in the backwaters of India for 2 seasons. Big ask to pick up the pace of L1 again.
Wright - SPL is notorious, got lots of examples of players do well in SPL not as good in L1.
Tilt - should be nowhere nearer L1. Dodgy as in L2.
Neufville - Good player hope he makes the step up. One of the best WB’s in L2 last season.
Touray - Decent experience but another player on with age beginning with 3.
Humphrys- His record is meh.
Pennington - Class act.
When we came up last time we signed great experience, we had Massey and Ojo, promoted out of L1 with Wigan, wrong side of 29 like most of your experienced players you have signed. Dreadful signings.
I personally prefer our approach of experience with the age profile.

I agree. We thought when we brought in Massey and Ojo that we had brought in quality. Similar with Connor Grant. They were all pretty <ovf censored>. From the outside looking in, Bradford's signings look a bit short term, with several the wrong side of 30. What I like about our business is that we're signing players in that prime age of mid to late 20s.

2 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

That’s not me saying your business has been poor - but spinning every signing as an unqualified success, instead of viewing it as what it is (squad-level League 1 players, mostly 30 or above, with Touray a standout), is why so many fans are impatient and demanding more these days. Their expectations are crackers.

Making judgements on transfer windows (Stevenage have WON the window! Wigan have LOST the window) is daft until we’re a few months in. None of us have a clue.

👍

45 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

90% of teams’ fanbases are ‘a proven striker from pushing top 6’.

Every fanbase thinks this summer’s signings are better than last.

Mansfield just remind me of us in our last stint in L1, started well last season then fell of a cliff at New Year and we all know how the second season went! 

7 minutes ago, leedsvaliant said:

 

 

I agree. We thought when we brought in Massey and Ojo that we had brought in quality. Similar with Connor Grant. They were all pretty <ovf censored>. From the outside looking in, Bradford's signings look a bit short term, with several the wrong side of 30. What I like about our business is that we're signing players in that prime age of mid to late 20s.

 

Up to now, our oldest recruit is 27, only one will be 28 by the end of the season.

I think it's all balance. You can make your squad too experienced (Michael Brown did that with Kay, Tonge, Lawrie Wilson etc). It made the squad slow and lethargic. You can overload with non-league chancers such as Askey (Kieran Kennedy, Ryan Lloyd, Callum Evans etc) and the majority don't make it. Neither of those squads were balanced and suffered as a result.

I think it's nice to get mid-20s players in but I would not be upset with the odd veteran too. 

I remember hearing from someone who knows his stuff that DM kept on Jason Lowe last season, not so much because of his effect on the pitch but because he was a model professional who would help the younger players and would help keep standards up. 

I think a happy balance is a few younger players. We seem to have that in Shorrock, Rico Richards etc. Then a larger contingent of players with experience, hitting their prime (those mid-20s players we're talking about) but I also think a couple of veterans to add experience, professionalism, guidance etc won't go amiss either. 

On ‘having the best window’ -

we could go and sign a big money, well-known striker, who would arrive and probably expect to start most weeks.

To facilitate that, we’d have to drop one of Stockley and Tolaj - who, in the run-in, had an incredibly effective partnership where one of them scored pretty much every game.

This new striker might not gel with Tolaj, or might take 3 months to get settled, in which time Stockley has lost his sharpness, is a bit disillusioned at being jettisoned after such a good season, and we’ve ended up with an inferior forward line despite signing more, good players. A previously established, good partnership was sacrificed at the altar of ‘new signing, admin!’

It just isn’t as simple as ‘more good players = a good window’. The culture around transfers does my head in (does it show?) and leads to unrealistic expectations amongst fanbases. Signing a seemingly ‘inferior’ player might actually be a better signing than a big-name striker, but many fans can’t/won’t see it that way.

4 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

On ‘having the best window’ -

we could go and sign a big money, well-known striker, who would arrive and probably expect to start most weeks.

To facilitate that, we’d have to drop one of Stockley and Tolaj - who, in the run-in, had an incredibly effective partnership where one of them scored pretty much every game.

This new striker might not gel with Tolaj, or might take 3 months to get settled, in which time Stockley has lost his sharpness, is a bit disillusioned at being jettisoned after such a good season, and we’ve ended up with an inferior forward line despite signing more, good players. A previously established, good partnership was sacrificed at the altar of ‘new signing, admin!’

It just isn’t as simple as ‘more good players = a good window’. The culture around transfers does my head in (does it show?) and leads to unrealistic expectations amongst fanbases. Signing a seemingly ‘inferior’ player might actually be a better signing than a big-name striker, but many fans can’t/won’t see it that way.

The point is you need to form an effective team and that, of course, isn't easy to do and no matter what league you are in and whatever your budget, although more money gives you more options of course. So far I think this has been one of Darren Moore's strengths, so I expect him to come up with the right combination of youth and experience for us, budget limitations and all considered.

5 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

On ‘having the best window’ -

we could go and sign a big money, well-known striker, who would arrive and probably expect to start most weeks.

To facilitate that, we’d have to drop one of Stockley and Tolaj - who, in the run-in, had an incredibly effective partnership where one of them scored pretty much every game.

This new striker might not gel with Tolaj, or might take 3 months to get settled, in which time Stockley has lost his sharpness, is a bit disillusioned at being jettisoned after such a good season, and we’ve ended up with an inferior forward line despite signing more, good players. A previously established, good partnership was sacrificed at the altar of ‘new signing, admin!’

It just isn’t as simple as ‘more good players = a good window’. The culture around transfers does my head in (does it show?) and leads to unrealistic expectations amongst fanbases. Signing a seemingly ‘inferior’ player might actually be a better signing than a big-name striker, but many fans can’t/won’t see it that way.

Some truth in what you say. Ultimately a lot of players fans recognise are often players they've seen for a number of seasons.  Quite often they are clearly ageing and on the downhill slope. Some have only had one or two exceptional seasons, surrounded by mediocrity. Moore's job is to find players who are going to have a good couple of seasons.  That's a lot harder than looking at a list of released players and picking out the ones you've heard of. In Curtis, Stockley and Tolaj we have some pretty good options. Two have a lot of league 1 experience and I'm pretty confident about Tolaj. 

12 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

On ‘having the best window’ -

we could go and sign a big money, well-known striker, who would arrive and probably expect to start most weeks.

To facilitate that, we’d have to drop one of Stockley and Tolaj - who, in the run-in, had an incredibly effective partnership where one of them scored pretty much every game.

This new striker might not gel with Tolaj, or might take 3 months to get settled, in which time Stockley has lost his sharpness, is a bit disillusioned at being jettisoned after such a good season, and we’ve ended up with an inferior forward line despite signing more, good players. A previously established, good partnership was sacrificed at the altar of ‘new signing, admin!’

It just isn’t as simple as ‘more good players = a good window’. The culture around transfers does my head in (does it show?) and leads to unrealistic expectations amongst fanbases. Signing a seemingly ‘inferior’ player might actually be a better signing than a big-name striker, but many fans can’t/won’t see it that way.

With regards to a new striker signing, I think somebody with room to develop who could take over Stockley from next season might be preferable as he’s in his final year (and not getting younger). We are obviously looking to build, whether it’s somebody established who wants more game time might result in another Paton situation over game time. Somebody younger though might suit a bit better. &nbsp
 

Who knows though, maybe Paton surprises us or Stockley earns an extension. I think you can overthink these things and worry too much though. 
 

I’ll give any signing and recruit the chance and best wishes over being too pessimistic. We’ve been promoted after all — it’s naive to expect the same set of players will all make the step up. They won’t. 

3 hours ago, Bobnewtonian said:

I think Bradford have done what they needed to do and add experience from a higher level. I only saw them 3 times, twice against us and once against Crewe at their place and they looked remarkably easy to create chances against, I do think they needed quite a bit of work to give themselves a chance in league 1- possibly slightly more so than us and definitely more so than Donny.

Be interesting to see how they go, I think the step up in standard is a little bit harder to bridge than some supporters from all 3 teams imagine.

UTV

…and despite that, we had the second best defence in the league. 
 

Funny old game football, isn’t it. 👍