16 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Unfortunately it isn’t just the strikers. Byers has been massively dissapointing and takes up and big wage. Dare I say it…can he be moved on? 
 

Broadly speaking tomorrow may need to be a bigger shake up than just bringing in one striker. 

I honestly think Byers is an all-time disappointing signing, in terms of hype and outlay.

We're a year in and he's offered us just under 18 '90s'. In that time, could we name 5 games where he has stood out? Or 5 games where's he's been good? Wimbledon he was quite good. I'm struggling beyond that. I'm not sure he's had a MOTM in that time, when Ojo has several this season alone doing quite a similar job.

This season he's picked up a red (and we can bleat about the deserving/undeserving nature of it all day) and been culpable for the goal against Reading.

He's rapidly got to start earning his keep. I can see the flashes of quality from time to time but he's regularly being outplayed by a 19yo with 15 starts to his name. I wouldn't lose sleep if he was moved on, though it won't happen.

Edited August 31, 2025Aug 31 by JoeB2

1 minute ago, JoeB2 said:

I honestly think Byers is an all-time disappointing signing, in terms of hype and outlay.

We're a year in and he's offered us just under 18 '90s'. In that time, could we name 5 games where he has stood out? Or 5 games where's he's been good? Wimbledon he was quite good. I'm struggling beyond that. I'm not sure he's had a MOTM in that time, when Ojo has several this season alone doing quite a similar job.

This season he's picked up a red (and we can bleat about the deserving/undeserving nature of it all day) and been culpable for the goal against Reading.

He's rapidly got to start earning his keep. I can see the flashes of quality from time to time but he's regularly being outplayed by a 19yo with 15 starts to his name. I wouldn't lose sleep if he was moved on, though it won't happen.

The Byers signing I think is down to DM would have thought his influence would have been a big pull.

9 hours ago, philpvfc said:

We won’t get many goals from midfield playing the system Moore has us playing. 

No reason why we shouldn't? - it's not as if we're not creating chances, but the players need to work on shooting and heading...i.e. taking those chances. Doesn't matter which position you play, you should be able to shoot straight and keep shots/headers down. 

8 hours ago, kevin_struggles said:

I'd say we need a bare minimum of around 50- 55 goals to give us a decent chance of staying up so far in 6 games we have scored two. Last season none of our midfielders scored more than 5 in league two. I get what you are saying but if we are going to rely on our midfield to make up the bulk of our goals I think we will be at the wrong end all season.

Yet, despite our scoring problems, we almost won the League!

8 hours ago, Osh said:

Cheap Stockley back-up...? Wrexham paid half a million for him. How much did Stickley cost. Again give him some time 

What I meant by that was Faal is cheap in terms of his cost to us i.e loan and wages.

3 hours ago, Mellor! said:

We need a permanent signing as well imo. Its all well and good signing loan players, but if one comes in and scores 10 goals before January, they'll just be recalled and we'll be in the same situation.

There may be better options available in January?

13 minutes ago, LancyTony said:

No reason why we shouldn't? - it's not as if we're not creating chances, but the players need to work on shooting and heading...i.e. taking those chances. Doesn't matter which position you play, you should be able to shoot straight and keep shots/headers down. 

With Garrity out and seemingly picking up lots of niggles over the last few season, I don't see goals coming from this midfield.  We have decent midfielders in Byers, Walters, Croasdale and Ojo but goalscoring midfielders they are not, we have to find a way of getting another attack minded player into this team.  Over the course of the last 3 seasons, for those 4, we have Walters 0 goals from 25, Byers 3 goals in 67, Ojo 4 goals in 89 and Croasdale 6 in 92.  I like these players but attack minded they are not.  If you play with 3 of these 4, your 2 strikers will need 35/40 between them.

We need goals from all over 

89 goal attempts in 6 league games 

 

Ive seen us miss some right  sitters ,hitting woodwork ,going just past the post .

Confidence is a huge thing in football 

At the moment out of all sides who come  up out of l2 we are the  ones who are not having the ball run for us .

Yet in cup we won both too nil .

Are we a bad side NO

Are we potentially a great side YES 

Why ever would 6800 folk buy a season ticket if most folk thought we couldnt hold our own in league 1 

Performances We more than holding our own

Its a result based business however i dont think 2000 plus go Rotherham 1600 go BA ,1300 go Birmingham and 910 go Reading if folk dont see something promisimg in Vale 

Bring a player in today who can bring it all together .

Then do a deal for Arsenal game for non season ticket holders, not membership folk where if turn up for LO and Mansfield  you get a chance get ticket for Arsenal game etc .

Bring the incentive too folk too come to them games 

Sign a striker today and who knowswhat the future holds for Vale .

Imagine how many more would go home and away if we were ruthless in oppositions penalty area  

UTV 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by Dipepa delight

2 hours ago, LancyTony said:

There may be better options available in January?

8 hours ago, ValiantHan said:

Given that Championship clubs are closely monitoring the situation I imagine he will go on loan to one of them. 

Not necessarily. A lot comes down to the percentage of wages the receiving club offers to the parent club and the game time the player is guaranteed.

Big day for our season. 

1 hour ago, darren1810 said:

Big day for our season. 

Massive

I actually feel a bit ill thinking about it

Clock’s ticking… 

2 hours ago, soothsayer said:

the game time the player is guaranteed.

DM’s not got a great record IMO in giving loanees playing time. I would hope/feel with Scarlett’s profile though he should initially get more time than Faal likely will. 

It probably won’t be long though until we start doing critique bingo after today, questioning all our recruitment this season, then endless chats about team selections, tactics. This season will be some stress 😄 

I’m hoping for some surprises today as well with ins/outs. Transfer Journalism kills a lot of the fun when we know ahead of time. 

Today I think could make or break our season, We could be a long way off come January and in a Relegation scrap if we dont get the right players in today.

I fear we have left it far too late and the signing of Dan Scarlett for me is not going to be the signing to fire us up the league and out of trouble.

 

We have a great squad of Midfilders, Wing Backs, Goalkeepers but we really are a CB and 2xST short of knitting it all together, we are not a bad side at all we have dominated games for large parts and not caved to anyone we have played so far.

Down to you Carol, Matt and Darren today is the biggest day of the season for me make the right choices or you will lose alot of the fab base I fear.

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by Southern_Valiant

Big day for our season. 

Bigger day as a test for Robs servers if we sign no striker or the 'wrong' striker if the past week's posts are an indicator