5 hours ago, valeparklife said:

This is what I hoped we'd become - a club that is clever and shrewd in the transfer market, seeing value in players that others don't.

Instead, it seems we just throw money at big name players that maybe don't have the most hunger/desire.

Jayden Wareham was superb against us for Exeter on Saturday. He's a 22yo and was signed from Reading after only scoring 5 goals in 37 L1 games season. Exeter obviously saw something in him to buy him for a fee and now he has 10 goals in 26 games this season.

These are the profiles our Head of Strategy and Head of Scouting should be pursuing.

Knowing how Exeter work he will probably be sold for big money as well if he keeps it up

If they do sell Cole I think that might be me done. I get being pragmatic and that we are almost certainly down anyway but to sell your only goalscorer in this position is akin to publicly announcing- we have given up and are resigned to our fate.

To then come out presumably and advertise the selling of match tickets and calls to 'get behind the boys by parting with your hard earned cash despite the fact that we have made it obvious we gave given up would leave a very bad taste in the mouth.

4 hours ago, robf said:

I thought exactly the same. Wareham was also dangerous in the first fixture.

Cole was only ever a short-term and expensive fix. A good player for sure but not a long-term option.

If you look at the signings of Tolaj and Paton -  that was the first time in ages we've actually gone and got players with potential and looked to develop them.

Even though only one of the two was a surefire success (and if you are speculating you will never get a 100% success rate) it still generated around £1m of profit. 

So, it worked and yet we haven't continued with that approach. If you're developing players you've got to have a conveyor belt as they will develop at different times. So, we should have already been looking at the replacements for Paton and Tolaj well before Tolaj left. A transfer window ago. Instead we had to rush around and bring in Cole at the last minute and it (presumably) cost a fair bit in wages to do so.

That way (in the JR way we'd have the replacement developing in the wings). Instead, this summer we brought in solely experienced players (Marosi Humphreys, Shipley, Gordon, Waine etc) all of which are at their peak age and will only decline. There wasn't a single one to bring on and develop.

Look at Ethon Archer. Luton signed him in the summer but he's a "project" for him so he's been loaned out this season as they don't think he's ready yet. If they'd have followed our approach of experience only Luton would not have signed him. We needed one or two of those signings ourselves.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have brought in experience for a higher division but wheras someone like Peterborough will persist with their transfer policy, we dipped our toes in (and it even worked) but we still didn't follow through.

We're just so muddled in our approach in my view.

I always thought it was Carols dream to bring in younger players to nurture then sell on for big profits( Tolaj like you say) along with bringing Academy players into the team to sell on eventually but that all seems to have died a death a bit like the club

Now we will have to see if Brady is tasked with trying to get this back on track or not

On a side note I would swap Cole for Jerry Yates 🙂 (Luton fans want rid of him and he was left out of their squad yesterday) not that he would want to join a league 2 team of course

12 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

Knowing how Exeter work he will probably be sold for big money as well if he keeps it up

The financial difficulties Exeter find themselves in trying to stay in the division, they might have to get rid sooner rather than later....

5 minutes ago, Mr Moose said:

The financial difficulties Exeter find themselves in trying to stay in the division, they might have to get rid sooner rather than later....

Yes I saw how they were saying that they will need to cut their budget next season as well unless money comes in

Luton now linked with Beesley at Burton. 

32 minutes ago, Mr Moose said:

The financial difficulties Exeter find themselves in trying to stay in the division, they might have to get rid sooner rather than later....

Fan owned club reliant on player development

No, they have saturdays off¡!!!!!!!!![emoji848]

Love it[emoji23][emoji23]

5 minutes ago, Fosse69 said:

Fan owned club reliant on player development

That's short of money.....

5 hours ago, Regal Beagle said:

That's the scale of their <ovf censored> up though. It's spectacular that Moore wasn't gone in November at the latest. 

[Alan Vit 10,000 word post dripping in sanctimonious fury]

10 minutes ago, Doha said:

[Alan Vit 10,000 word post dripping in sanctimonious fury]

I dont think even Alan can now stick up for anyone at the club after this total shambles of a season and in such a special year as well,they should all hang their heads in shame

Hindsight is wonderful but last season and this are horribly reminiscent of the 82/83 season and subsequent relegation.  Both sides had some older players whose careers were clearly on the slide. They went on to win promotion,  celebrated wildly then performed badly with promotion assured. It always worries me when a team takes the collective foot off the gas at the end of the season as that is often reflected in the next one. Ironically both sides still had a chance to top the league after promotion was assured, but didn't play like they were that bothered. Both sides signed superstar strikers after promotion and certainly in O'Keefe's case he made it pretty clear early on he didn't want to be at the club.

For all the criticism (mainly valid) Shipley,  Marosi,  Stockley,  Humphreys,  Gabriel, Cole, Ojo and Amos have all had success at a higher level than us. Many have promotion medals from this league. All of them would view coming to Vale as a step down from where they have been and will also know that the time to get back to higher levels has probably gone. To a degree that criticism could also be levelled at Curtis, Portsmouth are a bigger clubs than Plymouth. 

Good Port Vale sides have always had a lot of players looking forward to moving to the next level in their career, rather than reflecting on what they once achieved.  There's been a core of experience but a lot more players trying to get ahead. 

On the subject of Cole and the transfer window; if the player really wants to move he'll move regardless of what the manager wants.  He's clearly better than any other forward at the club but it's also in the team's best interest not to have an unhappy player in it. We'll get a good fee. Hopefully it won't be wasted and will get invested in some younger and hungrier players, rather than ones on the way down looking to add to their end of career pension. We need more players wanting to go to bigger clubs than Port Vale, not players on their way down having once played for a bigger club in a higher league.

Edited January 28Jan 28 by JRC

I've seen Devante linked with at least five clubs now. I imagine his agent will be the one putting the feelers out. The number 9 position is a rare one in football nowadays and clubs are probably panic buying and scrambling around the market for one. Going off his career he's bounced everywhere after two years, I think Barnsley is his longest time with three seasons. A classic journeyman 

 

Players have clearly downed tools a long time ago. And if they don't want to be here then sayonara. Majority of this squad will end up in league 2 anyway, simply not good enough for league one. 

 

The problem with squad is the lack of fight. Too many times you've seen players strutting back and not busting a gut to win the football. I can handle losing if the players have given it a go but these lot just lie down and have the bellies tickled 

 

No player is bigger than the club , I'd rather an inexperienced young shorrock and plant on the pitch than some of these half arsed players. Sure we're pretty much down now but at least fight for your pride and show you have something about you. Whatever happened to going down swinging? 

 

Get them all gone in the summer bar 1 or 2

2 hours ago, robf said:

I don't think anyone is saying get rid of players so we can lose heavily.

I think people are saying a) we have a huge, unbalanced squad b) we are going down in all probability and c) we need to prepare/recruit for a L2 campaign. So, it's taking a long-term view beyond this season (which is a write-off).

I disagree about replacements. I think it is possible to replace players IF you have a decent recruitment team. However, that comes with the caveat that we have one and it has a plan in mind (i.e. if we want to develop players on like Posh that's a long term 5-10 yr project not a one-off signing Tolaj and having no succession plan) 

So, I think if you're looking at long-term planning then you are looking to clear the decks especially as (in the case of Curtis and possibly Cole) you can offload high earners now and get a fee. I don't think it makes sense to keep those players on just so we can save face during what looks like a sure-fire relegation - even though that means it's going to be a tough slog from now on till the end of the season. Yes, that's not a nice prospect but if it means we can look forward to a better 2026-27 season then we may have to take our medicine.

Not sure we will recruit better players than Cole or Curtis in this window but I'm not sure that is what you are saying.  Longterm I'd agree both are replaceable.  I never thought we'd replace Mark Bright,  then Andy Jones, Darren Beckford, Martin Foyle, Steve Brooker, Akpo Sodje or Tom Pope. Then Laurant Tolaj appeared! Football goes in troughs and peaks: even for United and Liverpool.