14 minutes ago, NW9Valiant said:

We do need to trim the squad and when morale is this bad you practically do need to work at replacing most of the dressing room to reset the mentality. 

It would go some way to allaying some fears if we could actually sign a player of some standing that isn't a loan or non-league player. Ronan Hale, or someone like that if Devante goes. Though I would not be surprised if something like Brown was turned into a permanent deal instead 😞 

Were we linked to Hale once before? Not sure he would be wanting to drop to league 2 though

IF Cole goes then i really hope we pay a fee for a replacement striker and not just go down the route of loaning one and if you want one who has been scoring in League two then 3 names could be Kanu(currently Walsall) Mbick(currently Colchester) both on loan from Charlton(they seem to do really well with their youth players coming through),also Mellon(currently Oldham) on loan from Burnley

Just plucking a few names out of the air,all young enough to maybe earn the club some money

Charlton are also looking to loan out Rob Apter but Blackpool are favourites to land him

22 minutes ago, boslemportvale91 said:

I wonder if shorrock will be next ? 

That is one I really wouldn't be happy about when you consider bottle jobs like Shipley are still here as it stands

12 minutes ago, PVFC2001 said:

Isn’t that a good thing? Our squad is far too big, the last thing we need is to hold onto players who aren’t good enough to get into our side. 

I wish him all the best, but if Plant was a meaningful part of our squad next season with plans push for promotion back to League 1, then I would be severely worried.

Our squad is too big but we’re letting all of the good players go. Plant clearly isn’t one of the them but I think it was about time he was given a sustained chance in the squad next season, instead we will sign someone elses young lads and develop them. I don’t see us being in the promotion race next season personally. Would have been a host of players I would have got rid of before him, wouldn’t have been on big money either 

1 minute ago, werstayinup said:

Were we linked to Hale once before? Not sure he would be wanting to drop to league 2 though

Yes. It's Scottish Championship so L2 seems like a sideways / slightly up move, as per Paton when he joined us. 

SPL is mainly recruiting L1 level / L2 level players. 

2 minutes ago, kevin_struggles said:

The problem with this "get them off the wage bill and rebuild for next season" attitude is that if that is where we are why would anyone continue to attend games this season or tbh next season either what's the point if promotion is just going to be followed by another relegation?

Throwing in the towel at the half way mark sends entirely the wrong message if we genuinely want to build our supporter base. Who wants to support a team that chucks the towel in half way through a season? Going down fighting is one thing but waving the white flag and meekly accepting our fate is unacceptable. I can find plenty of other things to do with my money if Vale don't want it.

I think (sadly) it's just reality calling. If you were a good footballer would you really be tempted by a move to a club miles adrift at the bottom of League One? So, short of holding a gun to their head how do you make a fight of it and strengthen the squad in January?

I totally appreciate that there's a lot of games to go and it's a dreadful look for the club to seemingly engage in a firesale and leave fans to watch 20-odd games of dross but I think the die was cast when we were so far adrift just as the window opened.

My hope is that we were in equally dire straits at the end of 2023-24 (Ryan Loft, Uche Ikpeazu etc) and (albeit with a fair bit of money chucked in) we changed that in the summer into Jayden Stockley, Ryan Croasdale, Lorent Tolaj, Connor Hall and George Byers. So, it was do-able then. I guess it's whether it's do-able a second time.

Then it's that we actually learn the lessons of what we need to do if/when we do step up again. For me that is a long-term strategy. We've been far too unbalanced this summer with just adding "squad" players. I would have much preferred to see one or two high quality additions, a couple of squad players and then some "succession" players (i.e. youngsters or non-league additions to develop). Instead, we got a whole load of middle-ranking players, which didn't improve the squad and we also overloaded in several positions to boot...

But I do really appreciate that the "rebuild" message is of little comfort for the fans who will have to sit and suffer some rubbish for the remainder of the season. 

24 minutes ago, PortVale4Life said:

Or another young player

I think we would all think that Shorrock and Walters will be available in this window if the money is right BUT that money has GOT to be reinvested into the team for decent players

9 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

Were we linked to Hale once before? Not sure he would be wanting to drop to league 2 though

IF Cole goes then i really hope we pay a fee for a replacement striker and not just go down the route of loaning one and if you want one who has been scoring in League two then 3 names could be Kanu(currently Walsall) Mbick(currently Colchester) both on loan from Charlton(they seem to do really well with their youth players coming through),also Mellon(currently Oldham) on loan from Burnley

Just plucking a few names out of the air,all young enough to maybe earn the club some money

Charlton are also looking to loan out Rob Apter but Blackpool are favourites to land him

I would be amazed if we went out and paid a fee for someone this month.  Likewise if anyone wanted to come here now. I think summer will be when we spend. 

Just now, werstayinup said:

I think we would all think that Shorrock and Walters will be available in this window if the money is right BUT that money has GOT to be reinvested into the team for decent players

I'm sure it would be but I would expect it until the summer if players are let go.

Lots of players contracts are up so can be recruited without a fee, and there will be the odd one we might sign for money if it's the right deal. 

The mood will shift once moves are being made likely in the close season. 

3 minutes ago, robf said:

I think the die was cast when we were so far adrift just as the window opened.

This, unfortunately. We'll be lucky to get one or two in, in the meantime - either development loans or unwanted players whose contracts expire in the summer to get a look at them. 

8 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

Our squad is too big but we’re letting all of the good players go. Plant clearly isn’t one of the them but I think it was about time he was given a sustained chance in the squad next season, instead we will sign someone elses young lads and develop them. I don’t see us being in the promotion race next season personally. Would have been a host of players I would have got rid of before him, wouldn’t have been on big money either 

Yes and it’s worrying especially Curtis going 

But come on who the <ovf censored> is going buy ojo and Shipley with there records last few years 

 

I don’t think we’ll be bringing anyone in permanently this window at this point even with the fees we’ll have received. Bottom line is even if we can agree one with another club we are simply not an attractive proposition to any potential signing right now with us anchored at the bottom. Unless you’re willing to pay a significant premium on wages why would they want to join us? I think that’s a similar story with any PL loans as well.

Edited January 28Jan 28 by Guppys left peg

1 minute ago, Packmoor_vale said:

But come on who the <ovf censored> is going buy ojo and Shipley with there records last few years 

Ojo -> Tranmere

Shipley -> Walsall

In the summer. imo. 

Unless Ojo retires, I can't see another L1 club having him at the age of 35. 

25 minutes ago, 1 said:

A lot of these decisions are going the bad way or the worse way. Not a lot of forward-thinking, league-saving moves out there, just survival tactics.

Not even survival tactics - it looks like cut the wage bill at any cost. L2 here we come. 

6 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

That is one I really wouldn't be happy about when you consider bottle jobs like Shipley are still here as it stands

He's contracted until the end of next season. So, either someone comes in for him (unlikely) or we pay him off (expensive) - those are the only ways he'll leave this window. I can't see either of those happening.

What worries me is that there a lot of the squad that (like Shipley) are contracted past the summer and would therefore need another club to express interest or for the club to pay them off for them to leave.

Those players include Marosi (2027), Waine (2027), Paton (2027), Gabriel (2027), Humphreys (2027), Hall (2028), Headley (2028), Gordon (2027)  and Byers (2027).

I'm not saying all of those are terrible players and should leave (make your own minds up) but with those contract lengths it's pretty likely a fair few big earners (presumably they are on decent L1 wages) could well still be with us next season. 

We would need promotion form to stay up, and that is impossible. Keep getting rid of players and get a couple of loanees to see out the season. Then we rebuild again next season with a decent budget. All i want is a small balanced squad who can challenge in league 2. Surely not too much to ask

24 minutes ago, JRC said:

I agree he might not be quite there technically but he would always give 100%. I can see why Crosby would want him, he was a player who would always try to do whatever was asked by his manager. There's still a need for players like that in football.  Hope he goes on to have a good career, a little sad it won't be with us. For me he was worth a look in a competitive game to see how far his game had developed at Yeovil.

Thing is fans will always give local lads more leeway especially seeing effort.

Thats a priceless in our situation.

A poor decision for me.