Well considering he's played for Vale and Plymouth this season already he wouldn't be eligible to play for another club in a competitive match. Cole didn't make a competitive appearance for West Brom which allowed his move to Luton.

Fair dos

10 minutes ago, leedsvaliant said:

As much as I love Paton's enthusiasm and that he's been messed about a bit, he's just not at this level. People want him to do well because he tries and comes across as a decent lad.

However, I watched him closely the last time he played and his anticipation just isn't there...you can't teach it.

He has 'Achilles Campion' syndrome. The more he spends outside of the team, the better he becomes.

I'd agree. There's elements of his overall game that just aren't to league standard, let alone league 1. Maybe it's something that can be coached, or come with experience, but at 25 years old you have to question whether those elements will click at this stage. I won't be overly fussed if we don't see him in a Vale shirt again. Mitch has better credentials, but we can't continue to carry a player who gets injured far too often and is more likely an upper league 2 footballer, lower league 1 on a good day. 

Edited February 1Feb 1 by bobbymanc

1 hour ago, MBE said:

Loyalty? Behave.

Being a professional footballer is a job with an extremely limited timescale.

Clubs show zero loyalty to players.

I must come from an alien planet, I believe if you sign a contract you give 100% and see it out but that’s just me 

23 minutes ago, leedsvaliant said:

As much as I love Paton's enthusiasm and that he's been messed about a bit, he's just not at this level. People want him to do well because he tries and comes across as a decent lad.

However, I watched him closely the last time he played and his anticipation just isn't there...you can't teach it.

He has 'Achilles Campion' syndrome. The more he spends outside of the team, the better he becomes.

I've watched Paton closely and what he does have is a strikers natural ability, the ability to deceive a goal keeper with the eyes and body, feignt to shoot one way but shoot the other. It's clearly visible on the goals he scored against Exeter, Maldon/Tiptree and the one cancelled against Wycombe.

He also clearly has the ability to take a good free kick/corner and can hassle, read the game and intercept passes.

Also I've heard it's notoriously difficult to do any of these things when not on the pitch.

What do you mean exactly by "his anticipation just isn't there"

40 minutes ago, Fuzzy Dunlop said:

I must come from an alien planet, I believe if you sign a contract you give 100% and see it out but that’s just me 

Thankfully that's just you or we would have another 42yrs or whatever he had left on his contract of Moore-ball. A contract is just a form of insurance, it insures that the club can get compensation when a member of staff wants to leave & ensures the member of staff get compensation when the club want to get rid of them. Smith & Plant didn't receive loyalty from the club even though they have been here years, they weren't deemed to be in the future plans & were moved on. Darren Moore didn't want to leave, I didn't see fans on here complaining of Vale's lack of loyalty for not honouring his contract. 

Cole, Curtis & Tolaj all got offers from bigger clubs in a better position than us, offering better wages, they moved on. I suspect all of our players would do likewise given the option.

Edited February 2Feb 2 by matmat

16 minutes ago, matmat said:

Thankfully that's just you or we would have another 42yrs or whatever he had left on his contract of Moore-ball. A contract is just a form of insurance, it insures that the club can get compensation when a member of staff wants to leave & ensures the member of staff get compensation when the club want to get rid of them. Smith & Plant didn't receive loyalty from the club even though they have been here years, they weren't deemed to be in the future plans & were moved on. Darren Moore didn't want to leave, I didn't see fans on here complaining of Vale's lack of loyalty for not honouring his contract. 

Cole, Curtis & Tolaj all got offers from bigger clubs in a better position than us, offering better wages, they moved on. I suspect all of our players would do likewise given the option.

Best post of the transfer window 

Welcome to the two Everton boys. Sheriff scored 2 League One goals for Rotherham this season, making him the joint top-scorer in the league from the current squad, alongside Ryan Croasdale.

Transfer deadline day on BBC Radio Stoke: Latest on Stoke City, Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

Not sure if anyone has posted this link but its running from 6 - 8 tonight 👍👍

You know, I used to absolutely love the late doors deadline day where loads of crazy ass rumours would appear on here and our secret agents were camped outside the main entrance taking grainy pictures of shadowy superstars signing on the line at 10.59, only to find out they were the late night cleaners 😂😂😂, remember the, was it Michael Smith one from Sheffield Wednesday the other year - great fun

Now itll all be over before frakkkking Emmerdale comes on 🙈🙈🙈

 

Aren't we up to 5 loan players now? I know we can have as many as we want, but only 5 in the match day squad, but the way JB was talking I can see us getting more than 5 and rotating when needed

7 hours ago, Fuzzy Dunlop said:

I must come from an alien planet, I believe if you sign a contract you give 100% and see it out but that’s just me 

That’s true for any profession except football.

8 hours ago, Paul6754 said:

I've watched Paton closely and what he does have is a strikers natural ability, the ability to deceive a goal keeper with the eyes and body, feignt to shoot one way but shoot the other. It's clearly visible on the goals he scored against Exeter, Maldon/Tiptree and the one cancelled against Wycombe.

He also clearly has the ability to take a good free kick/corner and can hassle, read the game and intercept passes.

Also I've heard it's notoriously difficult to do any of these things when not on the pitch.

What do you mean exactly by "his anticipation just isn't there"

There wasn't much goalkeeper deception involved vs Exeter.  It was an open goal set up by the defender trying to play around at the back.  Remains his only league goal this season.

Maldon and Tiptree were Maldon and Tiptree.  

And then you're actually bringing in a disallowed goal!!

Leedsvaliant is spot on, he never makes a run and never finds or creates the space a striker should do in order get that sniff of a chance.

Dont just watch him, watch the other players.  You can tell a lot from the amount of times he gets bollo king

11 hours ago, WilliamBriscoe said:

Come on @robf you know exactly how this will play out. We generally have had zero success when loaning these types of players in January whilst battling relegation.

You can try an convince yourself that these two will be our saviour (Im sure you don’t) but my biggest worry is that this feels like budget is being stripped back to protect us when we get relegated.

I'm surprised you haven't claimed to have watched every Everton academy game that both of these have played in. 

47 minutes ago, philmpv said:

Aren't we up to 5 loan players now? I know we can have as many as we want, but only 5 in the match day squad, but the way JB was talking I can see us getting more than 5 and rotating when needed

Got the striker and defender in, I'm not really expecting anything else now but it would be nice. I have slight concerns with the way recruitment's gone, though I'm not putting that on JB at the moment. 

I really hope these two that have come in were targets in mind and not targets out of desperation, or going cap in hand to Everton contacts because we had a pre season friendly with them and know their staff to pull in some favours.

But there's a lot of pressure on JB now to show what he can do with what he's been given to work with and how competitive we are in the final run of games. I won't put that all on results out of hand but team selections, tactics and game management are what I'll be looking at ahead of next season now. Hope these signings work out too.

So at the moment rating it a 5/10, could have been a lot worse if we ended up with nothing. Hopefully Brady is happy and confident with what we've got done and get finished by the end of the day.

Welcome additions if we get more injuries, but I don’t think they particularly enhance our best starting 11. 

Welcome additions if we get more injuries, but I don’t think they particularly enhance our best starting 11. 

Have you even seen the 3 latest ones play?