5 minutes ago, Shropshire_Valiant said:

Whilst we debate Paton on the other side of the coin I really don't get why Brown has been rated by both managers? Tries hard but is the archetypal headless chicken for me. Very little end product and has missed key chances at times to shoot or pick the right pass.

Unless as others have mentioned it's something in the loan deal, agreement wise he has to be in the 18 if fit?

Sometimes (often it seems), managers appear to initially rate players based on 'profile' (physical attributes, style of play). If you were picking Brown out of a lineup you'd say he's nimble, strong, well built so as a coach you'd want to accentuate those by working on the technical game. You see it all the time in youth football, players of a certain height not fancied in certain positions etc. 

To me Brown is a poor man's cartoon of Adama Traore, with not much of the skill that Traore has. 

There won't be anything in his loan deal that he has to be in the 18, but obviously if he doesn't feature enough club may recall him (that window has long past now). 

I just think its little more than liking the look of him physically and thinking they can get something out of him. I'm sure if he was in the National League he'd probably be doing pretty well. I just don't see him as a L1 player right now.

1 hour ago, Walka003 said:

Not got a huge amount of faith in the loan players but beggars can't be choosers I guess and we need bodies in. 

Thinking about it, going with loan players is probably the right way to do things at this stage.  Brady will have a pretty bare squad to recruit into in the summer, and unless your last team was Workington it's probably quiet hard to permanently recruit for a team in our position. 

I agree , the odds are we will go down , no point wasting money on panic buys - keep your powder dry till the summer - get the recruitment right and we can bounce straight back.

3 hours ago, Rampant Zebra said:

They will be very good technically, it is just a question of their ability to fit in with the other players and play mens football against cynical old professionals.

Precisely that’s always the issue with the u21 lads. Although the fact this Dutch striker has played in league one offers some hope. Frankly Cole has landed us in it. Git should have stayed to end of the season. 

5 minutes ago, Smallthorne clampet said:

I agree , the odds are we will go down , no point wasting money on panic buys - keep your powder dry till the summer - get the recruitment right and we can bounce straight back.

As much as I agree and i’d rather us not waste money, you could argue that we shouldn’t be in a position to ‘panic buy’ but to sign some good younger players that could help us this season and in seasons to come whether we stay up or go down.

After all we do have a head of recruitment, it’s his job to identify players in case the event of losing Cole, Curtis etc etc ever came about, which it now has. It’s been 5 months now since the January transfer window ended. So what exactly has our recruitment team been doing if in 5 months they haven’t been able to identify some younger permanent signings who we could bring in to help us?

3 minutes ago, PVFC2001 said:

As much as I agree and i’d rather us not waste money, you could argue that we shouldn’t be in a position to ‘panic buy’ but to sign some good younger players that could help us this season and in seasons to come whether we stay up or go down.

After all we do have a head of recruitment, it’s his job to identify players in case the event of losing Cole, Curtis etc etc ever came about, which it now has. It’s been 5 months now since the January transfer window ended. So what exactly has our recruitment team been doing if in 5 months they haven’t been able to identify some younger permanent signings who we could bring in to help us?

The head of the team was working for polish teams rather than us, unfortunately. 

Edited February 2Feb 2 by Walka003

2 hours ago, ValiantHan said:

Which would suggest that Brady sees Headley playing further up the pitch.

Headley defending doesn’t fill me with confidence 

I find it amazing that we don't have a full time recruitment department. 

Sorry if this is circling back to an old topic but on Will Ryder leaving, the stat in the last paragraph of this article is pretty damning:

https://trainingground.guru/port-vale-academy-director-exits-for-new-opportunity/

Screengrab here:

The article itself is only available to premium subscribers but the "Academy Productivity Rankings" (according to AI) measure the success of English football academies by "ranking clubs based on the number of graduates playing in the top five European leagues and the top English divisions, with weighted points for higher-level appearances."

So, it's pretty rubbish that only two clubs currently fare worse than Vale in that ranking! I have read elsewhere that Chelsea are top with a score of 168.04 while Grimsby are 80th with a score of 3.82 so Gawd knows what Vale's score was.

12 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"

You've mentioned all his good qualities. Those qualities don't mean much when he picks up the ball with his back to goal or anywhere outside the final 3rd. Yes, he's a striker but there's more to the game than set pieces and one on one's. That's the part of his game that needs a lot of work, and it's a big part of the game. Anyway, it looks like he's gone now so that's that.

16 minutes ago, Walka003 said:

Sign some good young players

Players like Jack Sharrock and Rico Richards?

1 minute ago, PVTony said:

Players like Jack Sharrock and Rico Richards?

I think you've mis-quoted me there, I didn't say what's in that quote 😅

4 minutes ago, Walka003 said:

I think you've mis-quoted me there, I didn't say what's in that quote 😅

Sorry, my slightly sarcastic comment was not meant for you, but the club, because we have such players that are not being used.

Where has this Belgian striker rumour come from?

2 hours ago, ValiantHan said:

According to Eric Nicolson who writes for The Courier and mainly about St Johnstone the loan move isn't a done deal.

 

Eric has now said that it's only a possibility that they are signing Ruari so he might not be going to St Johnstone after all. 

 

Edited February 2Feb 2 by ValiantHan

Just on the point of ruari being dropped. 

I didn't see them and my memory isn't great but in a couple of those games when we were on a good run didn't we have to sub him twice when refs missed him punching opposition players after losing his temper?