4 hours ago, NW9Valiant said:

George Hall leaving wouldn’t be a shock to me tbh. Already dropped one division to be here and so I’d be amazed if he’s knocking around L2 next season. 

Agree, and I'd be very surprised if he didn't have a relegation release clause to ensure avoiding L2 was made easier.

On 21/03/2026 at 11:05, Guppys left peg said:

To me of the out of contract players I would offer Stockley and Heneghan a new deal for a year and that is it. If we go into next season with the bulk of this years squad still in place good luck getting anyone to buy a season ticket and I would say include me in that as it suggests we are not serious about competing. You don’t just run things back with a team that has embarrassed itself the way we have this season.

Garrity it’s a shame but even if the mind is willing the body is clearly not able with him and I don’t think he’s capable of moderating his style of play to lessen the risk.

Just discussing with my brother earlier, I'm up for buying a season ticket next season. 

Players come and go. I will always be Vale

Our pitch is an injury-maker so we should focus on teflon players that can withstand the body trauma. Getting in weeds that can’t jog without pulling a hammy and combining them with our pitch was always going to be a bad idea.

8 hours ago, NW9Valiant said:

George Hall leaving wouldn’t be a shock to me tbh. Already dropped one division to be here and so I’d be amazed if he’s knocking around L2 next season. 

hall hasn’t exactly set the world alight. But he does have that rawness about him and potential. Then again he’s in a poor team. But I do think how Brady has utilised his pace is probably the right thing to do with him, defences cannot live with it. Hes by far the quickest player  since Adam Crookes to grace Vale Park. 

On 21/03/2026 at 11:10, werstayinup said:

Foyle would be ideal for identifying Non League players imo ..... if we ever got him in of course(isn't he at Carlisle at the moment? not sure of his role there though)

He is currently Head of recruitment at Carlisle.

According to Wiki, JB convinced Northampton to appoint Foyle as Head of Recruitment there in 2021.

On 21/03/2026 at 04:20, JRC said:

We've had 2 promotions in 5 seasons, so it's not been that bad. Part of the problem is we have paid relatively high wages and given long contract to get us out of League 2. That has restricted our ability to recruit following promotion.  We've also gained promotion with players who probably were at the limit of their physical ability to play professional sport. From the DC era Proctor and Wilson somehow got through the promotion season. Worrall had that final year in league 1 but struggled at Barrow. Gibbons, Jones, Walker, Martin and Taylor have all struggled to play as regularly since. Whilst it is perhaps a little premature to write off the players from last season there are signs a similar number of players have bodies in the final stages of being capable of playing professional sport. It's not just about the number of players we can release but also what they are being paid. George Byers is probably on 4 or 5 times what James Plant was paid. Byers, Stockley and Curtis were probably paid more than any other players in the history of the club, with built in pay rises following promotion.  That was a fair chunk of the league 1 budget spent before recruitment started.

I understand what you’re saying, but to be fair to Gibbo he plays week in week out as captain at high flying cambridge

34 minutes ago, PV1993 said:

I understand what you’re saying, but to be fair to Gibbo he plays week in week out as captain at high flying cambridge

He has played week in week out since 10 Jan. Prior to that he was very much in and out of the team. He's made 25 league starts, so he is on course for his best league season in terms of availability.  I'm sure all Vale fans wish him well and hope his body allows him to play more frequently.  He's currently playing centrehalf,  which could be the reason his availability has improved. 

On 21/03/2026 at 04:20, JRC said:

We've had 2 promotions in 5 seasons, so it's not been that bad. Part of the problem is we have paid relatively high wages and given long contract to get us out of League 2. That has restricted our ability to recruit following promotion.  We've also gained promotion with players who probably were at the limit of their physical ability to play professional sport. From the DC era Proctor and Wilson somehow got through the promotion season. Worrall had that final year in league 1 but struggled at Barrow. Gibbons, Jones, Walker, Martin and Taylor have all struggled to play as regularly since. Whilst it is perhaps a little premature to write off the players from last season there are signs a similar number of players have bodies in the final stages of being capable of playing professional sport. It's not just about the number of players we can release but also what they are being paid. George Byers is probably on 4 or 5 times what James Plant was paid. Byers, Stockley and Curtis were probably paid more than any other players in the history of the club, with built in pay rises following promotion.  That was a fair chunk of the league 1 budget spent before recruitment started.

I don't think it's hard to be given a huge budget and just sign a load of proven 29 year olds? Any Vale fan in the stand could do that.

I'm talking about being more intelligent in the market. Signing players then improving them.

Garrity was one. A genius bit of recruitment. We'd obviously seen something from his time at Oldham, where he was playing as a holding midfielder, and largely derided by Oldham fans. We sign him, push him forward and he gets 12 goals from midfield as we get promoted.

We don't do this enough.

 

5 minutes ago, valeparklife said:

I don't think it's hard to be given a huge budget and just sign a load of proven 29 year olds? Any Vale fan in the stand could do that.

I'm talking about being more intelligent in the market. Signing players then improving them.

Garrity was one. A genius bit of recruitment. We'd obviously seen something from his time at Oldham, where he was playing as a holding midfielder, and largely derided by Oldham fans. We sign him, push him forward and he gets 12 goals from midfield as we get promoted.

We don't do this enough.

 

Recruitment is never that easy though, the player, his wife/significant other and agent all have to be happy with the deal...

10 minutes ago, Rampant Zebra said:

Recruitment is never that easy though, the player, his wife/significant other and agent all have to be happy with the deal...

Never said it was easy. 

I said we are particularly bad at it.

Example...

These are our loan striker signings over the last 3 years:

• Mipo Odubeko
• Matty Taylor
• Josh Thomas
• Antwoine Hackford
• Jemiah Umolu
• Mo Faal
• Dajaune Brown
• Martin Sherif

How can we get it so wrong, so consistently?

3 hours ago, JRC said:

He has played week in week out since 10 Jan. Prior to that he was very much in and out of the team. He's made 25 league starts, so he is on course for his best league season in terms of availability.  I'm sure all Vale fans wish him well and hope his body allows him to play more frequently.  He's currently playing centrehalf,  which could be the reason his availability has improved. 

It’s no secret him and smudger were my favourite players in their time here. I love that type of player. Looking over on FotMob (your facts are a touch wrong) playing regularly in the Cambridge team since 2nd dec. Prior to that this season he’d made 16 appearances with 11 of those starts and is almost at 40 appearances across all competitions for the season. Hes nearly on as many appearances in the 4 seasons he’s been gone as he did for us. A player hitting 30 + appearances a season is alright in my book and clearly it is for clubs who keep taking these players. Jordan Gabriel is the same age and is nowhere near that same total with his career. Also judging by me being a nosey git online, he’s chipped in with 3 goals and 6 assists this season and looks to be being lauded for getting himself forward more playing right of a back 3 (based on what I saw in the 70 mins I watched of Cambridge v Salford in the early kick off on Saturday before leaving for our game he could have have scored more and looked no different to how he played here). He seems pretty popular with the Cambridge lot too.  I think that kind of player with a good output and that leadership attitude will have plenty of suitors, especially from teams looking to get out of league 2. Ex-player doing well since he’s gone. Ex-home grown player even. Fair play. Weirdly we always knock our own for some reason and look for faults in them, not really appreciating how good some of these players actually are/were. I’d be taking players like him any day over some of the absolute heartless rubbish we’ve seen over the last 4 years.  These lads don’t get the credit they deserve. We are lacking a player of that ilk, someone to lift the team with a tackle or a run, a player that cares, someone homegrown to connect to, the character of the team and something to connect to has been stripped out of us this last few years and we all know it.

FWIW here’s his stats on FotMob for number of appearances, goals and assists for each club by season. 
 

 

Edited March 23Mar 23 by PV1973

1 hour ago, PV1973 said:

It’s no secret him and smudger were my favourite players in their time here. I love that type of player. Looking over on FotMob (your facts are a touch wrong) playing regularly in the Cambridge team since 2nd dec. Prior to that this season he’d made 16 appearances with 11 of those starts and is almost at 40 appearances across all competitions for the season. Hes nearly on as many appearances in the 4 seasons he’s been gone as he did for us. A player hitting 30 + appearances a season is alright in my book and clearly it is for clubs who keep taking these players. Jordan Gabriel is the same age and is nowhere near that same total with his career. Also judging by me being a nosey git online, he’s chipped in with 3 goals and 6 assists this season and looks to be being lauded for getting himself forward more playing right of a back 3 (based on what I saw in the 70 mins I watched of Cambridge v Salford in the early kick off on Saturday before leaving for our game he could have have scored more and looked no different to how he played here). He seems pretty popular with the Cambridge lot too.  I think that kind of player with a good output and that leadership attitude will have plenty of suitors, especially from teams looking to get out of league 2. Ex-player doing well since he’s gone. Ex-home grown player even. Fair play. Weirdly we always knock our own for some reason and look for faults in them, not really appreciating how good some of these players actually are/were. I’d be taking players like him any day over some of the absolute heartless rubbish we’ve seen over the last 4 years.  These lads don’t get the credit they deserve. We are lacking a player of that ilk, someone to lift the team with a tackle or a run, a player that cares, someone homegrown to connect to, the character of the team and something to connect to has been stripped out of us this last few years and we all know it.

FWIW here’s his stats on FotMob for number of appearances, goals and assists for each club by season. 
 

 

Cambridge U FC Player Appearances | Past & Present | Soccer Base

WWW.SOCCERBASE.COM

You can see all the stats on here for start and filter on the results page for games played.

20 minutes ago, JRC said:

Cambridge U FC Player Appearances | Past & Present | Soccer Base

WWW.SOCCERBASE.COM

You can see all the stats on here for start and filter on the results page for games played.

I looked. They’re all on FotMob with minutes and everything. A player like that, or similar, would improve us as a squad in my opinion. 

20 hours ago, 1 said:

Our pitch is an injury-maker so we should focus on teflon players that can withstand the body trauma. Getting in weeds that can’t jog without pulling a hammy and combining them with our pitch was always going to be a bad idea.

Don't follow that logic.  The pitch was relaid and played great last season, the best it has done in my 62 years supporting the Vale.  This season, said pitch has failed. 

It's a puzzler for sure