1 minute ago, valiant steve said:

We've got to be the worst club in the country for January transfers in. Micky Adams was the last manager who did well at it.

I like Jon Brady, but he's got a lot to prove in the summer transfer window. He has to get it right. Vale fans (myself included) won't tolerate anything other than success at L2 level. 

The pressure is (rightly) on! 

UTV!

Define success

4 minutes ago, Granville said:

Whatever we say about recruitment, the summer before last it was actually good. Tolaj, Stockley, Croasdale, Heneghan, Amos, Byers were all better than what we already had.

The problem was they weren't good enough once we were promoted, and the club was arrogant enough to think we just needed squad filler like Gordon, Faal, Shipley etc when actually we needed to improve.

Having no plan for when Tolaj got poached was criminal. 

Signing Marosi who had been in decline in terms of form and injury for the last two years was stupid.

The only signings who, on paper, were better than what we already had, were Gabriel (good but injury prone), and Humphreys (now in rapid decline and seemingly not arsed). Negligence. 

The fact of it is when Moore could rely on a big budget he could attract players by his profile and the pay packet. In a more competitive market we had to be smarter with our recruitment and we failed.

We have got far, far worse since Darnbrough got involved. How that serial failure managed to get a job God only knows. He should be out of the door first, followed by our Head of Football Strategy (whatever that is) Matt Oakley.

I don't think Darren Moore is anything like the pull that some people make out. Hand on heart, if you were approached by someone relatively intelligent and measured like Brady or the King of Waffle and mangled English, which would impress you more?

Players signed for us because of the wages, nothing to do with Moore in my opinion.

 

17 minutes ago, smithie said:

I don't think Darren Moore is anything like the pull that some people make out. Hand on heart, if you were approached by someone relatively intelligent and measured like Brady or the King of Waffle and mangled English, which would impress you more?

Players signed for us because of the wages, nothing to do with Moore in my opinion.

 

Moore in League 2 is very much more of a pull than Brady. 
 

Im not sure Brady would have the nous or the contacts to sign the likes of Stockley, Byers, Tolaj etc

On 04/04/2026 at 09:45, valiant_593 said:

 

We spent a lot of cash before last season and we retained a lot of players who had played a league above in the prior season but we did recruit well. We now have Darnborough as head of recruitment, if he is still here then we will not see the same success in the transfer market, even with the same funding and whoever maybe manager. 

8 hours ago, smithie said:

I don't think Darren Moore is anything like the pull that some people make out. Hand on heart, if you were approached by someone relatively intelligent and measured like Brady or the King of Waffle and mangled English, which would impress you more?

Players signed for us because of the wages, nothing to do with Moore in my opinion.

 

I agree, maybe Moore had the pull on Byers but money talks whoever is offering it.

15 minutes ago, Alfie1962 said:

I agree, maybe Moore had the pull on Byers but money talks whoever is offering it.

Not really.

 

8 hours ago, smithie said:

I don't think Darren Moore is anything like the pull that some people make out. Hand on heart, if you were approached by someone relatively intelligent and measured like Brady or the King of Waffle and mangled English, which would impress you more?

Players signed for us because of the wages, nothing to do with Moore in my opinion.

 

He may have had some pull on players from clubs he had associations with a Sheff W and West Brom as clubs so yes Byers, Johnson and maybe even a line of negotiation for Cole. 
 

Brady’s problem isn’t respect, it’s contacts and the obvious example of that is the signing of his old Northampton pal Magliore. 

25 minutes ago, Alfie1962 said:

I agree, maybe Moore had the pull on Byers but money talks whoever is offering it.

I’d agree with that and I fear we probably overpaid a few. I mean even Byers was not exactly an in demand player. He had been on loan at Blackpool the previous season and got released. Hardly a coup. 
 

At the time is was believed Blackpool fans wanted him to stay in league 1 but I know feel given what a crock he was, they probably didn’t fancy his injury record. 

Money talks far more clearly than Darren Moore talks! 

Not going to be easy having a big clear out.

Players with a year left will want that paying off in full. They are never going to get similar money again. This means we will probably be stuck with a squad of twenty before any additions.

Players coming in will want a minimum of two years on similar money to the squad. Don’t blame them for wanting two years. I would not uproot my family for a year.

Vale are a special clubs to us, but not to the rest of the football world. As we have seen we can only attract crocks and last chance salooners ( fill in your own names ). Hopefully a few will come good, but our track record??

26 minutes ago, Phil500 said:

Not going to be easy having a big clear out.

Players with a year left will want that paying off in full. They are never going to get similar money again. This means we will probably be stuck with a squad of twenty before any additions.

Players coming in will want a minimum of two years on similar money to the squad. Don’t blame them for wanting two years. I would not uproot my family for a year.

Vale are a special clubs to us, but not to the rest of the football world. As we have seen we can only attract crocks and last chance salooners ( fill in your own names ). Hopefully a few will come good, but our track record??

This is why I think we’re in for another tough season next year. I don’t see, without us paying a vast amount of players off how we can a decent squad. (Which wont happen) 

14 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

This is why I think we’re in for another tough season next year. I don’t see, without us paying a vast amount of players off how we can a decent squad. (Which wont happen) 

I’d just like to see us play games where scoring 2 or more is actually a possibility and not like playing the lottery. 
 

But yeah will be a tough season and my expectations are more about rebuilding than bouncing straight back up. The noises the club are making seem to point in that direction too. 

15 hours ago, Brian Johnson said:

Moore in League 2 is very much more of a pull than Brady. 
 

Im not sure Brady would have the nous or the contacts to sign the likes of Stockley, Byers, Tolaj etc

That's where we would hope that a new head of recruitment could do that

1 hour ago, werstayinup said:

That's where we would hope that a new head of recruitment could do that

It’s not just about the manager having contacts either. The club already have their own contacts with agents and scouts that will already be feeding information into the club. Plus we should already be planning for next season and potential targets. The downside of a “lesser known” manager like Brady is not many players will know what he’s like to work for unlike a DM or a DC who have been around the block more.