Most liked posts in thread: Summer 2022 - Transfer Talk

Love the whopper on the Vale forum who said Bradford is where Vale careers go to die giving Jones and Hornby as examples, nothing to do with them being injury prone and shit then!

Let’s ignore Lee Mills and Mark Marshall who went on to far bigger and better things with us.

 

The attraction of Hughes seems to have been a key factor in getting Harratt.

Imagine being a young striker and having Mark Hughes tell you, 'you remind me of myself'.

Somehow I can't see the words coming from Derek Adams having the same inspirational effect

 

Hughes led them to their highest ever position 3 years in a row, playing much better football than Pulis ever did

 

Any transfer talk?

 

Under Mark Hughes we conceded 14 goals in 13 games, many of which were against teams in the top six. It also includes the 3-0 drubbing away at Colchester where Sparky played a virtual second team to rest players and get a look at some of the squad guys. So leaving that game aside, we conceded less than a goal per game under MH. That's not letting in "loads of goals". Our much bigger problem was failing to score enough.

 

Oh dear. Let me try and simplify this for you. Nobody is suggesting clubs sign players for 'marketing' purposes alone as you put it, but that the timing of announcements of signings is part of the overall marketing process to push season tickets. That a business man of your standing doesn't seem to get this is quite remarkable.

 

Smallwood is a done deal watch this space.

 

Think theres still a little more business in and out to be done, but you can only say there's been a plan, targets identified and secured. Whether it comes together remains to be seen but its a welcome change from the last minute cluster fecks of recent history.

 

Wishful thinking.

We can only hope and pray that these new guys are even half the footballers those three legends are.

 

I'm genuinely optimistic for the new season. I say that with a degree of caution, because it comes with the territory of being a City fan. But we've recruited to a very clear plan this summer, for the first time in years. There's a template for the type of player we're bringing in; generally young, technical and on what you can reasonably say are upwards trajectories. The we've added in a top drawer, experienced DM to hang it all together and lead the side. We've done our business early and we've handed out lots of 2-3 year contracts, so whichever league we're starting out in, in 12 months time, we won't need to overhaul the squad.

And I have to say, the clubs approach to PR has been excellent this summer. There are no guarantees in football, but we do finally seem to have got our act together in terms of operating like a properly ambitious club.

 

What's the fuss over Stockport? Am I missing something?

 

If Chapman doesn’t start over Gilliead on the wing then we may as well all go home.

 

As an aside from football, if he does have Mental Health issues then I wish him all the best and hope the club support him fully. A subject that hits close to home for me (and many others).

 

I must have watched a different Dion to you then as I don't think he is anything like Sutton in style at all.

 

I didn’t see he match but friends who did said don’t believe what you hear Threlkeld played ok as he did at York. He needs to move on but let’s not use him as a scapegoat he is low in confidence as it is

 

It might well take a few months before we see a sign of a cohesive team. Wouldn't be surprised to see us get turned over a few times before we get to see the best of this side. Gonna have to be patient.

 

Out for the day yesterday after getting back at 3am Tuesday night so first chance to comment.
Oliver being called out a bit here.
Watching it live, a few times he made runs off the last defenders shoulder and could’ve been put in behind but we persisted in playing another needless short pass.
We did this time and again, slowing the game down with an extra pass or touch instead of getting an early ball or cross in.
The same as Donny first day, we let teams regroup far too often.
The only quick pass played on Tuesday was Cook in to Harratt feet to put him through straight after they came on.
We have to start playing more aggressive attacking football instead of just strolling through games patiently thinking it will come.
Another observation - Smallwood seemed to be playing box to box on Tuesday but tracking back very very slowly - often there was a huge gap in midfield with only Gilliead up against their three.
Ref was appalling second half but we have only ourselves to blame for not winning that match.
Hughes has to start Cook and Harratt on Saturday

 

And this is the lever we have to pull. Its a massive draw playing for Hughes, but players at this level aren't wealthy enough to disregard finances. There'll be limits to what we can do obviously but if we don't find that bit extra, the added 200 or 300k on the seasons budget to keep the 2 or 3 key attacking players we have, it'll be madness.

 

Add to that if we were top 3 all season how many pay on the gates we could attract, maybe even throw in a cup run in there. Lawn and Rhodes weren’t perfect, but they created a deficit for exactly that, to generate their money back through winning football matches and made several million off cup runs and promotion. Sadly the club infrastructure meant we didn’t progress and once Parky left collapsed. But if we could do similar but build something so that when Hughes leaves the club isn’t in turmoil then happy days. Sadly for some any amount of money in the red means we’re not far off being Bury etc.