Summer 2025 transfer rumours

Agents just need a good pre-season before the lads are back for a proper pre-season

Agents need a good pre-season too

 

Here's hoping it's purely Twitter speculation and nothing more.

 

Yep, if the player was that age, but had been playing in the Championship or playoff level L1 regularly for the last two years then maybe, but not L2.

 

From memory, he only raised issues with the signings of Byrne and Baldwin. The defence consisted of walker, halliday, richards, tayo shepherd, kelly, huntibgton, crichlow too.

 

So two excellent League 2 Managers thought he was good enough to play 50 games, but you know best and he is a poor League 2 player?

 

He played 30 games in the second best defence in the league. He did the job and was nowhere near as bad as you suggest.

Stockport also had the second best defence in league 2 in 2023/24.

It is not possible to be a centre back and be bad at it, yet be in the second best defence in the league 2 years running.

Two excellent league 2 Managers played him over 50 times during that period.

 

He's coming home!
That's how this works, right?

 

Well then he was wrong about Baldwin and Byrne turned out to be good enough for what we needed, so still a bad judge of it. I'm fairly sure it was him, though it could have been you, who was very negative about the defence well into the season. It was every other post

 

Our much maligned defence conceded just 4 goals at home in 2025,so they must have done something right. One was a dodgy penalty against Tranmere conceded by Shepherd and another was a fantastic strike by Notts county.

 

Is that right? Crikey didn't know we'd done that well

 

Nah, thats not always true. It doesn't follow that the player always makes a statement before the club.

 

It could honestly be just an accident. I often accidently bookmark or like posts as I'm scrolling down just because my thumb lands on them. Folk read too much into all this social media stuff at times.

 

It’s gospel to some!

 

Yes its right, 12 home games in 2025, 8 clean sheets and just 4 conceded.

 

I read it as across the season, this year seems more like it!

 

Ironically though, the defence did not look good in the games when Smallwood was not there to shield it.

 

Might be worth halting that "over 50 games thing". If you're talking about L2 game time over that 2 year spell, of 92 games he featured in 43 games, he started 34 of the possible 92 over 2 seasons. In terms of minutes played, he played just under 37% of minutes possible over the 2 year span of league football.

He has 2 medals in the cabinet, but making out like he was a key cog in either machine is a bit of a stretch when he hasn't played for two thirds of the last two seasons. I think Byrne is a capable L2 defender, I wouldn't want him starting week in week out if I hand plans for promotion, but he can do a role at that level.

 

I thought Baldwin had a decent season bar his head loss at Doncaster, Byrne not as bad as some make out but nowhere near good enough for league one.

 

I've never made out 'he was a key cog'. I wouldn't want him starting every game either.
I've purely questioned those who say he isn't good enough for League 2.
He clearly is.

 

What’s annoying me is we’ve worked so bloody hard to get here you’d think they’d be chucking everything possible at it to stay here. Tilt is a poor signing (if it happens) surely there is better out there? Maybe Pearson is out of reach (wages) but surely there is better than Tilt?