• Nigel Adkins has been given the Tranmere job on a permanent basis signing until the end of the 25/26 season. Continue the discussion here.

The Squad for 2017/18

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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
Technically, I don't think Jay is a bad player. His first couple of games he looked ok and I remember him scoring in Kop end second or third game. Great header equaliser at Pools.
But he's got no bottle.
He would rather wait for the second ball, after the nod on, and there's no place for a centre back in our division like that.
Bad recruitment in that don't sign a player who's not up for a scrap.
Agree with that. I think McEveley had confidence issues at Sheffield United and they have followed him to PP. After the first home game I thought we had signed a decent player, who could play out from the back.
 
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I am sure I am not the only one wondering what has happened to Eddie Clarke ?

Ridehalgh has been poor for weeks now and was culpable for the goal we conceded yesterday. Clarke is a better player and gives us another dimension with his pace and dynamism.

I wonder whether Clarke has been pushed aside as a result of the alleged transfer to Wigan which fell through ?
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
All I’ve heard is that Clarke was in the main stand yesterday along with Duggan and a few others. Apparently he’s simply not being picked in the squad at the moment. Even someone like Harris may not get in the squad with Traore and Wallace ahead of him.

The difficulty is that now the likes of Tollit and Hughes are fit again, but we also brought in Monthe and Traore recently means we have a massive squad.

Given mickys preference for experience I’m not surprised ridehalgh plays and Clarke isn’t near the first team at present. Not that I totally agree. I don’t think CJ has been great recently apart from daggers away and he seems to have no completion for the left wing slot. Even Ginnelly was knowhere to be seen yesterday.
 

Ian

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Aldo
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Ginnelly I can understand as he’s done very little but I don’t understand why Clarkes been frozen out, he’s much better than Ridehalgh. It’s probably not a bad thing to have a big squad at this stage if the season as we don’t want to be caught out with injuries again.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
The thing with Clarke goes with MMs track record though, Pilling not given a chance,McNulty immediately recalled instead of Gumbs etc. I think there’s not much to chose between Clarke and Ridehalgh defensively, but Clarke offers so much more from an attacking perspective, it’s really baffling to understand why EC has been frozen out.
 

Sparky

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Jeff Hughes signs for his hometown club Larne on a 3 year deal and sounds like he’ll leave us in the summer.

I wish him well but what is interesting is he says in his Larne interview that he was due to discuss a new contract with us this week. Does that mean we’re putting offers on the table for people we want to keep?

I guess for people like Hughes it would have been an easy 1 year deal on the same money. But for Cook, Nors, CJ they may want a fair bit more with league clubs sniffing around so they may have to wait until we know what league we are in
 

Ian

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It's really difficult trying to discuss contracts when you don't know what league you are going to be in. I guess for the likes of Cook and Norwood they are always going to put themselves in the shop window. No great loss Jeff Hughes but he's a decent player to have in the squad.
 

drwhoman

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Jeff will be coming to the end of his career and going ‘home’ is probably attractive. Three years part time I would imagine possibly with a view to future management. As Ian says, a good player but not irreplaceable.
 
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I am sorry to see Hughes go and hoped he would be here for another year at least. I don't go along with the line above that he is 'easily replaceable' as we have not really got another midfielder in the same mould, unless Wallace miraculously gets fit. He is the best passer of the other midfielders and we missed his calmness in the first half last night, for example.
 
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Boz

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Iain Hume
I can understand this from Jeff's perspective and wish him all the best.

While there are weak areas in his game, Jeff Hughes is a decent player at this level, The element of control which Hughes offers in midfield could be matched by a fully fit Wallace, but Norburn and Harris tend to give the ball away at times rather than retain possession. Haven't seen Traore in action for us, so don't know if he could fill that role, the impression I get is his style is closer to that of Harris.

With regard to Sparky's remark about contracts, my guess is that feelers have been put out to those we'd like to keep for next season. Believe Norwood is already under contract to the end of next season.
 
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