• 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 2018/19

Higgy

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1 Jul 2010
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Dave Higgins
Ref the list offered by CK - does the transfer deadline affect the possibility of signing none contract players? If not there might be a few options out there still after the dead line has passed. Would rather see a signing x 2 if possible than loanees as it would demonstrate we do have more clout than most clubs in L2.
 

Colin K

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1 Nov 2014
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Ryan Taylor
I understand the distain towards Davies and the way he handled buisness when he left wasn't great.

But look at Rooney and his return to Everton - although I guess there's a difference between a player who becomes a record goal scorer and one that scored 15 goals in 60 games for Rochdale.

It was just used as an example that there's still decent players out there who may want to start earning a wage now the season has started and take wages lower than what they'd originally have taken. I'd also rather get a couple of permanent contracts in rather than relying on the loan system. I believe that you can still sign free agents up to two weeks after the window has closed but I'd need to double check that.

Edit - "Football League clubs can sign loanees and free agents until 31 August. "
 

Cowshed Kid

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5 Dec 2015
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Bobby Hutchinson
If you'd asked me at start of season who I'd prefer to stay, Ollie or CJ, then CJ would win hands down.
Looks like we're going to see what Gilmour's made of.
Can't say I like some of the MP bashing that's kicking off re lack of players, budget etc.
 

drwhoman

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30 Jun 2008
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MP can only do what MP can do. Without him we were dog meat.(how is his health these days?). Losing Norburn is very disappointing but not the end of the world. With all the player movement at Shrewsbury you wonder how they will go. Is Askey more than a good National League Manager? Shrews fans will soon find out. As for us, it looks like a free player lowering their demands or a hopefully experienced loanee.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Not much detail from the club, but my take is:

1. Ollie was offered the chance to play in a higher league for a boss he knew. They offered him more money and a longer deal than we were prepared to match. Attempting to keep him may have caused problems with the rest of the squad.
2. Micky didn't want to keep an unhappy player and everyone has his price. This deal has been negotiated for quite a while and the fact it's gone through on deadline day must be to maximise the fee.
3. The fact the fee is undisclosed is for Shrews' benefit. Fees have been secret for most of their signings. As we can't buy any players till Christmas, it makes no difference to us. My guess is about £100,000.
4. Micky has had plenty of time to find a replacement and would not let Ollie go without a Plan B (and a Plan C). I expect he has a few out-of-contract players in mind and is trying to negotiate a suitable deal. Or he is looking at a long term loan. Now the window is shut, we should see some action or a lot of pros will be kicking their heels.

On the subject of Norburn, while I am sorry to see him go, it's no disaster. He was not a key player and I am sceptical about whether he will make it at League One level. He failed to make it at League Two with two clubs and has not played league football for three years. It's a big jump from NL to L1. Yes, he is still young and could get better, but I think Micky might have done a good bit of business.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
On the subject of Norburn, while I am sorry to see him go, it's no disaster. He was not a key player and I am sceptical about whether he will make it at League One level. He failed to make it at League Two with two clubs and has not played league football for three years. It's a big jump from NL to L1. Yes, he is still young and could get better, but I think Micky might have done a good bit of business.
Norburn absolutely was a key player (he played virtually every game last season and was our main midfield playmaker) and would definitely have been good enough at League Two level. He went down the leagues earlier in his career like Norwood, but that that is no reflection of his abilities now. One of the real positives this season was the potential pairing of Banks and Norburn in midfield, so losing one of that pair is a big blow, however people dress it up. Harris has nowhere near the same quality.

If we accept the club's word and we had no choice but to sell because the player wanted to leave, then fair enough. But we are now left with only two experienced central midfielders, one of whom probably is not good enough for this division long term. Scrabbling around in the loan market at the last minute is not an ideal situation, to put it mildly.

I have not seen the comments directed at Palios, but this is a disappointing sale if we are trying to build something at Prenton Park, particularly following the loss of Cook. All I would say is perhaps the chairman should have been more measured in his predictions for the season if he knew we were likely to lose players, and the Rowe deal probably would not get over the line. I think Mellon has got quite a tough job on his hands now I and hope he is shown patience by owner and supporters.
 
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Mal

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Norburn absolutely was a key player (he played virtually every game last season and was our main midfield playmaker) and would definitely have been good enough at League Two level. He went down the leagues earlier in his career like Norwood, but that that is no reflection of his abilities now. One of the real positives this season was the potential pairing of Banks and Norburn in midfield, so losing one of that pair is a big blow, however people dress it up. Harris has nowhere near the same quality.

If we accept the club's word and we had no choice but to sell because the player wanted to leave, then fair enough. But we are now left with only two experienced central midfielders, one of whom probably is not good enough for this division long term. Scrabbling around in the loan market at the last minute is not an ideal situation, to put it mildly.

I have not seen the comments directed at Palios, but this is a disappointing sale if we are trying to build something at Prenton Park, particularly following the loss of Cook. All I would say is perhaps the chairman should have been more measured in his predictions for the season if he knew we were likely to lose players, and the Rowe deal probably would not get over the line. I think Mellon has got quite a tough job on his hands now I and hope he is shown patience by owner and supporters.

Sorry , but I think you are being naive. This is a footbalclub that has to survive financially. No one player is crucial to survival. It is not that the team isn't basically competent without Norburn. You have your opinions about player capabilities. Let us see if the current crop do well. Life is not a set of perfect scenarios. There has to be an adaption to the real world.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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Sorry , but I think you are being naive. This is a footbalclub that has to survive financially. No one player is crucial to survival. It is not that the team isn't basically competent without Norburn. You have your opinions about player capabilities. Let us see if the current crop do well. Life is not a set of perfect scenarios. There has to be an adaption to the real world.
I have never suggested that Norburn was the Zidane of the lower leagues, but we are clearly light in numbers in a key position, with no possibility of bringing in a permanent replacement.

If we have to sell to survive, fine. But that is not the message that has come from the chairman all summer. He has talked openly of a promotion challenge, whereas the manager has played down expectations, including in the interview he gave today. That is my concern. That expectations have been raised but we don't actually have the resources to meet them, which will put undue pressure on the manager.

More widely, the owners have been following a model of self-sustainability, where off the field income would support the club with a top-third budget, whatever level it was competing at. If after 3-4 years of their ownership and with the benefit of EFL income we are not in that position, it is a concern.

Player sales to raise cash were never part of their original strategy. But perhaps you were naive enough to think they were.
 
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Boz

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30 Sep 2005
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Iain Hume
Think Norburn would have held his own comfortably at this level and it will be interesting to see how he fares at Shrewsbury. The timing of his departure is unfortunate, as is the fact that given it's been a distinct possibility Ollie would be leaving for a while, that no replacement had been lined up. As it stands, we're only a Banks injury or a Harris red card away from having to put an inexperienced youngster or an out of position senior pro into central midfield and in my view it would be hiding from reality to assume that won't happen.

I concur with RLC that Mark Palios' remarks have ramped up expectations,which it will be very hard to deliver with our current resources.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
We went strongly after Danny Rowe and Morgan Ferrier, to name but two. So we are not a "selling club" any more than Liverpool are for selling Coutinho or Real Madrid for selling Ronaldo. That shows that money was there for transfer fees, which we have yet to spend. Now in addition we have the money from Norburn. That money is now surely available for salaries of loan or out of contract players. We should be able to afford a couple of decent players. Let's wait and see what happens later this month.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
We went strongly after Danny Rowe and Morgan Ferrier, to name but two. So we are not a "selling club" any more than Liverpool are for selling Coutinho or Real Madrid for selling Ronaldo.
Liverpool actually have been a selling club until recently, which is why they have not won the league.

The reality is we could not afford to bring in the players you mention, and our offer for Rowe was apparently considered derisory. Coupled with the cash flow problems which were reported at the recent AGM and the difficulty we are having in repatriating money from China - which could put the project at long term risk according to some reports - I think it is reasonable to be concerned about the financial situation. Both this summer and last there have been financial difficulties which have impacted on recruitment. That must frustrate Mellon, if nobody else.

You will never convince me it is good planning to sell a player on transfer deadline day without having a direct replacement lined up. It is the sort of thing we did in the darkest days towards the end of PJ's reign, and I thought it was something we had moved beyond.
 

Ian

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Aldo
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Kingy
Whatever way you look at it, it's not been a good day. We've lost Norburn, and whilst this may have been out of our hands, we have not replaced him, I think this tells you a lot about the financial position we are in right now. You cannot as a club look to move forward if you are selling your best players. There is an obvious void in midfield now where our options are 1) Harris who is not of the same quality or 2) a kid with potential but has played no competitive games. That's not how we want to move forward as a club. On top of that, we have replaced Cook with Stockton who is far beyond a suitable replacement for Cook.

I know we have brought in other decent players such as Caprice, Banks, Zoum, but we are seriously lacking in key areas. I don't understand the top 3rd budget speech that has been rammed down our throats for the past few seasons if we cannot find suitable replacements. Is this not the case now?
 
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Mal

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I understood Norburn wanted to leave anyway, even though Tranmere tried to keep him. So it sounds like all the money in the world would not have kept him at Tranmere. Bit like various Ex-Liverpool players moving to bigger clubs.. We are were we are. I would have loved to have kept Norburn and got even better players in. I just think it is unrealistic to expect anything better at the moment. The world has moved to a situation where money talks for the best players or opportunity to jump leagues motivates pkayers. Be interesting to see where the club is after 10 games or so and if it means more loan players in.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
I understood Norburn wanted to leave anyway, even though Tranmere tried to keep him. So it sounds like all the money in the world would not have kept him at Tranmere. Bit like various Ex-Liverpool players moving to bigger clubs.. We are were we are. I would have loved to have kept Norburn and got even better players in. I just think it is unrealistic to expect anything better at the moment. The world has moved to a situation where money talks for the best players or opportunity to jump leagues motivates pkayers. Be interesting to see where the club is after 10 games or so and if it means more loan players in.
I see you have not addressed any of my points relating to the ownership model and the stated desire of the owners not to have to sell players to survive, which the sale of Norburn contradicts. And I am not sure how you are privy to what goes on in Norburn's head.
 
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aldo
wow guys its not the end of the world . some of you need to calm down . in as worried as the rest of you . but we have to trust whats going on at the club . could we afford for another player to go for nothing next summer . well no we couldint . so if they want to go then let em . as i said b4 he gave the ball away loads and was bye passed in games last year . yes when on his game he was good but got pushed around and went missing in games
 

Higgy

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1 Jul 2010
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Dave Higgins
Maybe they didn't have to sell Norburn, but he forced their hand. As business people they were probably not going to be daft enough to keep a disgruntled player and let him go for nothing next time...…..just for the sake of keeping him. At a higher level there are plenty of clubs who don't have to sell, but circumstances dictate that they do eg great offers, disgruntled players...……..sometimes it makes business sense. Liverpool didn't have to sell Courtinho, but great offer and disgruntled player and off he went.
 

Ian

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Players come and go and good luck to Norburn. We would all take a better offer if it came along, I'm sure. My issue is that the club have not replaced him and this also goes back to the Cook saga.

Players Out: Cook, Norburn
Players in: Stockton

I'm also not saying the season is over, it's just disappointing considering we have a 'top 3rd budget', that we have not found suitable replacements for these two key players. surely that is a concern going into the season where we hope to build and push on from last season.
 

Boz

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30 Sep 2005
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Iain Hume
I felt that even with Norburn we were a man short in central midfield. We’ve now lost 4 Norburn, Hughes, Wallace and Duggan who were primarily central midfielders and only brought in 1.5 given Gilmour loan until January. I know Wallace and Duggan barely featured, but we can’t compensate with mid-season loans in the FL, so more depth of squad is required.

As Ian highlights we are also short in the forward department and currently in both midfield and attack appear weaker than last season.
 
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ian goodison
I feel the buzz from Wembley & promotion plus the top 3 budget has started to wear off players going is always going to happen but we seem to be caught with no plan b, transfers don't happen overnight we just seem to be underprepared hope things are going on as we speak
 
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