• 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

Ian

Super White!
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Aldo
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Kingy
Apparently he had keyhole surgery so hopefully in a few weeks.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
We are being linked with Motherwell's Ryan Bowman. He is a target man, and is probably being lined up as a superior version of Stockton. Apparently we have offered a fee, but Exeter are also interested.

Cole is not as bad as his critics make out, and I hate the constant sniping about him. However, in the long term I don't think he is good enough and we will need an upgrade if we are serious about promotion.
 
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According to BBC Scotland, Exeter and ourselves have both had bids accepted and it is up to Bowman to decide where he wants to go. He hails from Carlisle, so hopefully he will want to stay closer to home.
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
I’ve seen quite a bit of Bowman as I have a soft spot for Motherwell.

He’s a real tough guy and very physical. Certainly no quicker than Stockton but he knows where the goals is from his time at Gateshead albeit at national league level. Not scores many in Scotland. Whether he’s the type of target man who relies on wingers remains to be seen but I’d be pleased if he came.
 

ONIGP

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Eddie Bishop
Apparently he had keyhole surgery so hopefully in a few weeks.

The sooner he is fully fit and back the better. An on form Banks adds so much class to the team and improves us immeasurably!
 
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John King
On a related point, Exeter are going to sell Stockley to Preston for 750,000. I believe he only had six months left on his contract like Nors, so that is the kind of offer we can expect to receive for James next month.......
 
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The sooner he is fully fit and back the better. An on form Banks adds so much class to the team and improves us immeasurably!
It would be good if he could play sixty minutes of the Spurs game. We have not retained the ball very well in the last couple of matches and we will need to pass through midfield much better against Tottenham.
 
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aldo
having spoken to Norwood the other day he is just keeping saying he is hear till the end of the season . he says his girlfreind is happy and so is he . he just said he wants it sorted
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Bowman is certainly not a Norwood replacement, so I expect we would be spending the cup money on him. If we were selling Norwood, we'd be after a genuine goalscorer. Ryan has spent most of his career in tier five, scoring about one goal in three games, but he has been less successful when playing at a higher level. I expect he will be the physical presence we had in Andy Cook, being able to hold the ball and relieve pressure. He has played 86 times for Motherwell, scoring 14 goals and providing 13 assists, but only one goal and two assists this season. He will be out of contract in the summer, so this should mean a lower fee.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
According to BBC Scotland, Exeter and ourselves have both had bids accepted and it is up to Bowman to decide where he wants to go. He hails from Carlisle, so hopefully he will want to stay closer to home.
I hope you are right, RLC, but he has played for Hereford and Torquay, so may not be averse to moving south again. Assuming the wages we are offering are similar, you would hope we had the edge. Both sides are in the promotion race but Exeter are selling their prize asset while we are hoping to hang onto ours. Also, I would think any lower league player would be impressed by the fan base and infrastructure of our club, not to mention MP's ambition.
 
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I think Exeter will be able to offer better wages than us, particularly now they have the Stockley money, and I would expect him to go there to be honest.
 
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Possibly, but we will have the cup money. They lost in the first round.
The cup games have not made us 750,000 (yet).

In any case, Exeter's wage budget will almost certainly have been higher than ours to begin with. They have benefited from three years of Football League money which we lost and they have consistently been at the top end of this division for a number of seasons now.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
The cup games have not made us 750,000 (yet).

In any case, Exeter's wage budget will almost certainly have been higher than ours to begin with. They have benefited from three years of Football League money which we lost and they have consistently been at the top end of this division for a number of seasons now.
We'll see what happens. I would not expect Bowman to be the replacement for Stockley and they will still have plenty of money left, so they will be after more players.
 
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I obviously hope he comes here, but the Motherwell chairman said he was offered 'wages we could not match'. It does not seem likely that we have outbid Exeter and an SPL club.

But who knows.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
I obviously hope he comes here, but the Motherwell chairman said he was offered 'wages we could not match'. It does not seem likely that we have outbid Exeter and an SPL club.

But who knows.
We surely haven't bid for a player knowing we can't better his wages, so presumably average SPL wages are lower than League Two, which says not a lot for the state of Scottish football. Things must have changed a lot in the last ten years, as Steve Jennings left Rovers (then in League One) for Motherwell in 2009.
 
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aldo
think i would rather stick with mullin if im honest . bowman is not doing it in the scottish prem witch apart from a few teams is no better than lg 2 . think we should save the money . for better thinks
 
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We surely haven't bid for a player knowing we can't better his wages.
We might only have matched his current wages, given that he was likely to be offloaded by Motherwell in the summer anyway. He is not getting in their team at present.

Their chairman stated that they 'could not compete' with the wages he had been offered, which led me to believe it was Exeter who had made the successful offer. I think it is widely accepted that we don't have thousands to throw around in wages at the moment.
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
At the very least stockley leaving Exeter is a boost for us given they are a promotion rival. Depending on how they replace him obviously.

Preston have activated a release clause and you wonder whether Nors has one.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
Read something about Bowman’s partner being from the West Country so Exeter more likely. Not convinced he’d be a significant improvement on his current form.
 
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