• 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.

League Two Scunny v Rovers

Match result

  • Scunthorpe

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tranmere

    Votes: 5 100.0%

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .

Boz

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If the situation we find ourselves in now with forwards was a conscious choice as RLC understands, then there has been some truly awful decision making by those running the club. I’ll exempt Hill a little, in that he seemed to have been led to believe that Jolley was closer to first team action than events have proved.

Walsall were one of the best teams at PP, though both manager and the player who gave us most trouble have moved on. Expecting a tougher game than this one.
 

drwhoman

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The problem with Nugent is that he was brought in on past reputation. Sadly, he seems to have run his race although he was never envisaged to be a lone striker having a lot of game time. if they were looking for a young goalscoring striker they should have taken Hardy on loan from Liverpool. He is a real finisher although he is unlikely to make it in the Premier League. Give him a sniff and the ball is in.
 

Boz

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Drwhoman, not aware that Liverpool had offered us or anyone else this youngster on loan. Their terms are usually prohibitive financially if the loanee isn’t getting first team action too.

I agree regarding Nugent, worth a punt in a supporting role, but too little if the plan was reliance on the trio of squad strikers as suggested. Vaughan was always an injury risk and there were journeyman forwards available in the window more match-fit than Nugent. It’s been a shock just how poor he is now that his fitness has improved.
 
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Too many of them after over 50 years!
However, we had already let two strikers leave prior to Ferrier, which was a risk as it was clear he was unsettled and was angling for a move. Hill was expressing frustration with Ferrier in January, prior to the transfer window closing, and from what I understand we actually expected a move to be concluded by the end of the window. I don't think we can pin all the blame for our current predicament on Ferrier.
the problem is it is all speculation. We have no idea if Ferrier said he would stay the course then changed his mind. None of us have the faintest idea as to what was going on behind the scenes.
 
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the problem is it is all speculation. We have no idea if Ferrier said he would stay the course then changed his mind. None of us have the faintest idea as to what was going on behind the scenes.
The suggestion that Ferrier was leaving came from the source on another forum that has a contact at the club and who has been right about the majority of behind the scenes events, including the extent of Vaughan's injury for example. It is not just random speculation.

Keith Hill was asked about Ferrier's recent absence at a press conference on 2nd February and replied that he wanted 'an all inclusive, not a self-catering approach', which suggests that the fall out with Ferrier had already happened by that date and he was on his way out of the club.

Even if we accept that our hands were tied regarding Ferrier (which I don't), we let Payne and Smith leave and replaced them with Jolley and Nugent which was a poor decision in my view. A forward line of Vaughan, Ferrier and Nugent was not really sufficient for a promotion run in, let alone the one we ended up with.
 
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Too many of them after over 50 years!
I politely disagree on the Ferrier issue of 'facts' v 'gossip'. but we can just move on and leave it at that, hopefully.

I also don't know who the club was looking at and making offers to and who was available to bring in.

Maybe it was out of our hands as to who we could bring in in January due to the rather unusual Covid-19 circumstances.

Maybe Payne could have scored but he'd not done so in four appearances, albeit after injury. He has scored one for Grimsby in thirteen games

And I absolutely agree that Tranmere doesn't have enough firepower at present, that can be seen by the results.
 
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Payne is playing in an absolutely terrible Grimsby side, but has still scored from open play which Nugent has not managed here. Payne would have better players and more creativity around him if he was still here.

In any case, it is not just goals we are missing up front, it is a physical presence in the eighteen yard box and an ability to hold the ball up, which Payne and Ferrier did offer. I believe the presence of a genuine centre forward would make us better balanced: Man City and the seventies Ajax team can play without a striker, but you can't at League Two level.

If money was tight in January and recruitment was difficult, we should not have released the three strikers we already had.
 
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Let's put all the speculation to one side and focus on the facts.

We released three strikers capable of contributing for ninety minutes (Ferrier, Payne and Smith) and replaced them with two who were not (Nugent and Jolley).

It was a poor transfer window.
 

Ian

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Of all the players to get injured, Vaughan was the irreplaceable one. Which makes the transfer window even more annoying when you look at it.
 
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The fact is we ended the January transfer window with four strikers - Vaughan, Ferrier, Nugent and Jolley. Two who can play the lone striker role or together as a pair, a third who'd probably still be a good foil alongside either of the other two, and a wild card youngster who might have got a few run outs as a sub when circumstances allowed.

Decent options there. And a blend that was arguably slightly better, but certainly no worse, than we had at the start of January.

In that context, not replacing, or being able to replace, Ferrier has been the killer. I agree we'll probably never know what actually happened so speculation won't really get us anywhere, but it's probably a fact that, if we don't get promotion, this will have been a major factor. And if most of the culpability for that situation rests within the club rather than Ferrier (though, to me, the curtness of the club's announcement of his departure suggests the latter), it may yet have implications in the summer, including whether to exercise the option on Hill's contract.
 
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By ending the transfer window with those four strikers we had to hope that the the relationship with Ferrier would work out. A big risk considering his disciplinary issues both here and at his previous clubs, and the manner of his departure from those clubs.

If we set aside the Ferrier issue, it was still a mistake to release two players in Payne and Smith who we knew were fit and able to contribute, and bring in Nugent and Jolley, who were both gambles for different reasons.

I believe there is more to the failings in the January window than just the Ferrier situation.
 
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The fact is we ended the January transfer window with four strikers - Vaughan, Ferrier, Nugent and Jolley. Two who can play the lone striker role or together as a pair, a third who'd probably still be a good foil alongside either of the other two, and a wild card youngster who might have got a few run outs as a sub when circumstances allowed.

Decent options there. And a blend that was arguably slightly better, but certainly no worse, than we had at the start of January.

In that context, not replacing, or being able to replace, Ferrier has been the killer. I agree we'll probably never know what actually happened so speculation won't really get us anywhere, but it's probably a fact that, if we don't get promotion, this will have been a major factor. And if most of the culpability for that situation rests within the club rather than Ferrier (though, to me, the curtness of the club's announcement of his departure suggests the latter), it may yet have implications in the summer, including whether to exercise the option on Hill's contract.
I think it was a poorer blend than the quartet we started with. Vaughan, Ferrier and Payne were all senior players who were knew were capable of doing a job in a variety of systems. Smith had a reasonable amount of first team experience and had averaged one goal in every two games in a loan spell at Cambridge last season.

By contrast, Nugent was at a stage of his career where we really did not know what we were going to get from him, and Jolley had virtually no first team experience.
 
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We'll have to agree to disagree on that.

Either way, if we don't go up, it'll largely be down to the striker situation. Given the club's stated aim was to get back to L1, there'll be accountability if we fail.

So, if it does transpire that the management, more so than Ferrier, the owners, or anyone else involved, is culpable for the striker situation, we may well be looking for a new manager in the summer.

If, on the other hand, it was a situation largely not of Hill's making, I reckon we'll want to keep him even we don't go up this season.

Plenty of water to flow under the bridge before getting too deep into that conversation!
 
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As I have said, I don't think the January transfer window will be assessed purely in terms of Ferrier, but more that aside possibly from Crawford, none of the signings have made a contribution to the promotion challenge. How heavily involved Palios and Beck were in those signings we don't know.

Hill's performance will ultimately be judged on a number of criteria, recruitment being one of them.
 
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Failure to get promoted will largely be down to one factor, the striker situation. If Hill is primarily culpable for that then, regardless of all the other criteria he's assessed on, the magnitude of that one issue alone would leave him extremely vulnerable.

I do, however, expect him to be in charge next season, whatever division we're in.
 
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Failure to get promoted will largely be down to one factor, the striker situation. If Hill is primarily culpable for that then, regardless of all the other criteria he's assessed on, the magnitude of that one issue alone would leave him extremely vulnerable.

I do, however, expect him to be in charge next season, whatever division we're in.
I still think his overall points per game record will be crucial, and much as I think January was a shambles, Palios will be aware that summer recruitment is generally easier.

I expect him to be here next season unless our form completely nosedives in the next few weeks.
 

Ian

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We all know what to expect over the next few weeks if Vaughan does not return. Not quite the run in I was expecting. I'm actually not really looking forward to the next six games if I'm honest as I know it will just frustrate me. I do not go into a game with confidence at the moment. Crazy when we are 4th but I just can't see a way out of this striker mess.
 
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We all know what to expect over the next few weeks if Vaughan does not return. Not quite the run in I was expecting. I'm actually not really looking forward to the next six games if I'm honest as I know it will just frustrate me. I do not go into a game with confidence at the moment. Crazy when we are 4th but I just can't see a way out of this striker mess.
Yes, a promotion challenge should be a lot more enjoyable than it is at the moment.
 

Sparky

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Forest Green sack mark Cooper after 5 years. Strange timing although after their recent form their owners may think they need a change to reignite their play off hopes after 4 defeats in a row leaves them just in the top 7
 
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Forest Green sack mark Cooper after 5 years. Strange timing although after their recent form their owners may think they need a change to reignite their play off hopes after 4 defeats in a row leaves them just in the top 7
They have got terrible injuries at the moment, so it seems harsh on Cooper. Vince has been very loyal to Cooper in the past, so certainly a surprise.

Probably more bad news for us unfortunately, so we really do need to win some games.
 
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