Ins and outs 2023/24 | Page 2 | Vital Football

Ins and outs 2023/24

McCart came with great accolade from a Scottish friend of my other half. He'd never had an injury - until he came to us. I've said on a number of occasions Scottish football is nowhere as keen as English football. I think Jamie proved that point.

Jake Hull signed a three year deal with us in August so I'd be a bit surprised if he does go.
 
Some of the players named may go out on loan, I guess. I think that the step up from Scottish football to the EFL Championship is quite a big one, so full marks to Jamie Lindsay who has battled his way back into our first team. The Jake Hull decision does seem rather strange.

The Warney regime decision to get Eaves in as a "marquee signing" was rightly questioned by many Millers fans at the time. Having signed George Hirst for our 2020/21 Championship season, it just added to the pain, especially after letting Freddie Ladapo go for nothing. Whatever the faults of Freddie, I think that he would have at least managed to score ONE goal in the 2022/23 Championship season!

Hopefully, the current regime won't make so many recruitment mistakes.
 
I think we need input on a long term strategy and it needs imo to be a two-way street. The manager must decide how he wants to play and what kind of players he requires to implement his preferred style. No more square pegs in round holes please! But the board must have a proviso that players must also be potentially saleable assets. If MT decides he needs a 32 yo then that must be the exception to the rule.
We cannot again have players like Ladapo and Smith walking away for nothing.
 
Smith and "Icky" were out of contract, so not much RUFC could do at that stage, but Freddy had another year's option. Even if Warney had fallen out with him, surely a loan with the aim of a sale in January would have been better. I'm confident that there would have been bidders too, and we could have used the money towards a replacement.
 
17/05/23

Still very quiet. It has been reported that Ryan Manning's current contract runs out in summer, but other than that, not seen anybody who might be available on a "free" that would be suitable for RUFC. Mainly just L1/L2 clubs who have published their "retained" lists so far though.

Nothing official yet, but there is a rumour that Shane Ferguson has been offerered a one-year deal, and more rumours that that Wes Harding and Josh Vickers are leaving. Vickers may be quite an injury risk now anyway. He's done well for us, but if the medical advice is that he's likely to break down again after a few games, we need a replacement.
 
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Being linked with Cameron Norman, 27 yo 6'2" RB with Newport. Contract expires next month. Voted Newport Player of the Season last two years. Could play RB in a back 4 but he's tall enough and quick enough to play on the right in a back 3. If we sign him does it mean an exit for PK?
 
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We are definitely very short of fit defenders now. Kioso, McCart, Bola and Hull have all been told that they are not in Matt Taylor's plans for the future.
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Update 17/05/23
RUFC Official website :

OUT - Wood, Harding, Hemfrey, M. Warne (when contracts expire)
Plus all of our loan players have returned to their parent clubs

IN - Nobody yet
 
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Is this the Hemfrey we only signed in September 2022 and was hailed a 'hero' for his game against Burnley? Can't understand this at all as he's highly regarded at the club and we might yet lose Vickers or Viktor. :unsure:
PK is a disappointment and presumably it's down to injury. There is a very good RB/RWB in him if he could stay fit. Sad.
 
Can only assume that our young keeper Ford has been assessed as a better long-term prospect than Hemfrey. We don't even know if Vickers will be ok to play after recent surgery. Kioso and Bola look like decent players, but they are injured most of the time. Think that Matt Taylor has already made up his mind about McCart, and Hull has never played at anywhere near this level (Seven games for Hartlepool U. in L2).
 
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Good point, Mike. I had stupidly forgotten about the contract to Ford:clown: which makes the situation with Hemfrey more understandable.
On another point I noted that MT rated Ferguson as he is one of our only players who can cross accurately with any consistency. This seems bizarre but also true.
PW used to say he liked to play wide and get crosses in to the box. I have said on here in the past that while this sounds great in principle in practice very few teams have the quality of player to make it work. Wingers are a luxury and have to be very good to be worthwhile. Wing-backs as an alternative requires players who have pace, energy, stamina, can defend and can cross. If such jewels exist they may be above our pay grade.
This is why for clubs like ours I think a boring 4:4:2 is sensible, morphing into 4:3:3 sometimes at home and perhaps 4:5:1 or 4:4:1:1 away.
 
I have to agree Lindum. 4.4.2 is the sensible way for us to play, might be boring but does that matter if it works?

I love old fashioned wingers but, as you say, they seem to be very far and few between and to have wing-backs we need young fit players.

The clubs with money can look at their opponents and think, today we'll play this formation or that formation but, of course, they have the squad to do that. Sadly we haven't.

The only two players I've seen us linked with so far are one from Exeter (thought we'd have had a couple from there in January to be honest) and one from Newport County. Now, nothing against these lads but I think we really need to be getting in some players who have proved their worth in the Championship to add to the squad. And I also think we need a bigger squad.
 
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I do wonder sometimes about our recruitment. It seems to lack imagination. Mike has joked about Ross County (I think) but he's not far off. We get a defender in from Scotland and then discover that he's not Championship standard. We get a free-scoring striker in from ROI only for manager to say ROI is non-league standard. Several people identified Bishop at Accrington and Hoskins at Northampton well before they attracted attention but we go instead for Tom Eaves and Scott High. I have little confidence we will recruit a standard of player needed and we'll struggle to stay up. When you look at the efforts of clubs like Derby, Bolton, Ipswich, Sheff Wed and Portsmouth to get in the darn Championship and we're in it but don't seem committed as a club to staying in it. Depressing.
 
In reality 4-4-2 is probably less boring than 4-5-1. I know that some managers will claim "It's not 4-5-1, it's 4-3-3!". If you have wide players up front who can dribble past opponents, pass or cross the ball properly, score goals , etc., fair enough... We get glimpses of that from Ogbene and Ferguson, when they are not injured, but we need players who can do that on a more regular basis. Unlikely to get those out of the "bargain bin" of over-30's free transfers, players who have missed a season due to injury/illness, or players from Scotland or Ireland. We may very occasionally strike lucky, but it's not the basis on which to build the future of RUFC in the Championship.
 
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I thought we recruited well in January and players with higher level experience! I can remember most people being excited at the time.
We were very unfortunate with the injuries to some that followed.

Lets hope the work on the training ground, the new style playing surface at NYS and hopefully the recruiting of less injury prone players makes a difference next season.
 
23/05/23

BBC Radio Sheffield - Richard Wood is expected to be signing for Doncaster Rovers in the near future.

Update - Transfer now confirmed on DRFC Official websie (one-year contract)

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Still not spotted any new players on other clubs "released" lists who would be of much use to us. Some rumours about interest in Lyle Taylor, but he is the type of player who scores against us, but not against anybody else, like...

No thanks, but he would probably be ok if we were in L1.
 
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08/06/23

More reports on other Millers fans websites that Hall and Fosu (both out of contract) have been offered new deals with RUFC.

Still very few suitable players available on the "free transfer" market - TS may need to get the chequebook out.

Doesn't seem to have been any new interest in our players who Matt Taylor said were not good enough for this division,.
 
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09/06/23

Sunderland Echo - Bailey Wright has a year left on his Sunderland contract, and is still out injured. Unlikely to be moving to the Millers.
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Various rumours that there will be new owners of Leeds U. soon. If rumours of debts are true, they may be planning to offload some players.
 
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10/06/23

Paul Davis (Advertiser) Twitter -Josh Vickers is likely to be leaving with the aim of getting first team football elsewhere, despite being offered a new RUFC contract.
We are looking to sign another keeper.

Youth team keeper Nat Ford is staying with the Millers, but may go out on loan later. Nat is the son of former Millers keeper Stuart Ford (five league appearances in the late-80's/early-90's), who later played for Scarboro' and Donny.
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Cross David McGoldrick off the transfer rumour list - he has moved from Derby County to Notts County on a free transfer. Might have been ok for us, but he's 35 years old now. Think he would have been capable of scoring at least ONE goal in a Championship season, unlike some of our previous star centre forward signings.:rolleyes:
(Source : BBC Football website).
 
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11/06/23

Paul Davis (Advertiser) Twitter - prepare for an influx of loan signings at the NYS this summer. (No names mentioned).

My comment - this may be an indiicaton that there are not many suitable players who are available in the "free transfer" category.
 
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