Stickied League 1 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2023/24

[masi51]

Think we’ll end up with Nlundulu back to be honest.. and I don’t mind that because I think there’s a player in there. I want to see him after a proper pre season with us. Doesn’t look like we’ll need many if any loans this season.

Not for me.....Need a goalscorer Nlundulu is not a goalscorer

 

[leedsvaliant]

Just officially announced the signing of Stevens. Vale fans have made it abundantly clear that he was shit for them. I'm hoping he was a bit better at Oxford, otherwise looks like it's a poor start to our summer rebuild.

He had 1 half decent game against Derby but otherwise he's as poor a keeper as we've had in a while and we've had some stinkers. He just didn't save anything, which is a bit of a prerequisite for a keeper. If he's your first choice I'd be worried about your recruitment.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Looks like Bolton are going to push the boat out. As with Wednesday, if they don't get automatic promotion next season there's something seriously wrong. Would be good to see their prick of a manager get tinned though. He needs dropping a peg or two. You're Bolton's manager mate, not Barcelona.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Looks like Bolton are going to push the boat out. As with Wednesday, if they don't get automatic promotion next season there's something seriously wrong. Would be good to see their prick of a manager get tinned though. He needs dropping a peg or two. You're Bolton's manager mate, not Barcelona.

Same with Warne at Derby. Total ringpiece

 

[Soz]

Just officially announced the signing of Stevens. Vale fans have made it abundantly clear that he was shit for them. I'm hoping he was a bit better at Oxford, otherwise looks like it's a poor start to our summer rebuild.

Just in case you had any doubts about vale fans thoughts on him I thought he was crap. High expectations but really struggle to give you any positives really. Our young back up was just better than him in every aspect and even then it'll be a bit of a failure if we dont sign a first choice ahead of him.

 

[LancashireTrotters]

Looks like Bolton are going to push the boat out. As with Wednesday, if they don't get automatic promotion next season there's something seriously wrong. Would be good to see their prick of a manager get tinned though. He needs dropping a peg or two. You're Bolton's manager mate, not Barcelona.

Best manager we’ve had since Big Sam, a lot of the football has been outstanding for this level.

He gets it wrong at times, but so does every manager. He’s only young in manager terms.

Fans of other clubs seem to be offended by his confidence/arrogance but again, that doesn’t bother me. I’d much rather have a manager who’s confident about his and his teams abilities than have someone like Gareth Ainsworth who continually seems to be downtrodden about QPR and their chances heading into next season.

 

[thewwfc]

He just didn't save anything, which is a bit of a prerequisite for a keeper.

You’d hope, yeah.

The bare minimum for a keeper in the 3rd/4th tier is that they’re at least a decent shot-stopper.

They’ll probably have one or two obvious flaws to their game, like, say, they don’t command the defence well, or they flap at corners, or their distribution’s a bit shit. But if they didn’t have those flaws, they wouldn’t be down here.

But at least being able to pull off a decent reaction save or two is pretty much entry stakes at this level, otherwise what’s the point?

That said I can’t particularly recall the keeper concerned, although I do remember Vale fans bitching when we scored a long-ranger against them, that no keeper worth their salt would have let it in.

 

[thewwfc]

I’d much rather have a manager who’s confident about his and his teams abilities than have someone like Gareth Ainsworth who continually seems to be downtrodden about QPR and their chances heading into next season.

That’s interesting, I guess you’re referring to this kind of comment:

Gareth Ainsworth says he's scared for 23/24 season and cheekily calls out 'small teams' - Fan Banter

QPR manager Gareth Ainsworth reveals to talkSPORT that he’s scared for 23/24 season and also cheekily calls out ‘small teams’. The West London outfit has just finished a forgettable Championship season, finishing 20th in the table with 50 points from 46 games played. They were top of the table...

fanbanter.co.uk

He was never really like that with us, he was always keen to point out that we had a smaller budget than most - this was before our current sugar daddy came in - but equally, made some semi-bullish statements about how he loved other teams writing us off and underestimating us - and how time after time, we did better than expected. Which we did.

That said, whilst QPR are obviously a bigger club than us with far better resources, that also means the expectations are a lot higher.

Plus they’ve got a reputation for being a turbulent shitshow of a club with one of the worst managerial revolving door records in the EFL - so maybe it’s just expectation management.

 

[91SPP]

Same with Warne at Derby. Total ringpiece

Eh? What could you possibly have against Warne - the guy is a scrubber in every sense other than he’s a football manager. He’d be selling apples on a market had he not got into football management. I believe initially he didn’t even want to do it when Rotherham offered it him too.

 

[kieran_vale]

Jack Stevens at one time was well thought of at Oxford I believe so somewhere along the way his confidence has been completely shot. He’s not despite what some posts above would have you believe completely useless, you don’t play as many games as he has in L1 without having something about you. Will be a job to build him back up but a good coach like Bonner could be just the person. It’s damning with faint praise possibly but he was better than Aiden Stone at least.

 

[nelsonpfc]

Out of the blue. Signed ben Stevenson who was at Forest Green for a few years. Don't know anything about him apart from a central midfielder

 

[SVH]

I can’t say I’m thrilled with the signing of Jack Stevens.

Other than the one he threw in his own net at Accrington did he make any other bad mistakes?

 

[leedsvaliant]

Best manager we’ve had since Big Sam, a lot of the football has been outstanding for this level.

He gets it wrong at times, but so does every manager. He’s only young in manager terms.

Fans of other clubs seem to be offended by his confidence/arrogance but again, that doesn’t bother me. I’d much rather have a manager who’s confident about his and his teams abilities than have someone like Gareth Ainsworth who continually seems to be downtrodden about QPR and their chances heading into next season.

It's a bold shout. Getting promoted from league 2 isn't much to shout about with your squad. I could have got Bolton promoted from league 2.

Your two seasons in league 2, in spite of undoubtedly one of the biggest budgets in the division, have ultimately ended in failure and you nearly missed out on the playoffs this last time and went out with a bit of a whimper.

Pressure will be on Evatt this season and he strikes me as the sort who will blame everyone but himself if it goes wrong. Surely you'll be in the top 3 budget wise, so anything less than automatic promotion would be a huge failure.

If he manages to do it, then fair play. Just comes across as a real tosser, so I don't think anybody would cry if he failed.

 

[kieran_vale]

I can’t say I’m thrilled with the signing of Jack Stevens.

Other than the one he threw in his own net at Accrington did he make any other bad mistakes?

That was the one clanger but I’ll say this for him he owned it at the end and bottom line nobody does that kind of thing deliberately. Other than that there wasn’t anything egregiously bad it’s just we went through a period where we’d limit opposition chances but then there’d be one from 20 yards that would go in so it’s more when you needed the keeper to be there in the key moment he wasn’t if that makes sense? It’s not just him as the same happened with our other keeper which indicates probably some laziness defensively in terms of closing down as well though.

 

[leedsvaliant]

I can’t say I’m thrilled with the signing of Jack Stevens.

Other than the one he threw in his own net at Accrington did he make any other bad mistakes?

Not particularly, he just doesn't save anything.

Both of our goalkeepers were right near the bottom of the league in terms of % of shots saved. Basically, if the opposition had a shot it invariably went in. You expect goalkeepers to save at least some but he just didn't. The fact that Aidan Stone, a rooky goalkeeper who almost cost us twice in the playoff final, kept him out of the side says it all. Stone is also up there with one of our worst but he's still very young in goalkeeping terms. If we'd have had even a half competent goalkeeper, we'd have finished nearer the top 12.

 

[valefan16]

Jack Stevens at one time was well thought of at Oxford I believe so somewhere along the way his confidence has been completely shot. He’s not despite what some posts above would have you believe completely useless, you don’t play as many games as he has in L1 without having something about you. Will be a job to build him back up but a good coach like Bonner could be just the person. It’s damning with faint praise possibly but he was better than Aiden Stone at least.

Really… I would say Stone was better hence he got the shirt back. One big issue with Stevens was his kicking which was awful. He nearly cost us a few times with poor kick outs such as against Plymouth away when he completely mis kicked it to their lad a few yards in front who inexplicably missed it!

 

[stevowanderer]

Same with Warne at Derby. Total ringpiece

Assume you see the irony of that comment when you have Joey Barton as manager?

 

[stevowanderer]

Looks like Bolton are going to push the boat out. As with Wednesday, if they don't get automatic promotion next season there's something seriously wrong. Would be good to see their prick of a manager get tinned though. He needs dropping a peg or two. You're Bolton's manager mate, not Barcelona.

Evatt comment aside I think we have to be aiming for autos too this season. When we came up I said on here we needed to consolidate, then go for top 6 then year 3 was the year we really have to make our mark. First season in a while that the pressure is really on us and we are one of the favourites. Especially now Wednesday and Ipswich have gone up.

 

[stevowanderer]

It's a bold shout. Getting promoted from league 2 isn't much to shout about with your squad. I could have got Bolton promoted from league 2.

Your two seasons in league 2, in spite of undoubtedly one of the biggest budgets in the division, have ultimately ended in failure and you nearly missed out on the playoffs this last time and went out with a bit of a whimper.

Pressure will be on Evatt this season and he strikes me as the sort who will blame everyone but himself if it goes wrong. Surely you'll be in the top 3 budget wise, so anything less than automatic promotion would be a huge failure.

If he manages to do it, then fair play. Just comes across as a real tosser, so I don't think anybody would cry if he failed.

You didn’t see our squad at the start of league 2 season. We had no players and there was the salary cap to deal with. We had a director of football that was sacked before Xmas then Evatt took over dealing with it all and transformed us in Jan.

This budget thing is rubbish. First season we came up you think we had the budget of Wigan, Sunderland, Ipswich, Sheff Wed etc? one national paper put our budget at 9th. And that’s where we finished. We barely increased that budget last season as we are still trying to recover off the pitch… we got some decent players but Bradley and Traff were basically free loans. No where near a top 3 budget. As message above most reasonable fans’ expectation was a season of consolidation, then aim for playoffs but year 3 we thought we should be really going for it.

We’ve increased our budget for this season by all accounts and I think now we will have a top 4/5 budget especially with Wednesday and Ipswich gone. Wigan, Reading and Blackpool all probably currently have bigger budgets than us as a legacy of the championship but will be looking to cut them before the start of the season. Derby also clearly have a massive budget.

Edit- just remembered you did see our squad in league 2 before Jan because you put 6 past us didn’t you?

 

[Arbury]

Eh? What could you possibly have against Warne - the guy is a scrubber in every sense other than he’s a football manager. He’d be selling apples on a market had he not got into football management. I believe initially he didn’t even want to do it when Rotherham offered it him too.

Have to agree with you here, warne is straight talking and as honest as they come, more managers should be like him rather the same managerial bollocks that adams, Caldwell, barton, evatt etc come out with every wk, he’s a bloody good manager too.

As for our first signing stevens, it’s a typical bonner signing with something to prove after a difficult period but I really don’t like what I’m hearing, bonner needs to work his magic by the sounds of it.

It’s a huge summer for us with so many players leaving, I’m not overly concerned it’s on the slow side as I’d be prepared to wait for the right players, it’s going to be busy.

I’d take iredale back in a heartbeat.

KTF.

 

[Don Tonberry]

Would love to know what FGR fans think of Stevenson as I haven't a clue.

 

[masi51]

Same with Warne at Derby. Total ringpiece

Really !!.......Glass houses spring to mind

 

[The Terminator]

Out of the blue. Signed ben Stevenson who was at Forest Green for a few years. Don't know anything about him apart from a central midfielder

I was hoping we'd try and sign him, was quite good for them two seasons ago when they won League Two, good ball playing midfielder.

 

[91SPP]

Have to agree with you here, warne is straight talking and as honest as they come, more managers should be like him rather the same managerial bollocks that adams, Caldwell, barton, evatt etc come out with every wk, he’s a bloody good manager too.

As for our first signing stevens, it’s a typical bonner signing with something to prove after a difficult period but I really don’t like what I’m hearing, bonner needs to work his magic by the sounds of it.

It’s a huge summer for us with so many players leaving, I’m not overly concerned it’s on the slow side as I’d be prepared to wait for the right players, it’s going to be busy.

I’d take iredale back in a heartbeat.

KTF.

Warne strikes me as a manager who nobody can really dislike - he's goofy; high energy and talks nonsense - most fans seem to like that rather than, as you said, the heavy media trained bland answers. Ironically Joey Barton after our most recent game essentially said Derby are shit and if we are the standard to make the play-offs that it's a poor league. Not that I disagree, and we didn't make them in the end, but I couldn't get my head round him saying that when his team were comfortably bottom half - wouldn't really have been motivational speech that I imagine any of them were looking for after getting a decent late point.

If he was doing a pundits job, that's another thing, but I just found it strange. It's almost like he forgot his job in an attempt to have a dig - I know it's his character but struck me as odd. If I was the Bristol chairman objectively I'd be thinking - so by your own admission the league is terrible, we have the best player in the division and yet we're 17th? Doesn't add up.

Back to transfers, it now looks like Curtis Nelson is a done deal. Not the most exciting centre half signing in the world, but a steady Championship player who will probably be at the top end of this division. The defence is nearly complete - Elder, Cashin, Nelson, X, Ward - assuming we're going three at the back. A complete rebuild around Cashin who was one of the top performers in the league last season and two decent goalkeepers behind them. It should stand up pretty well at this level. It looks as though Bielik and Knight will be gone, so would anticipate a couple of centre midfielders (or at least one) and then an array of attackers - although I think the loan market will be important for depth.

I'd say things are moving in the right direction, whatever happens we will definitely be a more complete side this season than last.

 

[Si Robin]

Warne strikes me as a manager who nobody can really dislike - he's goofy; high energy and talks nonsense - most fans seem to like that rather than, as you said, the heavy media trained bland answers. Ironically Joey Barton after our most recent game essentially said Derby are shit and if we are the standard to make the play-offs that it's a poor league. Not that I disagree, and we didn't make them in the end, but I couldn't get my head round him saying that when his team were comfortably bottom half - wouldn't really have been motivational speech that I imagine any of them were looking for after getting a decent late point.

If he was doing a pundits job, that's another thing, but I just found it strange. It's almost like he forgot his job in an attempt to have a dig - I know it's his character but struck me as odd. If I was the Bristol chairman objectively I'd be thinking - so by your own admission the league is terrible, we have the best player in the division and yet we're 17th? Doesn't add up.

Back to transfers, it now looks like Curtis Nelson is a done deal. Not the most exciting centre half signing in the world, but a steady Championship player who will probably be at the top end of this division. The defence is nearly complete - Elder, Cashin, Nelson, X, Ward - assuming we're going three at the back. A complete rebuild around Cashin who was one of the top performers in the league last season and two decent goalkeepers behind them. It should stand up pretty well at this level. It looks as though Bielik and Knight will be gone, so would anticipate a couple of centre midfielders (or at least one) and then an array of attackers - although I think the loan market will be important for depth.

I'd say things are moving in the right direction, whatever happens we will definitely be a more complete side this season than last.

My favourite manager interview was Joey Barton last season, Rovers were 4-0 up at half-time and as the players are coming off apparently one of our players apparently said, "How are we losing to these, they're shit".

He apparently used this as motivation for the Rovers players to go out and teach us a lesson.

We won the second half 1-0, so how it taught us a lesson I'm not really sure.

 

[SF_]

Yeah, I fancy Bolton for autos this season, been rebuilding slowly. Just need someone to share the goal burden with Dion Charles.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Really !!.......Glass houses spring to mind

Did i say Barton wasnt though? Warne was a bit of a nob in his interview after we got a late equaliser thats all im going from

 

[GeneralLee]

Just officially announced the signing of Stevens. Vale fans have made it abundantly clear that he was shit for them. I'm hoping he was a bit better at Oxford, otherwise looks like it's a poor start to our summer rebuild.

I have to agree with the Port Vale support aside from going there as a backup, I would be surprised if he is expecting to be backup. He was a year into a three year deal at OUFC. So it's probably safe to assume he really needs to be first choice, though in many ways I'm surprised he's got a League One move to be honest.

He was a seriously good goalkeeper courted by Arsenal and Aston Villa shortly following his debut and proved on many occasions to be a match winner. Even as a rookie he gave us solidity, displayed class and looked surprisingly comfortable for someone so inexperienced. His starting position was excellent too; he was very much in the mould of a sweeper keeper and enabled us at the time to play higher up given his starting position would nullify attacks so well...

... That was until he suffered from an illness. Upon his return it was like he changed over night. He just stopped saving anything whatsoever and it sounds like it was the same at Port Vale. The challenge at the time for our back four upon JS's return was stop any and every shot from being on target otherwise it was a virtually guaranteed goal.

I watched him in pre-season against local non-league side North Leigh and he struck me as a performance which even after being handed the number 1 shirt, it looked oddly like his Oxford career was over. Something appears to have happened and he's essentially gone from being a really good goalkeeper to one which looks like his career is going backwards. My guess is it's probably one of those signings where a manager backs himself to turn a player around (Karl Robinson did it ALL the time and it never works). Sadly if you signed the Jack Stevens from a couple of years ago it's a serious signing. Not so much today.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

My favourite manager interview was Joey Barton last season, Rovers were 4-0 up at half-time and as the players are coming off apparently one of our players apparently said, "How are we losing to these, they're shit".

He apparently used this as motivation for the Rovers players to go out and teach us a lesson.

We won the second half 1-0, so how it taught us a lesson I'm not really sure.

Yep we were proper gutted to only beat you 4-1 in your own back yard. I think it was the lad Perry that said it to Sercs, which is quite funny as he was totally out of his depth.

My fave Barton quote is saying we would get promoted after getting smashed by Exeter in Aug 2021. And we did...

 

[E10rifle]

Does come across as someone who needs a run of games but he never got that here. He started the season in a midfield of him, Oakely-Boothe and Sorenson and it got dismantled pretty quickly IIRC and was part of the start of a phase we had of signing the samey, lightweight, semi-technical PL U23 types.

To be fair all of our remaining CMs are thuggish cloggers so we could do with someone a bit better on the ball. Prats won’t stand for him not putting his foot in. Not seen the kid play but hopefully he flourishes.