Stickied League 2 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2023/24

[Chief Rocka]

Shame Oates didn’t turn out to be the money grabbing whore that he was made out to be.

Pools fans are pissed off with Oates because after receiving a contract from us he cut all communication with the club, Pools were expecting him to re-sign, they only knew he left when Mansfield announced him, which I suppose he has the right do to no longer being our player, but he was on the scrapheap when DC give him a lifeline and thanks to him had the season of his career, a no thanks I'm off to 'X' probably would've been the decent thing to do.

 

[pontoonlew]

Oates hasn’t got a good record at this level and it’s not even like he’s smashed in 25+ goals in the league below last season like in years gone by (Connell and Amond did for us and didn’t get really get past League 2 standard), it hardly seems worth the tears and money.

 

[Bottega Don]

We've signed LB Lewis Thompson who was released from Blackburn.

Unless we are stupidly selling our starting LB Mason O'Malley, he should be a backup.

Only 5 more players away from a squad.

 

[RiftHouseLad]

So what you're saying is that you've relegated Mansfield by allowing Oates to go there?

Oates has relegated himself to the bench.
We played a system that catered to his game, Will Clough!!

Oates is a confidence player, And that type of player has to start games.
Think he,ll be lucky if he stsrts 10, Barring injuries to the 2 players ahead of him in the pecking order.
Armstrong worked tirelessly to create for Oates

You reap what you sow.

 

[Bottega Don]

Mansfield turned Jamie Reid into a non-league goal machine to a man that didn't look like a footballer, Oates may suffer the same fate.

 

[B2TF]

B2TF could do that in about an hour going by how quick he got back from Wrexham the other year.

I've been to Wrexham 4 times chuck, 2014, 2015, 2018 & 2019. I really can't understand why you don't appear to be able to wrap your little noggin around that, it's not the most arduous journey in the world, indeed it is one of the more straightforward away days. Maybe if you left Grimsby once in a while you'd know how easy it is to travel nowadays. The world has moved on from coaches and horses, you know.

What are you doing here anyway, you're a decidedly nonleague outfit now. See you back on the pub team forum.

 

[Northenblues]

We’ve got a trialist goalkeeper called George Sykes kenworthy formerly of Bradford and Derby. Any info on this lad anyone?

 

[LS Bantam]

We’ve got a trialist goalkeeper called George Sykes kenworthy formerly of Bradford and Derby. Any info on this lad anyone?

Ex youth player who may have had a first team contract for a time but never played. Ex manager Gary Bowyer took him for his Derby U23’s side after his release here.

 

[hellogregory]

A few of our fans were wanting us to go in for Oates, but as stated above he hasn’t really set the world alight at this level. He may well have developed and do the business for Mansfield but I’m glad we weren’t in for him. Not that we’d be able to compete with Mansfield anyway!
We’ve been stung in the past by signing conference players and them turning out to be shit in League 2. Richie Bennett being a prime example when we bought him off the back of a good season at Barrow.

 

[saddler78]

Carl Rushworth joins the Saddlers on season-long loan

Walsall Football Club are delighted to announce the signing of goalkeeper Carl Rushworth on a season-long loan from Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion.

www.saddlers.co.uk

 

[Northenblues]

Ex youth player who may have had a first team contract for a time but never played. Ex manager Gary Bowyer took him for his Derby U23’s side after his release here.

Won youth player of the year or something with you apparently, we really need a backup goalkeeper.

 

[hellogregory]

We have goalkeeper George Sykes-Kenworthy on trial. Most recently with derby county.

With us going full time this season we should be getting better standard of trialists wanting a contract. Hopefully this one is up to it.

 

[McTee]

Pools fans are pissed off with Oates because after receiving a contract from us he cut all communication with the club, Pools were expecting him to re-sign, they only knew he left when Mansfield announced him, which I suppose he has the right do to no longer being our player, but he was on the scrapheap when DC give him a lifeline and thanks to him had the season of his career, a no thanks I'm off to 'X' probably would've been the decent thing to do.

What I would have expected from Oates was for him to reply to Challinor and say “I’ve been offered £xxx elsewhere, I appreciate what you’ve done for my career, so if you are you able to match it, or get close to it, then I’ll stay.”

It sounds like he didn’t give us the chance to negotiate, which is what pissed Challinor off, but also implies that it wasn’t just the money that was the deciding factor. Maybe tired of travelling up & down for training every day?

If it was about money, then I think it shows a major lack of confidence in his own ability. If he has a great season like he just had in the National League, then he could take the payoff by doubling his wages with a League Two club. If he had two great seasons in a row, one in the National League and one in League Two, he would have Championship teams swarming round him and offering him 10x his wages. It’s only under Challinor that he has played anywhere near this well, so if he was looking for the big step up, then it would make more sense to stay under Challinor for another season to continue his good form and then get a big move. If he doesn’t have the belief in his own ability to think he can continue playing that well in League Two, then it makes sense to take the payoff now, double his wages and see what happens.

It could be that I’m wrong and he goes and rips it up for Mansfield next year, who knows. But if it was me, I’d be doing everything to try and stay with a manager who I know gets the best out of me, in an atmosphere and a system that really works for my game, unless I got an offer that would set me up for life.

 

[shoddycollins]

im not convinced he's a league 2 striker either. 150k is incredible business if it's anywhere near that.

If Barra have now got that amount of money on top of the players they've already added to their squad then they could be a serious shout for promotion, depending what they do with it but you could replace Quigley twice with that amount.

 

[shoddycollins]

Been away for a while so haven’t commented on our business till now. Pleased with our 3 signing so far, particularly Clough, he’s precisely the type of player we’ve been missing, although wasn’t expecting us to get someone of his quality in. Think we need 2 or 3 more to make sure we have enough quality to stay away from trouble. A forward, a defender who can cover left side of centre back/full back and a goalkeeper to compete with Norman.

Of the departures, disappointed but not surprised to lose Bennett, we’ll struggle to get better than him, but apparently Morgan Feeney has potential if he stays fit. Farman I’m not too bothered about as i said before he left Norman is younger and we originally signed him as the number 1 till he got injured and Farman got in. Zanzala I’m annoyed about. Genuinely think he’s capable of 20 a season in this league, to refuse to give him the 2 year deal he wanted is a mistake in my opinion. The club obviously disagree so we’ll see who ends up right. Patrick I liked but he’s replaceable.

Need experience as well, as things stand the average age of our squad is 23 and we only have 1 player over the age of 30 and only 5 players over the age of 24. If that was the age of our squad last season we'd have had the youngest squad in the EFL by a whole year over the second youngest.

 

[Red Deserato]

Carl Rushworth joins the Saddlers on season-long loan

Walsall Football Club are delighted to announce the signing of goalkeeper Carl Rushworth on a season-long loan from Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion.

www.saddlers.co.uk

Was on loan at Worthing 2 years ago. Started off a bit shaky with catching crosses coming into the box, but after a couple of months he blossomed into a fine keeper, commanding the defence despite his young age. By the end of the season he was keeping us in games with his saves.

Didn't expect him to go football league but hopefully he can get game time at Walsall.

 

[B2TF]

Same happened to us when we were promoted, we had a guy who bagged 37 goals the season before and them some arseholes came in and nicked him off us………

Oi! Stop hobnobbing! We've got a lot of Mickey Mouse stuff to talk about with the other pubs teams, get your sorry arse back here!

 

[Monkey Tennis]

What I would have expected from Oates was for him to reply to Challinor and say “I’ve been offered £xxx elsewhere, I appreciate what you’ve done for my career, so if you are you able to match it, or get close to it, then I’ll stay.”

It sounds like he didn’t give us the chance to negotiate, which is what pissed Challinor off, but also implies that it wasn’t just the money that was the deciding factor. Maybe tired of travelling up & down for training every day?

If it was about money, then I think it shows a major lack of confidence in his own ability. If he has a great season like he just had in the National League, then he could take the payoff by doubling his wages with a League Two club. If he had two great seasons in a row, one in the National League and one in League Two, he would have Championship teams swarming round him and offering him 10x his wages. It’s only under Challinor that he has played anywhere near this well, so if he was looking for the big step up, then it would make more sense to stay under Challinor for another season to continue his good form and then get a big move. If he doesn’t have the belief in his own ability to think he can continue playing that well in League Two, then it makes sense to take the payoff now, double his wages and see what happens.

It could be that I’m wrong and he goes and rips it up for Mansfield next year, who knows. But if it was me, I’d be doing everything to try and stay with a manager who I know gets the best out of me, in an atmosphere and a system that really works for my game, unless I got an offer that would set me up for life.

Surely if Oates can prove himself at Mansfield, then clubs higher up would see it wasn't just down to a specific manager or system.

If he'd stayed and done well at Hartlepool, those same clubs might think "ah, he can only play the way Hartlepool are set up".

Either way, not sure how it shows a major lack of confidence? To me it says he's confident of breaking into a team established in League 2 rather than one which at the moment looks to be setting up for a relegation battle.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

If Barra have now got that amount of money on top of the players they've already added to their squad then they could be a serious shout for promotion, depending what they do with it but you could replace Quigley twice with that amount.

I think that's one of the reasons why the fee was 'undisclosed' - so other clubs don't get the impression we have £150k+ to spend on a new striker. I think we'll dip into the loan market and see what's available in January.

 

[Conker]

Oates hasn’t got a good record at this level and it’s not even like he’s smashed in 25+ goals in the league below last season like in years gone by (Connell and Amond did for us and didn’t get really get past League 2 standard), it hardly seems worth the tears and money.

Agreed, he’s far from a guaranteed starter at Mansfield too, got to compete with players proven at a better level with better records.

 

[Simpo]

He impressed fans in their friendly, but Middlesbrough have decided against signing Dylan Bahamboula, who will now feature for Latics in our friendly against Wigan tomorrow.

 

[GTFCfish]

Oi! Stop hobnobbing! We've got a lot of Mickey Mouse stuff to talk about with the other pubs teams, get your sorry arse back here!

Sorry Dad.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Pools sign midfielder Martin Smith ex Swindon, Salford and Chesterfield, know very little about him.

 

[Indian Dan]

Don’t get your hopes up!

 

[Chief Rocka]

We have our midfield three already so he looks like a squad player signing to me.

 

[Conker]

Sorry Grimsby fans, Rollin Menayese has gone on loan to Walsall untill the end of the season, no Menayese - Hewitt partnership at the Mill.

 

[Gladders]

Sorry Grimsby fans, Rollin Menayese has gone on loan to Walsall untill the end of the season, no Menayese - Hewitt partnership at the Mill.

Should be sorry Mansfield fans, your loss not ours!

 

[pontoonlew]

Sorry Grimsby fans, Rollin Menayese has gone on loan to Walsall untill the end of the season, no Menayese - Hewitt partnership at the Mill.

Don’t listen to most of the Mansfield reviews, Walsall fans, he’s very very good

 

[Chief Rocka]

We're just raiding the NL here, signed Neill Byrne from Halifax on one of those undisclosed jobby deals.

 

[saddler78]

Centre back is he? seems a reasonable signing.

Don’t listen to most of the Mansfield reviews, Walsall fans, he’s very very good

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