Stickied League 2 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2023/24

[mtfc26]

If Curle sticks to his plan you'll be fine if he loses faith and the plot it can all unravel very quickly hopefully for you guys he's learned this lesson.

 

[daviejones]

Tom Miller is an interesting one. In the 30-odd games he played for us he was nothing more than a competent Conference-standard defender. The most memorable thing about him was his long throw and the online death threats he received from South Korea when he broke Lee Chung-Yong's leg in a friendly we played against Bolton. We had to close down the club site and messageboard due to a tsunami of online hatred. It was pretty nasty.

Oh shit I hadn't realised it was him that broke his leg - rest of my family are big Bolton fans and have always hated you for it but I don't think they ever knew the player's name. I've seen the tackle and it was horrendous to be fair.

 

[hellogregory]

Personally, I don't think we'll be anywhere near relegation next season, but it all depends on the players Curle brings in. The prime reason we were down the bottom all season was because of Kavanagh's terrible management, and most of the players he brought in were useless. I have much more faith in Curle to put together a solid squad, and aim for at least midtable.

That's the problem, we're still stuck with a lot of them, and on high wages too.

I can see us struggling again to be honest, we may not go down but I think we'll be knocking about in the relegation thread for most of next season again.

Hopefully Curle's new signings will strengthen us, but I can't see them strengthening us so much that we're all of a sudden a top 10 side.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

My own personal view is we'll be bottom 5 again, with a risk of relegation, but now we've decided to keep Curle (A mistake in my view) I do not want us now to sack our manager until next summer, even if that means possible relegation.

He may sign the correct players, but he'll have dropped half of them come mis August, changed formation 6 times by September and isolated half the squad by October.............you don't push forward with these problems.

Unless of course he personally learnt from his own glaring errors last year.

 

[mtfc26]

Ah worryingly familiar that BigDave so he's not learned his lesson from many years ago.

 

[RavenBish]

Interesting concept.

A few of the Notts players that played on the final day should be fine in League Two. Just not the defenders. None of them.

Adams and Hollis will be fine. I'd make Hollis the new captain personally and Adams would probably be the best left-back in League 2 or up with the best at least but rumour has it that Moniz sees him as more of a winger (He played there twice and did really well tbf but 'if it aint broke...').

We kept a clean sheet for 88 minutes anyway, Carroll for me was most at fault with the goal because he should be taking anything lofted from a distance that close to his goal and then they were just in shock after that, the final 2 goals didn't really matter, you could see the whole team's heads had gone.

 

[hellogregory]

Dave is exaggerating slightly. Curle didn't use anywhere near as many players as previous managers did. The players that were isolated were clearly not in his plans pretty much from day one, some of them have gone now and others are on the transfer list. Paynter and co are lazy bastards though, so have been rightly told to do one.

There wasn't really an awful lot of formation changes during Curle's time. The main one, was the change to 5 at the back which triggered the upturn in form that saved our skins last seAson.

 

[hellogregory]

Ahh, I remember this time last year thinking our players were going to be the best in League 2.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

he changed formation nearly 20 plus times in the last half of the season. never played the same team ever, fell out with numerous players and once we finally found a formation and team which suited us he gave it an almighty 2 games then ditched it and changed team/formation again.

but I will give him grace that it could be last seasons problems forced that.............but we'll soon know by October.

 

[daviejones]

I think it almost certainly was a case of most of what he did being forced. The players were never really good enough and, apart from the Brough/Grainger situation, I don't think there was many times when i've thought a player really deserved to be in the team and wasn't.

 

[RavenBish]

A few of ours genuinely will be (this is coming from last season's resident pessimist in League 1, who loved nothing more than finding an excuse to abuse our own players) - Carroll, Spencer and Curtis Thompson were all very good at League 1 level. Blair Adams had a good season despite being in a bad team and often having no protection on the left side and Liam Noble was very good too (Carlisle fans may quaff at that suggestion but he doesn't seem anything like the player described to us when we signed him - not suggesting he'll be anywhere near the best midfielder in the division but he's a good player nonetheless).

I'm not going to pretend we've got a great side, it's League 2 but we still won't get away with only having 4/5 players I don't despise...but those 4 or 5 players in my opinion have never shown anything other than being good-very good League 1 players so I don't think it's wrong to assume in League 2 they'll rank very highly.

and I'm someone who doesn't just think average players dropping down will 'be good in League 2 though' - hence the reasons I don't want to keep the likes of Jones, Garry Thompson and Bajner. Just because it's League 2 doesn't mean Bajner's going to suddenly win headers or Jones' passing is going to be any better than absolute chuffing wank.

 

[dedwardp]

We've signed Sean Clohessy from Colchester and Sammy Moore from Wimbledon.

Sad times for us that these are the sort of signings we now have to make.

But this is where we are, Moore is ok for this level and Clohessy did ok for Southend.

Clohessy was a poor full back with a woeful attitude. Guessing he will be average to ok in League Two though as you say, but whether you can afford having the wrong attitudes in your current predicament is more debatable.

 

[Habbinalan]

That's the problem, we're still stuck with a lot of them, and on high wages too.

I can see us struggling again to be honest, we may not go down but I think we'll be knocking about in the relegation thread for most of next season again.

Hopefully Curle's new signings will strengthen us, but I can't see them strengthening us so much that we're all of a sudden a top 10 side.

Shouldn't you be in pre-season training for the positive vibes HG?

 

[Youpies]

Agree with RB here. Jones, Bajner, Thompson can all go to the next sucker. They're crap and don't deserve to be in the league. There's a good player in Bajner if he was stronger. He also makes terrible decions which I don't know if you can coach out of some players... especially since he's worked with some of the best coaches in his Dortmund days

I think the spine will be fine, with a few good additions I'd expect us to be at the higher reaches, even if we don't quite challnge for promotion / play offs. There are decent players in that squad. A key thing will also be getting Notts into a winning mentality. Something we haven't had for a while

 

[daviejones]

To be honest I was never really of the opinion that we'd do really well when we came down. We didn't have any stand-out players from what I remember, and our best players this season have all been first-year professionals or transfers. I don't remember coming down thinking 'he'll be really good in League 2' or anything like that - I wanted everyone to go and for us to have a fresh start. If you think you've got players who'll do well in this league then they probably will; it's a pretty dire league. The drop in quality is very noticeable compared to League 1 when we were getting spankings at Wolves instead of at Cambridge.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

The resentment from afew Carlisle fans to Noble Ravenbish was simply down to the fact Thirlwell, berrett and Noble usually were Abbott's goldenboys who seemed to be unable to do no wrong (thirlwell/Berrett moreso) and would get constantly picked regardless even as they got poorer, and poorer, and poorer.

am I at all surprised Berrett and Noble were relegated from L1 last season...............nope. But I think either can do well in a winning side, both have talent, but were just dragged down by poor form, crap morale, poor side about them etc, etc.

 

[daviejones]

I don't think any of our fans ever thought Noble was any good, and anyone who said to keep him was probably just saying it in a 'better the devil you know' sort of way and assuming he would be alright in League 2. He was always going to end up with you when he left us because he was one of Abbott's bum boys, and it was pretty much a guarantee that anyone who signed him as a starter would be relegated. Headless chicken springs to mind if I was to describe his game in a sentence.

 

[RavenBish]

With the greatest respect, that's laughable and why I said a while ago that you must have had a different player. He's a very good player technically with a great passing range and was at his best when he was allowed to play in a more advanced role with the likes of CT and Jones behind him. He's got a good shot on him, enough mobility to play box-to-box - his only real flaw as a footballer is the fact he's a bit gung-ho in the way he presses the ball, goes in for tackles and his off-the-ball shoving makes him a bit of a liability. I'd understand the general idea that he wasn't good for you and was for us because that happens with loads of players but the way he was described by Carlisle fans is absurd - it's akin to someone signing Bajner and me telling them he's a nippy little poacher.

'anyone who signed him as a starter would be relegated'

With Noble - 14 wins, 7 draws, 13 losses - 41% win rate
Without Noble - 1 win, 8 draws, 10 losses - 5% win rate

That's not a coincidence. He was our best outfield player for the first 3/4 months where we were a top 6 side and he made a huge difference when he served his 5 match suspension and was put back into the side by Moniz (I don't think they're 'bum boys').

 

[LongEatonPie]

Only a small matter but can we change the thread title or better still start a new one?

 

[Vanni]

Shouldn't you be in pre-season training for the positive vibes HG?

But, in defence of HG, pre-season's the hardest part of training, so it may well take at least a couple of weeks for him to be fully fit, and ready for action

 

[Brooksy]

We've signed Alex Rodman who played for Gateshead last season. Apparently Butcher was lining up a deal to take Rodman to Hibs but he was sacked before the deal took place. Butcher's obviously cherry picking a team from the Conference. It worked with Inverness ... I think we will have an interesting season.

 

[WH_Stag]

We've signed Alex Rodman who played for Gateshead last season. Apparently Butcher was lining up a deal to take Rodman to Hibs but he was sacked before the deal took place. Butcher's obviously cherry picking a team from the Conference. It worked with Inverness ... I think we will have an interesting season.

Newport will struggle

 

[Kenneth E End]

According to someone on Twitter from "The Agency", Birmingham City have signed Andre Gray from Brentford.

Brentford were open to offers, so if this true, will be interesting to see how much. Hopefully another £1/2-£3/4m into our coffers.

I'm inclined to think its bullshit.

 

[Judge Dredd]

According to someone on Twitter from "The Agency", Birmingham City have signed Andre Gray from Brentford.

Brentford were open to offers, so if this true, will be interesting to see how much. Hopefully another £1/2-£3/4m into our coffers.

I'm inclined to think its bullshit.

Just look at his other tweets FFS. He's a spoof account.

Unless you think Dimitar Berbatov and Joel Campbell have actually signed for Leeds in the past 24 hours?

I swear twitter is one of the worst things to ever happen to humanity.

 

[hellogregory]

With the greatest respect, that's laughable and why I said a while ago that you must have had a different player. He's a very good player technically with a great passing range and was at his best when he was allowed to play in a more advanced role with the likes of CT and Jones behind him. He's got a good shot on him, enough mobility to play box-to-box - his only real flaw as a footballer is the fact he's a bit gung-ho in the way he presses the ball, goes in for tackles and his off-the-ball shoving makes him a bit of a liability. I'd understand the general idea that he wasn't good for you and was for us because that happens with loads of players but the way he was described by Carlisle fans is absurd - it's akin to someone signing Bajner and me telling them he's a nippy little poacher.

'anyone who signed him as a starter would be relegated'

With Noble - 14 wins, 7 draws, 13 losses - 41% win rate
Without Noble - 1 win, 8 draws, 10 losses - 5% win rate

That's not a coincidence. He was our best outfield player for the first 3/4 months where we were a top 6 side and he made a huge difference when he served his 5 match suspension and was put back into the side by Moniz (I don't think they're 'bum boys').

He does have a good shot on him, and he can pass a ball well when given time and space. I think I remember saying this to notts fans when you signed him. He was actually pretty decent when we were a top 8 league 1 side, it was when the team started struggling, he started struggling big style. For us it was his positional sense that was poor, he'd run like a headless chicken chasing absolutely everything with no hope of getting the ball, he'd even try hurling abuse to put off his opponents in an attempt to get them to give the ball away. He started giving the ball away far too often as well, trying to play Pirlo passes when he's simply not capable of it. When he kept things simple he was good (first year and a half), then once he started to believe his own hype and think he was league one's midfield maestro, he turned to shit for us. I wasn't sad to see him released.

 

[Sestonpoolie]

Newport, York, Carlise, Hartlepool, Crawley, Accrington, Morecambe (And plymouth are looking in a bit of a mess...) Id pick any two of those.

No way will Pools be near the bottom.Moore had a decent points return with an absolute dogshit team,now with deadwood gone & some decent players brought in i can see us having a good season.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

No way will Pools be near the bottom.Moore had a decent points return with an absolute dogshit team,now with deadwood gone & some decent players brought in i can see us having a good season.

Nah.

 

[hellogregory]

No way will Pools be near the bottom.Moore had a decent points return with an absolute dogshit team,now with deadwood gone & some decent players brought in i can see us having a good season.

You could have saved time by simply typing "Rakish Bingham".

You're right, with him up front you've absolutely no chance of being anywhere near the bottom.

 

[daviejones]

No way will Pools be near the bottom.Moore had a decent points return with an absolute dogshit team,now with deadwood gone & some decent players brought in i can see us having a good season.

Fucking hell, another fan misplacing belief in his team. You finished 22nd last season - there is definitely a good chance of you fighting relegation again next season.

I can't see Plymouth worrying about relegation too much, apart from that I wouldn't disagree with any of the teams listed there (assuming you also meant to include Mansfield that is).

 

[TommoCUFC]

No way will Pools be near the bottom.Moore had a decent points return with an absolute dogshit team,now with deadwood gone & some decent players brought in i can see us having a good season.

Not sure Hartlepool have signed that much quality really. Magnay was decent in the conference but that's about it, other than that just really average players. 15-24th