Stickied League 2 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2023/24

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Isn't this literally his first proper transfer window as a manager!?!

I know absolutely nothing about Brad Walker, but that seems a crazy thing to say about any manager, let alone Dave Artell after six months of his first job.

He had the January window as well but the signings he's already made in these two windows are completely different to when we had Davis scraping the barrel for crap players every August and every Autumn when the emergency loan window was open. He's shown the door to players who are passengers, revived underachieving careers and completely changed the culture of the club since Davis was here. Astute signings like Michael Raynes, Chris Porter and Jordan Bowery have already proved that and all three have been sold by Artell's vision for the club. Davis clearly didn't have one and as a player, I certainly wouldn't feel inspired by the likes of Steve Davis either.

He's done his homework on players since he took over in January unlike Davis and he's got us scouting all across the North for talent rather than waiting for someone's agent to beg us to sign their players like Davis so often did (Marcus Haber a prime example of that!). He's also not been afraid to bin off all the remaining Davis favourites this Summer as well which has finally put us in a position to actually compete in a league given the daft wages Davis was paying his favourites.

Sure he'll have his faults, but he's a very meticulous manager which is very different to the panic signings we've made over the last few years, especially when we were in League One.

 

[Kenneth E End]

£4.5k a week is batshit mental money for this league. More than double our best paid player and we'll have one of the bigger budgets.

I wouldn't be surprised if Shinnie was costing this from Birmingham.

And I dare say Collins, Stech and McCormack could well be within a grand of that number too.

 

[spireite]

As others have said, it's pretty risky. A serious injury and you've wasted the wages of three or four solid League 2 players on a crock.

The bit about SEB, Evans and Jones is more an indictment of how shit your past recruitment was than anything else.

I understand the Dave Allen point but I'd be pretty unhappy if my club had made a £42k profit last year after recouping £2million in transfer fees, then went and blew nearly a quarter of a million a year on one player.

SEB was definitely bad recruitment, awful. Evans we had for a year and sold for half a mill, so that was shrewd. Jones was a good player for us for a few years, just a waste of a wage since his injury.

We've been unhappy about our finances for the last few years. We have made millions in player sales, been to Wembley a few times, have very successful banqueting side etc and there's, up to now, been no sign of it being re-invested in the squad. This was especially annoying when we had the best squad we ever had in the L1 playoffs, and just an extra bit of cash might have seen us over the line and into the Championship. But how long can you moan about what's happening with money before you just think 'you know what, fuck it'. There's 2 options, we either watch Allen and his bizarre up and down attitude to how he handles the money; or someone else stumps up the £15m+ he wants for the club before he'll sell it. We'll never go into admin whilst Allen's at the club, that's for sure, he won't allow it to happen. A club in L1 is more saleable than club in L2.

It's worth re-iterating again that the £4.5k figure is just someone putting a finger in their mouth and sticking in the air.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Luton Town have just signed Elliot Lee

one more signing then are we done???

Depends who it is I suppose. Pierre would be the only one that Luton would go in for now; supposedly we've been talking to him.

Jones did say that these last two this week would be 'it', but take that with a pinch of salt.

 

[PoolieTom]

He had the January window as well

If Artell has only been your manager since January then he has likely only seen Brad Walker play at Centre Back, as he has been playing there for us since February-ish - and reserves prior to that.

 

[B13EEV]

Depends who it is I suppose. Pierre would be the only one that Luton would go in for now; supposedly we've been talking to him.

Jones did say that these last two this week would be 'it', but take that with a pinch of salt.

I'm expecting one more

we shall see

happy with the signings though, can't wait for season to start now

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

If Artell has only been your manager since January then he has likely only seen Brad Walker play at Centre Back, as he has been playing there for us since February-ish - and reserves prior to that.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Artell signed him to be the CB we need to challenge Ray and Raynes but our local media are adamant he's coming in as a CM.

If he'll cost over £100,000 he'll be our most expensive signing for 9 years. I mean sure we can afford it but it's a risk. I still think it'll be one that'll be worthwhile in time.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Why the hell is Dave Artell not in the Premier League yet?!?!

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Why the hell is Dave Artell not in the Premier League yet?!?!

He's not content with just humiliating Grimsby once, he needs some more practice...

 

[jacobncfc]

He had the January window as well but the signings he's already made in these two windows are completely different to when we had Davis scraping the barrel for crap players every August and every Autumn when the emergency loan window was open. He's shown the door to players who are passengers, revived underachieving careers and completely changed the culture of the club since Davis was here. Astute signings like Michael Raynes, Chris Porter and Jordan Bowery have already proved that and all three have been sold by Artell's vision for the club. Davis clearly didn't have one and as a player, I certainly wouldn't feel inspired by the likes of Steve Davis either.

He's done his homework on players since he took over in January unlike Davis and he's got us scouting all across the North for talent rather than waiting for someone's agent to beg us to sign their players like Davis so often did (Marcus Haber a prime example of that!). He's also not been afraid to bin off all the remaining Davis favourites this Summer as well which has finally put us in a position to actually compete in a league given the daft wages Davis was paying his favourites.

Sure he'll have his faults, but he's a very meticulous manager which is very different to the panic signings we've made over the last few years, especially when we were in League One.

That's all fine, I'd say lots of similar things about Nolan, but I still think it's ridiculous to claim that he isn't capable of making a dud signing.

 

[OneDecentLester]

As Spireite_UK has said, the £4.5k is the rumoured wage posted on our message board... It's not a fact

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

That's all fine, I'd say lots of similar things about Nolan, but I still think it's ridiculous to claim that he isn't capable of making a dud signing.

I'm not disputing he'd sign a dud. Every manager will, even Alex Ferguson did with Bebe, Kleberson and the like. I just can't see him paying a six figure fee when money is tight at our club for someone who would seem to be a certain dud in the eyes of some.

Mind you, Steve Davis once wanted to pay £70,000 to sign Billy Bodin and that was after he was abysmal for us on loan...

 

[Aber gas]

I'm not disputing he'd sign a dud. Every manager will, even Alex Ferguson did with Bebe, Kleberson and the like. I just can't see him paying a six figure fee when money is tight at our club for someone who would seem to be a certain dud in the eyes of some.

Mind you, Steve Davis once wanted to pay £70,000 to sign Billy Bodin and that was after he was abysmal for us on loan...

Would have been a bloody bargain mate.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

As Spireite_UK has said, the £4.5k is the rumoured wage posted on our message board... It's not a fact

Fair enough.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Would have been a bloody bargain mate.

His career has absolutely turned the corner now but Torquay signed him for that money and he didn't do that great there on a permanent basis. Just shows how Darrell Clarke has got the best out of him...

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

Can folks point me in the direction of the website/lady behind the desk/white paper/magic lamp that reveals footballers wages please?

I'm just curious and feel left out by not knowing this stuff.



....copies of wage slips and P60s would be swell.

 

[mtfc26]

Taking my own allegiances out of it and considering all the very valid arguments I still can't make head nor tail of Chesterfields situation.

If Allen is still looking to sell then why is he lumping in money to a certain extent especially on a guy who no doubt will be quality at this level but has a dwindling sell on value.

If he is regaining interest he seems to have blown an awful lot of money, time and supporter faith and surely now will have to spend double that to get back to where you were?

I just can't fathom the logic from either view.

 

[Agombar stool]

Can folks point me in the direction of the website/lady behind the desk/white paper/magic lamp that reveals footballers wages please?

I'm just curious and feel left out by not knowing this stuff.



....copies of wage slips and P60s would be swell.

At a previous employer which dealt with pensions, I was once bored and started looking at famous people in the system. One of those was Alexander Hleb who was playing for Arsenal at the time and he had provided his contract as proof of earning. Needless to say his contract was a minefield of information so its not surprising that deals take so long to conclude.

I think his basic salary was 60k FWIW.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Brad Walker signed for an undisclosed fee from Hartlepool on a 2 year deal. Doubt we've paid a six figure fee for his services else we'd have probably given him a 3 year deal like we gave Brad Inman when we signed him for £100,000 4 years ago.

 

[cufc17]

Tom Parkes signs on a two-year deal.

Brisley, Ellis, Liddle and Parkes our central defenders, got a bad feeling that'll be it. Slow defence as usual.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Depends who it is I suppose. Pierre would be the only one that Luton would go in for now; supposedly we've been talking to him.

Jones did say that these last two this week would be 'it', but take that with a pinch of salt.

Still would like another, proper central midfield player doesn't look like we will get it but still. If we got Pierre(and WSV on outlaws seems pretty unequivocal that we wont but we can all hope i guess!) we would have an incredibly strong squad.

To be honest even without either, there really aren't many excuses if we aren't right up there challenging.

 

[GTFCfish]

Can folks point me in the direction of the website/lady behind the desk/white paper/magic lamp that reveals footballers wages please?

This guy is an expert on wages/bonuses/expenses*

*delete as applicable

And here he is explaining just how much tax he avoided paying:

The lovable rogue.......

 

[spireite]

Taking my own allegiances out of it and considering all the very valid arguments I still can't make head nor tail of Chesterfields situation.

If Allen is still looking to sell then why is he lumping in money to a certain extent especially on a guy who no doubt will be quality at this level but has a dwindling sell on value.

To be fair, he could just be using the money we got for Ched Evans and Jon Nolan and not using his own money at all, who knows.

If he is regaining interest he seems to have blown an awful lot of money, time and supporter faith and surely now will have to spend double that to get back to where you were?

I just can't fathom the logic from either view.

Who knows what's happening in his mind tbh. He probably felt he had to do something to get supporters back in as a hell of a lot have boycotted and are not buying season tickets. The less we make, the more he has to pump in to subsidise. Maybe it's that. No matter what's going on off the pitch, fans will always turn up to watch a side that's winning

 

[mowgli]

Any more speculation on Pierre?

Seems he wants to play in a League 1 or Championship team after advice from his agent even after we made an improved contract offer. Brian Clough had the right idea in refusing to deal with agents telling them to fuck off,League 2 players having agents shows just how messed up football is right now.

 

[hellogregory]

Tom Parkes signs on a two-year deal.

Brisley, Ellis, Liddle and Parkes our central defenders, got a bad feeling that'll be it. Slow defence as usual.

I look at the second half of last season, the fact we've lost Jabo over the summer, and then our signings this summer and I can honestly only see a relegation scrap for this team. Yes we have some quality in the likes of Adams, Kennedy, Jones etc, but the 2 business ends of the pitch look weak as fuck.

If we were to sign a quality striker I'd maybe change that prediction, but at this stage of the summer I can only see us signing shite that no one else wants.

 

[E10rifle]

Tom Parkes signs on a two-year deal.

Brisley, Ellis, Liddle and Parkes our central defenders, got a bad feeling that'll be it. Slow defence as usual.

Good old Sunday Parkes. He can play a bit, y'know. Scored a wonderful, Beckenbauresque counter-attacking goal against Donny last year. Fucking shit at defending, mind.

 

[WH_Stag]

Tom Parkes signs on a two-year deal.

Brisley, Ellis, Liddle and Parkes our central defenders, got a bad feeling that'll be it. Slow defence as usual.

Parkes isn't very good is he lol, Carlisle will be fighting to stay up

 

[hellogregory]

Parkes isn't very good is he lol, Carlisle will be fighting to stay up

We know we will be in a relegation battle, no need to take the piss you breast.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Seems he wants to play in a League 1 or Championship team after advice from his agent even after we made an improved contract offer. Brian Clough had the right idea in refusing to deal with agents telling them to fuck off,League 2 players having agents shows just how messed up football is right now.

Step 3 players have agents.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I don't really have a problem with agents really as long as they are properly regulated. They are needed for footballers, mostly young lads who have no experience of doing anything other than playing football. You can't expect them to negotiate an employment contract on their own often with people who own clubs who are experienced businessmen. As long as the agent is doing it in good faith on behalf of the player it's fine

Don't think clubs should be paying agents though, that's always struck me as a bit strange and open to abuse.