Stickied League 2 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2023/24

[The_Boss]

No names for trialists (6 of them), apparently they are tall. The people listed (8 or 9) are mostly people you'd expect/be happy to see go. Not sure if them being on trial means they are without a club at the moment or not.

Not giving any names out SSS?

DM me!!

 

[SF_]

Is CJ Hamilton rated down here?

 

[Hurrikeen]

I'd honestly sell for £500k and a sell-on. I think his ceiling for improvement might be too low to be worth much more. We got about that much for James Tarkowski, and I knew he was destined for the top. George is good and will have a good career, but he's not at that level.

Difference being we had Corney in charge at the time who would have sold his daughter to the first bidder. Tarky should have fetched us miles more than £500k.

The way the market is at the moment, I would honestly be pissed at anything less than £1m (or absolute worst £750k plus add-ons).

 

[Hurrikeen]

Another member of the French Foreign Legion coming in - Mo Sylla. A powerhouse midfielder by all accounts.

TBH, our owner's previous European recruits are starting to show what their about now. Maouche & Missilou have been excellent in midfield recently (with the exception of the Bloodbath at Brunton) and Nepomuceno is up with those with the most assists in the division.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Is CJ Hamilton rated down here?

If he continues his form and we go up then every chance he could be the first player we sell for £1mil. Absolutely no chance of Radford selling him this month unless the offer is too good to turn down. He’s desperate for promotion this season.

 

[KeithH]

Is CJ Hamilton rated down here?

Yes

 

[AdamStag]

If he continues his form and we go up then every chance he could be the first player we sell for £1mil. Absolutely no chance of Radford selling him this month unless the offer is too good to turn down. He’s desperate for promotion this season.

It would be a real blow to us really both for player and fan morale, he’s got what we need to go up, taking him out of the eqution would be a real problem.

He can afford £750k lol

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Rumour has it from Scunthorpe that we're set to sign Tony McMahon (a player they've been looking at) from Oxford tomorrow in time for our game at Morecambe.

As he can play at RB and CDM, not only is he cover for Paul Green, he'll also be cover for Perry Ng which means we'll be sending Corey Whelan back to Liverpool along with Kevin O'Connor to Preston. Whelan was decent cover but was horribly exposed against Bury on NYD whereas O'Connor has been one of the worst signings we've made since we were relegated back to this level in 2016. So I think this is a good signing on our part, especially considering he's played the bulk of his career in the Championship and League One.

I assume McMahon's signing will be permanent as opposed to a loan which will allow us to move Brad Walker on to Wrexham. I've heard Michael Raynes may also be leaving the club permanently to Salford. Hopefully this frees up wages for an attacking player or two with pace. We've been after Callum Cooke (a previous loanee) from Peterborough on loan but may hit a stumbling block with his wages. But signing McMahon is definitely a step in the right direction for us if it's true!

 

[Si Robin]

Former Cheltenham youth player, Cameron Pring, is set to sign on loan from Bristol City.

Left-sided defender, was at Newport for the first half of the season.

 

[Hamez]

Is CJ Hamilton rated down here?

No, and don’t come back.

 

[Conker]

£750,000 rejected for CJ Hamilton.

 

[Enzo Scifo's Right Foot]

£750K is a large sum at this level. I can only dream of Notts having a player worth a £750K transfer fee. It’s my biggest criticism of the club over the past couple of decades is the lack of money made selling players, lack of youngsters produced to either a) play regularly in the first team or b) sell for big money to a big boy club

We have produced next to nothing worth any amount of cash for nearly as long as I can remember (I’m talking mid 90s)

 

[Stringy]

If that's the starting bid I'd be very surprised if he's here by the end of the window.

 

[Conker]

Yeah when it gets the seven figure mark it’s going to be hard to for JR not to sell.

I doubt Hamilton would force anything this month, if anything he likely wants to achieve promotion here before a move.

 

[Stringy]

Is he ready yet? The worst thing for his development right now would be to sit warming a Championship bench, but suppose the money talks.

 

[Gladders]

I doubt Hamilton would force anything this month, if anything he likely wants to achieve promotion here before a move.

Then he needs a better advisor, he's a football player, if he's offered the chance of championship wages now or wait 6 months, maybe get a promotion maybe not, maybe get another offer maybe not, maybe get injured and never play again or any of the hundreds of other things that could happen between now and then.

He'd be a fool to not want championship wages over staying at a lge 2 side with a chance of promotion.

 

[Enzo Scifo's Right Foot]

I’m not sure modern footballers are particularly bothered whether they have a League Two promotion on their CV or not . As Stringy says money talks especially to a young footballer

 

[Conker]

Then he needs a better advisor, he's a football player, if he's offered the chance of championship wages now or wait 6 months, maybe get a promotion maybe not, maybe get another offer maybe not, maybe get injured and never play again or any of the hundreds of other things that could happen between now and then.

He'd be a fool to not want championship wages over staying at a lge 2 side with a chance of promotion.

Yeah well that’s because you are looking at from one side like a drongo.

How many players go up to the Championship too early, don’t play enough, stunt the progress of their career? LOADS. He’s still going to get the opportunity if he stays, and he’s enjoying his football still earning a couple of grand a week all the while playing the best football of his career.

Maybe a loan back is a option but we are only allowed one more I think, either way it’s highly likely he will not get enough game time at Preston, playing is the most important aspect of a career.

 

[Son of Cod]

Yeah well that’s because you are looking at from one side like a drongo.

How many players go up to the Championship too early, don’t play enough, stunt the progress of their career? LOADS. He’s still going to get the opportunity if he stays, and he’s enjoying his football still earning a couple of grand a week all the while playing the best football of his career.

Maybe a loan back is a option, but either way it’s highly likely he will not get enough game time at Preston, playing is the most important aspect of a career.

I'd love to see some stats on how the careers of players who...

a) stayed at their L2 club in the Jan window amidst speculation and won promotion
b) stayed at their L2 club in the Jan window amidst speculation and didn't win promotion
c) transferred to a L1 club in January
d) transferred to a Championship club in January

...panned out.

 

[Luke Imp]

We had the same with Raggett.

When Raggett and Woodyard were attracting interest at the beginning of last season, Cowley told them both not to jump too high, too quickly.

Raggett, whose agent is apparently a numpty anyway, went for Norwich and made about two appearances for them before a loan spell at Rotherham via that first half of the season loan with us. Woodyard stayed put another season and is now captain of Peterborough.

It wasn't entirely surprising which paths they chose because Woodyard's been going up one division at a time for years, whereas Raggett's move was off the back of one season in FT football and probably felt as though if he didn't do the move then that it might never happen.

I forget if Scunny were L1 at that time but we sold Jonny Margetts to them who hardly played over his 2½ years there and has dropped back into the NL to get games. Scunny also bought Andrew Boyce off us who also had to fall back in to NL. Luke Waterfall was another that jumped too high, too quickly and ended up back in the NL with Wrexham and then us.

 

[SF_]

Is he ready yet? The worst thing for his development right now would be to sit warming a Championship bench, but suppose the money talks.

Our squad is decimated by injury, a lot of them long term, if we fork out £750k+ for a player then he'll be playing.

 

[Conker]

I'd love to see some stats on how the careers of players who...

a) stayed at their L2 club in the Jan window amidst speculation and won promotion
b) stayed at their L2 club in the Jan window amidst speculation and didn't win promotion
c) transferred to a L1 club in January
d) transferred to a Championship club in January

...panned out.

Unfortunately in the meantime SoC we will just have to think of examples that suit our argument.

Generally speaking though, players stepping straight up to the Championship do not seem to get enough game time, CJ could - and I do understand the money argument but it’s not that easy.

 

[SF_]

Yeah well that’s because you are looking at from one side like a drongo.

How many players go up to the Championship too early, don’t play enough, stunt the progress of their career? LOADS. He’s still going to get the opportunity if he stays, and he’s enjoying his football still earning a couple of grand a week all the while playing the best football of his career.

Maybe a loan back is a option but we are only allowed one more I think, either way it’s highly likely he will not get enough game time at Preston, playing is the most important aspect of a career.

As above.

We certainly give lower league players a chance.

Barkhuizen (Morecambe), Ledson (Oxford), Storey (Exeter), Hughes (Peterborough), Burke (Shamrock) all in the team presently.

 

[valefan16]

We kept Tom Pope in our promotion season, rumours he turned down Millwall for one when he was scoring 33 goals that season but a) we offered him £4k a week to stay and b) he is a die hard Vale fan so had that loyalty.

Will be a big test of Mansfield's resolve to keep him.

 

[AdamStag]

It's hard to say.

Obviously the Mansfield side of me thinks he should stay, carry on his development hopefully achieve promotion and see what happens in the summer - the impartial side to me thinks (like said above) if we're offered 7 figures it's going to he hard for JR to reject it.

That's where it gets tricky - we don't have a back-up player anywhere near the level of CJ (currently) to replace him. Some fans (what would be wrongly in my eyes) would question JR's motives and whether he wants promotion.

Given we're closer to a chance of promotion that we've ever been under JR (in league 2) I can't see him selling willingly - I just can't see it. It's whether CJ's head is turned.

 

[Conker]

Our squad is decimated by injury, a lot of them long term, if we fork out £750k+ for a player then he'll be playing.

That’s fair enough, so it depends if he’s actually good enough for Championship yet (I’d say no due to final product) and also taking in to account that Preston are actually struggling so he might end up stuck at a L1 team where as in the summer he can likely get another Championship club if he’s still at Mansfield.

It’s all ifs, but it’s definitely not a easy decision like some make it out to be.

If he goes for I dunno 10k p/w I understand, but ditto if he decides to stay.

One aspect we need to remember is our immensely rich Chairman so it will ultimately boil down to CJ saying he wants to go or JR thinking it’s too much money for the club to turn down.

 

[AdamStag]

It's hard to say.

Obviously the Mansfield side of me thinks he should stay, carry on his development hopefully achieve promotion and see what happens in the summer - the impartial side to me thinks (like said above) if we're offered 7 figures it's going to he hard for JR to reject it.

That's where it gets tricky - we don't have a back-up player anywhere near the level of CJ (currently) to replace him. Some fans (what would be wrongly in my eyes) would question JR's motives and whether he wants promotion. If it gets to daft money say £1.25m and a 20% sell on clause (not going to happen) then maybe he will let him go.

Given we're closer to a chance of promotion that we've ever been under JR (in league 2) I can't see him selling willingly - I just can't see it. It's whether CJ's head is turned.

 

[SF_]

That’s fair enough, so it depends if he’s actually good enough for Championship yet (I’d say no due to final product) and also taking in to account that Preston are actually struggling so he might end up stuck at a L1 team where as in the summer he can likely get another Championship club if he’s still at Mansfield.

It’s all ifs, but it’s definitely not a easy decision like some make it out to be.

If he goes for I dunno 10k p/w I understand, but ditto if he decides to stay.

One aspect we need to remember is our immensely rich Chairman so it will ultimately boil down to CJ saying he wants to go or JR thinking it’s too much money for the club to turn down.

Aye, that's all fair enough but the guy is 24 in March, only takes one injury and a failed promotion bid and he's a League Two player who might not get another shot at the Championship.

We wouldn't be paying him £10k a week I don't think, that's the top end of our pay scale.

But yeah all depends on your chairman's resolve really, we're not exactly free spending, so we might not even up our offer. Could be a similar case to Ryan Ledson when we held firm and waited till the summer.

 

[Son of Cod]

As above.

We certainly give lower league players a chance.

Barkhuizen (Morecambe), Ledson (Oxford), Storey (Exeter), Hughes (Peterborough), Burke (Shamrock) all in the team presently.

Yeah, I think Preston deserve a bit of credit on that front. It's almost like a more expensive/higher level Peterborough model. What's happened to Sean Maguire? Did he ever make it back from his injury?

 

[SF_]

Yeah, I think Preston deserve a bit of credit on that front. It's almost like a more expensive/higher level Peterborough model. What's happened to Sean Maguire? Did he ever make it back from his injury?

His hamstrings are in tatters, class player but he needs to managed, whenever he goes on international duty he gets run into the ground and breaks down again.