Mitch Rose

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I'm sure he'll sleep better tonight with that ringing endorsement.

Quoted from mariner91

"Mitch Rose is a good player mate. Was player of the season until november, He got injured and fell out of favour.... Went on loan to Newport and did well for them too. Most Stags fans wanted to keep him but Evans never gave him a chance
He was Murray's player and when he left and Evans came in I don't think he played once. Versatile, strong, quick. Can play wing back or centre mid"

This is the assessment of a friend of mine who watches every Mansfield home game. Decent player himself so I'm willing to trust his judgement. Strong and quick sounds like what we're missing, anyone who saw the shambolic display at Barnet would testify to that.

Hes young as well which is a big bonus.I know some youngsters have got something about them but may not have the mental discipline to produce it on a consistent basis.Hope Slade can get the best out of him.

So is he a replacement for Andrew or will he run all over the pitch picking up second balls, which is very high on Slade's list of priorities. Not Osbourne's strength; will be interesting to see what happens with him.

So is he a replacement for Andrew or will he run all over the pitch picking up second balls, which is very high on Slade's list of priorities? Not Osbourne's strength; will be interesting to see what happens with him.

Quoted from Chris Packit

So is he a replacement for Andrew or will he run all over the pitch picking up second balls, which is very high on Slade's list of priorities. Not Osbourne's strength; will be interesting to see what happens with him.

My guess is that he's coming to play midfield as he was described on the OS as a "box to box midfielder". Like you said, picking up second balls is very high up Slade's list of priorities and it's an area we were poor in for most of last season. Either way, we need an injection of pace and strength throughout the squad but particularly in the spine where we were seriously lacking (no quick CB's, no quick CM's and only one quick striker who was mostly injured).

I also think we'll only ever see one out of Clements or Osborne playing in a midfield three. Neither are particularly athletic but both are decent on the ball. Perhaps Clements would get the nod in difficult away games because he gets stuck in a bit more but he isn't as creative as Osborne who might start in games where we're looking to take the play to the opposition.

Quoted from Garth

[quote=170]

Newports form since January when rose signed and they got their new manager was that of a play off team. But hey let's not let facts get in the way of blind prejudice

Hmm  your facts are a bit squiffed, he was signed short term like Gunning as a fill in for the regular player who was injured, once Labadie was fit he wasn't going to play any more and did not.

Aaah, but if you read my post carefully I don't actually ascribe this change in fortune to rose being played.the context was that a poster had said because he played for Newport and they were rubbish, therefore any Newport player was rubbish.i merely pointed out that it was very much a tale of 2 parts to the season and that for the time rose played for them they were in play off form,which rather nullifies his argument

Quoted from forza ivano

Aaah, but if you read my post carefully I don't actually ascribe this change in fortune to rose being played.the context was that a poster had said because he played for Newport and they were rubbish, therefore any Newport player was rubbish.

Not rubbish Forza just I felt initially below par for a club such as ours given he had been released.Even if we are in the lower reaches of the league system we still have a good history to be proud of with a good fan base.

Anyone that plays football be it the prem down to the conference North and even beyond deserves respect.All relative though

I read that before sigining for Mansfield Town, he previously played right-back and centre-back as well as his favoured centre midfield position.

A Mansfield fan on the 'one football forum' said: "When he first came here he looked a class above, real tough tackling intelligent midfielder that could also play a bit. Murray was too scared to play him in a middle two because he was a young lad and always had him play in front of the back four OR at right back which wasn't his position and he lost his place in the team a lot. I hope he does well at Grimsby because I really liked him, he can hit a ball too and was so so close to scoring some right screamers. Evans got rid of him at Rotherham thats why we had him, then he got rid of him again."

Rightly or wrongly, the negativity on here is at least understandable. Most of us know relatively little about the vast majority of players at this level, so it's only natural that people go on a player's recent career history and the general sentiment of fans of his last club or two.

As a general rule, I think it's noticeable that our better signings in recent times have been either players signed from a lower division for a fee, or dropping down from a league or two above.

Players moving up - McKeown, Pearson, Hearn, Bogle, Mills, Osborne, Jones
Those who came down - Connell, Disley, Neilson, Lennie (contentious, maybe), Amond, Townsend, Andrew, Collins

That lot would make a pretty good team at the peak of their powers.

That's not to say there haven't been decent players signed from within our own division, Gowling and Magnay spring to mind, plus the odd wildcard like Nolan, but there don't seem to be as many that stand out.

It seems logical to me - if you're not shelling out a fee for up and coming talent or signing a player who is used to playing at a higher level, the likelihood is you're signing someone who hasn't been 'all that' in our own division as I suspect we lack the financial clout to be signing top performing League Two players.

All that said, Rose is young, appears to have good pedigree and I've got a lot more confidence in our existing management team not only as judges of ability, but also in their own abilities to develop players, than I had in the previous regime. Time will tell.

Bit of a stretch, but I'd quite like to see Slade sign Derby's George Thorne. A useful central midfielder.

Play Mitch wide on the right, Ahkeem on the left and put Thorne in between two Roses for a change.