Norman Smurthwaite puts Port Vale up for sale

Owner Norman Smurthwaite says that the club is “officially” up for sale but is at pains to point out that “it’s not a distress sale.”Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke, Smurthwaite commented: “I just feel I’ve let the club down because I’ve tried to do everything myself, which meant cutting costs to put every available penny onto the pitch.

I’m not going to take the first guy that’s got the cheque. They’ve got to tick a lot of boxes for me…

“Clearly that must be wrong because yesterday, if the players had put the same amount of effort into playing as I do to finding the way to pay them every month, we’d have knocked that club for six.”

“As things stand, it’s not a ‘distress sale’. The club isn’t going to go bust.

“Having three years of nurturing this, I’m not going to take the first guy that’s got the cheque. They’ve got to tick a lot of boxes for me.”