Fans must be patient as new era is set to begin at Port Vale
Rob Fielding argues that fans need to be patient with the new regime at Port Vale and not expect instant success.
Rob Fielding writes…
There’s a fairly common theme with the downfall of recent owners at Vale Park in recent decades. The owners’ exit has generally been shortly after a majority of the fans declared themselves dissatisfied with their regime. It’s true that a football club reliant on fans to turn up, spend money and support the team cannot remain solvent if fans become disenchanted.
There are surely plenty of positives to come out of the takeover by Carol and Kevin Shanahan. The pair are local owners, who are clearly both approachable and accountable. They have a fine record of community initiatives – and will surely work hard to cement closer ties between the club and the local community.
With that in mind, I would hope the fans would back the new owners, give them time and not turn against them. However, there’s one factor that the new owners can’t control and that is unreasonable expectations from the fanbase. There’s appears to be no middle ground for some supporters – it’s either doom and gloom or instant success. However, it’s such early days in the Shanahan era that it’s surely unrealistic to expect them to turn around the club instantaneously. They need time to mould the club in the way they want to see it.
One of the things which has pleased me is that the Shanahans have tried over the years to buy the club and clearly see this as a long-term relationship. With that in mind, why is it so important to some fans that the club runs before it walks? There’s an awful lot to fix and I’d be happy with continuity, gradual process and long-term plans.
It’s going to be a tough division for Vale to climb out of. The likes of Plymouth Argyle and Bradford City have invested heavily while even newcomers Salford have deep pockets. Want to check out the latest League Two odds? Find apps for betting on football at bettingapps.org and you can stick a bet on today.
After all, what happened the last time Vale tried a shortcut to success? Remember the summer of 2016 when Rob Page’s experienced squad was ripped apart in favour of the ridiculous Ribeiro “revolution”? How did that one turn out? Would it not have been better to stuck with the long game and backed Page to progress over the next couple of seasons instead?
Football has such a rapid turnover that many managers have next to no time to bring across their ideas, their style and (most importantly) their own players. I feel that the best approach from the Valiants is to buck that trend. Give manager John Askey more than a single transfer window to bring in his players, give him a chance to mould the club over a couple of years and see where that takes us. If you take a look back at the three local clubs then success has been achieved by them when there has been stable ownership keeping faith with a manager (Rudge, Pulis or Gradi) over a number of years and allowed them to build a brand of football for the club. All three had troughs as well as peaks and it took time so the key is a degree of patience from the fans.
I hope the fans do keep the faith. We’ve had more than enough turmoil at this club over recent years, so here’s for a period of slow but steady rebuilding.