Vale to continue sensible transfer policy even when deals fall through
With Darrell Clarke leading Port Vale back into League One for the first time in five years having secured a fifth place finish in League Two last season, and then won out through a pretty emotional Play Off Trophy route, our first year back has probably gone a little bit better than most fans had expected.
Heading towards April and the ultimate end of the season, Vale are placed nicely in 15th place with an eleven point gap to the relegation drop zone, and given the form and performances we have seen, fans will be pretty confident that we will do more than enough to consolidate our League One status this year – even if Clarke does not quite manage to match or beat Rob Page’s 12th place finish back in the 2015/16 campaign but you would still probably get decent odds on us doing just that from the likes of GamblingGuy UK Betting sites.
With the end of the season so close, thoughts naturally turn to next year where we will again hopefully show good and steady further improvement in our domestic performances, and director of football David Flitcroft has previously discussed the way the club works when it comes to the transfer market and how deals have to suit both the club and the individual player concerned, as obviously, there is a financial plan in place (and budgets) that have to be met and maximised with one eye on the long term future of Vale.
In more recent days, Clarke himself has spoken about turning down a number of players back in the summer, and January transfer windows, as simply put, the deal was not right for the club and naturally, some of those targets went to those clubs more seriously vying for promotion themselves this year.
He insists however, we will continue to aim high on the calibre of players we are interested in even if few of them ultimately come to fruition.
“It is tough because you want to get the best calibre of player. If you can remember right back to August, we were trying to get the best calibre of players. The majority of our targets in the summer are playing in top-six League One teams this year. So, the recruitment was in the right channel, but we missed out on those players. There are a lot of those that are in the top six of teams that have been in the top six for the majority of the season.”
Clarke went on to add.
“We still have to keep trying to get the right calibre of players. We still have to go for the best we can possibly get and, with that, sometimes you miss out, as we did with a few in the summer because the finances at the top become a big part. But we believe in what we do as a football club and the culture and environment and, with the great backroom team we have got, we can improve players. It is a good place to come and ply their trade. Sometimes players choose different options but we will continue to try to do it the right way.”
Clarke no doubt knows, a strong finish to this season in our first year back may well sway one or two next summer in a way we could not in previous windows.