Port Vale owner says decision to sack Clarke was her “hardest day” since owning club
In a wide ranging interview with the local media, Port Vale co-owner Carol Shanahan has explained the reasons why the club decided to part company with manager Darrell Clarke.
Clarke’s dismissal was greeted with shock and surprise by many fans as he’d guided the club to promotion and there were just four games left in this season.
In any football club the responsibility for performances is down to the manager. That is not a Port Vale thing, it is a general thing, when performances dip it is the manager who ultimately takes that final responsibility…
However, Shanahan said that results and ill-discipline played their part commenting: “It really was a culmination of… if you look at our football and our results began to take a dip, but it was more that, our performances did. If you look at our performances from the Burton match, I have said in press interviews a couple of times that we were almost playing out of character.
“We weren’t the Port Vale that we have all got to know, that unity and ‘togetherness’, a word that has been used a lot for us. That really started to disappear and results dipped. Then at Lincoln, it wasn’t just the cards, it was the overall lack of discipline if you like. So, what we were seeing was something that wasn’t aligned to the Port Vale we knew.”
However, she added that the decision to remove Clarke was hard commenting: “The decision was made on Sunday and I can honestly say Sunday was the hardest day since we bought the club. It was not an easy decision.
“In any football club the responsibility for performances is down to the manager. That is not a Port Vale thing, it is a general thing, when performances dip it is the manager who ultimately takes that final responsibility.”
Shanahan also defended the role of Director of Football David Flitcroft saying: “I know he has come under some flak at the moment. When I reflect, I think we probably haven’t put him out speaking enough so fans haven’t really got to know him and how committed he is to Port Vale and its success. He plays a far more positive role than is being perceived at the moment. He is instrumental in building the success of this club.”
She also reaffirmed the family’s commitment to the club adding: “Is the Shanahan family committed to Port Vale? Yes. Yes, absolutely we are, nothing has changed there. But what we want to do is to grow the club’s means of income so it can live within its means and still be ambitious.”
The full interview
You can read every word of the interview with Carol Shanahan on the Sentinel newspaper website here
Or listen to it on the BBC Radio Stoke special programme through this link