Five of the best: Port Vale players who graduated from the youth team

Rob Fielding selects five Port Vale players who have made their mark after coming through the club’s junior ranks…

Note: I’ve restricted this list to players known to have played for the Port Vale youth team. Several distinguished Vale players of the past joined initially as amateurs or began their careers with local non-league teams. This list contains only players known to have had a youth contract with the club. If I have missed any obvious choices out please let me know via the comments.

Five of the best Port Vale youth team graduates

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Andy Porter

With his youthful looks, Andy Porter always looked like a youngster just introduced to the team. However, his ferocious attitude and will to win belied his youthful appearance. Porter joined Vale as a youngster after being released by Manchester City and made his debut in 1986 at the tender age of 18. Breaking into a team by legendary manager John Rudge was tricky at the best of times but Porter had established himself as a useful squad member by 1989 – often employed in the midfield enforcer role (few will forget how he shackled Man City maverick Georgi Kinkladze, for instance). However, Porter also had an appetite for the big occasion as a famous goal in an FA Cup replay against Stoke City showed. He made more than 400 appearances for the Valiants and picked up a promotion medal and Football League Trophy winners medal as well.

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Nathan Smith

At time of writing, 27 year-old Smith stands in seventeenth place in the club’s all-time appearance charts. However, given his consistency who knows where he’ll stand when he finally brings his career to an end? A member of the Vale youth team he signed his first professional contract in 2014. After a stellar loan spell with Torquay where he was named both the senior and young player of the year he returned to Vale Park in 2016 and was immediately brought into the first-team. He has rarely been out of it since with his consistency being awarded by being named captain in 2023. He now has 358 appearances and one promotion to his name with the Valiants.

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Anthony Gardner

The tall centre-half may not have made as many Vale appearances as others on this list but as a full England International his talent is never in doubt. Standing at a strapping six foot five inches, Gardner signed professional terms in 1998 and was given his first-team debut by John Rudge in 1998 at the tender age of 18. He rapidly became a first-team regular and made forty four appearances for the club before he was snapped up by Tottenham Hotspur for a six figure fee. Gardner went on to have a long career in the Premier League, albeit one disrupted by injuries. But for those injuries he may have added to his solitary England cap.

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Robbie Earle

One of the club’s iconic figures, Earle was handed a youth team contract at Vale Park after being released by neighbours Stoke City. It proved to be a masterstroke as Earle quickly progressed to the first-team. Initially a striker, he was converted to a box-to-box midfielder by John Rudge to great effect. Often in tandem with Ray Walker he was part of the central midfield for many of Vale’s greatest moments – such as the FA Cup wins over Spurs and Everton and promotion in 1989. He won three promotions and played 357 times, scoring 90 times before Wimbledon snapped him up for £775,000. He proved a great servant for the Dons making 350 Premier League appearances and appearing in the World Cup finals for Jamaica.

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Colin Askey

There’s a few contenders for the last place – Russell Bromage and John Ridley amongst them. However, we’re opted for Iron Curtain legend Colin Askey who was originally on the club’s ground staff before joining the juniors. He turned down Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers to stay with Vale where he made his debut in 1950. A key member of the legendary Iron Curtain side of 1953-54, which set seven club records, he made 217 appearances for the Valiants, scoring 23 times and winning promotion in 1954.

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