Lack of class – Halifax Town criticise Port Vale over Jesse Debrah comments

FC Halifax Town manager Chris Millington says that Port Vale have “cheapened the whole process with some of the things they said” as the National League side hit out at comments by Director of Football David Flitcroft following the signing of Jesse Debrah.

The Valiants announced the signing of the former FC Halifax Town player earlier this week and in the statement Flitcroft said “Jesse has been assessed for a number of weeks after a poor rehabilitation programme, but our medical team has worked tirelessly to improve and develop all of Jesse’s physical metrics and a huge thank you to them for getting us to this position to make this signing happen.”

I felt that was really poor and maybe there’s an agenda behind that type of announcement. I thought it showed a bit of a lack of class if I’m honest…

Those remarks have clearly riled Millington who told the Halifax Courier: “I felt that was really poor and maybe there’s an agenda behind that type of announcement. I thought it showed a bit of a lack of class if I’m honest but what I can tell you is that, out of all of our squad, there’s only one player who isn’t in full training at the moment and that’s Festus Arthur, who’s had a ruptured Achilles and he’s months ahead of schedule.

“Aaron Scholes, who runs our physio department and does all of our player injuries and rehab is doing an outstanding job and I think it was a real poor way to push a political agenda.

“Listen, we’ve got no control over how other clubs behave but that’s certainly not something we would do.”

Millington added that he was delighted that Debrah had moved to League One adding: “I’m over the moon for him because he deserves every success. You couldn’t meet a better person, he’s fantastic.

“It’s tinged with a slight bit of disappointment because I think Port Vale have cheapened the whole process with some of the things they’ve said in public, completely unnecessary, and I’d argue in many respects untrue.

“So I’m disappointed with the way they’ve handled it but I’m absolutely delighted for Jesse that he’s got the opportunity and hopefully he’ll quickly be in the team.”