On the fifth anniversary of their purchase of Port Vale FC, owners Carol and Kevin Shanahan chatted with radio presenter James Watt about what they have learned during their time at the club and their hopes for the future.
You’ve seen clubs getting promoted by not just spending money but being very clever and building the club over time. I think that’s what we’ve got to do is really build the club and build it solidly. What’s proven in the last two years is that the first time we hadn’t built it solidly enough – next time we will…
Following the club’s relegation to League Two, the Shanahans are honest about the last season with Carol Shanahan telling Watt that: “It’s been a very tricky two years. We have made some big mistakes. The club as a whole has made mistakes and what we are looking to do are to learn from them. Being really open about it and honest.”
To rectify them, the owners have taken action with Carol adding: “We’ve put some things in place – Darren Moore as manager, Matt Hancock as CEO and letting them do their jobs. So, we’ve taken a little bit of a backstep. Supporting them – we’re not taking a back step from the club – it’s the operational day to day, letting them get on with it.”
Kevin Shanahan commented: “You never do things right first time. Well, I don’t, not in my experience. I think we’re making some good progress now. Obviously we’ve got considerable scars but I feel optimistic about the future.”
Carol reflected: “I wish I’d known then what I know now. We’ve seen a lot of the challenges of football. They all have them it’s not a Port Vale thing. How do we make sure that we bring what we’ve always promised which is success.”
However, the owners are confident that they can turn things around in League Two with Carol saying: “We know where we’re going and we’ve got out of it before. We know what promotion feels like, we like it, we want to feel it again. We know what relegation feels like, we hate it, we never want to feel it again.”
The owners have learnt from other clubs with Carol adding: “You’ve seen clubs getting promoted by not just spending money but being very clever and building the club over time. I think that’s what we’ve got to do is really build the club and build it solidly. What’s proven in the last two years is that the first time we hadn’t built it solidly enough – next time we will.”
Personally, Carol was bruised by last season commenting: “I’ve taken quite a pounding on social media which really hurts. That’s the same for players, for managers, for owners. it’s easy to forget they are people too.”
However, the pair hope to deliver excitement and success for the supporters with Carol closing saying: “I feel for the fans. What I want is to feel excited. It’s making matchdays days we look forward to and enjoy and to do that we need to win matches, and to win matches you need to have the right manager and I believe we have. Keep the faith. We’re not going anywhere.”
Watch the complete interview with the Port Vale owners here
Keep the faith ? The faith went Carol when you decided to back David FAILCROFT with an open letter of support only to sack him weeks later coupled with calling our poor squad car crashing towards league 2 phenomenal players !!!!. The final straw for me was giving Darren Moore a 5 yr contract on the back of being sacked at Huddersfield with a record of 3 wins in 23 games for which our Managers record now stands at 5 wins from his last 40 managerial games. The WORST record for any Manager in the Football League. Keep the faith ? Words are cheap to much corporate nonsense talked and not enough action and results!!!!!!
When we got promoted we had people like Colin Garlick Steve Speed and many others who all were part of the set up that got promotion then suddenly Flitcroft appears and everything changes also we have to move out of the Bycars as well as Tom Pope not even being offered a testimonial so yes you saved the club but then you let us down
Great, very reassuring. I’ll be renewing my season ticket to help the club in my own small way. UTV.
How many times do they keep saying the same thing.
Ok Carol so we go again but nobody buys a car without a steering wheel our in Vales case without any wheels, last season we went nowhere fast, as for you not liking the ribbing you have had on social media, try 60 + years of it, being a Vale fan you get used to it.One thing though(But you will not listen)Darren Moore will do nothing for the Vale, as for me and as from now, I will forget last season and start again with one proviso you bring some seasoned players to Port Vale and don’t skimp on the strikers, I hope I am wrong about Darren Moore, but he does not exactly give me any confidence.UTV, the new PORT VALE starts now.
It’s ground hog day.Remember similar words being said 5 yrs ago.
Only time will tell if things have changed,or is it all flannel yet again.
I will wait and see what the recruitment is like before committing to a new season ticket.
I hope they don’t wait yet again until the end of the window before seeing what’s left that nobody else wants.
Don’t want another season coming away feeling let down after another defeat because the side wasn’t good enough.
Glad they admit they made mistakes.Hopefully we can move forward and get promotion out of league 2 at the first attempt.We all got to stick together next season and hopefully enjoy a great season.
I dont think they have got a clue how to run our club they aint got the best people in recruitment atall the players we got no one else wants at the death of the window
Its clear very much they want to spend any money and do it as cheap as possible
Thats why we have been relagated and giving moore a 5 year deal was barbaric
If ya dont wanna spend on the squad then sell to someone thst does its simple spend or leave and buy as much quality as you can in this league
And not giving tom pope a testimonial was just plain disgusting the guy gave his heart and soul to our club for years hang your heads in shame things like this and flitcroft makes me sick
What’s gone is gone and it the future we all should be looking to. Negativity suits no one just fosters more moans etc.
I sit on the fence for next season,by not renewing my family’s season tickets, Carol you would not listen to the thousands of fans, telling you get rid of flitcroft, , the worst thing you did was to support him in a statement to the fans,,,,,,,it will take a lot for this family to come back , I hope you can prove me wrong by having a good season, I have supported vale for 53 years I’ve seen some good times , but don’t want to see a season like last season,
They are great owners who’ve made mistakes. I’m keeping the faith. Moaning does nobody any good. The club is in an arguably better place than when they came into ownership.it’s not where we wanted to be but let’s move on from here.
Let’s get behind them. To own up to mistakes and be sorry takes balls
UTV
Obviously we all want the best and will support the club. I fear that the manager is a great bloke but not the right manager for League 2. What is his knowledge of League 2 players to sign and play against? I hope he proves me wrong.
Ive been a Vale fan for 65years and im going to enjoy watching the Vale rebuild,learn from mistakes and come back a stonger club.
Im definirely supporting Carol the backroom staff and the players.
Sometimes great people like Carol have to taste the bad times because of her ability to be successful she will suceed and the Vale under Carol will become a fantastic club going forward.
Heres to the future …..come on the Vale.
The Vale were promoted and the owners knew what they were doing. The Vale have been relegated and the owners don’t know what they’re doing. The owners definitely know how to successfully run a business, but they will have learnt the most valuable and painful lesson not to invest too much authority and power in someone else at the club. In time, I hope that supporters will forgive the well meaning owners their mistakes. As for Darren Moore, it’s only 12 months since he pulled off arguably the most miraculous win and promotion in Sheffield Wednesdays history. Give him 15 games next season some new players and reassess before demanding his dismissal.
To many negative comments,i wonder how many of the negative comments are or have everv been competitive successful people ,i know that anyone that has become a winner must taste the hard times.
While one’s sympathetic towards the Shanahan’s because they seem decent people, it doesn’t make things right just because they claim they realise they’ve made mistakes. It’s coming over like these politicians with their new saying “ I get it “ and that’s supposed to make everything alright. There is so much I don’t understand, why give Steve Speed (a much respect groundsman) so much grief, finally forcing him out at great cost to the club. Then tell us how much you’ve spent on the pitch helping the new groundsman ! Then we have Colin Garlick, a man you’ve continuously said “without his help and experience you would never have bought the club” only to replace him with Mr Hancock, who basically comes over as a very inexperienced double glazed salesman. You’ve replaced Crosby with a worse manager in Moore and decided to back him while basically turned your back on Crosby. The Shanahan’s or Hancock are trying to totally modernise the club from top to bottom when nothing was broken, and basically just making an almighty cockup of it. I’m sorry Carol just because you say “we get it now” means nothing, because your just stepping back and letting things to continue in the same way. We all hope we are wrong, but sadly so many of us feel we are spiralling towards the national league under the people you have chosen to run the club. How many do we employ 300 and how many ??? As for the academy lads, the older fans of us have seen it all before in the 60’s and 80’s, and it didn’t work then!
It’s a tough business football. I think mistakes have been made and need to be learned from. I think Darren Moore and his team are good appointments and can give us a competitive season pushing for promotion. After 2 difficult seasons with some awful football played by PV that is much needed.
Still very bitter about last season because if she had acted earlier and got rid of the DoF (and what’s that all about anyway, we are not ManCity!) we may have had a chance. Not sure about DM and hives someone a 5 year contract after his performance at HTFC 5 wins in 40 games with 2 clubs says something to me.
If the owners don’t have the money to move the club forward they need to try to find more investment we are fed up of repeated owners saying we can’t afford this or that player if you want the best then you have to pay the only thing that talks in football is money l can understand that they have a business to run and needed a football man to run the club day to day but DF was a snake oil salesman who thought he was running Man City it is a good idea to bring through young players but the big clubs have dozens of young players they are assessing by loaning them out to get experience at men’s football if we take them on where do our young players go this is a result of the demise of the reserve leagues lastly the only thing fans care about is watching a winning team as football supporters the owners should know that and acted sooner we live in hope for yet another season