Port Vale have announced the departure of David Flitcroft as director of football.
Flitcroft has been subject to sustained criticism from fans after the club slipped into the relegation zone after a number of poor transfer windows.
A statement said:
Port Vale Football Club can confirm that David Flitcroft has left his role as the club’s Director of Football.
The decision has been made mutually and we thank Dave for the time he has spent at Vale Park.
A further update will be made in due course but our collective focus now remains on retaining our League One status, as we prepare for this weekend’s match against Burton Albion.
David Flitcroft at Vale Park
February 2021 – Flitcroft is appointed as Director of Football. He originally applied for the vacant manager’s role before persuading co-owner Carol Shanahan that the club needed a Director of Football, the first in the Vale’s history. A week later, Flitcroft is instrumental in the appointment of Darrell Clarke as manager. Clarke subsequently leads the club to promotion to League One.
Summer 2021 – Flitcroft leads recruitment of twelve new players during the summer which help the club to promotion.
February 2023 – there is criticism of Flitcroft’s recruitment policy after the January window. With Vale in need of forward replacements, the club can only bring in injured veteran Matty Taylor on deadline day.
Summer 2023 – Following the sacking of Darrell Clarke, Flitcroft appoints interim manager Andy Crosby as the permanent manager. Flitcroft says the club will play a possession-based style and will aim to bring in elite loanees by winning the trust of Premier League youngsters. The latter brings the highly acclaimed duo Ollie Arblaster and Alfie Devine to the club.
February 2024 – for the second, successive January transfer window, Flitcroft is criticised after the club fail to bring in any forwards despite having just two senior players available.
March 2024 He duly leaves the club.
At long last a sensible Decision, he had to leave, Filtcroft should’ve gone ages ago.
About time! Should have happened much sooner. Let’s hope and pray for a miracle and somehow we can stay up(unlikely). Hopefully the boys pull their fingers out and give us a day out to remember at Burton! and begin the great escape.Come on you Vale we can do it!
Few, if any, Vale supporters will be surprised or sorry about this increasingly inevitable outcome. The results of Flitcroft’s failing tenure are indisputable, and it’s galling how the club’s 2022 promotion has been frittered away. Flitcroft will remembered for this, not the 2022 success or the signing of England Under 21 loan players. A new start beckons, albeit most likely back where it all started in League 2.
I am not sorry he’s gone, the gloom seems to have lifted already, now we must get behind the team the owners and the manager.
This news has delighted me. Enough for me to want to renew my season ticket. I know that it will time to rebuild after his disastrous recruitment record but let’s all get behind the club now.
Absolutely the right decision for you. Unfortunately it is likely to be too late to save your season. I cannot begin to comprehend why this guy didn’t step up to the mark and step into the fray when he sacked Andy Crosby. Good luck against Burton on Saturday, it might just be a turning point.
Dave Flitcroft ranks alongside Dean Glover, Gannon, Bruno and Smurf as the worst people ever in our club.
There’s some rubbish in my comments but at least most of the others were at the sharp end and tried their best and it wasn’t good enough.
Why just blame Flitcroft as we don’t know if his hands were tied. Did Carol give him any money to actually bring in better players ? To me it certainly looked like he was refused any extra finance as the club had non . Getting relegated is not the end of the world but administration may be . Balancing the books is very important and Carol I believe did this by not giving the Director of Football the money he needed for extra better players.
The summer after promotion, no recruitment was carried out after the promotion to league 1 which set Clarke up to fail. more than 2 failed transfer windows. 3 summers and 2 january windows later and a squad that is simply lacklusture, awful and weak.
About time to late for this season now let Darren Moore have sole responsibility for recruitment he now has a chance to show the supporters what he is made of
I don’t think Dean Glover should be put in the same group as the others he was a great player for the club wish we had a player like him now.
I think everyone is right let’s hope we don’t appoint another director of football because we don’t need one go back to when the manager picked who we signed by way of a good scouting system personally I would like to see the pitch back to its original size and back to playing wingers which Vale Park is made for let’s hope now better and brighter times are ahead
No point in going on about him he, s gone. The damage is done and that cannot be changed so it’s forwards and upwards now
@Alex Lapsley I think it worth “going on about him” as you should always try and learn from mistakes.