Five of the worst: controversial Port Vale exits

Steve McPhee

When your star striker leaves, it’s always a low point. When your star striker leaves for free and their loudmouth agent bad mouths the club it’s much, much lower… After 27 goals in the 2004-5 season McPhee was a man in demand. Vale turned down a “derisory” £100,000 bid from Leeds but things were to get worse. McPhee’s agent, the charming Jonathan Barnett had negotiated a move to Portuguese club Beira Mar. As it was a move abroad, Vale got no compensation. Barnett showed his true colours over the move commenting “Port Vale are a two-bob operation and we are a major company. Their concerns, they can stick up their arse.” Charming.

Ivor Powell

Port Vale were rocked by tragedy when they appointed Powell and maybe that explains this mystifying appointment. In the summer of 1951, popular boss Gordon Hodgson passed away with cancer. In his place, Vale brought in Powell as player-manager, his first managerial role. Powell was a renowned disciplinarian and ruled by fear. It went down like a lead balloon. On the 22nd November with Vale bottom of the table, he was dismissed. According to Colin Askey, he left the chairman’s office saying “I may be back one day” only for Vale’s chair William Holdcroft to quip “No you won’t.” It was a humiliating end for Powell but the players were ecstatic with Roy Sproson calling the exit “a complete relief.”

Powell is pictured centre of the bottom row in this photo.

Lee Mills

You’d think that when a spell at a club had revived your career, earned you a player of the season award and a £1m transfer, you’d be grateful. That wasn’t the case for striker Lee Mills. Signed as a makeweight in the sale of Robin van der Laan to Derby County, Mills was transformed into a potent forward by manager John Rudge. It saw him reach double figures in three consecutive seasons and win the player of the year award in 1997. Bradford City came in with a £1m move. However, after exiting Burslem the striker commented “three years at Port Vale is enough for anybody.” How gracious of him.

Martin Henderson

Arguably a career-ending decision by manager John McGrath, Henderson was brought in to replace top-scorer and darling of the terraces Bob Newton. The move was a disaster, Vale were relegated and Henderson failed to impress – netting just seven times compared to Newton’s twenty goals the previous season. What made it worse was the striker’s perceived attitude and it culminated in him being sacked when he failed to turn up for training. Henderson never played professional football again.

Ryan Burge

When you’ve finally got to play League football, it’s probably best not to blow it with a social media spat but that’s what happened with midfielder Ryan Burge. An altercation about whether he was late or on time for a pick-up for a game against Bristol Rovers led to almighty disagreement between Burge and manager Micky Adams. Burge took to Twitter to put his side of the story with tweets that Adams labelled “”absolute nonsense.” He was suspended for refusing to apologise and eventually left by mutual consent. He only played seventeen more Football League games before dropping into non-league obscurity.