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Can we please stop this narrative where’s the money . The club made a 1 million loss to get promotion despite getting to Wembley and the record shirt sales. How much do you think we lost without getting to Wembley with largely the same squad last season? Uptick in attendances did not cover it. As for academy sales, that money is put back into the academy budget so it’s self funding and doesn’t require additional investment . This has been stated over and over again by Will Ryder and Flicker.

No doubt league one wages are higher than league two. That being said, we have less of our own players now and youth players will be on a much lower wage than the squad players of league two during our promotion season. I think we are spending our money badly.

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sign my pet duck up. She's ready & raring go. Got her own black & white kit. She may be flat footed but she's brilliant on the wing. Will hover in the air too in the box. Cheap signing.

Sometimes runs like that there is no option. Oh hang on...........

Seeing as despite 21 days without a game Wilson was hooked , which suggests still cant complete 90 minutes ( unless protecting him ) , then surely a couple of strikers are imminent. Otherwise I really fear for us.

As I interpreted it, Robbie seemed to state in his interview with our media team the reason he has not attempted to get involved before was because a certain type of character, that he didn't want to associate with, became Football Club Directors. However, now Carol has ownership he is happy to get more involved. Perhaps, those being critical of Carol and wanting her to sell up might like to take Rob's comments on board.

Is it that we had to get a loan for the scoreboard, or took up the option of a loan that then allows expenditure in other areas? If it's the latter, surely that's just good business sense.

Don't think we can afford 18 million mate

Not if that academy in addition to self-funding itself is producing a batch of players who could make it in the first-team - Plant (already in there), Shorrock, Lomax, Walters, Dipepa, McDermott, Brazier etc. In that case, it's producing potentially some first-team players for the club and because it's self-funding there's no outlay for those players. BTW, I don't think all of the above will make it (that's somewhat unlikely) but one or two (perhaps more) may. I would also think that with the new rules about having a proportion of "homegrown" players in the squad it's essential to have an academy that is producing decent prospects. You can wish all you want for big-name, big-money additions to the squad but the rules still state there's a limit to how many you can pick in your squad - you still need to have some club-produced talent in there. If the Academy can produce those "homegrown" kids to as high a standard as possible then that's got to be a good thing - especially if the thing that is producing them is doing so at zero cost to the club.

So the academy sales don’t actually generate any additional income for the club…they just self fund an academy? Seems a bit pointless if that is the case. It may have made a £1 million loss for promotion, but that was 2 seasons ago now, without also paying off Smurfwaite. Added to that being in league 1 alone adds more than £1 million in revenue. So yeah, I would be asking where the money is, because it certainly isn’t on the squad!

I don’t understand where our money has gone given the kids that went Aston Villa and Newcastle plus other transfers the cup run play offs Wembley shirt sales we NOW need to invest in players all will be lost ,if we go down to division 2 I will not be renewing my 2 season ticket plus parking if that happens so take a good hard look at yourself vale and look after the fans and that coming from me a 55 years season fan

The club must surely move position on the signings front from last week, This squad as it stands will get relegated, relying on other teams kids to compete and our own kids to change the game from the bench with no goals in the team is a recipe for disaster.

Leaving personalities out of this, if the powers that be truly think that adding a couple of untried starlets to the ranks will guarantee our safety then it does smack massively of arrogance. We’ve got major injury issues, our top scorer now listed among them, loads of young players we’re trying to bed in and a strike force that doesn’t actually strike. Bare minimum we need a forward who’s got some experience and more importantly a record of scoring in and around this level. Beyond signings we need a huge turnaround of luck with injuries.

Agree. I think we are being quite arrogant with our approach. Perhaps a reflection of the DOF’s personality but either way this squad will get relegated without strengthening with a few senior players. A Gibbo type of character is missing on the pitch and Bodvarsson would have been an ideal replacement for Uche.

So if Cambridge sign Bodvarsson and Gibbons it will show that teams around us are starting to strengthen with experienced players to try and get them out of a relegation battle and thats a worry

Let me get this straight, your way of encouraging the club to invest money is to give them less money to invest? Interesting logic.

Huddersfield sack Darren Moore after only 3 wins in 22 games

No good leaving it till summer if we are in division 2

The advertising on it probably covers the repayments.

Well I'd imagine someone who's run a multi-million pound business has a good grip on budgets and expenditure but that's just a hunch.

Bolton signing Aaron Collins which is set to allow Bodvarsson to move to Cambridge... surely we can compete there? Ideal replacement for Uche.

Interest-free loan for the scoreboard. The club paid for the pitch as far as I'm aware.

More of a worry is there is only Loft, Wilo & Dipepa as our attacking options , if we don't get some forwards in before the deadline we are screwed cos you can't just rely on Wilo to get the goals god help us if he gets injured again which is a distinct possibility. Loft is a lost cause and Dipepa is still learning his trade at the moment

Yeah he was in that "Development Squad" with Hugill

Maybe they're hoping that by associating Robbie closer with the club, they can bring in bigger sponsorships like AFC Hollywood have done?

Not a bad return for Notts County having spent 50k on him

No new signings - but ordered the Gods food last night using Povey's mail delivery. 5 dozen oatcakes and 12 pikelets (plain - no dead flies in mine). Just need the Cheshire cheese and bacon and then we are set - space in the freezer made. Daughter will no doubt take a dozen for them. Brought her or dragged her up right as she loves them 🤣

These new markets that flick keeps talking about might be new markets for us, but they definitely aren't for other clubs. Irish clubs are already rinsed of there best talent teams like Lincoln every year, aussie teams loses their best to the SPL all the time. If we can't compete with Leyton Orient for Joe Pigott, we've got 0 chance of trying to compete with Hearts or Hibs. Maybe Scandinavia is the answer to all our prayers.

No maybe about it. David Flitcroft has laid out the blueprint for the football side of the club. He oversees recruitment. Crosby, or whoever we have as manager in the future, is tasked with implementing the philosophy at first team level and likely as not will not have full control over recruitment, playing style or even team selection.

Whether some fans like him or not right now we all need to get behind him. As of yesterday he's become a crucial player for us.

You make it sound like Robbie personally tore the pitch up! Yeah it's galling to see the adoration and general smoke being blown up the backside of a bloke who is somewhat of a knob. But I believe it's a calculated risk from Carol, definitely more so than her being a Robbie Williams fan. Give him the concert, give him the title of president, make him feel welcome and loved. Then maybe he'll put his hand in his pocket and help the club out. If not then what has been lost? The pitch was a bit damaged and ended up being dug out anyway for much-needed drainage improvements. Yeah it'd be nice if it was the Charlie Holland suite or something, but this is how the world is. And Robbie is a lifelong Vale fan, as well as a multi-millionaire global megastar. No harm at all in reaffirming his association with the club, not like he's Harold Shipman or Nigel Farage or something.

That’s how I read it first time, had to read it again.

Wers, at least it’s an old injury, unlike ourselves who have the expertise of signing players that are injured, we seem to have cornered that part of the market. I don’t suppose it easy to do, what we do, otherwise they’d all be signing injured players.

Fair points, but are they moaning about "not being able to compete" too? Have we effectively "spent our overdraft" and now we're having to scrimp and save to make up for it? I just don't get it at the minute. Would love a deep dive into the finances.

Not always. Sometimes they will cover the wage, a couple of grand a week is nothing to the big sides

Better 18 year old at Premiership Clubs are often on crazy wages. We don't pay all the wage but we will have to pay an agreed wage.

As mentioned on my Portsmouth post I would be looking to get Grant as a midfield option with one of Gore or Weir until Ojo is back to avoid what we saw at the weekend with the two together, needs an experienced head there and Grant hasn't done it at LWB for me. In terms of relegation, disaster for us fans and probably the club in general but I would be less worried than the previous two relegation's because I think we'd have a strong chance of challenging rather than need 4-5 years again, the club whatever we think of Flickers etc isn't in a bad in hows its run and the one part that probably would benefit is the youth players, you'd fancy Shorrock, Walters, Plant and Lomax to certainly make a good impact as League Two players and probably help their development. Ripley would be under contract, you'd assume Debrah, Smith, Grant and Yak would be decent in L2, Jones still under contract and we should still be able to get decent loan players. We'd struggle to keep Ojo I would think, Chislett and Garrity but as all under contract it would depend on valuations being met and or our desire to sell. I think we'd be up there challenging but as we know its not easy to get back up so need to do all we could to avoid it. We would have no excuses not to be play off challengers minimum especially considering some of the big spenders will be promoted this season.

He has 200 million. Surely he could put some money towards the vale. If any vale fan had that money, I know you would, I know I would but I don't know if Robbie would.

That's one of the things I'm worried about. Maybe all the money is being saved for this summer. It would make sense. Saying this though I've seen very good league 2 teams go up and get relegated when they get to league 1.

You would think - but Flickers and co may have a different view on that. He may be a couple of quid over the very tight budget rules they work to. They only go to a certain limit and that is it. Wonder how much it would cost the club if we go down through lost fans and leave revenue etc. Could be a bit short sighted. Yes don't go silly paying wages over the odds, but sometimes you need to look at it cbyc. We have all seen clubs break their banks getting players and then can't afford them.

Shocked at that. Mustn't know our injury situation and propensity to be a charity case to teams in distress.

We've got 17 games left to get the required points. I've written off away games at Posh, Derby and Bolton.

When did he tell you this?

Someone like Tom Conlon maybe.

We have to look after Jack and drip feed him and build him into games I don't want him deep ended and made out a scapegoat if we go down as he's a great talent. Fantastic off the bench yesterday but struggled badly at Carlisle, so we he needs looking after.

Loft didn't get the ball much and when he did he was surrounded by players. I think loft has a chance now to prove himself and I hope he does.

I thought today's team was probably the best we have. However, we were outclassed.

Not sure why some folk have a problem with loan players, just because they're not "ours"? I'd rather get loan players in who are a class above what we've got, like Devine & Arblaster proved to be, than to sign a few bang average league 1/2 players just because we can then say they're "ours". We'd have absolutely no chance of signing the likes of Devine, Arblaster, Williams or Gore permanently, so just enjoy them while you can.