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Right decision and will benefit Port Vale in the long run if not the short run to the end of this season. My view on Carol is that I try to judge people on intentions over execution. Her intentions are absolutely to do the best she can for Port Vale. That gets her a significant amount of leeway in my eyes. The execution hasn’t been perfect and it’s clear as a person she is very loyal and tends to hold on to people for too long when it’s clear they should go. Its not the worst fault in the world, I can name many MANY worse by just looking at previous owners.

Having personally dealt with Matt all throughout this 'process', I'd appeal for us all to let the dust settle and show the man a bit of respect. He has been true to every word that he has said to me and others and I believe that the club will change for the better in the coming weeks and months. Rest assured, I won't <ovf censored> rest unless it does. We're <ovf censored> on the pitch. We're angry in the stands. We've all been treated poorly and left behind. But these aren't bad people, they have just had bad judgement and bad advice. We're trying to change that, and they are listening. Let's give them a chance to repair that.

The DoF decision can wait till next season - we have 9 games left to save ourselves from the more than likely scenario of relegation. We have got rid of AC, got rid of DF (who I think has not had a good transfer window since we came into L1 to be honest and his position had become untenable) so now lets see what our players and DM can do. As for Carol, yes she has made mistakes but we are in a better position with her than most clubs. My youngest asked when are we going to the Vale next (4 hour round trip), I said why we keep losing, she replied but you said we support the team through thick and thin, we are VTID. This made me think since '84 when I first went on a Tuesday evening standing the the railway paddock I knew each season some teams get promoted, some teams stay in the league and some get relegated. Lets face it I've seen quite a few relegations / promotions since '84 and always accepted the possible three outcomes. Taking my daughter these last few seasons has made me connect back with the club and I have thoroughly enjoyed travelling to Vale park and banter with my fellow fans (every home game is an away day as I say). Due to other commitments I can only go to the last two Saturday home matches - hoping we have a chance to stay up but if we are relegated so be it; its the chance we take each season. I will be there for Port Vale and the fans- not the players (they have let the fans down massively I feel in their performances and attitude), nor the owners. Players, Managers, DoFs and owners come and go but the fans and the club remain season after season with hopes and aspirations like every football fan. So for the 9 games left lets hope DM can motivate our players, - they owe us more than 9 games of good performances this season no matter what the excuses are; they are supposed to be professionals. Think we all need to hope and get behind the team now - 3 points on Saturday would be a massive boost for all concerned. Good luck and safe travels to fans home and away - see you on the 13th April - Until then UTV.

I think our opinions of the DOF model are probably coloured by the poor job done by our last one...

Yesterday was a good day at Port Vale. David Flitcroft has overseen a disastrous 18 months on the pitch, failing in 3 transfer windows to adequately recruit and has now, finally, been held accountable. We have superb owners in the Shannahans and we should remember that. I have every confidence that without the influence of yesterday's man, they can now work with the fans and together we can go from strength to strength, together. The clubs CEO, Matt Hancock has been absolutely brilliant during the last few months of turmoil. He has met and spoken with countless fans and listened, sometimes whilst being lambasted. He has been absolutely pivotal in getting those voices heard at the very heart of the club. They knew we didn't want Flitcroft anymore but they didn't understand the depth of feeling. Matt worked tirelessly to ensure that message was delivered for us. We owe it to Matt to get behind any initiatives he has to improve communication and to engage fans. I know that some are still angry that the club let it get this far. However, let's draw a line under that now and try to move forward, even if we end up going backwards this season, we still have the opportunity to build it better going forward. UTV.

they are top POS P W D L F A GD PTS 1 Congleton Town 29 20 6 3 70 29 41 66

You are conflating multiple things. I would not say that she is either without blame (although using the word blame in itself is revealing), nor immune from criticism. Mistakes have been made. Bad decisions look likely to cost us our League 1 place. That is obviously hugely disappointing. But in context, we are still light years ahead of where we were 4 years ago. No-one wants to be in League 2. The next DoF appointment is key. We have to try and get back up at the first try, which will be challenging. But thinking that having a local, successful businessperson who is also a proper fan is NOT the ideal custodian, is genuinely a crazy perspective. So what if she makes bad decisions sometimes? She's not likely to be perfect. If she can explain them, or front up, or apologise, then that's more than most would do anyway. How many owners of clubs are actually 'good' owners? Our natural ceiling is halfway up League 1. Anything higher is great, but it's overachievement. When she talked about it, she was laughed out of the room. Then she referenced little Port Vale, and got pelters. So she can't win really. I'm not happy with where we are. But we should be happy with the ownership, despite the shemozzle of the season.

Great news for the club but I'm still confused as to how some folk think it will turn the team into a bunch of fighters & good enough to stay up ?? This squad is awful and DF leaving won't make any difference to that. We can only hope we rebuild well next season UTV !!

I think you are way off the mark. IMHO we have a superb owner and to just say 'sell up and go' is hugely insulting to the person who has ... Saved our club from extinction ... it was a queue of 1. Spent over £10M on the infrastructure and purchase. Made PVFC into one of the most community respected clubs in football. Comments like that say to me you have no understanding of the 'low life' (putting it mildly) the fans have had to oust from the club this past decade or more. I for one would choose relegation this season but retain a brilliant owner to putting the club up for sale and repeating the circle of arseholes who have owned PVFC previously.

Someone parked on your drive again?

This is wonderful news that she’s actually opened her eyes and seen what we are all seeing. It’s been a car crash of an 18 months for Flitcroft. What we have to do now is unite. If we don’t win another game this season and go down then that’s not on Darren Moore. He’s been left with an absolute shower of a squad. If he keeps us up it will be a miracle. What I will say, is that whilst this should have been done a long time ago, it’s happened. We can’t change the past. But we can shape our future. And by getting rid of him today, it gives us more time to plan for the summer and give that transfer window to someone who actually knows what they are doing, regardless which league we are in next season. Todays news is a big positive moving forward and lessons MUST be learnt so that this shambles never happens again. Finally, let’s see these players, on Saturday, put in a massive shift, leave everything out on the pitch and sweat blood and tears for the shirt. Those that cross that white line can’t hide behind the fans anger at Flitcroft anymore. There is no hiding place for them. Stand up and be counted for like proper men.

Just take a look around at other clubs and the ownership problems they have. Port Vale is not a club in danger due to rogue owners. Yes they have made some decisions that we haven't agreed with but they remain commited to the club and will ultimately stump up the money needed to right the wrongs should we be relegated.

There's no way it should be John Rudge as director of football for me: 1) he's 80 2) he's a club legend, if he took it and it went wrong it would take away from his relationship with the fans (see Dean Glover). 3) people go on about his contact, that was 30+ years ago. None of those people will be still in football.

Give your head a wobble ya pillock

You part timer, a real fan would boycott their mates……and that’s why I haven’t got any. 🙄

It really doesn't mate. It's not cheap. It's a fact that crowds are better in higher leagues for a huge majority of clubs. I won't castigate anyone not renewing. We've won 2 of our last 16 home league games. People are disillusioned and I don't subscribe to they are less of a Vale fan for not renewing. I'll be renewing, however tomorrow is the last match I'm going to until August despite having a season ticket. Undoubtedly your view would be that I'm not a proper fan ?

Was impressed with his interview yesterday when he said what's the point of signing players who wont improve us - sounds like a man already looking towards next season. I fancy DM has far more backbone than is shown in his media outings - perhaps he didn't take any of DFs <ovf censored> 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Now DF has gone I’m going to Burton , I have to called for him to go and support the lads . It’s time to move on from the Flitcroft years

Absolutely massive credit to Bede, Mellor, Mark, Tony, Jean, NLV lads, and anyone I missed off. They braved it and talked Carol into viewing things very differently. Got a load of undeserved stick from people who didn’t have a clue. Once again, these lads and ladies sacrifice time and effort for PVFC. Raising a glass to them.

Paul, my personal opinion on Clarke is that he was overwhelmed with grief , and his heart and mind wasn’t in the right place to manage the Vale. A very sad situation , but I’m really glad to see him back in management again with Cheltenham, and I hope he keeps getting better and better.

I genuinely hope that she apologises for that. It was utterly ludicrous to publish.

The fact that last season we started with Tommy McDermott as an emergency striker and currently have Dipepa as a better option than our champagne signing Loft speaks volumes for our recruitment. Reset needed now. Fresh start.

I think most people realise it’s the way to go in premier league/championship but not way down in the lower leagues, but maybe I’m a dinosaur 🦖

They should just move the bycars seats over to the hamill. Keep them facing the same way.

Whilst I don’t believe we have the most talented bunch of players, I can’t help but think that the unrest and decision making behind the scenes has probably affected performances on the pitch. If every person in the stands knew we needed a striker and a wing back then surely every member of the playing staff did too. The lack of decent signings can only show a lack of ambition and as such must affect the players. I strongly suspect that everyone within the club thought Flitcroft was a <ovf censored> apart from Carol. If Ojo was capable of pelting up almost the whole length of the pitch to score at Charlton, he can do it again on Saturday. There are other players who have been under performing and need to play with belief and desire. Whilst Carol’s image has been slightly tarnished, I do believe she can take us to better places although goodwill tend to have a shelf life.

He’s 80. Get real.

I'm really pleased for Baylee that he got those 2 goals in the U17 international. What great experience for him and it can only have helped his confidence and an understanding of the game at a higher level. Well done Baylee!

So, OVIA/BW/DI/DD, what you are saying is you love the vale that much that you wont be going - about the same as a lot of us in fairness at present 👍👍👍👍👍

But we fired the people with the skill !

That is one of the longest sentences I’ve read on here.

I’m in a much better mood about us this morning. Relegation is a certainty, but relegation to League 2 need not to be an existential disaster but more a temporary setback which clubs with far greater resources than ours have contended with. With a manager at the helm who has success in getting a good squad of players into the top 6, alongside a stability in club ownership that we’ve not had before, then Top 7 should be the aim - especially if Wrexham, Stockport, and Mansfield are out of the league. A new DoF with extensive successful recruitment experience, alongside sensible ST prices and a concerted effort to improve home atmosphere, compounded by the most important factor of ‘winning games of football sometimes’ and all will be relatively rosy. Carol has received justified criticism and this relegation is a problem of her own making. However, we have to be aware of how fortunate we are to have a local family committed to PVFC and ensuring our long-term prosperity. It’s down to them to put right this mess.

What a relief, sadly quite a bit of damage has been done both in the stands and on the pitch. That is going to take time, energy and resources to resolve I would love to hear DM say "I cannot wait to get rid of the dead wood" in about a months time - but I feel he is not a man given to public statements of this type. We shall see...

For the second time in a week, this is my last positive post of the season in our last must win game until next week. Burton 1 - 2 Vale. I would love to see Massey and Loft score. I have not said anything nice about them, so time for them to stick two fingers up to me and fight fight fight for the Vayul. 913 Valiants.

Every club is going to go through a bad patch at this level. How the club bounce back from it is key. The calls for her to sell up because of a bad patch and her backing of a dof that she employed sets a dangerous precedence because you can’t go through owners like you do managers.

Port Vale's very own Ultra's. Well done boys. Great work

Where were all the other people queuing to buy the club? I can't remember any. 5m in loans from synectics, the other 5m was to buy the team in the first place. Community club? Lots of people care, like all the people that the club helps, believe it or not some things are bigger than football. Like not starving to death for example. No time will ever be the right time to spend money off the field in your opinion. Matt Hancock is the CEO. He's not her son 🤣🙈

100% this. Anyone who thinks Carol should sell up: 1) has no idea what they are talking about, 2) doesn't have the best interests of the club, 3) is a wind up merchant. We literally could not have a better custodian of the club.

The DoF position still needs to exist. It just needs someone to do a better job at it. The club's long term strategy on a number of different levels shouldn't get chucked in the bin because the guy in charge of it goes on a poor run of results as first team manager. The days are gone of managers like Rudge working 80 hour weeks and spending the club's money like it was his own. Strategic recruitment and scouting is more data based and needs to entrusted to a group of people rather than just the whims of one person.

Apologies? Why not just let it go? It was simply misguide from someone under a lot of pressure, no worse than that in my view.

If Carol is keen on Darren Moore as the lengthy contract suggests then ask Darren to pick his director of football.

Ah yes, it’s the disloyal fans who are not willing to support a club that has served up an appalling product for 18 months. Shame on us all. What it should say is that they don’t want to spend money on miserable football. We all love Vale, I have seen some right crap over the past decade, but I just don’t think there is a large number of people out there who want to dedicate themselves to that.

Wonder if Paddy is shaking his head at Mummy like he was at the fans!

Well. Wasn't expecting this news 😄 For the best for the club, for Flitcroft, and Carol. What I hope this means is a post season, post-mortem of the structure at the club. And hopefully it means that Carol is nowhere near the club comms again in the future either, to keep her out of the firing line. That open letter was just awful. Just get a structure of people in, follow it, keep it. Don't change the structure if it's not broken - why did Garlic et al not get replaced? Recruitment in football is always gonna be tough bringing in players. Whoever comes in to help with that I really hope they have connections and are not just local or 'former' PVFC connected people. Let's show some ambition with where we want to go, even if we do go down this season as is very likely. UTV, roll on summer because next season can't come quick enough. I just want to write this season off.

We don't need a director of football,we just need to let the manager do his own thing, he will live by the sword if he messes it up ... UTV VTID

Offer her 10 million then

Shall I dust off the cobwebs?

Big shout out to all the supporters who called the meeting with Carol, a job well done .

Great news for rebuilding next season. Carol has finally seen sense but all feels a little too late, the damage has been done. Makes Carol's letter look even more silly now, which will go down in infamy I'm sure. Nevertheless, we've finally got what we wanted and needed. Time to reunite the fan base and rebuild for next season.

Absolutely buzzing. I'm off to douse myself in gin and tonic.

No . Too little too late. However might reignite some fans to renew season tickets and unite the fanbase . It had become toxic .