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Let’s not re-write history on Crosby the last time we saw one of his teams was the most pathetic surrender of all this season at Fleetwood. He had completely lost it by that point and had to go. Am I remaining to be convinced by Moore given how he started? Yes but let’s not act like it’d have been any different with Crosby as that’s just not true. Crosby also had the advantage there were two transfer windows (which thanks to Flitcroft we failed in) and Moore has yet to have one.

I've made a promise to myself not to check this thread several times per week over the course of the summer! I'm going to take a complete break from all things Vale over the summer & reset for next season. My hopes for the summer, we somehow manage to keep hold of Garrity & Chislett. Ripley sticks around for another season. We sign a completely new squad including strikers & actual wing backs. The young lads stick about for another year. I'm sure lots of that stuff won't happen, but let's see. Have a great summer everybody & see you on the other side! Try to stick with the club. We're all Vale aren't we. 😊

Agreed. Ryan Loft is in contract for another season and will in all probability be here throughout next season. Whatever other failings he may have, he never gave less than 100% commitment while on the pitch. I'm looking forward to seeing what a long close-season of working with Lee Bradbury on his technical skills and awareness, followed by playing against League 2 standard defences, may do for Loft's confidence and goal return.

Do you think under Moore, we will go the the whole summer without signing 2 or 3 strikers? I personally don't

It wont happen, curiosity will get the better of you and you will be back to checking every hour or so like the rest of us. 🤣

Definitely not Darren’s fault. He is desperately unlucky and it is nothing to do with him whatsoever that he has presided over 5 wins in 39 matches. He should not in any way, shape or form have any accountability for what is probably an unprecedented bad run in English football management. It’s all the owners and Players fault. Poor Darren, I feel sorry for him.

@Doha this is a thread about next season, 2024-2025. If Darren and his staff do as expected in signings for next season, then there will be new strikers leading the line. But Ryan Loft will, on the balance of probability, still be a paid member of the squad throughout the season. So it makes financial and sporting sense, in the context of a 55-game season, to make the most of what Loft can contribute, as and when necessary due to squad rotation and injury.

Pissing so much money up the wall on Ryan Loft wasn't a sensible use of a finite budget. If he's still leading the line next season good luck with ticket sales.

Mid August to Mid September = best football I can remember seeing at Vale. That was 10 players other than Arblaster as well. Psychology and momentum are huge in football. For me, a good manager would have got a tune out of that squad and we should have stayed up. It’s gone now but Moore is far from starting with a clean slate, he’s got it all to do to get me back on board.

Crosby had Devine and Arblaster. Moore did not. Even with Devine and Arblaster, Vale were still total crap. Moore never signed any of the players where Crosby had a say in all the players that we signed. Under Crosby, we lost 7-0 to a team. Under Crosby, we went almost 3 months without a win Under Crosby, we dropped like a stone from second in the table to 5th from bottom And I keep adding but it gets boring talking about the same thing over and over again

The trap I won't fall into again. Is that oh they played for last seasons title winners. Great signing. Massey ,Wigan . Grant, Plymouth . Think someone had suggested before , let's raid Harrogate, Morecambe etc for their gems. And yes they do have some. Hungry players not crocks and players on a downward trajectory.

Our best chance of a win is if Cambridge rest a few players and play Jack Stevens in goal. My Prediction: Port Vale 1-0 Cambridge Utd Stevens OG

You appear to conveniently forget recent history. When the club was owned/run by Bratt/Deakin and Co and then Smurthwaite I can't remember any wealthy people with a genuine interest in and desire to own PVFC clamoring to buy the club, just the opposite in fact, so what makes you think anything has changed. I remember a plastic turf man from mid west USA, a pie in the sky rumor that a hedge fund from Boston, USA was interested, a mystery man with a bag of cash who paid for a pre-season trip and quickly buggered off. Fans knew all about these prospective purchasers and more, there are likely no Shanahan equivalents lying low waiting to pounce or the fans would know. My first game at Vale Park was Port Vale 2 QPR 3 in the early 60's, PVFC is in my blood, I'm from Kickrew, I love oatcakes and Stoke-on-Trent but if I ever came into a large amount of money I wouldn't want to own the Vale, I'd gift the club money and let Carol run it. Who would put their family in the firing line and be on the receiving end of bilge the moment something adverse happened.

2-0 Cheltenham! Taylor at it again

Surely, we can get two strikers out of that?

Will be nonsense. No fight in this group of players. we've seen that for 8 months.

Surely on them stats we have to do everything we can to keep Uche & Wilson 😂

I'm not. 1 goal in 29, less career goals than one of our centre halves who's still in his 20s. Pay him up and replace.

Exactly right! But this is how far we have fallen that people keep harping on about that we should have kept Crosby and that we should offer a new contract to 1 goal per season centre forward Uche & offer James Wilson a pay as you play contract.

Impossible to judge any manager fairly until they’ve bought their own players in to enable them to implement their preferred style of play. We did play some decent football at times earlier this season but common sense would tell anyone that without goals from forwards who can hit the back of the net with some regularity it’s always going to be a struggle, and so it proved.

I was at the McAlpine for Warnock’s last game in charge of Town and it was clear that the manager they already had was wringing every last drop from a very limited group of players, to put it politely. I’m not surprised Moore wasn’t able to get a tune out of them, as he hasn’t done with us. Considering where he was in the summer after Wednesday’s promotion, Moore and his agent picked his next two roles extremely poorly. Whether or not this is Moore’s fault, and whether Moore is the right man for us going forward, are two separate issues. I still have my doubts about the latter and whether both us and him are the right fit for each other.

I’ve seen nothing to suggest their deliveries would land anywhere near him 😂 one thing that needs to improve from the pair of them is their end product

It’s like a game of Takeshi’s Castle when you consider it’s Flitcroft’s crap they are having to manage with.

Disappointing from hammering at BARNSLEY on worst opening day defeat for any football league club since 1961, to the fact that Vale have failed to achieve a midweek league victory in over two seasons. Culminating with only two league victories in 2024. To say that the league One season has been embarrassing is an understatement for all Vale fans. Carol Shannahan does LOVE PORT VALE, but unfortunately she doesn't have enough knowledge to run a successful football club and with the shocking Director of Football Dave Flitcroft, has undermined PVFC. His departure could not come soon enough and do PVFC certainly in League 2 require a Director of Football. OK Carol Shannahan has been honest enough to admit that she has made errors of judgement. But regardless fair play to the Shannahan's as they have invested in their local football club. Look across the city and even tycoon and money magnet Peter Coates has got loads of critics Stoke City were a Premier League club and pretty successful, but over the past six seasons back in The Championship Stoke have failed to finish in the top half of the table. Money helps clubs vastly, but it is all about the right recruitment. PVFC if I were in charge I would get rid of all the senior players other than Ripley, Chislet and Garrity and keep all the young and upcoming players as they are the future of PVFC and will learn their football trade in League 2 and possibly generate finance from their sales in future. DM YES he has been disappointing but when he took over PVFC were heading for League 2 barring a miracle. DM has proved at WBA, DONCASTER ROVERS and SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY what a good influential manager he can be. DM needs time and a good recruitment process. He needs time and I can't see PVFC challenging next season. But 2025/26 season. UTV

Yeah, and...?! The release of the retained list (/transfer listing players) will be a signal of the club's intentions of clearing out as much of this dross squad as possible, so if they want to maximise selling season tickets its pretty bleedin' obvious that they should be doing this very soon after the season, and certainly before the end of May! 🥴

Exeter got Millenic Alli from Halifax in the window and he scored twice against us. There are good strikers in the National League.

How's the new Udders manager doing ? Surely he's had a third of a season to turn it around?

Yawwwwnnnnn i mean welcome back me owd fruit Nice to see your boys are doing so well without him

1-0 Cheltenham! The desire & intensity is what you’d demand from a relegation bound team. All over Posh albeit they’ve made quite a few changes. Bravery & passion, I’d expect nothing less from a Clarke team

Ryan loft is not scoring 20 goals in league 2 😭😭😭 he won’t get more than 5

Only if he's playing against us.

Who knows loft might score in league 2

crap!😇

Indeed I hope you're right as if we do again what we did this season there's no doubt in my mind we're heading for the national league😬. More poor or lack of signings will also lead to lower ST and matchday sales and thus starts the vicious circle!

Exeter? Something like the 95th minute at the Bycars end to grab a 1-1.

Spot on He wasn't bothered about being relegated and neither were the players cause they all had a ready made excuse DAVID FLITCROFT . He be getting blame for it yet in that period when banging 3 goals in every home game under Crosby (something we haven't done with Moore)he should have being getting praised as you could see that Devine had settled and was ready push Vale, on he left ,Uche got injured and bad attitudes and sulking cannot be arsed players was the outcome resulting in flitcroft getting it from majority (not me may I add as I knew the players would use DF as a ready made excuse for losing games once DF was fired ). That's how it turned out you cannot tell me any different I've seen it with my own eyes . A surrender of league 1 football . A embarrassment to the faithful loyal and hardcore Port Vale 23 /24

Is that right?! 😲

I think he came in and quickly realised that he was working with a bunch of losers. He'll earn his 8k/week regardless of which division we're in so he's probably made the decision to accept the relegation in order to bring in his own players and have an easier job in L2 next season than L1. He'll get more credit for finishing top half of L2 next season than 18th in L1. Good luck to him. Impressively for a man who's been here for over 2 months he's still yet to make a substitution that's had a positive impact on any game. Remarkable.

Let's look at how clubs who have gone down are ending the season . Fleetwood got a winning mentality all of a sudden yes too little too late but least there fans can exit league 1 with pride Carlisle beat Peterborough 3-1 but other than that have ended it poorly however that result speaks volumes judging on our lame teams efforts v them. Cheltenham are still in there battling and DC will be decent in league 2 if go Then there's us ending season with. Defeat after defeat If DM believes that the Players have gone down fighting then that doesn't say a lot about them and that's the reason for me that we have to move them on ASAP. If we cannot then the future looks very bleak in a nutshell .

No self respecting professional footballer would want to be at a club where they have no future and are ostracised. I agree, play hard ball, make our stance known. Then as you say the ball gets rolling and hopefully their agents are on the phone to Spennymoor, Winsford or Truro City and they can leave. We can't afford ( playing wise ) to have some of these loitering around without the possibility of another struggle for league two survival. They are hopeless. A minus 33 goal difference is a disgraceful statistic amongst numerous records we've set this season. Get them gone. There are ways and means. Doesn't have to involve payouts of over a million quid to the cast offs.

I always rated Cassy , he's got good pace and would be a good fit in league 2 imo

Contractually we can’t just say bugger off we will pay you x amount, it will have to be the full amount but hopefully we can encourage players to leave, help find them new clubs, tell them they are unlikely to have regular football here but I can’t see many, if any clubs taking our dead wood for a similar wage after we have dropped down a division. Also, this is going to demotivate our players further. We are going to be stuck with some naff players for at least another season, but let’s get rid of those we can and try our best to keep hold of players like Garrity, Chislett and Dipepa otherwise we are just going to have the naff players left.

Also, look at the teams we played when comparing…..not one of the 7 in your list are top 6 teams and the first 3 games were Cheltenham, Reading and Lincoln. Compare this to Crosbys last 10 games which include Derby, Portsmouth & Barnsley, all promoted or play offs. Let’s face it, this was Crosbys worse period but he still managed to pick up more points against tougher opposition. We have gone backwards since Moore arrived. Only 3/10 of Crosbys last games had Arblaster available so don’t use this an excuse.

I know it's costly signing a goal scoring striker, you know the "real deal" but what did Uche and Loft combined cost ? Probably the same only with no goals .

A good starting pointPV1973. Being Old School I kinda like the idea of an experienced scout going to watch them too.

Who needs a striker, oh yes we do and have done for 18 months. If only we had known.

I’d love to see a win. I don’t want us finishing 2nd bottom either. It’s been a miserable season but I’d rather it ended on even the most minimal of highs.

I think folk get too caught up in demanding a certain ‘type’ of signing. Experience. Proven. Winners. Tough men. Just sign good players. Restricting ourselves by chasing niche profiles arbitrarily selected by Flitcroft is what for us into this mess. If a player is good and experienced, sign him. If he’s good and young, sign him. Sign good footballers who make us better imo, not to fit a narrative about ‘who we are’.

You're going down because your club are as puddled as ours and let Darren Moore be in charge of the football team.

Well heartfelt commiserations to you guys, you put up a good show yesterday, fortuitous at times maybe but you had your moments too. One thing I will say is a big call out to your fans who were as noisy and supportive as any we’ve had at the ToughSheet this season. It wasn’t to be but look forward not back and think of those celebrations next year when you’re back up again, which I’m sure you will be. Good luck next season. 👏😉