[Moore out]

14 minutes ago, Killersrevenge44 said:

Good managers make a success of what they have. 

Good managers make the best out of what they have, which doesn't mean that they will achieve success if the collective ability of the squad is below the level required.

 

[James Wilson - out for the season]

1 hour ago, southport vale said:

Enjoyed watching him play when available but I think teams knew he was easy to crock and gave him heavy treatment.
I'll never forget that brilliant pass and the goal at Wembley.
Good luck James.

He gets the same treatment as any other striker. This is the problem, fans keep making excuses for him. Personally, I'd keep him on a pay as you play deal as back up to hopefully 2 or 3 much better ones.

[League 2 preparation]

5 minutes ago, Bimbleabout said:

All of them can go apart from Conner, Ben,Chissy possibly ojo and maybe the Yak. I'd personally keep Uche,not that he will stay if he has any chance of going. Obviously keep all the acadamy lads. No doubt they will be sold for 15 to 50k ASAP

Be careful what you wish for; no guarantee that we would be able to assemble a squad that's any better than what we have. We are assessing our players based on how they have performed in L1, which is a big step up from L2. Others that you have failed to mention will do us a job in L2; add a sprinkling of decent signings and we may have enough to come straight back up. I am confident that DM will not allow another failed transfer window to happen.

[PVFC Meet delegation of fans regarding current concerns]

24 minutes ago, DazFred said:

What Carol needs to understand is that the club is nothing without fans.

Yesterday the players kicked off to a tune I have never heard before. Who decided that? We always sing The Wonder of You to get the crowd going at kick off. Darren Moore urged us to nudge the fan next to us and get them singing. To what? It's always the fans fault it seems.

We scored a goal and usually sing Glad all over. It wasn't played. Why? Is that the fans fault ?

Noticed that aswell, strange decision.

[David Flitcroft Out]

30 minutes ago, robf said:

I personally always thought Benning got some unfair flack. However, I could see the logic in him going if he was to be replaced with a better player. The problem is - as others have pointed out - he hasn't been replaced with anyone better. 

To be fair, connor grant is, on paper, that better player. Most fans hailed that as a good signing but its obviously not turned out that way.

[Derby C (A) match thread - 2nd March.]

4 hours ago, Brian said:

Yes Paul. But Vale fans always need a scapegoat

Ojo's body language in both the Fleetwood and Derby games struck me as someone who's thrown his toys out of the pram for whatever reason; thats not looking for a scapegoat thats an observation. Lazy passes, shrugging of shoulders, the only player not clapping fans at the end (despite the fact they have obviously all been told to no matter what the result). Clearly he's not happy with the change of regime but thats no excuse to not give 100% when you're getting paid as much as he is. We need him to buck up fast.

[Derby C (A) match thread - 2nd March.]

Thats it, after yesterday, I'm done with vale.

See you Saturday.

[Synectics Sold]

1 minute ago, Brian Johnson said:

Well, when you listen to Carol's Delia moment last week, we only spoke to one person and that was Darren Moore in which we spoke to him for only 3 hours.

3 hours is all that Flitcroft spent on the new manager recruitmemt

What about the admin / legals with drawing up a contract etc. The sort of stuff Colin Garlick dealt with and no-one was asking what he spent his time doing? Besides, name me one example of a D0F stepping in as caretaker.

[Synectics Sold]

27 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

He didn’t have to run any training sessions. Crosby had taken training on the Monday and the match was Tuesday evening. 

So there's no pre-game prep on the Tuesday? And what about training for the next game? Its a pretty flimsy stick to beat DF with this one I'm afraid.

[Ryan Loft.]

5 hours ago, JohnDoe said:

Uche is an awful footballer. Not good enough. Being better than loft isn’t the criteria we should be judging players. 

That's very harsh. Unless you're Man City you're not going to have 11 footballers, you will have a team of 11 players with different strengths. Uche's strengths are there for all to see and he would be a big asset to us in our current circumstances. He would have taken some of the pressure off us 2nd half on Tuesday that's for sure.

[Synectics Sold]

8 minutes ago, robf said:

Can I add to that last paragraph? He also didn't step up, as the only person with managerial experience after we had removed Crosby, and take charge in the dugout as caretaker. 

In his defence on that one (I'm not trying to defend him on every count), how was he supposed to run training sessions, etc whilst trying to recruit a new manager? Surely that was his primary responsibility as DoF? I'm not sure I know of any DoF who has stepped in during those circumstances?  

[Darren Moore]

The fact that this thread exists beggars belief. In what other sport would the manager/coach come under fire after 2 weeks in a job, let alone the one that DM has taken on.

As for him not being the sharpest tool in the box, this is football folks or should we be looking towards Oxford or Cambridge University for our next manager?

[Synectics Sold]

44 minutes ago, Valiiant said:

 

Typical OVF patter. Criticising someone or asking questions can only be seen as "mocking". 

Who on earth has ever said she wasn't anything other than a great businesswoman here? 

Check out the responses to the vale twitter feed to her most recent award: "bit more PR for her", "No, no, no we need sort the club out first", "thank god she doesnt enjoy the limelight and just focuses on running a football club", "we're in a relegation battle f@%k this SH!t", "great news if only it was helping the club win games. get your head out of your arse and concentrate on the club ffs". Shall I go on? As for the comments on "The Wonder of You" fb page......check that out too.

[Synectics Sold]

Maybe time to stop mocking carol about her various business awards?

[Fleetwood (H) match thread - 27th Feb]

33 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

Fans fault as usual then….

Not for our current position no but between now and end of season we have to go with what we've got to stay in League 1. I'm assuming that's what everyone wants?

[Fleetwood (H) match thread - 27th Feb]

2 minutes ago, onestepatatime said:

Fans are the ones that are realistic  and accept exactly how poor we really are.

It's not over till its over. I know who I'd rather be stood next to in the trenches.

[Fleetwood (H) match thread - 27th Feb]

4 hours ago, werstayinup said:

Me and my lad will be there but as others have said I aren't expecting anything at all now,I feel they have all given up,I already have us down in my head so just going through the motions in the hope we can somehow come straight back up

I don't think the players and staff have given up but a lot of fans certainly have. I saw effort on Sat I just didn't see enough quality or confidence. These are the only guys who can keep us up so not sure what chants of you're not fit to wear the shirt are supposed to achieve.

[An Open Letter from Carol]

10 minutes ago, Emile said:

I feel for her but the optimism from the club has been drained since January 2023 when we looked like a club on the edge of the playoffs.

One shocking transfer window later and we lose our manager who really exemplified how the fans wanted us to be - desperate to win football matches, gave honest interviews and respected the fans. He was made the fall guy instead of a real investigation as to what went wrong and we scraped by the skin of our teeth.

Then, instead of taking the chance for change, Carol let DF give the manager's job to the assistant who was taking training since January and as responsible for the crap on the pitch as the previous manager. Two more dreadful transfer windows and that's that then isn't it.

She has started to make amends by getting a decent manager in 9 months too late. She can repair things even more with the fans by announcing DF is leaving at the end of the season and conducting a proper recruitment process for a head of recruitment/director of football. If that were to happen, regardless of what division we are in next season, fans will be more patient and forgiving. If she continues to back DF it's going to get worse here, particularly if we are relegated then it will become unbearable. I really hope she can see what she needs to do.

DC has publicly said he needed time out of the game to sort his life out which is more than understandable. I think we ought to bury the hatchet and stop blaming flitcroft and Carol on that one.

[Lincoln City (H) match thread - 24th Feb]

2 minutes ago, DazFred said:

Their player couldn't have been more than 5 yards away from the free kick he blocked for the goal. Useless ref and linesman...no surprise there

Doesn't matter if we decide to take a quick one and he doesn't deliberately attempt to block it. Massive own goal by us.

[Change of ownership]

8 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

Wow what an over the top reaction. 

I can't be arsed with it. It's not threatening to me whether someone identifies as a mushroom, non binary or whatever. 

Was merely asking in response to someone else does anybody from that community actually give two hoots a football has a rainbow on it. I'd suggest not. 

Forgive me it was Melbourne Valiant who was expressing strong views, its him/her (😉) I should have quoted.

[Change of ownership]

24 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

Does it though? 

I can't begin to speak for that community. But does having a rainbow ball send out any real message?

If anything it's almost patronising. 

I've got no strong feelings about stuff like this so I struggle to understand why people find it so offensive. Do you feel threatened by it? If so, why? It's hardly a force for evil? 😕 Maybe go and live in Russia if you feel that strongly.

[Flitcroft simple vote...]

9 hours ago, lydiatevaliant said:

Is that the same non-interfering DoF who then talked about how he had a word with Crosby about certain players being higher up the pitch?

There's a difference between interfering and offering advice, particularly if an inexperienced manager is asking for it. Its called mentoring.

[Lincoln City (H) match thread - 24th Feb]

How many posts before this turns into another flitcroft out thread? 😀

[Flitcroft simple vote...]

14 minutes ago, robf said:

That statement wasn't made. I used that result in an article and it was "83% of fans polled" never "83% of the fanbase". This is the article and headline...

I believe there may have been posts in here saying (incorrectly) it was "83% of the fanbase" but I don't believe I have written that. I am well aware that it was only a proportion of the fans.

So, just to be totally transparent. There were actually two votes on Flitcroft - one on the forum and one on the homepage. My results came from the homepage poll I put up. For total transparency that had 1,065 votes (as per this screengrab from the admin area):

I am well aware that number isn't the whole fanbase (which is why I have never claimed it was) but it's not a tiny number like 20 votes, I think over a thousand votes and an 83% result is a pretty decent indication of how the whole fanbase feels. 

EDIT: Oh and again for total transparency, just to add there were IP restrictions on the poll system I use to prevent someone voting loads of times. 

I hope that helps.

Thanks, I had not read that article but you can see how some fans would pick up on the 83% and use that figure without qualifying. I wasn't suggesting that you had done that.

My previous point still stands that 1,000 is still only about 10-20% of the 'interested' fan base and those that do vote are the ones that feel most strongly about it; those that are not necessarily calling for flitcroft's head probably still on the fence. 

[Flitcroft simple vote...]

52 minutes ago, robf said:

Aren't they? I'd say a portion of fans aren't online but "most" is a big claim. I reckon between this forum, Twitter and the Facebook groups there's probably comfortably well over half the fanbase. Just look at the numbers... not everyone is active but this site has 5,750 registered members, the official Twitter account is followed by 90k followers, Unofficial Vale by 5k... I don't use Facebook so no idea what those pages get. The comments on the Valiants newsletter broadly echo those on here. Clearly not all of those numbers are active Vale fans or Vale fans but I reckon it's more likely that we have more Vale fans actively online somewhere than not. 

And erm... that's backed up by the fact the club announce things online... signings, ticket prices, news is all online and the chief medium for doing so is social media via the club's Twitter account. Would there not be masses complaints from the "majority" of fans not on social media about the club announcing things on Twitter if that were the case? 

Anyway, even if that's not the case... was it just the "minority" of online Vale fans chanting Flitcroft out at games? Didn't sound like it to me. 

I see this site and other online places as like election polls. They are not the complete fanbase but I do think they give a really good indication of the views of the fanbase. Certainly over the years the majority views on here about previous owners, protests and the like have been usually reflected at games. I think OVF is a decent barometer. It's never 100% correct (what is) but the prevailing mood on here is normally there or there abouts. 

I also think the views on here are so clearly massively against the Flitcroft appointment that even if there is some skew, it would take a heck of a change of views between online and offline Valiants to make a difference. After all we're not talking a split vote - all the polls and the like on here say around eight out of ten fans think he should go. That's going take a heck of a swing from offline fans to change the overall view.

I'd be interested to know how many OVF users casted a vote on the recent poll that had many people concluding that 85% of the fan base wanted flitcroft out?

I think its fair to say that those who want flitcroft out are generally more vociferous and active on social media as they want to vent their frustration.

Plenty of fans like myself (because I speak to them) think flitcroft has a lot to answer for but don't have a personal vendetta against the guy and don't want to see things get ugly so choose not to add more fuel to the fire. As for the black and gold stuff; how flitcroft can be compared to that lot is bordering on hysterical.

Like I've said in previous posts, if you want flitcroft out, dont buy a season ticket until he's gone. If enough decide to do that then the club will have little choice but I cant support the growing hate campaign.