ValeForever.

It's getting really depressing now. We can't even grind out draws. We're getting well beaten every single game & the matches are coming thick & fast. February was always going to be make or break & unfortunately, we're broken. Plan for League 2 now, there's not a chance this lot stop up. Poor at the back, non existent up top, lack of anything on the bench. Even Garrity won't save us. That 3 nil v Blackpool will be our last win of the season. We look absolutely shot. All that hard work, all that emotion & passion to get ourselves promoted. All down the toilet. It reeks. Only tiny bit of light right now is that I'd like to think Darren Moore would have us hard to beat in League 2. Is anyone else concerned that they've not announced his backroom team yet... seems to be dragging out massively. Could the whole thing collapse? We're the one club I wouldn't put that past.

Lost count of the amount of games we've lost by a single goal this season. Can see us falling the wrong side of a tight game again tonight. We simply don't have enough characters. Hoping I'm wrong but 2-1 Reading. Late consolation goal from Wils.

Hypothetically question, last game of the season. Vale, or another team facing the drop. A group of ppl decide to go to the Reading game for the sole purpose of invading the pitch to activate Reading's points deduction & secure survival for their own team. I'm not saying this would happen, but stranger things have gone on in football. How does the EFL work that one out?

I'd go 442 & try to become more difficult to break down. Need to fix one thing at a time & get points ticking over. Ripley Debrah RB Lowe CB Smith CB Jones/Yak if Jones is crocked LB Massey RW Sang/Garrity if fit CM Ojo CM Mighten LW Chislett in the hole roaming behind Wilson CF Can't see us getting anything at Reading but some absolutely huge home games coming up that are now pretty much in the must win category. Lincoln, Fleetwood & Shrews.

Lewis Cass scored for Stockport today on his full debut. Would you believe it.

I'm not saying it to console myself. Nobody wants relegation & it would be a massive hit like you say, but do I think we'd be scraping around fighting for survival in League 2 like last time... no. I think we'd rebuild & bounce back faster than we did last time we dropped. I'm not saying relegation is okay, it's really not. But if we do drop I think we're better placed as a club to be okay in League 2. I certainly don't envisage us dropping out of the Football League like we almost did on multiple occasions last time. I'm just trying to look at things longer term. At the moment whether we like it or not, we're a top half League 2/bottom half league 1 club. It's no massive surprise that we find ourselves in exactly that kind of position. Next managerial appointment is massive.

Carol, that is a superb letter. Ultimately herself & Kevin own the club & they deserve our respect. As owner of the club she had every right to entrust Flitcroft with the job she bought him in to do. We are unrecognisable from when he first came to the club, nobody can deny that. The message is loud & clear. He's here to stay, Carol's here to stay. There will be ups & downs (potentially even a relegation along the way) but ultimately we are working to improve the club over the long term. The letter rubber stamps this. Whether you agree with her or not, you have to respect her opinion & she's right about the potential protests. Very subtly hinting that potential managers will be looking at that before they make a decision to join us. DF is no Norman. He may have appalling interpersonal skills & he might come across like a used car salesman at times with the language he spouts, but ultimately he will be doing his best for this club. Even when that's not good enough (Jan transfer window). I hope we can come together as a fan base. We might go down. Does anybody want that to happen, absolutely not. Would we be in a much stronger position to bounce back, yes absolutely. The journey continues. Ultimately you either come along for the ride or you don't.

Benning was <ovf censored>, and so is Grant. Wouldn't have either of them anywhere near the first 11. But we are where we are!

We literally announced his signing though. Why would we have offered him a contract if we didn't think he was good enough?

I was very confident that the Tommy McDermott post wouldn't be the last we heard from the club yesterday. I am flabbergasted that we haven't bought in a striker, genuinely. Feels very much like something slipped through the net last minute. I think they will use Mighten up top. We've taken a massive risk. It's going to be a ride between now & the end of the season. The kids have to step up & that's a huge risk.

Think this news probably solidifies the rumours about the young lad from Barnsley. Has played for the Polish national team at youth levels. On paper seems a sensible signing with Williams going back. You could tell from ACs interview at the weekend Rhys was absolutely nowhere near it. Does raise the question why he signed in the first place & definitely makes us look a bit desperate. It's going to have to be a busy afternoon/evening at the Vale. What a huge week this is for the club & our future direction. Signings needed & points required, urgently.

What an unbelievable bit of media that is from the club. The bloke normally announces the biggest transfers in World football. Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar etc. He has 30 million followers. Brilliant exposure for the club. The bloke is a huge name in World football. The fact he has tweeted about us 3 x this past week is quite astonishing. It really does feel like some of the hard work is beginning to pay off in terms of changing people's perceptions of Port Vale as a football club. It was always going to take somebody taking a punt on us to get the ball rolling, & I think we got that shot when Spurs gave us Alfie. We clearly did a great job with him, as well as Ollie, & it has started the ball rolling. We are in a great position to be able to pretty much guarantee these players first team football at League 1 level & we now have the evidence to back those claims up. The tide is turning & we are clearly making progressive steps. I think there's lots of things behind the scenes that are playing a part. The loan lads all live in a house together, they have the foodie footballer going in & walking them through how to cook their own nutritious meals, look after themselves & help with recovery. We've now got the T-Zone, the ice baths, the family area where their parents & friends can enjoy the match. They are really well looked after. I also think our run in the Youth Cup last year will have really helped. I went to the Liverpool game where we somehow got beat 1-0. We played them off the park for large parts of that game. No doubt they will have been impressed with what they witnessed & word travels fast in footballing circles. If you'd have told me before the season that we'd have 3 current England under 20 players joining us on loan this season, in addition to a lad that's played in Liverpool's 1st team & Champions League football, I'd have laughed it off. Massive credit to the club for starting to turn the tide & change opinions to help improve us. I'm really excited for the future. I think if we can stabilise & keep making small improvements & progress in the next couple of years, we'll be in a really good position to have a go at sniffing around the higher echelons of League 1.

Dan Gore training with Vale today apparently. You cannot help but be impressed by the difference in our loans this season compared to last. Alfie & Ollie have both done well for us & now we've drafted in what looks to be another couple of England youth players who you'd expect to be at a similar level to Alfie & Ollie. Weir as well, on paper is a super signing when you look at his stats in a poor Morecambe side last year. Really impressive. We just need a few perms through the door now to really strengthen us.

He's just assisted Barrow's first goal. Shock.

Very promising when Fabrizio is tweeting about it...

This Jake Young rumour seems to have gained some noise the past 24 hours for some reason. Has somebody claimed to be in the know? I'd be very surprised if he ends up with us based on the fee Bradford are supposedly asking. Very very surprised. The Dale Taylor one is more likely for me, we were definitely in for him over the summer & although he's done okay, he might want to move back closer to home. He also knows Crosby from the under 21s. Seems like Uche is a done deal. As I've said before, if we've made 100K from that deal then massive kudos to the recruitment team for basically generating money out of thin air. I thought Crosby's interview yesterday was very telling when he said there have been enquiries for a number of our players. I'm not doom mongering but you'd have to think that Garrity is right at the top of that list based on his goals & performances. I wouldn't be at all surprised if teams have enquired about Chislett as well. His goals & assists have been really impressive after moving up to this level. Let's hope we can keep hold of both until next season. Next couple of weeks should be interesting. I'd expect us to be quite busy in the market with both ins & outs.

I think it's fair to say before the Charlton game, most Vale fans would've driven Uche to the Valley themselves. This sudden clamour that we can't do without after 1 x solid performance is mind boggling. If we get money for him, it's an absolutely unbelievable bit of business by the Vale.

Peterborough signed Ricky Miller.

I think he has every right to play the injury card based on how he's been treated at Bradford. They shipped him out on loan to Swindon because Mark Hughes didn't fancy him & he proceeded to tear up League 2. They've now recalled him hoping for the same in a Bradford shirt & the lad clearly wants to leave his options open based on League 1 clubs sniffing around him. Fair play to him I say, would be pleasantly surprised & delighted if he rocked up at Vale.

Jake Young "pulled up in training" for Bradford on Friday, so he couldn't play any part on Saturday for them. Very interestingly, if he had played for Bradford on Saturday, he'd have been ineligible to play for another football league club this season having already played for Swindon. He's clearly sniffing a move!

I'm not sure we will see Garrity again this season. Sounds like he has been playing with a knock for some time & it has eventually caught up with him. A hugh loss to us. He has been outstanding for us since he joined the club, potentially goes down as one of our best signings in terms of importance, based on the fact we had zero expectations when he signed for the club. Credit to himself & the recruitment team. He's probably made the decision to fix it permanently, rather than get bandaged up & come back in a rush. Maybe squeeze a few games in before the end of the season to test his recovery, but not back full tilt until next season, if we can keep hold of him in the summer. He will 100% have suitors. Big shoes to fill. If you'd have asked me 3 weeks ago which 4 players I'd not want to lose from our starting 11, it would've been Arblaster, Ojo, Garrity & Ripley. 3 of those now gone/out for the foreseeable. A real test.

Tribunal. Which is probably why we gave him game time, as it should help up the fee they pay to us.

They also have a highly rated young lad in defence who plays for England at youth level. They're expecting to bag around 10 million for him, with Barnet expected to take a 50% cut of that, if & when he is sold. 5 million to a club like Barnet is transformational. As is 30 million to a club like Peterborough.

I've also heard Walters will be going to Stoke. Pretty sure Leon Constantine is his agent. I think we did everything we could to tempt him to sign with us. Including throwing him in & giving him first team starts, which is probably the only thing we could offer him which Stoke cannot. Giving him game time would've been the last card we could play & it doesn't look like it's persuaded him or his agent. The fact he's been left out by Crosby the past few games would suggest it's a done deal & we are cutting ties. It's a foolish move IMO, but he's probably been promised the world by Stoke & he doesn't have to move home. I'd like to think we leaned on the Will Forrester situation to show him that there's clear evidence of talented youngsters leaving that club due to a lack of game time & opportunities. Only time will tell whether he's made the right call, but he obviously sees it as the next step in his development. Still a very young lad & will no doubt go straight into their under 23 setup. They have quite a bit of pull with their under 23s based on the quality of opposition they are playing. They regularly play all the top dogs including the top European clubs, PSG etc. We simply cannot compete with that unfortunately.

I'd like to see Sang in the middle myself, in his proper position; but agree an extra head with some quality wouldn't go amiss with them pair out for the next month or so. Arguably been our best 2 x players this season. Everyone has an opinion on Crosby but it's pretty clear to me that he is an unlucky manager. I know ppl say you make your own luck, but for them pair to both pick up injuries around a busy Xmas schedule really is rotten. Just as Wilson is coming back as well. I'm not sure he's ever played his best 11, & if he has it's only been a couple of times max.