CambridgeDon

Blackburn now 3-0 after just 37 minutes - cue meltdown on P&G tonight Ha, now 3-1

Fleetwood one up at Lincoln

As it stands, think Stoke are one point off the bottom three, QPR winning

Blackburn two up

Up to 18th place and only 19 points off the play-offs 😀

Off topic, I nkow, but can't resist it - Blackburn one up 😀

And so did Cambridge, signing ex-Forest Lyle Taylor (3 goals and one assist now in 4 games) and Macauley Bonne on loan from Ipswich, two excellent signings. This followed the appointment of Neil Harris in early December so that he could look over the squad and bring in some extra firepower. I should add that this was after Cambridge, on smaller gates than the Vale, had recruited 3 new forwards in the summer to replace Knibbs and Smith who, already this season, have scored 24 goals and three assists in 90 games. The more you look objectively at the evidence, the more it puts our recruitment in the shade.

I think the optics of appointing Bonner would not look good - just sacked because the Cambridge Board had no confidence in him to keep them out of the relegation zone. And their decision to replace him with Harris is now looking fully justified as after a dreadful losing run under Bonner - and some decent signings in the window - they are now steadily moving up the table. We need someone who knows exactly how to win and equally as important how not to lose. Don't see that too much in Bonner to be honest.

Or fiddle while Rome burns 😀

After watching us on Tuesday, who could blame him? Just hope they are right - he'd be another very uninspiring appointment. After Rudge, we have only ever had success when we've appointed a proven manager with a successful track record - Horton, Adams and Clarke. Kennedy looks to me almost like a clone of Crosby - former coach and inexperienced as a manager. So, please, please, Vale - after the last twelve months or so, can we have some one who's going to get us out of our seats?

In time I hope that Carol will come to see this letter as wholly misjudged in both tone and content. It comes across as quite angry at what are the legitimate concerns of fans and, while most fans will understand everything she’s done for the club, she doesn’t seem to understand the dreadful failures in the transfer window or the appointment of Crosby, which is what is making people so angry. Carol has simply missed the essential point - the elephant in the room you might say - that the club lives or dies by what happens on the pitch. This is where it’s gone wrong - for too long now - and it's worrying that she doesn't seem to understand, let alone acknowledge, that this is what is making so many fans furious. It is the number one priority, way above anything else that might be desirable for the club. Please think again, Carol, because at the moment the footballing trajectory of the club is going in entirely the wrong direction.

Hopefully she will stay committed but her first priority is to find additional external investment for the club and to spend it on the playing squad - but absolutely not under Flitcroft's watch.

Yep, Bonner has no breadth of experience, essentially one team man, and in the end couldn't hack it in L1...Wiki sums it up for me: On 14 September 2023, Bonner signed a new "long term" contract with the club. On 29 November 2023, Bonner was sacked with the club sitting in 18th position, four points above the relegation zone. A 3–0 defeat to Lincoln City was the club's third defeat in a row, and they had picked up just one win in the previous thirteen league matches at the time of his departure. And in the end, he lost the fans, even with a 38% win ratio

Betcha they're all on iFollow 😀

There's no way that DF would put himself in the firing line for this game. Any more mistakes and he's gone, so fronting up this crucial game is out of the question. This is all about self-preservation.

In the short term my guess is we're going to be fine with Ryder and Co. My second guess is that DF is now in the last chance saloon after the second appalling January transfer window, not to mention the summer, and his complete misjudgement of the dire situation we're in. All will depend now on who he brings in and on what terms. And just a slight incentive for him: If we fail to recruit because he insists on keeping rigid control of all first team matters, his fate will be sealed. One decent manager out of two might pass muster but another appointment failure and he's done. Then there's the simple matter of the potentially huge amount of funding that our owners will have to find to put all this right...

The timing is bizarre. Perhaps the decision was contingent on the Fleetwood result and such an appalling defeat was the last straw. And perhaps the timing was deliberate, coming after the window and providing the club with the perfect alibi to avoid any additional spending. I suspect both. Let me contrast this with events here in Cambridge where Bonner was dismissed on 29 November and Harris appointed just a week or so later on 6 December, giving him time to judge the squad and line up some transfer targets: notably two experienced forwards in Lyle Taylor (3 goals and one assist in his first four games) and Macauley Bonne on loan from Ipswich. This is on top of the forwards they recruited in the summer to replace Knibbs and Smith, forwards who have gone on to score 24 goals in 88 games between them, excluding Taylor. This strikes me as a well run club and one that manages to do all this on smaller attendances than the Vale, perhaps an object lesson for our owners, Board and top management.

Duff, Wild, Eustace, Widdrington, Ainsworth, Cook would be a pretty impressive shortlist but could we afford any of them? If we go for yet another cheap appointment, I think my head would explode!

Lewk after theesen, yewth - tinner woth mekking theesen bad fer a game a footy 🙂👍

Free agents - the last refuge of the desperate 😀

Blessed is the man who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed (Oscar Wilde)

Ha ha - but in Smudger's case it should be pinch 😀

Crikey, fearsome look, Maybe we should go four at the back with Lopata and Smudge in the middle. Scary prospect!

Sincerely hope we don't play Willo upfront where he is going to get kicked to pieces with predictable results. He needs to play off a bigger forward who will take the physical weight off him.

He's going to win us a lot of free kicks, starting on Saturday hopefully