1

We’re going to finish top bottom because we have the worst best players and the lowest highest budget.

Yak will be fine in L2. Grant will have more time to pick a pass and the pace of the game is slower. I'm not saying keep them but they can contribute in L2. Ojo will look like Pirlo if his head is on right.

white and gold to bring back the old memories.

We could do worse than James Gibbons. He tore Swindon and Mansfield to ribbons. He left with high stock, but a classic Vale crock. An upgrade on recent provisions?

I'm going to go for 84 pages before a new player is signed. 120 by signing 2.

I don’t get the logic of finishing 2nd bottom, having the chance to move on and signing up for more. Unless this squad has 10/11 new faces in it through rotation and gap-filling there’s no way we do anything next season, and resigning players just makes that less likely. Of course Willo might still come back as well, that’s happened before.

Vale sign Fejiri Okenabirhie, A striker with flair, I agree. With a flick of his toe, He'll make the goals flow, And lead Vale on a victory spree.

Pace, wingers, full backs (not wing backs), strikers, central defenders, not too old, not too young, cheap, better than what we have, played in L1 but happy to play in L2, don’t down tools, leader, able to make the step up if we go back up, strong, sell on possible, NOW

Season Teams relegated from League 1 Promoted the next season 2009-10 Northampton Town, Crewe Alexandra, Cheltenham Town, Hereford United None 2010-11 Dagenham & Redbridge, Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Swindon Town Swindon Town 2011-12 Exeter City, Rochdale, Wycombe Wanderers, Chesterfield None 2012-13 Bury, Hartlepool United, Portsmouth, Scunthorpe United None 2013-14 Stevenage, Shrewsbury Town, Notts County, Carlisle United None 2014-15 Notts County, Crawley Town, Leyton Orient, Yeovil Town None 2015-16 Colchester United, Crewe Alexandra, Blackpool, Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers 2016-17 Coventry City, Swindon Town, Port Vale, Chesterfield None 2017-18 Rochdale, Oldham Athletic, Northampton Town, Milton Keynes Dons None 2018-19 Plymouth Argyle, Scunthorpe United, Walsall, Bradford City None 2019-20 Tranmere Rovers, Southend United, Bolton Wanderers, Stevenage None 2020-21 Bristol Rovers, Swindon Town, Rochdale, Northampton Town None 2021-22 Gillingham, Doncaster, Wimbledon, Crewe Alexandra None 2022-23 MK Dons, Morecambe, Accrington Stanley, Forest Green Rovers Only MK in mix 3 out of 56 if MK Dons get promoted 1.7% bounce back success Big challenge ahead

Anyway it’s only negotiations and there’s a long way to go. They might offer him half a packet, he tells them to sod off, he’s out the door Tuesday.

We need strikers who can score. I’m all for a cult hero but this guy hasn’t scored a goal has he? You can talk about the modern striker, not his fault, no supply, injuries etc. but he’s had his chance and giving him another year or 2 won’t change the basic facts. Look at Willo, rubbish in L1, give him another year, rubbish in L1. It’s mind-boggling honestly. Actively going into another season with Loft and Uche on the books, voluntarily.

They will be. Behind closed doors all sorts of conversations will be taking place. Taking calls and making calls. They’re not going to put a billboard outside Vale Park.

Apart from Uche, everything else is not only obvious but all the club can do at this stage. No other renewed contracts, we’re discussing options with other players, which means: . Some we want to stay, who want to go . Some we want to go, who want to stay . Some we want to go, who want to go, but they need somewhere to go What do people expect? Paying up contracts doesn’t happen and it’ll take weeks for them to assess their options. If it had said “and this is our group, we’re just going to fill the odd gap” that’s completely different. Moore will be telling players they aren’t wanted or needed, in nicer words, but as long as they’re contracted it’s a negotiation. Negotiations take time. Will Lowe, Grant, Jones, Sang, Yak ALL be at the club come kick off? No. Will SOME be? Yes.

I think Crosby would have kept us up potentially. But keeping him would have meant keeping Flitcroft, meaning we’d be going through this next season if not worse. The remedy is in the poison; take the relegation and rebuild on firm foundations. Our potemkin village was always going to have an expiry of one L1 season.

Reading to liquidate, Cambridge to field 2 ineligibles, Fleetwood and Stevenage win, one of those teams forfeit their ground lease so they’re auto relegated under league rules, Bolton lend us some points for selling them our only defender for magic beans, and perhaps the hardest part to secure … a Vale win. Last chance saloon this.

Chizzy will want to play and score I’d imagine, as wouldn’t that be 10 league goals for the season. Nice round number. He could go for 15 but let’s get the 10 in the bag first.

The goalkeeping was a prime concern and almost sent us down last season. That warning caused the recruitment team to earmark and secure a first choice goalkeeping target in the summer. I think something similar will happen this season and we’ll see a striker target secured early. Well put it this way, if we don’t start the season with decent striker options in 24/25 after the way this season’s gone then nothing will convince them to fork out for a striker.

There should be some sort of rule for preventing teams blatantly ruining the competitive edge of the league in the latter games. Didn't Bristol Rovers go up with exactly the required score line, beating Scunny about 314-0 on the last day? Not sure what the rule would be / policing, but it's becoming more of an issue.

Tyrone Loran, anyone remember him?

Or summer, or previous jan, or previous summer

And of course we got him in peak ‘Vale condition’ - injured, unavailable, and lacking fitness

The biggest mistake of all the mistakes was sacking Darrell Clarke. His stock just rises and rises as more of what he had to contend with at the time becomes unravelled.

We had a competitive budget this year, it was just spent unwisely by those who were supposed to be the football and recruitment experts. Short of Carol scouting the players herself I don’t know what else she could do. She could have gotten rid of Crosby and Flitters earlier, but she’ll learn from that. Her biggest mistake has been leaving others in place too long to make too many mistakes with the first team. I do think this relegation will have caused a big wake up call for her decision-making and I wouldn’t be surprised if she got more hands with exactly how the budget is being spent - in terms of holding them constantly and firmly to account. Regarding intentions, financial input and everything else that goes into ownership, she’s got our best interests at heart and she’s obviously the right person to lead us back to L1. Sang, Grant, Lowe, Ripley, Uche, Loft etc. will not have been cheap. There was plenty of money there I’m sure to get a decent striker without having no support players to fund it. She gave the recruitment team the funds and they squandered it. Signing Uche and Loft proves we could have got decent strikers for the funds available. That’s part of my anger with this whole mess; it’s not just a rubbish squad, but an expensive group that are going to be hard to shift before their contracts run out.

He was injured on international duty. Still is injured. Didn’t realise he was still injured.

Someone who's departure has been overlooked somewhat, due to the lament for Ollie and Alfie, is Josh Thomas. He was getting better and knew where the net was. Not only fast, but also chased, which are two different things. Would have grabbed more goals than those who replaced him. Ah well.