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Guitar Ray
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Posts posted by Guitar Ray
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3 hours ago, valefan16 said:
Nowadays we are probably a yoyo league 1-2 club, long gone are the days of the likes of us Grimsby, Crewe, Walsall being regulars in the second tier largely due to the finance required...
That said football does change quickly, if a mega rich owner came in to a club of our size the potential is there to grow it and push it up like your Rotherham's, Brentford's or Bournemouths but the key word there is investment from mega rich owners. Wrexham possibly the next example to break out of the doldrums into it.
To achieve that I think we would have to leave Vale Park or rebuild on it to an "arena" like Rotherham that could be a big money maker etc. New Stadia often increase the fan base too when you consider say Hull City for instance and what the KC Stadium did there (but we don't have a relatively decent rugby team to help make it viable).
Both times we’ve been relegated in recent times have been down to catastrophic recruitment. We had a steady side under Page before Sexman had a brainstorm then this season we failed to add the couple of players that would’ve been enough to keep us up. It would’ve been pretty straightforward to have avoided yoyoing in my opinion.
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17 hours ago, Rodge said:
Same here but we’ve decided to return to Railway Stand from The Hamil.You definitely won’t be alone on that score, one or two around us are making the same switch. A fair few I speak to in the Hamil are just moving within that stand, some further back to stand up and a few the complete opposite.
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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.
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1 minute ago, Spunk Trumpet said:
All of those mentioned, apart from Sang, are on over 2k a week.
Somehow we’ve got to ship them out. To have players who can’t cut it in league 2, on 2k plus a week, is a recipe for disaster.
Thankyou Mr. Flitcroft and Thankyou Mrs Shanahan for this total mess.
She has a hell of a summer rebuild because of her inability to keep her eye on the ball.
It is what it is.
How do you know they won’t cut it in league 2? Most of the players would be fine, that’s not to say great. The point being we can afford to retain some just as long as we bring in some decent players to augment those that stay. The biggest single issue this season was lack of goals. 2 half decent strikers would’ve been the difference. Uche and Loft simply didn’t score enough.
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37 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:
They had an off night with their star player out injured.
We had Alfie and Ollie. Take them out of our side and you have seen what you’ve got.I was there that night. Singing Stags are falling apart again.
It’s time we owned our own failings. Not only have we fallen apart we have been broken into pieces and Mansfield will be having the last laugh tonight.
And rightly so.You could also argue we did it with the same powderpuff forward line and leaky defence. The bottom line is that league 2 is far more forgiving than league 1.
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6 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:
I honestly think we should extend Lofts contract.
Give him two more years. And work with him.
Come 2027 we may get 5 goals from the bloke.
Give Massey an extension as well. Loved watching him this season. Full of goals and assists.
Glad we’ve got Ojo for 3 more years. I mean when the going gets tough you really want someone in the trenches like that lad!
Keep Debrah on. Another yard on that long throw and he’s a huge asset.
Iacovitti. “The Yak”. Give him 5 years. Silky smooth on a football. Can do things other footballers can’t. No, seriously. He actually can.
Grant. 3500 quid a week is a snip! A wand of a left foot. Sadly it’s stuck up Sootys backside.
Uche is definitely the way forward. He will come back as a monster truck in another life. Only he will probably mow over the fans.
Tom Sang. If football was karaoke he wouldn’t get another song again. Sang enough.
And Smith. 400 games. Here’s to the next 400. Because this club is absolutely going somewhere with a captain like him. He will be a world beater at pinching his strikers back in league 2.
For those knocking Darren Moore he will know what he’s been given and what we have to work with next season.
He’s here for the summer and he is going to build his side.
I’ll be amazed if anymore than 1 of those are in his plans for next season.
A lot of it will come down to length of contracts. I can’t see us paying all the contracted players off. Some of those players will be fine in league 2, if only as second choice.
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3 hours ago, Walka003 said:
She lost me when she backed Moore again. Loyalty Carol backing the wrong horse again.
He may be the right horse with his own squad of players. The least we should do is give Moore a couple of transfer windows.
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15 minutes ago, pvfc_loyal said:
Crewe might have gone close had that Offord not got injured. They've fallen apart after he got crocked. Maybe we should spend some of the lottery money on him
They’ve imploded lately but Crewe recruited some decent League 2 players if you look at their squad.
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6 minutes ago, rider1308 said:
Watched by a couple of thousand happy clappers !!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
You’ll not be there I assume.
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1 minute ago, Rory said:
I really hoped there would be an affordable way we could get rid of Moore but it certainly seems like it's not going to happen from that statement.
I would love for Port Vale to have someone like Mark Bonner in charge next season in League Two, having a right good go. Right now I can't help but feel that our future is bleaker than my own.
Our future shouldn't be bleak with the right players added in the summer. In my view both Crosby and Moore would’ve been able to keep us up if we had a ten or twelve goal forward on the books. I’d sincerely like to hope that your own future isn’t as bleak as you think Rory👍🏻
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1 hour ago, PV1993 said:
My personal opinion: we cannot just get rid of everyone, it doesn’t work like that. We’d have no money left to sign anyone decent by paying up. So got to be careful and think about who can do a job in L2.
don't forget, we were poor when we played Mansfield, who were unbeaten at the time and have stormed L2, and we played them off the park. There is a gulf between L2 and top half of L1. Our squad wasn’t good enough for L2 but I am confident that there are players there that have done or will do a job at a lower level.
All loan players go back (obviously). Don’t sign any - not been good enough.
Under contract players to keep:
Connor Ripley - two L1 relegations but stood out in both of those campaigns. Would easily be good enough for a promotion chasing L2 side
Nathan Smith - We know what he can do at L2 level. I do this we need a commanding Leon Legge type defender alongside him though. He’s not a leader to me.
Mitch Clark - been really unlucky this season. Get him back and he’ll be a good player for us
Ben Garrity - nothing more to be said. Got to build the squad around him. Make him captain for me. Just hope he doesn’t force a move or someone else comes in for him. At least we’d get some money though.
Ethan Chislet - copy and paste Garrity (bar the captaincy bit).
Funso Ojo - lost his way a bit but a more than good enough player - should run the show in L2 (look at the Mansfield game, they were top and unbeaten when we played them and we made them look average).
James Plant - we’re ruining him a bit by playing him more defensively. When he first broke through he was fantastic further forward. Let’s get him further up the pitch.
Shorrock/Lomax - loan them out
Baylee Dipepa - proved himself enough for a part to play in L2.
Jesse Debrah - I do like him. He’s young and has pace which none of our other defenders have. We can improve him, I just think NL to L1 was a step too far, so L2 should be good for him.
Under contract players to release/undecided
Dan Jones - we already know he is good enough for L2 having been promoted with us before, but he is too injury prone. Could go either way. With his fitness though, I don’t think he would want to end his contract, so might be stuck with him anyway
Tom Sang - trouble with Sang is, he’s becoming a bit of a jack of all trades. He’s not good enough defensively to be a full back or wing back, at least he wasn’t in L1. But he’s still young enough to develop and I’d like to see him in CM.
Ryan Loft - sorry, but a bit of work rate just isn’t enough. Although his strike rate in L2 does work out at one in four. I don’t know what his contract is like but if he’s a higher earner he needs to go. If not, he might be good in the squad.
Connor Grant - same as Sang. I’d love to see him in the middle, he is a tidy footballer. Not defensively good enough or quick enough out wide though.
Alex Iacovitti - sometimes he’s brilliant and sometimes he’s dire. I don’t think we can keep all the centre halves as we need to get at least one better commanding one in. He’d probably be there one of look to move on.
Out of contract players
Maybe keep Leutwiler as he can’t be on much and is a solid back up, but honestly I’d rather see a younger lad come in and learn.
Give that Wynne a game next week just to see what he’s about.
Keep the academy prospects if they’re good enough or want to stay.
Release the rest.
Even if all the under contracted players stayed, that gives us a squad of 16. If we add 9 quality additions of top of that, we’d probably be alright.
Aim to get a left wing back, and then an experienced CB (big commanding leader), CM (like Ryan woods at Exeter) and ST (Cameron Jerome?), and hope we can find some more young talent like Ollie and Alfie. Couple more strikers I think we’ll have a good squad for L2
Great post👍🏻
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1 hour ago, Sam Kelly's Left Boot said:
Regardless of players, I just want us to scrap this wingback bullshìt formation.
Play with proper wingers and attack and be positive, instead of this dull boring crap and not having a clue what to do when we hit the half way line because we have zero options going forward.
Oh and sign players for those actual positions, instead of signing players and playing them out of position for the entire season. It's suicide.
Didn’t we have wingbacks when we were promoted from League 2?
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Just now, valiant_593 said:
I haven’t seen anything to suggest this squad could compete at that level. Take Garrity and Chizzy out and it’s a non league side for certain. Mass clear out required, again.
The difference between the 2 divisions is pretty wide overall. For example Smith has a promotion from League 2 on his CV which would suggest he’s a decent player at that level. The youngsters, those we manage to keep, will look better in League 2. A few of the outfield players plus Ripley will be decent. I honestly believe that the nucleus is there. Definitely no need for a mass clearout but whatever happens any new additions have got to be established players if we’re to do well.
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It would depend largely on how much money we threw at it in the summer and probably again in the January window. The current squad has the nucleus of a decent league 2 outfit in my opinion but obviously our better players will be targeted by other clubs. Crewe have shown what can be achieved with some decent recruitment and a few young home grown players. No reason why we shouldn’t be able to emulate that.
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7 minutes ago, The Kalamazoo Kid said:
This season has certainly been a f***ing Tragedy!
The sad thing is it was so easily avoidable. The near miss of last season should’ve been enough of a kick up the backside for the powers that be to see what was needed, but no, some deluded footballing genius decided he had a master plan, we were suddenly going to play football in the style of Man City, but then he forgot to recruit the players to do so.
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Not read through all this topic but I’d be fairly confident that much of this squad would be OK at League 2 level. No doubt we’ll lose some of our better players, maybe all. The biggest issue is that we still need 3, maybe even 4, strikers and if we do lose Garrity & Chiz then that’s a fair few extra goals we’ve got to find on top. Add the goals plus a bit of extra pace and power and we’ll be rayt. Oh, and you always need a sprinkle of good luck.
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Very much from the heart. We’re all feeling the pain and frustration. Frustration that relegation could so easily have been avoided. Onto next season and its not just up to Carol, the staff and the players, it’s also up to the fans to stick with the club through the bad times as well as the good.
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On 17/04/2024 at 20:36, Packmoor_vale said:
I’m the same I’ve thought about going back in the stand but the thought of not being able get a pint before or at half time puts me off I’m staying in the Hamil
Yes all those pints have been essential this season.
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On 17/04/2024 at 20:03, Spunk Trumpet said:
It’s not an “old chestnut” though is it? It’s still raw considering it was only one year ago.
The point being that from that point, give or take a few weeks, the club has been sinking like a ship ever since.
Good people at this club have been tossed aside like yesterdays news. Colin being one.I said all along Carol was being gaslighted by Flitcroft. I’ll stand by that forever and a day. And it’s not an easy thing to come to terms with once you realise it.
Her relationship with Colin always seemed strong. And especially Clarke.It was a sad end and the start of our ultimate demise unless an absolute miracle happens on Saturday.
Still raw after a year? Sorry, but are you related to the guy or have you gone soft? What will be raw is the feeling I’m likely to have at full time tomorrow barring some sort of fluke, not an ex-employee, albeit well regarded, from a year past.
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Just now, Valiiant said:
I get that. And doing so was her biggest mistake. Mistakes happen, and can be forgiven. Just want her to take accountability for her actions this season and show us all she's determined to put things right. She was taken for a mug by Flitcroft and she can't let that happen again, for her sake or the clubs.
As you say, mistakes happen, and can be forgiven. But what’s to forgive? An error of judgment. So what do you want? Some sort of grovelling apology for that? Why not simply let the club have their inquest, as per Matt Hancock, and state their findings. Discuss. Move forward. End of.
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What’s to be gained from dragging this old chestnut up? Whatever the circumstances behind CG leaving he isn’t the reason we’ve been relegated.
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1 hour ago, Valiiant said:
Having the wool pulled over your eyes is one thing. People make mistakes. But standing by that person to save face, further damaging the season, for as long as she did, while also trying to justify her decisions and tell everyone else just how very wrong they were, is something else entirely.
Maybe you’re standing by that person with the wool still firmly pulled over your eyes though.
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We’ll renew as normal the only question was in which stand. I did think about moving from the Hamil but we were talking about it again last night at the game and the consensus in our small group was to give it another season.
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1 hour ago, Fosse69 said:
Relegation is part of football, setbacks are part of business, learn from it and move on.
Very easy to say, but I just repeated your sentence and found my fist had punched a hole in a nearby stud wall. I’ll be needing some patch plaster before I can learn from it and move on. 😖
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Summer transfer rumours and speculation
in Port Vale present
Posted
For me I’d like to see a bit more flexibility rather than just recruit for a style. One of the problems this season seemed to be we were so wedded to a system that we couldn’t deviate much. It didn’t help that we hadn’t recruited all the players we needed to play the style chosen by the DoF, but that’s another story.