Tamworth

Yep... Who is that bloke anyway and what is he smoking, as I definitely need some of that.

I'm probably getting hysterical now but there's some potentially interesting grounds mentioned in this topic that I've never been to before for next Season. I've been to several with old University mates way back when but far from most of them. So, I wouldn't say I am enthusiatic about it but..

I can't believe some of these comments here suggesting we will be comfortable in relegation. This Club simply can't exist financially in this situation given its player budget and overheads - it has to put all its efforts into going back up within one Season, else the Shanahans will be financially overwhelmed. Whether Moore can do it or not remains to be seen but I very much hope so for all our sakes...

Not very inspiring considering our situation.

I thought they might suprise us with some effort at the end of the Season but no chance. A fitting end to a consistently poor perfomance from a side that just doesn't care. I've been supporting them since the early 80's, so I've had some ups and downs along the way but this was truly shameful...

It's staggeringly pants as far as perfomance goes. Beyond shameful. Oh well, there's always next Season...

Interesting, it works outside the UK. Annoying then.

You can listen to Radio Stoke on the Internet or on your phone via the BBC app. That definitely works well overseas also for most programming.

I actually do live overseas, so no problem for me but it works against me in in other ways when wanting to access UK content on other services and I can tell you the VPN solution isn't always successful, as the more sophisticated operators are wise to that. There are always ways of course but you quickly get into challenging IT work arounds that most people wouldn't be comfortable with, or even capable of doing. Alternatively, I might just come over more often and put in a personal appearence. I miss the Bull's Head pre-game session in particular...

We keep going around in circles here. We don't know whether Darren Moore is the guy for us or not, so we have to find out. As I've said before, he should have the minimum of one transfer window and the first few months of the next Season to prove himself. Then we can all make informed comments and the Owners can make an informed decision, based on real data, as to how to proceed in League 2, ie. with him or not. This in itself will be a major improvement on recent decision making... So let's see where we are in the New Year.

Don't feed the troll...

Could be true but I feel you are ignoring the elephant in the room - we were doing what you advise and we got relegated... Now we need to do what works to get back up, so talking to people who know the Club and have done this before sounds like a plan. We certainly don't need another Flitcroft like horrow show.

Oh give it a rest, I could give anyone here a good go in the disability/illness Olympics but that's not the issue, is it? The issue is they got rid of Colin Garlick and failed to come up with an adequate replacement, either individually or collectively. You can get away with arrogance if you are a super star yourself but as we've seen, sadly that is clearly not the case here. Until we sort out the governance of the Club, both on and off the pitch, then we are not going anywhere, and relegation is the proof of this. Hopefully it looks like we may now have realised that and are beginning to make the necessary changes but then I always was a notorius optimist..

Quite. As I've said elsewhere, we need to give Moore the chance to prove himself in the next window and then the first part of next Season before we can make an informed decision on his worth. I wish him wisdom and luck, he'll need it..

Flippin heck. Why do they make it so hard to support them?

I'm not slagging him off. I said give him one transfer window to see how good he is. As you say, that doesn't mean he can transform the team given what he's starting with but we have to be sure he's going in the right direction - we (they've) managed to put the Club on its knees and so we need to start the rebuilding right now. Life's hard...

The thing is though, we can't get back up without the right players, so yes, the Owners will have to spend some more of their money but then one could argue they are responsible for this predicament due to their poor management choices... Life's hard etc.

Definitely only one transfer window. We will know by then whether he's the guy for us and we can't risk more failure just to be 'nice'. The Vale needs to find it's ruthless side, from the Owners down.

Thanks for the summary philpvfc - it looks like we are getting the performance we should have expected given that record. I hope for better next season but it doesn't look like he is the guy to do what will be required unless Carol can throw a lot of money at the Club for new signings but even then... Depressing to say the least.

I think the consensus is that he was dealt a poor hand but also that he has repeatedly failed to make the best of it. I wonder how the recruitment will work now, as that's obviously key, irrespective of whether Moore or anyone else is in charge of the matches next season.

But apart from that...

This thread has certainly covered some ground between criticism and adulation. via everything in between...

There's clearly other things going on that would explain the whole vibe of the Club, both on and off the Pitch, changing as it has. We're not in a good place and what happens over the Summer will be crucial to the future of the Club.

As you say, he needs to be able to put together his own team before anyone can properly judge him. All we can infer for the moment, is that his past performance should mean he will do significantly better than he is now. We keep coming back to the central point that, between them, Flitcroft, Clarke and Crosby managed to collectively destroy the Team and now we need to rebuild.

There's a big difference between personal abuse and justified criticism. What I've seen on here (at least) is the latter, even if sometimes (and inevitably) emotional in it's delivery. As you say yourself, some of her statements have been unacceptable and it's quite right that she's called out on them. OK, she's been badly advised and let down by Flitcroft and others who have got us into our present predicament but the buck stops with her and she needs to learn some hard lessons. Not least, that the fanbase has already learnt those hard lessons over the years and doesn't appreciate being ignored, especially when it leads directly to our present predicament. Owning and running a Football Club, particularly at the less exalted end of the Foorball League, is far from a conventional business exercise. So, she needs to find a way to make the management of the Club more inclusive in the future for both her and our sakes...