[January Transfers and Rumours]

11 minutes ago, robf said:

I wondered if he was fit, wanting to play etc but judging from the Charlton press release he has been training for a couple of weeks which means he must be there or thereabouts. 

I completely agree with you @MBE if he was fit and looking for a club he should have been exactly the sort of proven forward Vale should have been looking to add. 

I think considering our desperation for a striker we've definitely missed out there.

Perhaps we "nearly" signed him. 

[January Transfers and Rumours]

20 minutes ago, SFBT said:

What's this pace thing that you speak of? 🤔

It's a phenomenon only ever normally seen around the Hamil road area post match in my attempt to beat May Street Chippy queues. You should see the steam on my shoes. 

[January Transfers and Rumours]

Just been talking to a couple of forest fans who said that Mighten played Central striker all the way through their academy and has played there a few times for the first team. They mainly played him wide in the first team to bed him in, but they say he was very good in academy up front and his pace frightens people and its probably his more natural position. 

They cheered me up slightly, but you can guarantee that we'll play him left back regardless. 

[January Transfers and Rumours]

5 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Aside from all these rumours of our good players being moved on, has anyone heard anything about us getting anyone else half decent in or offloading more duffers? 

Only rumors I've heard recently are Dan Gore and Dale Taylor. Not sure how accurate!

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

17 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

He's fond of criticising fellow pros, isn't he?

Yeah - that was one of the contradictions for me, he was keen to point out that he was a really supportive and positive influence to have on the team in the difficult times, and how he would approach things with an arm around the shoulder - yet he couldn't help but put the boot in on others (Richie Bennett in particular, who he said that he got on with) and pretty much said that he downed tools under Askey at the point when Vale probably needed him to be a positive influence about the place the most.

I don't know how I would be acting in the circumstances and I'm not slating him here, but I think that he is talking emotionally and things are a bit too raw at the moment so he is looking at things with a very particular perspective -  he has been going through a very difficult time and everyone deals with things differently.

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

Wow. That was actually very hard to listen to in the end. Still love Tom Pope and it left me feeling like professional football in general needs to think a lot harder about the mental health impacts on players and how to support them better - their careers and futures are relatively unpredictable and things come to a full stop so quickly. Tom is absolutely gutted and angry about how things have gone and it is easy to understand how he feels.

I am certain that there is another side to all of the stories that Tom told as there are a lot of contradictions in what he has said, particularly about his exit and I can see lots of reasons why it ended how it did - the new manager would have had a completely different perspective on things (Team underperforming, Tom underperforming / unfit (he said himself that he was drinking a lot at the end under Askey),he is a big old school character, recent suspensions due to twitter, his general attitude probably wasn't a fit with the 'professional' approach that is so important to DC)

Vale fans should be pleased that we had a goalscorer as good as Tom to get us out of the mire as much as he did and sad that he feels this way at the end of his career.