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mr.hobblesworth

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Posts posted by mr.hobblesworth

    Club accounts

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    I'm not really a finance kind of person but do these accounts cover the period where Carol said we were massively overspending and needed to turn the taps off for a bit? If so, would that mean we may be in a slightly better situation this season (or at least would have been if we hadn't had the pitch and the Crosby/ Flitcroft pay-offs to deal with)?

    League one relegation watch

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Shropshire_Valiant said:

    Some good points and generally I agree.  I think the reliance on loans has come back to bite us(2nd half of the season).  Whilst one of the things I applaud Flitcroft for was perhaps brokering those relationships with 'big clubs', and they are useful to have you should never rely on loanees as your best players. They should be a bonus to your permanent players.  OK in Arblaster and Devine they became 2 of our best players which is great, but when they inevitably leave(as they are both Championship standard players and above possibly even at 18-20 yo) it shouldn't rip the heart out of the team and leave you with a poor and unbalanced squad.  Lets be honest we weren't a brilliant side with them both playing 90% of the time.

    Weir and Gore(although we've not seen him really) were never going to hit those standards.  That's no slight on either of them or Vale in the loan market but it's shows how sadly lacking the club has been in the permanent transfer market since we've been in league one.

    Also, having so many games postponed due to call ups and then having to replay them once those decent players had been recalled. Maybe a bit of fuzzy logic on my part but it's certainly contributed to our current position.

    • Like 1

    League one relegation watch

    in Port Vale present

    Posted · Edited by mr.hobblesworth

    Has Gore been spotted at the games at all? Wouldn't injured players still be expected to show their faces at at least some matches?

    If not, I wonder if the injury story is a smokescreen to distract from off-the-field issues?

    League one relegation watch

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    23 hours ago, Doha said:

    Ultimately it would the club's fault for failing to make adequate Jan signings.

    Every bugger else managed it. Cambridge have 9 strikers. Just beat Barnsley and Wigan away over 3 days to move clear. Our dysfunctional relationship with strikers failed to be rectified and the ramifications are imminent.

    Trying to spin it in summer 23 when we ballsed up that window too with "we'll get goals from midfield instead" was a load of utter <ovf censored> <ovf censored>.

    Quite how David Flitcroft - David <ovf censored> Flitcroft! - thought he'd stumbled upon some kind of cheat mode for squad assembly is beyond my understanding. 

    Summer transfer rumours and speculation

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    43 minutes ago, Fosse69 said:

    But Wrexham have more commercial income which increases their Fair Play spending limits?

     

    42 minutes ago, PVFC764 said:

    Clubs can be wealthy and have the most expensive players.  But if they don't play as a team and for each other, then it wont work.  

    Seen in several rich clubs and too many divas in them.

    My point was merely that for a sought after player, Stockport can easily afford to out-bid us. That's a fact. 

    Summer transfer rumours and speculation

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

    Thinking outside the box could mean a player like Conn-Clarke from Altrincham to replace Chislett if we get relegated and he leaves

    I know some will moan as he is from Altrincham and tbf I have only seen him on tv but i have a mate who has had to watch him a lot over the last couple of months,he is still only 22 i think and he has been one of the star players in the national league this season

    I imagine that we stand absolutely zero chance of getting him now. Even if a championship club isn't sniffing around, the likes of Wrexham and Stockport would easily outbid us.

    Option for DOF or similar role

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    1 hour ago, JRC said:

    If Rudge has some input it will probably be Foyle. Certainly a nice guy with a deep love of football. 

    Foyle stabbed Rudgie in the back. Was well aware of his imminent sacking and went along with it in the knowledge that he would stand to benefit. 

    • Confused 2

    PVFC Meet delegation of fans regarding current concerns

    in Port Vale present

    Posted

    20 minutes ago, Bede said:

    I wrote the following account yesterday but decided to sleep on it before posting.  I feel I must now clarify, given the responses since the release of the official statement.

    OK, so to first explain how this has come about.  I am the co-founder of the Black & Gold Group, but also current sitting Secretary of the Supporters' Club.  The SC, B&G and NLV have all been interwoven for many years, simply because we are all Vale fans with the same ultimate aims.  We all offer differing viewpoints on things but remain active together to provide a widespread view on situations. B&G have remained active, albeit in the background, for many years, mainly as observers and researchers.  With my SC hat on, we have been increasingly frustrated with everything at the club, same as everyone else.  We therefore requested a committee meeting a couple of months or so ago with the inclusion of Matt Hancock, who has offered himself up to the SC as the conduit between us and the club.  The relationship between SC and club has drifted apart as we feel that the club have not wanted to engage with us, and it seems that they have hijacked events that the SC have traditionally held, on behalf of the fans.  We all feel that the club are trying to control everything.  This meeting was intense.  I'm not slow at coming forward with my views, and neither is Paul Dixon, and Matt got absolute pelters.  To his credit, he took it all very well.  Never argued, never complained, never flounced off or made excuses.  He took it all in.

    Following that meeting, Mark Porter, Paul Dixon, and I have remained in constant contact with Matt, intensely pointing out the level of unrest amongst the fanbase.  He could quite easily cease communications with me because I have hardly been complimentary at times, but I have tried to reflect the level of anger, frustration, disappointment, and downright disengagement from the club.  Matt has actively sought to understand all of that.  We then held another meeting with Matt to delve a little deeper into the supporter discontent.  This then led to Matt setting up a meeting with Carol for him relay the mounting concerns to her, with her full attention.  It was then mutually agreed that a meeting should be held between us to face this head on.  During this period, other fans have also been voicing their concerns in their own ways to the club, so we therefore asked them to join in a collaborative effort.

    Matt then gave us a list of dates that Carol would be available, and the meeting was set.  At no point were we given a time limit, a limit on numbers of members that could attend, or any actual pre-requisites at all.  All that was asked towards the date looming was a list of names of those attending.  The meeting was initially going to be between us and just Matt Hancock and Carol.  A couple of us then debated the merits of also requesting the attendance of Paddy.  We decided against it, but then as the meeting approached, we were told that Carol would like him to attend.  We ran it by our groups, and it was agreed that he should attend.

    So, on Monday evening, we held a meeting between 7pm until just gone 10pm.  The burning topic, of course, was David Flitcroft.  My view remains that I cannot see his position anything other than untenable.  A sentiment held by all of us on our side of the table.  Let's not dress that up any other way. The overwhelming evidence of fans in the ground, fans in the pubs, fans on social media, forums such as this and radio phone-ins, is that very few have remaining faith in our Director of Football.  You must understand that, had we sat down and screamed that Flitcroft is a w***** and he needs to f*** off, a 3-hour meeting would not have lasted 3 minutes.  And we would also be doing a dis-service to the other points that needed addressing.

    We went into the meeting well researched, with a formal agenda from which to raise our points.  After lots and lots of debate around the obvious, we then discussed the other topics; those being the communications coming out of the club, the problems with ticketing, the matchday supporter facilities and overall 'experience' and the potential for better fan engagement with the club going forward.  The club seemed surprised at some of the issues raised.  They did admit failings in communication, they also saw a different viewpoint on the other topics that they had not considered.  Above all else, they appeared genuinely shocked and saddened at what we were telling them, in terms of the overall disconnect between fans and club.

    Now, we all know that admitting failure, and expressing shock and sadness at things is all well and good, but they need to let their actions do the talking.  We hope that they now understand that loud and clear.  It's over to them to deliver results.

    So please let me make it abundantly clear.  We recognise that fans are not happy.  This season, we have seen fans fighting amongst themselves in the stands.  We have seen much anger directed at Flitcroft, at our players for abject performances.  We have seen growing complaints against the disparity of ground improvements.  We have an utterly unworkable relationship between the Supporters' Club and the club.  We have seen an alarming lack of respect shown to us fans by the club, not least by way of Carol's letter, David Flitcroft's Podcast, and the ignorance displayed towards our concerns at the last fans' forum.

    We are taking those issues to the club because they all need to be fixed.  Do not think for one moment that we are easily pacified.  But we must be logical.  We cannot just rock up with a list of demands.  There will have to be compromise and understanding from both sides.  The first step in that healing process is to meet and hit the problems head on.  Monday's meeting was exactly that.  We don't have any answers, or results to report back on, from one solitary, intense meeting.  But it is the start of some much needed honest and frank dialogue.  How this pans out is yet to be decided. 

    We've been in much worse states.  We have battled to remove two rogue owners in the last 13 or so years.  These owners are not rogue.  But it's fair to say they have misaligned their focus.  Please support us in regaining that.  And please understand our respect for the Shanahan family, despite all our current differences.

    We've hopefully now opened doors and we look forward to the club holding much more open dialogue with the wider fanbase.

    Thanks for that, both the write up and for trying to get us out of this horrendous situation. 

    I know you can't come on here and disclose specific details of your conversations but do you get the sense that there is any appreciation (at the top) of our concerns re Flitcroft? 

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