Retained list?.

[Tim]

You never know with 5 premier league players we could be in the Championship next season. Have the faith!

[Spunk Trumpet]

Worryingly, Page has said it was the lads spirit that got us out of the relegation trouble and he wants to keep that dressing room spirit.

 

Jesus christ, Rob. Have you not thought it was a lack of ability and your inept managerial decisions that got us in that scrap in the first place!

One win in eleven and he makes it sound like we achieved something.

 

Glover mark two.

[Guppy 4 England]

you know you couldn't have said it better mate absolutely gutted, don't want to watch that shower take us down. willo and birch should've been TOP of the list, they wouldn't get in the Maidstone united team

 

I think im going to have a strong drink tonight :(

 

Spot On. If we're looking to the future with birchall, a player who has stole a wage for at least two seasons now, its time to pack in.

[George is here]

Just heard that following today's retained list, Page has announced the list of new players he wants to bring to Port Vale for the 2015-16 season. In announcing the list, he said these players would be "great assets" and they would be welcome by all at the club as they aid continuity. The players he would like are:-

 

Jennison Myre-Williams

Rob Taylor

Liam Chilvers

Anthony Griffith

Guy Madjeo

 

Rob has also suggested possible loan for Calvin Andrew and Jordan Hugill to complete the squad:nailbiting:

[vale on toower]

So the teams in our division already know how to stop us from scoring and as results have proven the same teams know how to score against us, most of our players are very robotic and lack the ability to change how they play thus leading to the same old clueless ground emptying stlyle of play that was served up 14/15 season .......... Basically weer cream crackered aren't we?????

[valefan16]

I'm pretty shocked at the facts only one player technically has been released. A very strange decision and a mega gamble.

 

Birchall, Lloyd (although I'm sure he will be on a low wage) should have gone for sure.

 

Veseli would be a decent signing for me, I'm not overly against Yates, Dodds and Willo staying as long as they are squad players and we have better options ahead of them, the blasting Willo gets is harsh when you consider he got 9 goals and helped us **** over up front alone when Pope was out injured. Having a player like him isn't bad but again as a squad player to cover injuries.

 

We will see what happens, if we get Inniss in for a year on loan and get a couple of decent attacking players and keep the key three players we might look a lot better off.

[fraggle]

If there was a sentiment monitor on the 30 ish pages since the retained list came out I don't think we'd achieve even 1% in the positive column!!

 

It'll be very interesting to see how this translate into season tickets sales from this point on.... I think Smurf would need to sign Messi to get out of this one... Perhaps not quite, but you need a good marque signing ASAP!

 

Still feeling bewildered! I'm dreading my already paid for season ticket dropping through the letter box at this moment in time.... Can you imagine it, at home 1 up front and it's everyone's favourite... Ben 'I couldn't hit a barn door in a year of Sundays' Williamson - death by 11 men....

[asoldasvalepark]

Norman, I don't think it matters whether he is asking you as either a fan or the chairman, ultimately, there are no positives in the retained list regardless of the hat you have on.

 

As a fan, would you be happy to see all but one member of the first team squad from last season retained? A squad that in one period lost six games in a row and in another period, won one in 11 matches. Over 17 matches cumulatively, the fans witnessed one win. One win, in 17 games, more than a third of the season. At home, we were treated to 8 wins in 23 games.

 

We now have the same squad more or less signed up. Look at the stats, will fans want to witness again next year what they have this season? Football fans are expectant, and sometimes unrealistically so, but I don't expect you to go out and spend £1m on a player, I don't expect automatic promotion, I don't really expect to be in a play-off position; we have no divine right to any of the aforementioned but, there is one thing a football fan does need, one thing that being a football fan is built on; hope!

 

Whilst we can't expect, we can hope. We can hope we wont end up in a relegation battle, we can hope for a top ten finish, we can even hope (realistically if the budget is to be believed in the top 6 in the league) to flirt with the play-offs. Any hope however, on my part at least, has been extinguished by the retained list. How can I hope that any of the above can happen with the squad of players signed up almost relegated the club and exposed us to the dismal football we saw last season? How can I have hope when the manager appears to believe in this squad? How can I have hope when we lead to believe there would be changes, and ultimately, there haven't been? The answer is I have no hope, and with no hope there is no passion, and without passion no inclination to go to matches.

 

Now, look at it with you Chairman hat on. Yes, the make up of the squad may save you money initially, but long term it's economic suicide. The lifeline for lower league clubs in pre-season is season ticket sales. Taking what I've said about what being a fan is about, above, how many season tickets do you expect to sell over the coming month? My money is on a lot less than last season. And once the early bird deal expires, that will be it for a lot of people. Yes, they might pay on the gate, but you've seen first hand yourself this season (and commented on) the attendances; we don't have a lot of walk ups.

 

So what happens next? You lose income from season ticket sales, this will lead I presume to a reduced playing budget and the chances of signing players to excite fans reduces. With a squad proven to have failed at this level, the performances next season won't be any better. We'll flirt with relegation, crowds will decrease, so will income (not just gate receipts but the extras they introduce, food/merchandise etc) and before you no it, we'll be back in League 2. And that's just after year one of Pages contract. It then becomes a vicious circle, less fans --> less income --> poorer squad, and it's hard to stop the rot.

 

That all may sound negative, I appreciate that, but that is how the announcement of the retained list made me feel this morning. The problem for you is that I don't think I'm alone in feeling like this. Not just on here, but have a look at twitter, facebook etc there are a lot of fans saying the same sort of thing.

 

How you reverse this, I don't know, but I hope you can.

[Ben]

I'm pretty shocked at the facts only one player technically has been released. A very strange decision and a mega gamble.

 

Birchall, Lloyd (although I'm sure he will be on a low wage) should have gone for sure.

 

Veseli would be a decent signing for me, I'm not overly against Yates, Dodds and Willo staying as long as they are squad players and we have better options ahead of them, the blasting Willo gets is harsh when you consider he got 9 goals and helped us **** over up front alone when Pope was out injured. Having a player like him isn't bad but again as a squad player to cover injuries.

will see what happens, if we get Inniss in for a year on loan and get a couple of decent attacking players and keep the key three players we might look a lot better off.

 

Good post that was what Rob Page was hinting at in a interview on RS tonight on Praise and Grumble lets wait and see what happens before certain posters go into meltdown.

[Port Vale Paul]

Its all down to surviving within your means. I'm under no illusion that the likes of Marshall, O'Connor, Pope & maybe a couple of others that are now out of contract will be moving on to pastures anew. That's of course unless the chairman digs deep and we already know the answer to that.

I suppose also its case of better the devil you know with maybe 5 or 6 new faces coming in to replace the aforementioned.

I am like the small chosen few who have renewed the ST again, but hey hoe this is Vale would you expect it to be any different.

& dare I say keep the faith, but I did anyway.

[Biddulph_PV]

Just seen this, err, news re the retained list. I'm not surprised in the slightest. Angry yes, but certainly not surprised. I said Page should go after the Bradford home game. It was blatantly obvious he was a 'mini Adams', as all no 2's who step up inevitably resort to type and usually don't make good managers. We have all been conned and are doomed next season. Remember, Fleetwood - a team with half our gates - was a 'game too far'. Enough said.

[Andyregs]

And I thought Adams was ****ing lazy with his summer signings.

[andy jones]

If everyone offered a contract signs, plus the ones already under contract and the supposed 4-5 new faces to come in, we'll have a squad size to rival Chelsea and Man City but with a complete inverse of quality and therein lies the big issue.

 

I have no problem offering the five young lads contracts as long as they are deemed possibly good enough to be pushing for a chance in the first team and the same goes for Sam Johnson & the Ryans, Boot & Lloyd. However, if they've no chance of getting near the pitch on matchday, as has been the case for Lloyd over the past two seasons, they shouldn't be signed up; that's no good for the club and it's no good for the players. We should be focussed on a balanced squad of maximum 24 players (those 8 young players plus 16 'established' pros) to cover all positions with a mix of age and experience but, above all, with quality over quantity. Additional to this we'd have the youth / development players and the loan system at our disposal. Surely this would give the maximum return from whatever finances are available?

 

If the likes of Yates (who I respect and like but consider at the upper limit of his abilities in mid table L1), Vaselli (looks good for 99% of a game but regularly makes a mistake that costs a goal), Birchall (looks on retirement run-down these days), Williamson (all the goal threat of an anorexic ballerina) and already under contract Duffy (same as Vaselli), McGivern (same as Vaselli), Dickinson (similar to Vaselli with slightly fewer goal costing mistakes but the distribution skills of Farmer Giles' muck spreader), Daniel (out of his depth in L1), Lines (has ability but plays for us like Williamson's sister and would rather be in Bristol) and Campion (could be good or could be the next Martin Henderson for those of you unfortunate enough to remember that Vale shirt wearing fence post) are regulars in the first team, especially collectively, I can't see anything but getting reamed every week.

 

Page had enough 'also rans' under contract as it was so why on earth he's decided to keep all the others as well is beyond me? What was all this drivel the other day about having a big shake up? He obviously can't shake a salt cellar. If they all sign where's the room for '4 or 5 signings'? Plus if he does sign four or five more why keep the duffers on as they presumably won't play? Or is he planning on signing 4 or 5 more from the straw hatted & bridled gang from Blackpool beach?

 

I'm aghast at the news today. I'd also like to add to previous comments that cheeky's assessment of the situation is excellent, get him / her in as director of football!

 

 

 

Got to agree with all that.

 

However, Norman is not stupid, he no longer wears L Plates, so there must be something that we are missing.

 

I have absolutely no idea what it is but like Aussie Rules I am going to wait until the plot has unravelled itself.

[Caroline Oakes]

Dave, just because he has given up his L plates doesn't mean he knows what he is doing. He just got it right on one day!

[andy jones]

Caroline, my fear is that the budget has been cut so dramatically that Page believes he can't get better than what he already has with what's on offer.

 

But even if it has been cut big time surely the answer is to cut the squad size and improve the quality overall. Surely a squad of 20 good players is better than 30 very average ones. Come what may you can only play eleven at any one time.

 

I'm just hoping that Norman is reading these posts busting a gut wanting to enlighten us on the secret master plan we are all unable to see.

 

But then again I stopped up till 3.15 am the other night praying that what I was watching was not really happening.