norm on radio stoke

[Little_Al]

TP Many Vale fans have been "rude and obnoxious" to Smurthwaite as they have been to every Vale owner. I just hope he can conceal this aspect form any potential buyer. Today's Sentinel statement seems perfectly reasonable, informative and straightforward. It is high time some fans showed gratitude for everything Smurthwaite has done for our club, instead of showing the prejudiced vitriol and stupid interpretations of everything he says.

[bycarspete]

TP Many Vale fans have been "rude and obnoxious" to Smurthwaite as they have been to every Vale owner. I just hope he can conceal this aspect form any potential buyer. Today's Sentinel statement seems perfectly reasonable, informative and straightforward. It is high time some fans showed gratitude for everything Smurthwaite has done for our club, instead of showing the prejudiced vitriol and stupid interpretations of everything he says.

Fully agree,but as brought at lot of this on himself,I to think like you,but he is slowly turning me against him,a bit positively after Saturday instead of the negative truth,let's try and get to the first season ticket offer at least and secure a better budget and keep some of our better player.keep the faith fans of the Vale,let's do our bit to secure the future of our club.be positive and buy your season ticket

[PVFC_4_EVA]

I would like to not here anything at all. I just want to watch some football and here people's views on the footballing side.

I really do get sick of picking up a sentinel and reading ovf to see that there is another saga been made.

[PVFC_4_EVA]

Then don't read them, maybe?

 

It's impossible not too. If you're at the game it's what people are talking about. You can't listen to radio Stoke before the game and not hear something about off the field.

I like hearing people's opinions, I just wish they were all football related.

[geosname]

Unlike most on here who would rather be deceived, I prefer to have a chairman be honest with us about the likely state of the squad/budget for next year.

 

How do you know he is being honest?

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Then you have been misinformed.

 

He has put 2m in over two years, please dont tell me you are daft enough to think we are breaking even???

 

I think the issue is in what way has that money been put in and where has it been sourced from..I didn't see it as a claim that we are breaking even. Is it 'his' money' as in money he had in the bank so to speak or money he has 'raised'.

[Jacko51]

I'm a bit sceptical.

 

Do FFP and Salary Cap rules allow him to put his own money in to cover a shortfall in the wage budget?

 

I'm not sure the rules allow him do it as a gift, let alone as a loan.

 

That has puzzled me for a while, Santa.

[Jacko51]

Then you have been misinformed.

 

He has put 2m in over two years, please dont tell me you are daft enough to think we are breaking even???

 

If that is true then it must imply that without his input we would have lost a million quid a year - or £800,000 or whatever the figure is. Valiant 2001 never made losses anywhere near that level despite paying a CEO with all the added costs that involved and repaying a loan to the council. Also bear in mind that Norman has told us how wonderfully well the commercial side of the club is performing compared to the previous regime. it's all rather bizarre.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Maybe what we have with NS is man who has made his money buying up business opportunities as the highest bidder that were given the needed level of investment guaranteed to provide a return...certain deals if you can buy them up and raise the cash to do them up or just hold on to them long enough or have some inside info you are guaranteed a return...the issue is having the inside info, raising the cash, winning the bidding war being able to afford to hold onto them and so on...you don't have to be a good businessman (as in good at running the business that you have acquired) just an astute and well connected investor.

[Family Stand Terrier]

Smurf's approach to the fans has become ridiculous now. He simply, refuses to learn. How successful was the...come to Swindon match and I'll buy you a player? We never heard the last of that. Then it's, buy a season ticket or the budget will be reduced. Then it's, buy the club off me, then fans are racist thugs.

 

I've seen a few posts supporting him on here. One saying there are conspiracy theories??? all of the above happened. Then someone partly blamed the internet. If you're unaware of the impact of the internet in 2016, I don't want you running our club. Besides, kicking off on your manager in front of a load of cameramen, is hardly anyone else's fault, is it? Then there's af1985, who'd prefer to know the likely state of the budget....wonderful. Me, I'd like the best for Port Vale FC, and that means selling as many season tickets as possible. You may call it deception, I call it basic business. You don't attempt to flog a product to a new customer by saying, you better buy this, otherwise it'll end up even worse than it currently is. What's all that about? This isn't complicated high level business strategy, you don't need to be a PR guru, and at the same time you don't have to lie to the fans and deceive them. What you do need to do is to consider the likely impact of your actions. He should be asking himself, if I say this, will it benefit the club?

 

I struggle to recall a time when Smurf has publicly represented the club in a way that has actually helped us. He's so frustrating. After all the moaning about performances in recent weeks, we finally have a really good performance from the team, people have been buzzing about Sunday's match. I was really hoping we could build on that, with another positive display and result on Saturday. A bit of decent PR, build the buzz even more and with a run of results we'd soon see the place getting fuller. But what does he do, he comes out and targets the fans again. I'm starting to wonder, he's either stupid, or he's doing this on purpose. If it was a one off, mistakes happen, move on. But he continually embarrasses the club, and ridicules the fans. It's no longer a joke, it's ******ing disgusting. I've seriously had enough of him and cannot wait until he's gone. The bloke is a nightmare.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

It's impossible not too. If you're at the game it's what people are talking about. You can't listen to radio Stoke before the game and not hear something about off the field.

I like hearing people's opinions, I just wish they were all football related.

 

There wouldn't be much in the Sentinel nor on Radio Stoke beforehand if it were all football related :( The public gets what it asks for

[Family Stand Terrier]

???

 

"Unlike most on here who would rather be deceived, I prefer to have a chairman be honest with us about the likely state of the squad/budget for next year"

 

Your words, yes?

 

My issue with that is that his honesty is often his opinion. Why is it that you think most on here want to be deceived? Are honesty and deception the only two options?

 

Smurf represents our club, he should always be acting in its best interests. He should be working on ways to increase revenue, which includes ticket sales. He should be wanting to show the club and its fans in a good light to boost revenue from commercial activity. Do you think telling the national press that our fans are racist thugs helps us in anyway? Maybe it's true, maybe it's only partly true...but what possible good did he think would come from talking about any of that?

 

We now have him repeating the same old lines about attendances. Today we've seen two articles released. One tells us that he wants the club to be sold by the end of the month, the second he's telling us (and the prospective buyers) that if we don't sell season tickets, or he doesn't sell the club, we'll lose our best players. It's a flawed sales technique that smurf always uses. He's threatening...if you don't give me that, you won't get this. It's embarrassing.

[geosname]

Fair point, I don't know. But I think it's unlikely he's talking things down.

 

I have no idea what he is doing, talking up... talking down... talking cack... there are times Im not sure he knows.

Its possible he hasnt injected loans of 80K per month... from his own pocket... or from an associated company... its possible he has... whichever way he is talking it I would guess its in his favour

[Guppy 4 England]

If that is true then it must imply that without his input we would have lost a million quid a year - or £800,000 or whatever the figure is. Valiant 2001 never made losses anywhere near that level despite paying a CEO with all the added costs that involved and repaying a loan to the council. Also bear in mind that Norman has told us how wonderfully well the commercial side of the club is performing compared to the previous regime. it's all rather bizarre.

 

On the flip side of that we havent had a decent cup run in years, we have a massive squad and a playing budget far more than V2001 gave topped with probably lower attendances.

[Jacko51]

On the flip side of that we havent had a decent cup run in years, we have a massive squad and a playing budget far more than V2001 gave topped with probably lower attendances.

 

What is the playing budget? What are the club's overall wage costs? What is the current commercial income? We don't know any of these. The lower attendances will be partly counteracted by the increased ticket costs. There have also been increased TV payments because we are in a higher division.