Thank You Norman Smuthwaite

[Mario]

One thing I would add, Page was under contract and could have been forced to stay. Instead Smurf decided to let him go and took the compo.

 

Forced to stay ? He could have resigned.

[butt lane vale fan]

JJJ , where have I got 1.1m from.?Mike Lloyd?

 

Didn't they reportedly give Foyle £1.6mil, but he then pissed it up the wall on the likes of Tudor and Roacastle.

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

One thing I would add, Page was under contract and could have been forced to stay. Instead Smurf decided to let him go and took the compo.

 

So really this whole situation has been Smurf's personal choice, not Page's, who in reality has been let go from his contract.

 

What we do with the compo, how much it was and what it is used for will make it clear if this was a good decision

 

You can't force anyone to stay, and why would you. He wanted to leave, the chairman let him go, we get compensation. Simple as that.

[FATBOYSTEVE]

Norman said the same thing at the fans' forum. He also said he'd had a meeting with Bill Bell in August 2013, 6 months after Bell had died.

 

How you can mention smurf in the same sentence as the best owner Vale has ever had boggles the mind it's been a constant decline both on and off the pitch since we lost bill imho

[pjg1876]

we get compensation

 

Who gets the compensation ?

[Rampant Zebra]

Norman will take it to offset the 80K a month he is putting in....

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

Who gets the compensation ?

 

The company gets the compensation.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

How you can mention smurf in the same sentence as the best owner Vale has ever had boggles the mind it's been a constant decline both on and off the pitch since we lost bill imho

 

Remind me who put us in admin the first time?

[werstayinup]

Remind me who put us in admin the first time?

 

Makes no odds really,he was still by far the best Chairman we have had to date

[Andyregs]

Could be a good thing Andy, but like somebody on here has already mentioned, we are at the stage (close season) where we should be eyeing up potential targets, & apparently we'd already started looking at some. Now Page has gone, we're in limbo & could be losing precious time to keep/sign players, falling further behind the rest of the league even if we do somehow get a good manager in.

 

It seems like the back room staff are also off with him, so is there nobody at all running the recruitment side of things now? I'm renewing my ST along with my brother this week; we're part of the hardcore though. Have to admit I'm feeling a bit panicky, things have gone from bad to worse as the budget cuts added to this makes me think of relegation. It's even worse with us having no signing talk/manager at all when the early bird deadline hits, this is meant to be the time when everybody renews or decides on their ST, but there's no buzz whatsoever to encourage anyone to do so.

 

Page said he would have to wait until he knew which players signed before he brought anyone in, as the budget was planned to the last penny. That's a month away. No time to panic yet. Man Utd haven't got a manager yet either. Lots of clubs change manager at this point in the year. Whether it's after sacking one, of having one poached. The worry over losing an average manager is getting beyond belief.

[Heatwave]

Makes no odds really,he was still by far the best Chairman we have had to date

 

Matter of opinion. I think he did well for Vale, but he also had his faults.

[Tomo]

Page said he would have to wait until he knew which players signed before he brought anyone in, as the budget was planned to the last penny. That's a month away. No time to panic yet. Man Utd haven't got a manager yet either. Lots of clubs change manager at this point in the year. Whether it's after sacking one, of having one poached. The worry over losing an average manager is getting beyond belief.

 

Yeah, I mean for me it's no major loss of Page, it's the worry of if we can keep/sign a side & manager capable of keeping us in L1. It's almost like starting from scratch if half leave, which can be a good thing, but they've also only got a matter of weeks to gel etc & it could be disastrous.

 

I don't think I'd be worried at all if we had a different chairman with a different attitude. I just have no confidence in his ability to replace the missing pieces, on much less money.

[Vital Spark]

He seemed quite upbeat today.

[Ben]

He seemed quite upbeat today.

 

Glad somebody regarding the Vale are.

[Markie G]

I never really rated Page that much, he was always making excuses up or talking about how well we played when we were rubbish. I hope that Smurf spends on a decent manager, but I suspect it will end up being Brown. Now I have nothing against the guy, but he has no record at management, but he will be cheap.

 

There were a number of times when we should have been going for the win, but we stuck with the one up front and that one was a lower league player (although he has had a decent season). It is still a lot to put on someone who has not played at this level. We saw closer to the end of the season, how much better we played with two up front.

 

 

Offering players contracts this late on is always asking for trouble. We should have signed them up months ago, now most of our decent players are available and page knows how much they have been offered. Smurf you played your cards too late. Get the ones that we want signed early then the others can wait to see what plans we have in place. If we lose most of the ones that are now out of contract we are stuffed.

 

 

As others have said the setup behind the scenes is daft. We have matches where they have ran out of food before half time. Season tickets, where you have to pay the deposit with cash (does not sound dodgy in any way). We have season tickets that cost as much as Stoke, if you have a choice then who are you going to pick.

 

I have said this on other threads, but why did smurf buy the club in the first place. He must have known that, in football you spend most of your time throwing money at it. You do it for the love, not to make money. Mr Waterworld seemed to have a strange view also when it came to owning a club. I know I will make it make money.