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Reality Check and simple facts


philmpv

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Reading through the various recent postings on here, it's fairly obvious (at least to me) that there are some serious expectations of a lot of supporters as to what we should expect from our beloved Vale. However, I think a lot of us (me included) need to sit back from time to time and appreciate just what we are.

 

Fact - We don't have any divine right to be in the Championship. A lot of fans seem to think that we do (at least, that's what I've taken from the constant moaning that we're 'only' mid table, etc). Let's face it, we were spoiled under Rudgie. Apart from those special years, when have we ever been at a higher level and competed. A LONG time ago! Yes, every supporter wants promotion and a challenge near the top of the league every season, but that's not going to happen for 15 odd clubs in our division alone in any given season. We are a lower level team and, barring a lot of things going our way, we will remain so.

 

Fact - Norman is human. He makes mistakes. We all do. If he learns from them, great. If he doesn't, he's the one who'll ultimately suffer, as there's no chance of him getting any of his money back if this Club doesn't succeed. It's his money he's ploughing in, and he's free to do with it what he wishes. Yes, we don't all agree with how he goes about things, or what he spends his money on, but do you see them queuing around the block to invest in the Club? Without Norman, I dare say that we'd be in a LOT worse a position, both on and off the field. He's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and not everyone (or even most) will agree with the way he goes about things, but that's his way and barring Roman Abramovich's mother seeking to invest, we don't have much option. Do people seriously think that he doesn't want what's best for the Club (i.e. promotion) as without it, like I've said, he may as well donate all of his money to the Clinton Foundation.

 

Fact - Our crowds are crap. Without the fans attending, we will continue to have to live within our modest means. Yes, it's a vicious cycle (i.e. without good football, why should the fans pay £23 a pop). It's a case of having too. I'd rather have a Club in 20 years time to support than not. Norman said that he wanted to fill the park and, if that's the case, he'll have to let people in for free (even then, some would still demand their money back because their seats weren't covered in mink fur, or their willy wasn't shaken off after a half time whizz by [iNSERT YOUR SECRET FANCY OF CHOICE])

 

Fact - We don't know what our players are paid, nor what certain players whom we haven't signed wanted, so how can we rant (vehemently in some cases) about how tight Norman is etc? Alex Jones, for example, may have wanted £5k a week, which is clearly not on for a Club of our means. We just don't know. Yet so many supporters spout as if Norman calls them personally to discuss the terms of each players contract. Every signing is a risk that might not pay off, so I don't blame the Club if they're not throwing stupid money around. Look at Yates, crocked for virtually the season just after signing a new contract extension and Andoh, out for the whole of last season. If we did push to boat out and sign, say, 11 Championship players on Championship wages, who's to say that the majority would succeed? It could be the death of the Club.

 

Fact - Who's to say that an 'experienced' journeyman manager is the best thing for us? The fact that they've been around the block invariably means that they will have some glaring failures on their CV, and who's to say we won't be the next such failure. All managers start somewhere, and the next successful manager that we have could be Michael Brown. It may not be, of course, but to me he's certainly understood that, at present, we need to be hard to beat (which he's done so far), as we can't take an attacking approach with the players that we have (our only fit strikers are Reg and young DT), as we'd be on a hiding to nothing if we did. You can say he's only played Chesterfield and Oldham, which is true, and things may change when we play the 'bigger' teams, but why not give the bloke a chance, as we did for Rudgie (before anyone starts, I'm not bigging him up as the next Rudgie)? Do people seriously think that we'll get the likes of Rowett et al here at the moment?

 

Final fact - We all love the Vale, and want the best for the Club. Keep the faith.

 

Fantastic, our bi-weekly, long-winded, decently well-written "Smurfie's barmie armie' post that people respond will platitudes such as 'well said that man' or 'best post on here since 1943'. I do enjoy these.

 

Issue 1: Crowds are declining due to poor marketing, increased prices, and poor on-pitch quality, which all lead back to Smurf, regardless of how many people attempt mental gymnastics to absolve him of any blame.

 

Issue 2: Making grandiose hypothetical claims about what Jones may have demanded (5k? Really?) is just as mad as castigating Smurf for failing to pay whatever he wanted. I agree we don't know what Jones demanded, but that doesn't give us license to then think Jones was unreasonable and we've been shat on.

 

Issue 3: There are buyers for the club, there always have been. If Smurf didn't demand every penny he invests (an act many Vale fans are frothing at the mouth to commend) back, and hadn't split the ground from the company, and hadn't, mere weeks after declaring he wanted to sell the club, decide that a foreign unproven manager is a good idea, and then sanction the signing of 18 players, of which 3 are good enough, then we'd have new owners. I've never quite understood this 'there's no Abramovich or Arab billionaire' argument. No there isn't. No one expects there to be. There will be, however, an individual with a clear plan for the Championship and decent knowledge of football, who doesn't make rash, irreversible decisions on the whim. Apologies for the long-winded nature of that one.

 

Issue 4: We don't have a divine right to the Championship. That doesn't mean we should stop aiming for it and building towards it, and not get aggrieved when decisions are taken that clearly hinder our progress.

 

Issue 5: We do all love Vale, and want the best for the club. Thats why criticism of daft decisions is not a bad thing. Keep the faith.

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Fantastic, our bi-weekly, long-winded, decently well-written "Smurfie's barmie armie' post that people respond will platitudes such as 'well said that man' or 'best post on here since 1943'. I do enjoy these.

 

Issue 1: Crowds are declining due to poor marketing, increased prices, and poor on-pitch quality, which all lead back to Smurf, regardless of how many people attempt mental gymnastics to absolve him of any blame.

 

Issue 2: Making grandiose hypothetical claims about what Jones may have demanded (5k? Really?) is just as mad as castigating Smurf for failing to pay whatever he wanted. I agree we don't know what Jones demanded, but that doesn't give us license to then think Jones was unreasonable and we've been shat on.

 

Issue 3: There are buyers for the club, there always have been. If Smurf didn't demand every penny he invests (an act many Vale fans are frothing at the mouth to commend) back, and hadn't split the ground from the company, and hadn't, mere weeks after declaring he wanted to sell the club, decide that a foreign unproven manager is a good idea, and then sanction the signing of 18 players, of which 3 are good enough, then we'd have new owners. I've never quite understood this 'there's no Abramovich or Arab billionaire' argument. No there isn't. No one expects there to be. There will be, however, an individual with a clear plan for the Championship and decent knowledge of football, who doesn't make rash, irreversible decisions on the whim. Apologies for the long-winded nature of that one.

 

Issue 4: We don't have a divine right to the Championship. That doesn't mean we should stop aiming for it and building towards it, and not get aggrieved when decisions are taken that clearly hinder our progress.

 

Issue 5: We do all love Vale, and want the best for the club. Thats why criticism of daft decisions is not a bad thing. Keep the faith.

Well said that man, best post on here since 1943

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Don't forget how nasty you were to those more enlightened souls who saw it perhaps just a little earlier than you did.

 

You weren't enlightened, you were just moaning for moanings' sake .

 

I thought you had me on your ignore list anyway...

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Fantastic, our bi-weekly, long-winded, decently well-written "Smurfie's barmie armie' post that people respond will platitudes such as 'well said that man' or 'best post on here since 1943'. I do enjoy these.

 

Issue 1: Crowds are declining due to poor marketing, increased prices, and poor on-pitch quality, which all lead back to Smurf, regardless of how many people attempt mental gymnastics to absolve him of any blame.

 

Issue 2: Making grandiose hypothetical claims about what Jones may have demanded (5k? Really?) is just as mad as castigating Smurf for failing to pay whatever he wanted. I agree we don't know what Jones demanded, but that doesn't give us license to then think Jones was unreasonable and we've been shat on.

 

Issue 3: There are buyers for the club, there always have been. If Smurf didn't demand every penny he invests (an act many Vale fans are frothing at the mouth to commend) back, and hadn't split the ground from the company, and hadn't, mere weeks after declaring he wanted to sell the club, decide that a foreign unproven manager is a good idea, and then sanction the signing of 18 players, of which 3 are good enough, then we'd have new owners. I've never quite understood this 'there's no Abramovich or Arab billionaire' argument. No there isn't. No one expects there to be. There will be, however, an individual with a clear plan for the Championship and decent knowledge of football, who doesn't make rash, irreversible decisions on the whim. Apologies for the long-winded nature of that one.

 

Issue 4: We don't have a divine right to the Championship. That doesn't mean we should stop aiming for it and building towards it, and not get aggrieved when decisions are taken that clearly hinder our progress.

 

Issue 5: We do all love Vale, and want the best for the club. Thats why criticism of daft decisions is not a bad thing. Keep the faith.

 

Give the man a chance. He's only owned the Club for 4 years #getarealitycheck

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That's exactly what you criticised me for saying!!

 

You left out the oatcakes, they're the deal clincher.

 

Difference is, you never went to see the team and kicked off without forming your own opinion. That's an unjustifiable argument form my point of view

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You left out the oatcakes, they're the deal clincher.

 

Difference is, you never went to see the team and kicked off without forming your own opinion. That's an unjustifiable argument form my point of view

 

What rubbish, I was a season ticket holder when I stopped going partway through the season.

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I don't think I'm being unrealistic and I don't expect to see reckless spending beyond our means but I do look very enviously on clubs with similar attendances who are well run and manage to make sensible decisions on and off the pitch. Some of these teams even manage to find the money to pay a decent centre forward.

 

Bury spent a lot of money on Tom Pope and a lot of other players where has it got them?

Smurfs experiment failed but at least he tried something different. Its up to him to sort it out now but we have to realise there are 23 other clubs and sets of supporters all wanting promotion and all with expectations, some of them with much bigger fan bases.

There are some clubs who are run well but the majority are not. Smurf has to find the balance of getting the right people in charge with the right investment a very difficult job for anyone and its easy for supporters to criticise which is frankly an almost impossible job.

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Fantastic, our bi-weekly, long-winded, decently well-written "Smurfie's barmie armie' post that people respond will platitudes such as 'well said that man' or 'best post on here since 1943'. I do enjoy these.

 

Issue 1: Crowds are declining due to poor marketing, increased prices, and poor on-pitch quality, which all lead back to Smurf, regardless of how many people attempt mental gymnastics to absolve him of any blame.

 

Issue 2: Making grandiose hypothetical claims about what Jones may have demanded (5k? Really?) is just as mad as castigating Smurf for failing to pay whatever he wanted. I agree we don't know what Jones demanded, but that doesn't give us license to then think Jones was unreasonable and we've been shat on.

 

Issue 3: There are buyers for the club, there always have been. If Smurf didn't demand every penny he invests (an act many Vale fans are frothing at the mouth to commend) back, and hadn't split the ground from the company, and hadn't, mere weeks after declaring he wanted to sell the club, decide that a foreign unproven manager is a good idea, and then sanction the signing of 18 players, of which 3 are good enough, then we'd have new owners. I've never quite understood this 'there's no Abramovich or Arab billionaire' argument. No there isn't. No one expects there to be. There will be, however, an individual with a clear plan for the Championship and decent knowledge of football, who doesn't make rash, irreversible decisions on the whim. Apologies for the long-winded nature of that one.

 

Issue 4: We don't have a divine right to the Championship. That doesn't mean we should stop aiming for it and building towards it, and not get aggrieved when decisions are taken that clearly hinder our progress.

 

Issue 5: We do all love Vale, and want the best for the club. Thats why criticism of daft decisions is not a bad thing. Keep the faith.

 

Which 3 signings do you think are good enough?

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What rubbish, I was a season ticket holder when I stopped going partway through the season.

 

You never say Bruno's team whilst you were rubbishing it. If memory served you missed the decent stuff we played early on last year under Page too

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