Norman Smurthwaite

[Martino Knockavelli]

Yukon, I have been desperately trying to think of the perfect analogy to describe the shear lunacy of our Chairman. This has hit the spot perfectly!! Such a brilliantly simple way of putting it!

 

As the family of the patient beg you to stop cutting, only a dangerous ego would say "no, no... brain surgery is easier than running Stoke Audi, and I have never failed at anything before so I will just plough on regardless of the damage caused... screw the people that love the patient"

 

Good grief, is this life or death?

[geosname]

Good grief, is this life or death?

 

No its far more important than that

[Yukon]

Yukon, I have been desperately trying to think of the perfect analogy to describe the shear lunacy of our Chairman. This has hit the spot perfectly!! Such a brilliantly simple way of putting it!

 

As the family of the patient beg you to stop cutting, only a dangerous ego would say "no, no... brain surgery is easier than running Stoke Audi, and I have never failed at anything before so I will just plough on regardless of the damage caused... screw the people that love the patient"

 

The other analogy I thought of was a gambling addict who keeps pouring more and more money to try and get back to where they started- good money after bad

[DIV3SOUTH]

Martino Knockavelli why didn't you buy Coventry and become a hero there?

[Martino Knockavelli]

Martino Knockavelli why didn't you buy Coventry and become a hero there?

 

Coventry are in a worse mess than us

[Rampant Zebra]

I didn't realise there was a competition!

[Essex Vale]

This is becoming a little tedious. Martino Knockavelli is clearly someone who is quite well educated but he or she lacks experience and maturity of business and the world at large. The person simply asks rhetorical type questions and blindly supports the Chairman without considering or taking any responsibility for the situation we are in. A phrase such as "we go again" strongly suggests that this is a person so close to the Chairman and is wallet that there is barely a cigarette paper to separate them. Said Martino has so little experience of business life and management of operations and people that I would place him or her at the level of a student on work experience. Well intentioned, perhaps with potential, but unable to articulate or properly understand the main issues here.

 

It has come so low that someone so close to the Chairman (and I anticipate with his full knowledge and cooperation) is resorting to such subterfuge and rather childish activities by coming onto this forum with a ridiculous invented name and offering blind pointless peronal support. It is impossible to have an intelligent conversation and meaningful dialogue in the face of this kind of practice.

 

I deplore all of the personal comments and implied threats made towards the Chairman and member of his family. That is wholly unacceptable and against the law. I urge all true fans to complain bitterly when someone resorts to this level of behaviour. In football terms that kind of practice is playing the man not the ball.

 

However, the Chairman must realise that his past practices, performance, methods and manner of communication is so obtuse and confrontational that it will feed a frenzy of replies, many of which are unacceptable.

 

Has it really come to this? Why are we wasting time and energy on such pointless "ya boo sucks" juvenile communication when we have a football club that is dying on its feet. Relegation itself is not the end of the world. There is some great football, and some potentially great games with high gates at that level. It is the malaise that is affecting everyone, the loss of supporters in droves, and even loyal fans (like me) thinking shall I just not bother anymore.

 

There is lots of evidence but the most telling is to count the number of players (and a manager) who walked away in the summer (forget what you think of their ability just remember they walked away) add this to the refusal of decent experienced players to have anything to do withe the club in January. We are a football club, if we cannot get players we really are in trouble.

 

For goodness sake Chairman stop the activities of "Martino" and other proxy pseudonyms and evaluate your achievements so far then seek some help in moving forward, the best option being to sell the club and cut your losses. The alternative is that you continue to wrack up assets shown as loans on our balance sheet which will never be converted into real assets.

 

As for Martino, please stop you are adding nothing of value to this serious situation.

[Gareths54]

Coventry are in a worse mess than us

 

Yet they still beat us twice. !!

[ELDERBEZZA]

First few games of the season you were all singing a different tune

 

Thankfully I wasn't one !!!I never thought it would work,although,VALIANTS, I got slated at the time for doubting the super chairman of our great club

[PVTony]

ALMOST any forum member on OVF with £4000,000 to invest (or loan) in Port Vale would have managed to get better results than what the present chairman has obtained.

If I still had my shops I certainly wouldn't consider employing him to manage one of them. Considering his attitude towards customers, I wouldn't even employ him as a shop assistant. Customers need to be treated with respect and politeness.

[bookworm]

Thankfully I wasn't one !!!I never thought it would work,although,VALIANTS, I got slated at the time for doubting the super chairman of our great club

 

I forecast a tough season when we started our league programme with out a recognised full back, to compete even at this level you have to have a balanced squad.

[DIV3SOUTH]

That isn't what I asked !

[blackdog]

Good grief, is this life or death?

 

Of course it isn't, but a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money following The Vale all over the country and for a very long time.

 

So for someone to come in from outside of the area, and systematically run the club into the ground with naieve arrogant decisions then people are going to get very very angry.

 

To make matter worse Smurthwaite gets his family to enrage fans on social media, all this does is inflame a bad situation.

 

Smurthwaite now needs to realise just what the situation is, yes he has loaned the club money but what a bloody awful job he has done spending EVERYONE knew his experiment would fail, an apology to the fans is required.

[Jacko51]

You're not Norman Smurthwaite and you've blown your wind up. I was hoping you'd last a bit longer, you were doing well

 

Well spotted, Yukon.

[Samwelo]

Of course it isn't, but a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money following The Vale all over the country and for a very long time.

 

So for someone to come in from outside of the area, and systematically run the club into the ground with naieve arrogant decisions then people are going to get very very angry.

 

To make matter worse Smurthwaite gets his family to enrage fans on social media, all this does is inflame a bad situation.

 

Smurthwaite now needs to realise just what the situation is, yes he has loaned the club money but what a bloody awful job he has done spending EVERYONE knew his experiment would fail, an apology to the fans is required.

 

At this stage I don't even want an apology. Just sell for a fair price. Nothing NS can do now will improve things. It will take years of success to win back a large amount of the fans that are staying away. That can't be fixed by NS in my opinion.