Signings - Part 2

[valiant_593]

Have a look at these players on wiki:

 

 

Roy Chapman

Ron Futcher

John Green

John King

Jim Arnold

Ally Brown

 

They all did rather well for Port Vale when they were signed later in their careers. There is no shortage of clubs willing to give 36 year old John Terry a contract.

 

I recall that a certain 46 year old Stanley Matthews did rather well for Stoke City.

 

At the age of 39 a certain Roy Sproson was instrumental in us gaining promotion with a fantastic defence, and he also gave us his highest ever goal return in that season, the best of his 23 seasons.

 

By the way, Anthony Kay is younger than Jermaine Defoe, rather a lot of Premier league teams want to sign him, and Gareth Southgate wants him to play for England.

 

Bit of a difference between Kay and Defoe :L :L oh and terry. That comparison couldn't make less sense.

 

Kay is a steady player and I think a decent signing but giving him a 2 year deal is ridiculous.

[Hagrid]

Well, the thing that you need to understand is this. Vale need fans. We need to keep our existing fans and to attract new ones. The former are deserting us in the 100s every season either through disinterest, frustration, lack of funds or (sadly) death. The latter are not going to come down to Vale Park and buy a season ticket because we've signed a 34 year old defender from Bury. They aren't going to look at the Vale and think, now there's a club going places. Kids who have the choice between us and Sjoke aren't going to be tempted away from the bright lights of the Premiership by Anthony Kay.

 

In all my years of following Vale I have never seen a less inspiring list of fixtures as this one. The last 8 months has been one of the most demoralising that I can remember. The club feels stale at best, if not downright rotten. We have another season of huff and puff football just around the corner and I would really like to see some players who might just capture the imagination. Instead we're seemingly scraping the barrel.

 

Bang on.

 

You're not allowed to objectively take a look at our predicament and suggest that we're in a difficult place without being labelled some form of fake fan.

 

We're at a low ebb, in terms of playing staff, league position, crowds, ownership, stability, and atmosphere. Only a fool would suggest otherwise. I want us to do well, but for some reason us accepting that its all a bit **** at the minute is not how its done, and we should blindly accept that everything's dandy, and Anthony Kay, Rob Lainton, and Joe Davis are exciting signings, and we're all looking forward to Crawley away as Stoke host Arsenal a fortnight later.

 

The sooner we accept there needs to be vast change at Vale the sooner we can get on achieving it, instead of this bizarre acceptance of what is a very poor situation.

[valiantsireno]

Bang on.

 

You're not allowed to objectively take a look at our predicament and suggest that we're in a difficult place without being labelled some form of fake fan.

 

We're at a low ebb, in terms of playing staff, league position, crowds, ownership, stability, and atmosphere. Only a fool would suggest otherwise.

 

The sooner we accept there needs to be vast change at Vale the sooner we can get on achieving it, instead of this bizarre acceptance of what is a very poor situation.

 

I haven't labelled anyone a fake fan at all. There are fans just as avid as i am (like yourself) who feel completely the opposite. If by the end of July, we haven't got competitive team for next season, ready and raring to go then you will see me berating the staff at our beloved club.

[Andyregs]

The sentiment is right, but there are many things wrong with this post.

 

Number 1: The players you listed played football in a bygone era. Old legs struggle to keep up these days.

Number 2: Stanley Matthews is one of the all time greats. Anthony Kay is not.

Number 3: John Terry is a Champions League winning captain. Anthony Kay is not.

Number 4: Roy Sproson has a statue outside of Port Vale and played in one of the best Vale sides of all time. Anthony Kay has not.

Number 5: Jermain Defoe is an England international and scored 15 goals last year. Anthony Kay did not.

 

There is no way even Matthews or sproson would play anywhere near as long if they played today. The vale players mentioned who played in the last 30 years had one full season with us before injury or leaving. Terry looks like being offered a one year deal and defoes deal has stalled because of the contract demands at his age.

[mr.hobblesworth]

I haven't labelled anyone a fake fan at all. There are fans just as avid as i am (like yourself) who feel completely the opposite.

 

Where? Seriously, where are these fans who are pleased with the situation that the club is in at the moment. Where are the fans who are excited and positive about the new season?

[Conrad]

Have a look at these players on wiki:

 

 

Roy Chapman

Ron Futcher

John Green

John King

Jim Arnold

Ally Brown

 

They all did rather well for Port Vale when they were signed later in their careers. There is no shortage of clubs willing to give 36 year old John Terry a contract.

 

I recall that a certain 46 year old Stanley Matthews did rather well for Stoke City.

 

At the age of 39 a certain Roy Sproson was instrumental in us gaining promotion with a fantastic defence, and he also gave us his highest ever goal return in that season, the best of his 23 seasons.

 

By the way, Anthony Kay is younger than Jermaine Defoe, rather a lot of Premier league teams want to sign him, and Gareth Southgate wants him to play for England.

 

Not forgetting 36 year old Peter Crouch, Stokes top scorer last season despite not starting every game.

[Essex Vale]

Some interesting responses to my post about the age thing for Kay, and a number of people who support the post, football is a game of opinions. I would make the point I have not compared Kay with those great players in terms of their overall ability I was simply making the point that it is unwise to write off a player because of his age, and I gave some examples of older players who did well at a similar age to Anthony Kay. As some one said players mature and deteriorate at different stages of their career. Kay's record of playing in promotion winning sides is very good, his experience level is one that is likely to help Smith and Davis develop. A two year contract is a bit of a risk, a valid point. However do not dismiss anyone simply because of what it says on their birth certificate, to do so is not reasonable because players are very different. I suspect the main reason we got him was because he had a year left on his Bury contract and there is no doubt he was being paid a lot more there than we are paying. To persuade him to come to us for less money required Bury to give him a pay off and for us to give him an extra year. That is a calculated risk, Michael Brown has decided that it is a risk worth taking. It is the manager's job to make those kinds of decisions. When John Rudge signed Ron Futcher for quite a high fee of £25K at roughly the same age as Kay people said similar things. One promotion later Rudgie sold him on at a profit of 140%. Rudgie went with his judgement, we need to allow our Manager the same opportunity. Sometimes he will get it wrong, but if he gets it right more often we will be delighted.

 

Time will tell, but the essential point remains, do not dismiss anyone simply because of his age. Last summer I entered a charity multi event physical task competition. I did not win but I did beat a very large number of people who were 20 or more years younger than me. Age is just a number

[Martino Knockavelli]

Out of all the teams in the football league, why are we choosing players from ******* Bury?

Could be worse, could be signing all the Crewe rejects again.

[Paul6754]

If you're good enough, age is irrelevant.

 

Also worth noting Kay was Bury's captain last season so is probably a talker and an organizer, a leader on the pitch, can't have enough of that type of player at the club.

[carpetman123]

I like how everyone critiscises a player before seeing him in a Vale shirt...!! thats the time to judge!!

 

see you next sat at Kidsgrove!

[yorky valiant]

Listening to vale fans is as if we are in premier league at times.

Anthony Kay is 34 years old and not in his prime fact but I can assure you I saw him play at bury a few times last year when I visited a mate who's a bury fan and I also saw him for Huddersfield a few years ago and all I would say is he is a player who battles and throws his body on the line and in league 2 which we are in now not the premier we will need that! My mate also said he organises the team and is very vocal so it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up been captain! I would love bettter players but with our money and league position it's hard to attract players! It's no excuse it's a fact! Anthony Kay is a good player even at been 34 so back him and the vale! Just been realistic not wanting a argument, just stating facts

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using onevalefan

[geosname]

Its difficult to assess how a team will perform until they have actually played together... signings may look brilliant or awful on paper but as a team who knows until they get on the grass.

[PV1973]

I like how everyone critiscises a player before seeing him in a Vale shirt...!! thats the time to judge!!

 

see you next sat at Kidsgrove!

The funny thing is people criticise a player whilst pretending to know all about him based on some hazy memories of seeing them play us at Vale Park once before.

[valeparklife]

Hopefully there will be some new faces at pre-season training today...

 

Cameras at the ready for a game of Guess Who!

[stupers]

Bang on.

 

You're not allowed to objectively take a look at our predicament and suggest that we're in a difficult place without being labelled some form of fake fan.

 

We're at a low ebb, in terms of playing staff, league position, crowds, ownership, stability, and atmosphere. Only a fool would suggest otherwise. I want us to do well, but for some reason us accepting that its all a bit **** at the minute is not how its done, and we should blindly accept that everything's dandy, and Anthony Kay, Rob Lainton, and Joe Davis are exciting signings, and we're all looking forward to Crawley away as Stoke host Arsenal a fortnight later.

 

The sooner we accept there needs to be vast change at Vale the sooner we can get on achieving it, instead of this bizarre acceptance of what is a very poor situation.

 

Is anyone saying there doesn't need to be major changes at the club though? Maybe a couple but most people on here understand the predicament we're in. Now does change look like it's on the horizon? Not to me. Purely because either Norman doesn't want to sell, or the asking price is too high for someone to justify paying it. That's the reality of the situation. I don't think starving him out will work, because of his own ridiculous logic I believe he'd rather reduce the playing budget to nothing and watch us slip down the leagues than sell it to someone who might make a success of it.

 

So what do you do in that situation? Most of things we are, as you correctly say are at our lowest ebb at, can be fixed by one simple thing. Winning games. As Mr Hobblesworth said, it is an uninspiring list of fixtures. Well, that's what League Two is, it is uninspiring. It's no duller a list of teams than it was last time we were in here 4 years ago.

 

The players we've brought in (Pope aside) aren't exciting, but they're ok/decent. I hadn't set my expectation high enough to believe we were going to bring exciting signings in. I believe Montano will get people off their seats (The few that are filled) and that we'll bring a few more attacking players in, but most of the signings aren't going to get people excited because they're League Two signings.

 

Last pre-season crushed the base we had of a team, and it meant we had to build another base this summer. It's awful and painful. Football is like that sometimes though, it doesn't all run smoothly. One man to blame for it all, but he's got his noise-cancelling headphones on and isn't listening. I've yet to see anyone come up with a way to get him out of the club, I would love to find one but I don't have any ideas.

 

I've come to terms with the circumstances further up the club, knowing that we're at the mercy of one man and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere. So I will judge the summer on it's merits. Garlick did the right thing reducing season ticket prices, season tickets are down but understandably so. Brown and his team have been slow signing players, but managed to get Pope back and have brought in some decent signings. However they do need some more. All in all, under the circumstances it's been an ok summer so far. Not great, but not awful either. Hopefully we can make some good signings that'll put a good side together.