Can Port Vale stay up this season?

[News Feed]

James Russell looks back at the first-half of the season and assesses Vale’s chances of staying up. James Russell writes… When the Valiants kicked off this season with a victory away at Harry Kewell’s Crawley there will not have been many fans that would have thought they would be worried about a second consecutive relegation […]

 

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[Bea Smith]

Well, well, well - the mysterious but dishwater dull writer James Russell turns up again but fails to turn an interesting subject into a decent article.

 

No mention of Smurf's cast-iron promise of adequate funds - in fact rather worryingly it sets the groundwork for a lack of new players by questioning whether we can have new players at all.

 

An article with few imaginative ideas, a great lack of depth, but a massive agenda, wonder why anyone would waste their time writing such a piece ?

[geosname]

Its stating the obvious and a little misleading.

He could have said its an achievement getting us off the bottom, he could have said getting anyone to score was a plus, he could have expanded on the three teams we play over xmas, counting the points gained on one hand could be a bloody good return, 5? out of a possible 9, given his comments about the "quality" we face.

It reads like a space filler.

 

Who is james russell?

[geosname]

Can Port Vale stay up this season?

To answer the question....

if they keep doing what they are doing [improving] of course they can and will... if they had continued with the brown formula I think we would have gone down faster than a lead balloon.

[old sage]

The biggest worry for me at the moment is when will our owner hammer out an extension to Ben Whitfield's loan period. What does concern me is that at his age perhaps Bournemouth are keeping their options open and will be looking to send him on his way on a permanent deal and if that is the case then I very much doubt that we will be signing him!

[stupers]

I have rarely dipped in to relegation thoughts this season. I've always thought our best eleven is better than at least 7 or 8 teams in this league, even at our darkest moments. We were obviously missing a decent manager, so we've brought one in.

 

Things seem more on track than they've been all season. I could understand this article in September, maybe October. It seems badly timed to me. Barring an absolute disaster (And I mean disaster), there is no way we are going down. Results against other sides in the mire since Aspin took over suggest even if we can't beat the top sides in the league, we've got enough in our locker to knock over the teams around us.

[Howjy04]

The biggest worry for me at the moment is when will our owner hammer out an extension to Ben Whitfield's loan period. What does concern me is that at his age perhaps Bournemouth are keeping their options open and will be looking to send him on his way on a permanent deal and if that is the case then I very much doubt that we will be signing him!

 

Aspo said a week ago that keeping Ben was making progress.How much do you think his transfer fee would be?

[Aussie Rules]

Who is James Russell?

[Santa]

Aspo said a week ago that keeping Ben was making progress.How much do you think his transfer fee would be?

Depends who else is sniffing round, pushing his price up.

 

Someone like Bradford will probably nick him off us. Again.

[PVTony]

Can Port Vale stay up this season? ..... Wrong title! Should be: Port Vale WILL stay up this season!

 

I personally am looking for a play off position. When Neil Aspin brings in two or three better quality plyers we have every chance of finishing in the top seven. UTVale

[stupers]

Depends who else is sniffing round, pushing his price up.

 

Someone like Bradford will probably nick him off us. Again.

 

I don't think he's built a big enough body of work to justify someone coming in and nicking him off us, plus it sounds (Unlike Jones) that he wants to stay and play for Aspo. I think he's got potential to be a great player.

 

I reckon a small fee, and decent sell-on clause gets the job done. It seems to be public knowledge that we're keen on that kind of deal. Hopefully it will get done.

[Santa]

I have rarely dipped in to relegation thoughts this season. I've always thought our best eleven is better than at least 7 or 8 teams in this league, even at our darkest moments. We were obviously missing a decent manager, so we've brought one in.

 

Things seem more on track than they've been all season. I could understand this article in September, maybe October. It seems badly timed to me. Barring an absolute disaster (And I mean disaster), there is no way we are going down. Results against other sides in the mire since Aspin took over suggest even if we can't beat the top sides in the league, we've got enough in our locker to knock over the teams around us.

I'm slightly differently minded as I've probably said before Stu, I did slip into thoughts of relegation earlier in the season.

 

Any decent side on paper can get sucked into a battle if they get off to a poor start. If you haven't got the experience or mental toughness to play catch up from the foot of the table then things can easily snowball from there.

 

Can we stay up? Absolutely. And potentially pull away comfortably into mid-table. Will we stay up? Probably, barring a disaster, like you say.

 

We have to mitigate against any such disasters happening because we're only one or two injuries away from looking like a very poor side again. We didn't really have a like for like replacement for Whitfield when he was out so we had to go back to the drawing board because our options were limited.

[smithie]

I'm slightly differently minded as I've probably said before Stu, I did slip into thoughts of relegation earlier in the season.

 

Any decent side on paper can get sucked into a battle if they get off to a poor start. If you haven't got the experience or mental toughness to play catch up from the foot of the table then things can easily snowball from there.

 

Can we stay up? Absolutely. And potentially pull away comfortably into mid-table. Will we stay up? Probably, barring a disaster, like you say.

 

We have to mitigate against any such disasters happening because we're only one or two injuries away from looking like a very poor side again. We didn't really have a like for like replacement for Whitfield when he was out so we had to go back to the drawing board because our options were limited.

 

Heaven forbid if Tom Pope gets injured - for me he's cemented his legendary status already this season. His goals, performances and leadership post-Brown have been a massive part of our improvement.

[CambridgeDon]

The biggest worry for me at the moment is when will our owner hammer out an extension to Ben Whitfield's loan period. What does concern me is that at his age perhaps Bournemouth are keeping their options open and will be looking to send him on his way on a permanent deal and if that is the case then I very much doubt that we will be signing him!

 

Yes, we may be stuffed just like we were with Alex Jones, when ultimately all we'd done was to serve as a shop window. Hope to goodness we keep Whitfield but if we don't, unlike our previous so-called manager, I'm confident Aspo and Rudgie will have a Plan B. Fingers crossed.

[old sage]

Aspo said a week ago that keeping Ben was making progress.How much do you think his transfer fee would be?

How long is a piece of string Howjy? It isnt what he is worth it's more about what someone is daft enough to pay.