onevalefan.co.uk Present Past Specials About Forum
Jump to content
onevalefan.co.uk forum

Advert


Advert


Aspin


TylerB

Recommended Posts

This isn't me trying to start some sort of witch hunt, or me saying that he should be replaced. He has to be given next season whether it's in League Two or the Conference.

 

But seriously. What's with his persistence of playing Kay and Tongue together in midfield time and again? Between them they have less legs than Slimer, and against any team that's relatively mobile we have a new arse-hole torn every damn game.

 

Also, as a former defender, and a terrific one at that, and as someone who has bought it more a number of defenders now, how is it that we're actually defending even worse at times than we have over the last few season when that was already our achilles heel? Today was as bad as it gets. Completely unacceptable.

 

For me he has an awful lot to prove and it's scary how bad we've become since his honeymoon period and 'new manager' effect started to wane. If it was Bruno or Michael Brown losing 5-1 to ******* Cheltenham this place would have been in meltdown and a riot taking place in the grounds of Vale Park!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advert

He definitely has limitations and annoying tendencies, especially his apparent favouritism. Practically every manager will at this level (Micky had his favourites and loved a fall out, Page's negativity away from home and 1 up top)

 

However, we saw in December what he's capable of when his methods 'click' and he gets a settled team. He revitilised Pope after a poor opening 10 games, got the best out of Whitfield (in spells), made Gunning into a fan favourite, and somehow made Kay serviceable.

 

Hannant looks to be a good addition, but a poor window is masking the great work Aspo has done with possibly the worst squad in living Vale fan's memory. Whether thats down to him, the scouts, or Norm (I've made my opinion clear) is still being debated.

 

We've got a woeful squad with no good enough goalkeeper, one right back, no left backs, dinosaurs in the middle, too many inexperienced, inconsistent young creators players who its unfair to depend on, and an overwhelming reliance on Pope, who can't be expected to bag every single week when he is now being double marked.

 

Do I think Aspo has made mistakes? Yes, quite a few. Kay and Tonge is the worst midfield pairing I've seen. 4 centre backs in the window was a bizarre approach. Was he gifted a truly atrocious squad, inbalanced and unmotivated, and made them competitive? Yes. There's 0 competition for Pope, no full backs bar Gibbons (again, young and inconsistent, to be expected), and Whitfield, Harness etc can't be relied on week in, week out at 20, 21, 22.

 

Its a bit of a ramble, but I don't think anyone who was at the Luton and Coventry games can come away from there thinking that Aspo is out of his depth. He's getting a comparatively easy ride now because of December and his playing days.

 

To sum up this messy post, Aspo has proven he can get the best out of his players. The squad is too reliant on young lads like Whitfield, and having one effective striker in Pope will take its toll. What I'd give for a Lee Hughes type, a lad who could take the pressure off Pope a bit.

 

We're still recovering from the Summer of Madness 16, and the squad shows. One decision has set us back at least 5 years, probably more, with a slight chance our existence as a FL club ends the decline that started when Page left. However, if we bundle home survival, and Aspin is giving the funds the club has earned in recent years, I expect he'll improve recruitment and we'll be looking at a leaner, more experienced squad come August.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It isn't just Kay and Tonge's ageing legs that's the problem, we've got issues all over the park. We've had these issues since the village idiot in possession of the club decided he didn't like Rob Page and constructively dismissed him, by his own admission. Page should have sued him but unfortunately didn't.

We weren't great when Page left and a great many people on here were glad he'd been got rid of but he was doing an ok job and we weren't in any real trouble, it was a 'work in progress' and the future success or failure of that is open to conjecture.

However, it didn't take Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola to predict the likely outcome of the utterly mental Bruno 'experiment' which devastated both the club's finances through sheer waste and the whole playing staff. The club now 'owes' Lord Lard the pile of dosh he wasted and we lost the players from a stable side to be replaced by utter dross who, with the odd exception, were well out of their depth. Anyone with half a brain could predict Bruno would flop and leave after half a season or less like he's done everywhere he's been a manager, which is evidence that our glorious leader has brain function of less than 50%.

We've never recovered since then. Brown was massively out of his depth but to be fair not many managers with zero experience would have prevented the inevitable slide into L2 and even more money was wasted doing it. A sensible chairman would have either replaced him at the end of that season or at least agreed a strategic and balanced recruitment programme to rebuild the squad in the summer. When Brown managed to get rid of almost all the Bruno deadwood it appeared he was doing the right thing. Where it was a disaster was he then repeated the errors of the previous summer by signing far too many players and not having balance and cover in his squad, never mind quality. Some signings looked ok on paper, such as Wilson who'd played over 30 games in Bolton's promotion side, Kay with a couple of promotions under his belt and Davis who'd played a fair few games at the right end of the league above. Big problem was they all turned out to be less than expected plus he made ridiculous signings like the crock that is Lainton, ineffective Montano, past it Tonge, past it Pugh, crock Barnett, etc. There was no steel or energy in midfield, no width and nothing to compliment Pope up front. No full back cover or competition either, except maybe Yates at right back (bear in mind Gibbons was not in contention as a first teamer in August) and as for left back - ??? Hadn't even got one never mind cover. Basically a pig's ear with a huge squad that couldn't field a competitive first 11.

Once the season started and all the frailties were exposed we were knackered and Aspin was recruited by a desperate Blue Blob who stated publicly he acknowledged his mistakes and would back Aspo in January to make sure we didn't go down.

All hot air - again - and we shouldn't be surprised. At least he's consistent.

I think Aspin is a good manager, he has experience and an excellent track record. However, if you can only shop at Primark no matter how many items you buy they'll never be as good in a clothes show as items from Savile Row and eventually you'll end up spending more in Primark for a massive but inferior wardrobe.

The problem we have is firmly to do with how the club's been run from the top and even if it's run sensibly from this day forth it will take some time to rectify the problems.

Aspo will change his side until he gets what he needs but this season is about survival and no more, exactly the same as it was when he started.

 

Sent from my [device_name] using the http://onevalefan mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goals 3-5 came after Tonge went off. Goals 2-5 were self inflicted. Tonge is a good player who is fit and has good mobility for his age. I don't think we can have three players that age range in the team. Need to get energy and runners in the team for Tuesday. We need 50 points to get safe, 46 may be enough but anything in the 40's is relying on other teams failing. Aspin is the right man, as stated in the above posts we are festooned with problems which make us the fifth worst team in L2, we have to fight every moment in unity to avoid becoming the worst or second worst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aspin had a superb October and December. NS then weakened the squad yet again and now we are winless in 2018. It's exactly the same as last January and we went down as a result. I can see Aspin walking away from the club at the end of the season and, if he manages to keep us up, he'll be a hero in my opinion. NS has failed to back him and I don't envisage this changing in the future. NS get out of our club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think Aspin is an amazing manager, he lacks presence and doesn’t seem to have the outward passion or tactical intelligence that our best ones have had.

 

Still better than Brown however.

 

He did a phenomenal job in his first three months. Then NS knocked the stuffing out of the squad by penny pinching over a contract for an important player. Gunning was steady at left back and a big influence as a character on the pitch and in the week during training. NS is solely to blame for this very simple decision. Aspin wanted to keep him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've now got three other defenders in. Raglan was torn to pieces yesterday. Jules has been horrific. Not seen the other one yet. These players were who Aspin had to settle for after working down a list of 20+ other players. Players who are better want more money. NS is not providing the money. He's taking the wet. He needs ousting NOW!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goals 3-5 came after Tonge went off. Goals 2-5 were self inflicted. Tonge is a good player who is fit and has good mobility for his age. I don't think we can have three players that age range in the team. Need to get energy and runners in the team for Tuesday. We need 50 points to get safe, 46 may be enough but anything in the 40's is relying on other teams failing. Aspin is the right man, as stated in the above posts we are festooned with problems which make us the fifth worst team in L2, we have to fight every moment in unity to avoid becoming the worst or second worst.
Spot on Warren, We must not depend on the ageing legs,as we've been getting run off the park recently by younger,average players.More energy and a higher tempo is needed from our younger players, guided by one or two of the older class.Time ALL to knuckle down and get a result,as a few are STEALING a wage at the moment.

 

Sent from my [device_name] using the http://onevalefan mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The team against Luton had Kay, Tongue and Pugh in it and was 4-4-2 so what’s the argument for not playing those three in the same team

Argue all we want but something much deeper than just certain players in the same team don’t work is going on here, same with formations

Aspo is trying his best like I’ve stated something else is going on but I don’t know personally what it is, is it smurthwaite? I don’t know like I say.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using onevalefan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've now got three other defenders in. Raglan was torn to pieces yesterday. Jules has been horrific. Not seen the other one yet. These players were who Aspin had to settle for after working down a list of 20+ other players. Players who are better want more money. NS is not providing the money. He's taking the wet. He needs ousting NOW!

 

Hate posts like this. You have absalutley no idea behind the deals. Why would a player join vale if a league 1 club or higher league 2 side wanted him? We were after guy... is it vales fault he went to Bradford? Budget isn't everything look at Accrington. One major problem that everyone seems to overlook is whoever is doing the bloody scouting! We all know it all stems from the chairman but this form can't be his fault, aspin had basically this 11 when we were brilliant against Coventry and Luton.

 

He also wasn't penny pinching over gunning. He got offered a far better deal by a club spending a fair bit of money!

 

Tin hat ready but I agree with the opening post in worried we have a **** of a chairman, and a manager who I'm losing faith with game by game. Had this been Bruno, brown or page imagine the outrage on here. Same tactics every week just hoofing the ball to pope, same awful team selections in tongue and Kay and some truly bizarre signings. Everyone knows Norman has to go if we're to get anywhere but aspin needs to get his act together as well, and the players they can all leave for me baring a couple.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Reporting Posts and other information

    Rules - This forum is moderated but the admin team don't read everything. Don't assume we'll spot rule breaking and alert us by reporting content. Logged in users can hover over the post and click the orange button. Guests can contact us here. If you don't get on with another user you can "ignore" them. Click this link, type in their username and click save. Please check with the admin team if you wish to sell/auction any items. We're happy to support good causes but check first.

    Use - This forum may not be suitable for all as it may contain words or phrases not considered appropriate for some. You are personally responsible and potentially liable for the contents of your posting and could face legal action should it contain content of a defamatory or other illegal nature. Every message posted leaves a traceable IP number. Please do not reveal any personal information about yourself or anyone else (for example: phone number, address or email address). This forum is not in any way affiliated with Port Vale FC. OVF reserve the right to edit, delete, move or close any thread for any reason. If you spot an offensive post please report it to the admin team (instructions are above).

    Adverts - This site occasionally a) has adverts and sponsored features about gambling b) accepts sponsored posts from third parties. If you require help and advice on gambling read these links: Information on protecting young people | Addiction help from gambleaware.co.uk
  • Friends of OVF

×
×
  • Create New...