Retained list

[Guest]

The table does not lie finished 4th bottom and relegated prior to last season,finished fifth bottom in the worst league .

Good luck Aspo 7 to 8 new first team players required .

The players who are contracted i suggest you go take a look at yourselves in the mirror .

Were you good enough last season if you feel you were then i say then we have no chance of progressing you werent and that is the truth .

I can handle the truth ,if i do not perform at a very high intensity at work 40 hrs a week i will be replaced and rightly so .

So all those in on making Vale proud again get to it come back fitter and sharper and be part of a good srason for once ,now those who couldnt care less i suggest ypu go away and find another club where the supporters will put up with your ineptness .

Vale Always V.T.I.D

[darren1810]

Sentinel reported Tonge and Pugh are two of the LOWEST earners

 

Is it pure co-incidence due to lack of pace that Pugh has been sent off at least twice, once in a game that could arguably of cost us our league status. Tonge against Crewe after an awful Pugh pass.

To me this is all down to Brown and his old pals act, played with both Tonge and Pugh and feathered their nests with a new contract.

What they earn is irrelevant, they are not up to it anymore.

[CambridgeDon]

I agree on Pugh and I don't think hes had that bad a season either, hes certainly the more mobile of the oldies and does a lot of good work in getting about the midfield to break up play and I like that he keeps it simple when hes got the ball and is willing to do the dirty work for the side. Hes also been one of the few midfielders to get past our forwards and create himself a chance in the box. Hes been found wanting on a few occassions, but not as bad as some like to think IMO and as with many other players it doesn't take long for our fans to over react and turn when a few passes go astray. But I think the amount of stick I've heard him get from fans at the games for being ex-Stoke could well be another factor too.

 

Tonges biggest problem this season has been more mobile oppositon players leaving him floundering. I think when we get the ball he can keep it well and bring others in to the game, thats his strength, maybe he'd be more benefitted by having a mobile player alongside him, along with a decent number ten to try and pick out with more options out wide maybe? But I could never fault his effort or committment and using him in saturday and tuesday games was never ideal, but he still put it in. At times he looked like the older player who knows what he wants to do yet his body couldn't respond in time. I have no problem with either of them being retained and I still think they can bring sometine to us, just not necessarily week in week out. But as already mentioned, if players like Middleton, Regis or Reeves had stepped up then we wouldn't have seen so much of Tonge or Pugh. Like it or not they've both played a part in helping us get safe.

 

 

The same is probably true for most professional footballers in league 2.

 

This sounds about right to me though, as I've only been able to see 4 games this season, it's difficult to comment from experience. The one game that sticks in my mind is Crewe away when, in added time, we were 2-1 up and still trying to attack with six players in Crewe's half. We were then caught on the break and lost two points at the death by being unnecessarily adventurous. I think that would have been much less likely to have happened if we'd had either Pugh or Tonge in a holding role because their experience would have helped us to manage out the game. Those two points would have taken a lot of stress out of the end of the season.

 

It's clear that Aspo has relied on Pugh and Tonge a lot over the season, in the dressing room particularly, in keeping morale and confidence going. As long as we're not relying on them in midfield next season I think we'll be fine and their coaching nous and experience will be good for the team. I'm sure Aspo knows this and he will want to recruit two younger, more powerful, midfielders so he can play from a position of strength not because he has no alternative.

 

Fingers crossed on the recruitment then!

[Paul6754]

Considering I'm reading how well Pugh and Tonge have played but not as well as Gibbons, Smith, Howkins, Montano, Hannant, Worrall and Pope; how the hell have we been so crap all season and avoided relegation by one point and a little goal difference?

 

IMHO the reasons have been poor goalkeeping which destroyed confidence through out the team, a weakness at center back, lack of a regular goal scorer other than the Pontiff and a lack of creativity. The finger can be pointed at Pugh and Tonge for lack of creativity but it should also be pointed at a few others as well. If we had had a decent goalkeeper and signed Chris Eagles Vale would have had a much better season.

[JRC]

IMHO the reasons have been poor goalkeeping which destroyed confidence through out the team, a weakness at center back, lack of a regular goal scorer other than the Pontiff and a lack of creativity. The finger can be pointed at Pugh and Tonge for lack of creativity but it should also be pointed at a few others as well. If we had had a decent goalkeeper and signed Chris Eagles Vale would have had a much better season.

 

Goalkeeper is the biggest problem, followed by getting a settled back 4. When we got the back 4 playing as a unit we lost half the unit and it took 6 weeks to rebuild.

 

If we were solid at the back all season we would have finished mid table. I'd take that for next season and look to push on the season after. We've got rid of the worst players in the squad. If Tongue and Pugh are the worst players in the squad next season we'll be significantly better than this year. We are where we are and it isn't going to be a quick fix to improve things. Top players aren't going to be phoning to come to Vale Park because of where we finished, but if we are moving forward we can carry on attracting better.

[PV1973]

Goalkeeper is the biggest problem, followed by getting a settled back 4. When we got the back 4 playing as a unit we lost half the unit and it took 6 weeks to rebuild.

 

If we were solid at the back all season we would have finished mid table. I'd take that for next season and look to push on the season after. We've got rid of the worst players in the squad. If Tongue and Pugh are the worst players in the squad next season we'll be significantly better than this year. We are where we are and it isn't going to be a quick fix to improve things. Top players aren't going to be phoning to come to Vale Park because of where we finished, but if we are moving forward we can carry on attracting better.

The amount of combinations we've had in defence has been ridiculous.

[For Us All]

Is it pure co-incidence due to lack of pace that Pugh has been sent off at least twice, once in a game that could arguably of cost us our league status. Tonge against Crewe after an awful Pugh pass.

To me this is all down to Brown and his old pals act, played with both Tonge and Pugh and feathered their nests with a new contract.

What they earn is irrelevant, they are not up to it anymore.

 

Playing the blame game will get us nowhere,move on.

[valeparklife]

The goalkeeping has been an absolute shambles all season - the number of games the opposition has had a 100% shots to goals ratio must be around 50% of our games!

[Erniemossrules]

All that smells of Abnorm, when you have appointed an inexperienced manager (Brown) who's in panic mode with a budget he conceives as being 3/6' because he's putting together a squad in the style of Barry Fry then unless someone who knows what they're doing questions the signings you end up with 34 year olds on a free from Stevenage, especially if they're mates with the said inexperienced manager. Similarly, if you don't know what you're doing but are so narcissistic you think you know better than everyone else then you sign some players of your own like Anton Forrester and, rumour has it, Callum Howe, who often turn out to be a pig in a poke.

If our glorious leader funds Aspo properly and sensibly for a L2 club and trusts him to do the job without interfering I'm confident he'll bring us success. Trouble is can the Blue Blimp do that and go some way to redeeming himself?

 

When Norman and Paul Wilde’s took over Wilde’s clearly realised that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

The first thing he did was give Pope a decent contract.

Unfortunately Norman still thinks you can polish a turd which is probably why Wilde’s jumped ship because dealing with Norm is like knocking when no one is in.

[pjg1876]

Is it pure co-incidence due to lack of pace that Pugh has been sent off at least twice

Pugh only sent off once, along with Tonge, Montano, Kay and Gunning. Gibbons sent off twice.

[Santa]

Fradley and Smurthwaite remind me of Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee.

They remind me of Councillors Cox and Evans from Reeves & Mortimer.

[TheSage]

I think the issues we've had go deeper than simply a settled defence, very important though that is.

 

We've missed a defensive shield in the middle of the park - someone who can do the dirty work, track back, win tackles & headers, and help the centre halves. A player like Griffith or Grant. A strong, mobile player.

We've had little or no creativity from centre midfield. How many goals have they scored? Virtually none. That's appalling.

Quite often the wide men don't get back and support their full backs, as say Birchall did with Yates. Whitfield doesn't do that part of his game well at all. Worrall too is a bit lightweight. But having a settled team will help partnerships to develop.

Up front we've had no-one to take the pressure off Pope and score 10-15 goals, or run the channels, apart from an odd game from Whitfield here and there.

I've also been a bit surprised by the lack of a real captain on the field of play. Someone to shout, point, talk. We've got 4-5 experienced lads but I can't say I've noticed any real leadership at times.

 

All these things need addressing - in addition to a settled back four.

 

Anyway, as FUA says wisely, it's time to look ahead now. What's gone has gone. But we have to be 100% better in all areas of the pitch come August.

[Santa]

Agree Mr Sage, that’s because our midfield has been cobbled together with bits and pieces players who we’ve begged, borrowed and stole.

 

Who’s the creative one? Who’s the midfield hard man? You can’t really pin any of them down in terms of what sort of a midfielder they are, apart from maybe Kay who we bought to play in defence.

[darren1810]

Pugh only sent off once, along with Tonge, Montano, Kay and Gunning. Gibbons sent off twice.

 

i was referring to his sending off at Rochdale yes it was last season but again purely down to pace, or rather lack of.

And i agree, move on someone said, but because of Aspo's high regard for them i remain unconvinced and think that they will both still play a huge part next season.

[PV1973]

i was referring to his sending off at Rochdale yes it was last season but again purely down to pace, or rather lack of.

And i agree, move on someone said, but because of Aspo's high regard for them i remain unconvinced and think that they will both still play a huge part next season.

Bit harsh really, the sending off this year had nothing to do with pace.

 

That one against Rochdale was a shocker from a defensive point of view. But he won't be the last Vale player to be outrun by an opposition player in a breakaway goal.

 

But its not like its a secret he hasn't much pace. He'd probably agree with that too.