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Ray Williams


shian

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I'll get me coat.
Keep up your style, Ray, it's the Potteries way!

Personally I think there's been very little to be upbeat about on the pitch since at least the time Rob Page left and we could all same the games that are the exception to that on the fingers of one hand. However, after a frustrating start to this season the last few games have shown signs of more long term improvements. There's determination in the side but we've lacked cohesion and an effective system but against Newport, Northampton and Crewe (didn't go to Forest Green) there's been a marked improvement and we were the dominant side in all three games.

There's a long way to go but I'm sure if things keep moving in this direction we'll all feel more positive.

What would we prefer, pretending everything in the garden is rosy, like Crewe as they get taken apart at home by Manchester City's 6th form XI even though they had a lot of first team regulars playing?

Put your coat back on the peg, Ray, you're Vale, the same as me and you're entitled to say it as you see it just like everyone else. It's not like this board isn't a moan fest, is it? I loved you as a player and you did some great scouting work and for me your credibility is much higher than most.

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Nowt wrong with Ray he is old school and says exactly what he sees which is refreshing given that most on radio come out with the standard media trained "sitting on the fence" garbage. Let's not forget Ray played in and has witnessed far better Vale teams than we currently have and that's what he sets Vale standards at and quite rightly so.

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Nowt wrong with Ray he is old school and says exactly what he sees which is refreshing given that most on radio come out with the standard media trained "sitting on the fence" garbage. Let's not forget Ray played in and has witnessed far better Vale teams than we currently have and that's what he sets Vale standards at and quite rightly so.
Not too often I agree with what you post, youth, but I'm right with you on that one!
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I'll get me coat.

 

I hope its not a port vale coat or no doubt you would complain its not waterproof enough! haha

 

I don't mean my comments to come across as too harsh Ray... and I do understand that there has not been too much to celebrate on the pitch recently.

 

But for me that's all the more reason to try and identify the nuggets that the Vale can build on... And to point out what the Vale are doing in games to try and change things.

 

That's what the fans want to hear. Im not saying you need to lie and say things are great when they are not... but even you must admit that you are on the negative side of the line!!!

 

We have a disaster of an owner, we need to all work together to try and and make the most of the rubble he has left behind.

 

I'm happy to chat by PM if you think I'm missing something.

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Football is all about opinion. Ray Williams has a professional insight that most of us don't have. He is required to call it as he sees it. There is no benefit in moaning that we want positivity all the time. Just think of him as a bit like Craig Revel-Horwood.

 

He hasn't kicked a ball in decades so his ''professional insight'' is a little disingenuous.

 

On a wider point, the media is littered with ex-professional players who love to make out that football is some kind of unfathomable science unless you've played the game. Many are barely tolerable (Savage, Mills, Lawrenson), and plenty come across as being as thick as two short planks.

 

I actually preferred George Andrews as he was positive and enthusiastic.

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Football is all about opinion. Ray Williams has a professional insight that most of us don't have. He is required to call it as he sees it. There is no benefit in moaning that we want positivity all the time. Just think of him as a bit like Craig Revel-Horwood.

 

But without the flamboyance hehe

 

Just to be really clear... no one is calling for positivisty all the time... just a bit more of a balance.

 

Even when asked to comment on the positives of a second half performance where the Vale pulled a goal back, and earned a point... Rays default was to go negative, ignore the question and moan about a goal conceded in the first half. That's not "calling it how it is"... that's just refusing to acknowledge that anything even remotely positive happened at all!!

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He hasn't kicked a ball in decades so his ''professional insight'' is a little disingenuous.

 

On a wider point, the media is littered with ex-professional players who love to make out that football is some kind of unfathomable science unless you've played the game. Many are barely tolerable (Savage, Mills, Lawrenson), and plenty come across as being as thick as two short planks.

 

I actually preferred George Andrews as he was positive and enthusiastic.

 

Smithie, you come across as more miserable than Ray! Does nothing excite you about our current situation? Not even the prospect of possibly being there or thereabouts at the end of the season?

 

Ray might come across as negative sometimes, but that's no different than any of us Vale fans, you included. We can't pull Ray up for doing something we've all done to a greater or lesser degree inside the last 15 years.

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I think this is the point... I'm sure Ray is a lovely bloke and a vale fan, but as a commentator he finds the negative in EVERYTHING. I watched the FGR game on iplayer so had a chance to watch the game whilst also listening to Ray as I dont listen to the radio at the games.

 

You would have thought we were playing Barcelona the way he cooed about them all game. We came out in the 2nd half and were the better side... there are two ways to report on that as a commentator:

 

1. Praise the vale for increasing their work rate, getting back in the game and swinging the momentum back our way.

2. State that its because FGR had decided to take their foot of the gas.

 

Ray chose the second option.

 

During Praise and Grumble, Ray was given a second chance and asked to comment on the SECOND HALF and how the vale had improved. There are two ways to respond to that question:

 

1. Praise the vale for increasing their work rate, getting back in the game and swinging the momentum back our way.

2. Say the the goal in the FIRST HALF was poor and then moan about it.

 

Ray chose the 2nd option.

 

I'm sure he is not doing it on purpose, but his default position is doom/gloom and negativity. Its not balanced.

 

That leaves us with a problem. There are a number of fans who who will only have his commentary as a reference point... therefore its no wonder that there as a down and out feel about the place sometimes... Praise and grumble often criticises the Vale fans for being too down, what do they expect after listening to Ray find the negative in everything!!!!

 

 

We laugh at the inbred Railway children down the road because they think they play the wonderful "Barcelona style Crewe way" of football... most of that is because it how their media presence portrays it.

 

Im not saying we should lie and make us out to be brilliant... but there are definitely times where there is a more positive spin to what Ray is saying... hell, I would take a more neutral way!!

 

Thought exactly the same, watching the FGR game with his commentary was like he was watching a different game completely. Very negative and I think bitter that he was let go

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Thought exactly the same, watching the FGR game with his commentary was like he was watching a different game completely. Very negative and I think bitter that he was let go

 

But the FGR game was one game. On the match thread as the game was going on I posted I didn't agree with RW's comments about how well FGR were playing because although FGR were passing the ball about nicely, they were not creating anything and a few times Vale intercepted the ball and nearly got in on their goal. Everyone has an off-day.

 

Generally Ray Williams and Blakeman provide a decent and entertaining commentary, Blakeman paints a decent picture of the play IMHO as evinced over the years comparing the commentary with the extended highlight and recently being able to compare the live commentary to the live action on the pitch via iFollow.

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He hasn't kicked a ball in decades so his ''professional insight'' is a little disingenuous.

 

On a wider point, the media is littered with ex-professional players who love to make out that football is some kind of unfathomable science unless you've played the game. Many are barely tolerable (Savage, Mills, Lawrenson), and plenty come across as being as thick as two short planks.

 

I actually preferred George Andrews as he was positive and enthusiastic.

 

Smithie, but the game is also littered with very successful managers who didn't have exactly excel in their careers as pro-footballers, Jose Mourhino and Arsene Wenger being two.

 

There was a Scottish guy over here named Bobby McMahon who used to front the Fox Soccer Channel and he ran an hour long football review programme every night at 10 00pm. He'd played lower league amateur football in Scotland but as a football pundit he was absolutely brilliant IMHO, almost Kenneth Wolstenholme ...esq (Kenneth was a commentator).

 

Sadly 2-3 years ago, NBC took the Premier League contract from Fox and the Fox Soccer Channel is now no more, there is no equivalent review program and NBC scheduling has become so bad it takes ages to determine what channels the games are on, it's a total shambles.

 

Bobby McMahon lived in Canada and I believe he now blogs and writes about soccer in Canada, he's no longer on the tv as a soccer analyst. Perhaps the other USA/Canada based Vale fans will remember him.

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