Aspin close to leaving the Vale ?? Staying

[Aussie Rules]

How good a manager would Aspin be, if Smurthwaite wasn't our Chairman?

 

Who knows? Some 'marriages' work better with different partners.

[Emile]

I appreciate I don’t get to go to all games however the games I have been to over the Christmas period have been similar to the game against Oldham I went away a few months back. Few chances and put bodies on the line.

 

It’s a points business and I’ve seen vale won one (oldham away) and draw one (Lincoln) and the other two games were loses (Oldham home and Grimsby home). I did get to see us play Newport County earlier in the season and that for me was our best performance of the lot despite getting beaten.

 

In all those games we set up in the same way (bar Newport). I maintain that if we had lost 1-0 to Lincoln people would be calling for the manager to go and that Mannys goal was a welcome fluke.

 

I want Aspin to do well here I really do, but his team selections, tactics and man management aren’t good enough. Our squad is significantly better than last season, no doubt. So we need to finish significantly higher for him to have done his job. I’m not saying playoffs but top half for sure.

[vale victory]

A true story told to myself by someone who was there,Santa.Vale had lost ,at home,a small gathering outside the main entrance began singing how not well we had played.Horton went outside and came back with a couple of the singers.He then laid into the team inviting the fans to join in.The players were delighted.

 

If I remember after the 2 late vale goals to win it against Northampton, Horton turned around giving the v sign to Lorne street

 

He apologised on praise and grumble afterwards though

[sheffieldclayhead]

If his heart is not in it anymore due to the owner, some fans or just out of his depth in league football then it is time to move on end of.

 

 

On this run of games (no win in 5) we will be looking over our shoulder very soon at Macc as they pass us by

[man in the pub]

The most criticism i’ve heard from fans about his team selection was when every man and his dog said the team picked against Yeovil was bloody ridiculous. Most folk I spoke to thought he’d picked the right team against Oldham. We know nowt.

 

You are right Jacko we don't and I for one was guilty of moaning about the team selection before the Yeovil game so hands up to that one. The big difference is as fans we pay to watch the football and all have our opinions. Aspin gets paid to manage the team and also carries ultimate responsibility for the results. So when we are sitting 19th in League 2 after the manager has been in charge for 12 months and have generally played poorly over the last 10 games, mostly against the lower teams then he will come in for criticism. Whether you like the team selections or formations played if you are challenging for promotion then most fans will have to acknowledge their differences and look at the table. When your tactics and formations have you struggling in 19th position and you are showing relegation form then that's not the case.

[Loggerheads Sage]

I sit in the Railway and can hand on heart say I have not heard any chanting against Aspin,chants about how poor and how fed up we are,but not any personal ones against Aspin himself,what goes on in the Lorne street I dont know about but it cant be more than a handful,so I dont get all this hand wringing.

 

I've seen no banners with Aspin out, no concerted chanting, I have in the past,I remember the whole ground doing a slow hand clap against one gaffer, I'm slightly surprised at Aspins reaction,maybe he's looking for an excuse to leave.

 

I was told by someone who sits down there that it is basically 2 blokes who have form shall we say. I sit near the back of LS and have seen Aspo turn and react to supporters. He reacted to Lincoln fans "abuse" the other day - surely this will only encourage it? He should be professional and ignore it, sadly it comes with the territory these days. Got to say that Rowett dealt with it correctly in my view. That is unless it becomes vile and involving family etc. The Mirror says that Rowett is about to be sacked btw. My view is that it is the wrong time to change manager. Very difficult to get players in if the you have no manager (or a new one needs time to assess the squad). Obviously i'm not happy with home performances or results, but believe at this time we need stability. You can't go from the shambles that we were when Aspo took over to promotion in a year, you need to build over 2 to 3 years. Out of say 10 signings not all will work out, especially as of necessity some will be "chancers". So you get rid of the failures, plus the ones you were saddled with on 2 year contract like Tongue and get another 10 in. Again some won't work but you are getting there. There is a tendency at the Vale, and we are not alone, to constantly pay off a management team , have yet another clear out and start from scratch again. We should know by now it rarely works.

[Loggerheads Sage]

The most criticism i’ve heard from fans about his team selection was when every man and his dog said the team picked against Yeovil was bloody ridiculous. Most folk I spoke to thought he’d picked the right team against Oldham. We know nowt.

 

Exactly Jean, 2 up top we all said, he did that it didn't work. Montana and Whitfield to start, again rubbish. There must be a reason he has not picked Gibbo, which we don't know about. As for this abuse from a few fans in LS - why don't the stewards stop it? It says that bad language will not be tolerated - that is a joke!

[mbycars]

If he stays he needs to man the f@@k up!!

 

He's more of a man than some of the keyboard warriors on here. If you saw him play you would KNOW what kind of man he was and how much bottle he had.

[mbycars]

That’s not a chance though is it? That was a piece of personal brilliance from manny, a screamer. You wouldn’t say it was a chance.

 

Of course its a chance!! if it wasn't a chance then it wouldn't have gone in. Hitting the bar was a chance, shots blocked on the line and the keeper saving shots were all chances. Never heard so much onesided bilge in all my long life.

[Jacob_123]

Meeting tomorrow now instead of today

[Alkie]

He’s definitely not a quitter, so either it’s a statement to the chairman along the lines of if I stay I need some proper backing, or something else is going on behind the scenes.

[Gareths54]

According to Lee Blakeman today’s meeting between Smurf and Aspin to discuss his future has now been arranged for Friday

[Smugsy]

The odd thing about his statement after the Lincoln game was the lack of any real abuse towards him. There was a chant of "You don't know what you're doing" when Whitfield was substituted for Montano and a couple tried to start an Aspin out chant which quickly fizzled out but it was hardly 90 minutes of abuse and there were only 250 of us there anyway

[Mario]

He's more of a man than some of the keyboard warriors on here. If you saw him play you would KNOW what kind of man he was and how much bottle he had.

 

And knowing what he was like as a player and how much bottle he had it makes me think something else is going on.

 

Robbie Earle dropping a hint .........?

 

It’s worrying to hear him question whether the supporters still want him and whether he would be better off somewhere else. As I said, he’s not the sort of character to say this sort of thing on a whim, but I don’t know what is happening day-to-day behind the scenes at the club and what frustrations he may be facing.

[werstayinup]

He wunner be going anywhere