Totally Underwhelmed!

[Rampant Zebra]

I expect he will charge around for a bit and then get an injury to keep him out for weeks in the traditional style of a new player who is not fully match fit.

[TheSage]

The point Jean makes is an excellent one and was alluded to by Aspin several days ago. Norman is prevaricating and uncertain as to whether or not he keeps Aspin on or replaces him. Clearly the cheaper option is his current preferred position (unsurprisingly).

 

But this isn't helping us one iota. We are in a relegation battle. make no mistake. And losing our best and most influential player in Pope is a terrible loss, not for just a week but for 4-6 weeks. And as yet he hasn't been replaced with a target man.

 

All our three signings are young and inexperienced and of course dirt cheap, costing us next to nothing. I don't mind an odd one but piling responsibility on youngsters in our current plight is a bit unfair. But if Norman won't honour his word about giving Aspin - what was it - the best part of 400k in January, then we have to beg, steal and borrow.

 

In my view, much as I don't want to say this, I would have looked to have had an experienced manager in situ 3 weeks ago and given him a kitty to save our season. As it is, we've missed the boat and face yet another nail biting few months.

 

We all know, sooner or later, we'll drop. You can't keep on bucking the trend like last year.

 

We are spending less in January than we did before Xmas. Lainton, Daniels and Barnett off the pay-roll and several loan lads returned. In their places we have three young boys for basically nowt.

 

It's an appalling situation when we have an almighty struggle on our hands. Yet the owner says nothing and does nothing.

[Ben]

The point Jean makes is an excellent one and was alluded to by Aspin several days ago. Norman is prevaricating and uncertain as to whether or not he keeps Aspin on or replaces him. Clearly the cheaper option is his current preferred position (unsurprisingly).

 

But this isn't helping us one iota. We are in a relegation battle. make no mistake. And losing our best and most influential player in Pope is a terrible loss, not for just a week but for 4-6 weeks. And as yet he hasn't been replaced with a target man.

 

All our three signings are young and inexperienced and of course dirt cheap, costing us next to nothing. I don't mind an odd one but piling responsibility on youngsters in our current plight is a bit unfair. But if Norman won't honour his word about giving Aspin - what was it - the best part of 400k in January, then we have to beg, steal and borrow.

 

In my view, much as I don't want to say this, I would have looked to have had an experienced manager in situ 3 weeks ago and given him a kitty to save our season. As it is, we've missed the boat and face yet another nail biting few months.

 

We all know, sooner or later, we'll drop. You can't keep on bucking the trend like last year.

 

We are spending less in January than we did before Xmas. Lainton, Daniels and Barnett off the pay-roll and several loan lads returned. In their places we have three young boys for basically nowt.

 

It's an appalling situation when we have an almighty struggle on our hands. Yet the owner says nothing and does nothing.

 

A kitty more chance of pleating fog:yes:

[Doha]

At worst, Smurthwaite has lied again and had no intention of investing the £400k into the squad. At best (for him) he's shown how little he's learnt over the years and he's over promised and under delivered again, which would show he's woefully incompetent.

 

Given the precarious position the club is in, the fact our signings so far are cheap, complete unknowns, surely even the last remaining foolish few Smurthwaite supporters have realised how dangerous the man is to the club.

 

[fraggle]

I do wonder if Smurf is actually in talks to sell the club? he’s gone terribly quiet and the purse with the £400k in, is firmly shut (or so it seems so far)

[Jacko51]

Once,Jean.My Son in law is a Cardiff fan.He says we have done well to get him.

 

How many times has he seen him play?

[Phil]

Mark Harris is as good as any player Mansfield have signed/ loaned.

 

Totally ludicrous thing to say as things stand. He might turn out to be good, but we know Ajose and Grant are good, Harris is unproven.

[Smugsy]

If anyone was naive enough to believe that Smurfwaite would spend £400k on players during January, then an e mail from Akpo Sodje claiming that he is a Nigerian Prince who needs your help will soon be in your inbox.

[man in the pub]

He will of course say he had budgeted for 5k attendance figures and that it is the fans fault we are getting sub 4K.

 

Strange isn't it but when Tesco,s sales figures dropped their CEO came out and put his hand up and took responsibility. He didn't blame his customers for not buying his product. But hey that's how really successful businessmen behave.

[jjvale_03]

Pretty clear that Norman Smurthwaite is trying the same trick that forced Page out of the club. Gambling with the league status of this great club because he's an arrogant, unprofessional fraud.

[Houston Valiant]

Look at who Mansfield have signed.

 

 

That’s because Mansfield have a woman in charge of the purse strings who knows what she’s doing, and has the club in a very good position both financially and on the pitch. Fair play to her. We, on the other hand, have a ******** for a chairman , who is so caught up in his own importance and ego that he can’t see straight.

[pjg1876]

This post probably could fall into several different threads on here. The club is rotten from top to bottom.

 

The owner/chairman needs to go as he is an arrogant and egoist human being. The manager appears to be completely clueless playing negative, boring hoof ball. The players seem to play when they feel like it and target practice before games in front of the Bycars is just a joke. They break more seats than the net.

 

Consecutive January transfer windows take us closer to the abyss every season that goes by. The ground is becoming a disgrace having very little spent on it, the tannoy is useless and the scoreboard works sparodically.

 

The fans want the owner out and the manager out but the owner makes more out of the club than he lets on. He won’t sack the manager as he would have to pay compensation so he makes it as difficult as he can for him. Aspin won’t resign as he’d lose his entitlement to compensation.

 

Players come and go with regularity and little loyalty (Pope aside) and seem to show commitment as and when they want.

 

4 of the last five seasons have resulted in a fight against relegation and we have slipped down to 85th worse performer of 92 teams and those below us are all in a higher league.

 

The fans are organising a protest to try to get Smurthwaite to leave but he probably won’t turn up anyway or make up stories that he has been beaten up. He cannot stop himself making stories up and then forgetting what he has said such as his dialogue with Billy Bell. Bill himself was a bit of a rogue but even he was more honest than Smurthwaite.

 

I am beginning to despair with the club having followed their fortunes since 1963 and have been a season ticket holder for the majority of those years and a life member from 2005 until Smurthwaite plugged the plug on the scheme despite only having around 15 members. He has upset lottery ticket sellers, football in the community, Six Towns Radio, Mike Bagguley etc. The man is a buffoon but he ain’t going anywhere, protests or not. He makes too much money out of this business and loves the hospitality other clubs afford him at away games.

 

Sorry for the rant which probably just repeats what others have said already but I need to get it off my chest.

[blackdog]

Smurthwaite did say that the club had got to stand on it's own feet and be self sufficient and that he wasn't prepared to fund it any more.

 

He sells himself as a clever business man who never loses on a deal.

 

These are dangerous times, I thought last season we were looking down the barrel,this time it seems much worse and unless Smurthwaite does a deal and sells up, I fear it could be the end of Port Vale Football Club.

 

Relegation with Smurthwaite at the helm would see the club fold.

[onestepatatime]

This post probably could fall into several different threads on here. The club is rotten from top to bottom.

 

The owner/chairman needs to go as he is an arrogant and egoist human being. The manager appears to be completely clueless playing negative, boring hoof ball. The players seem to play when they feel like it and target practice before games in front of the Bycars is just a joke. They break more seats than the net.

 

Consecutive January transfer windows take us closer to the abyss every season that goes by. The ground is becoming a disgrace having very little spent on it, the tannoy is useless and the scoreboard works sparodically.

 

The fans want the owner out and the manager out but the owner makes more out of the club than he lets on. He won’t sack the manager as he would have to pay compensation so he makes it as difficult as he can for him. Aspin won’t resign as he’d lose his entitlement to compensation.

 

Players come and go with regularity and little loyalty (Pope aside) and seem to show commitment as and when they want.

 

4 of the last five seasons have resulted in a fight against relegation and we have slipped down to 85th worse performer of 92 teams and those below us are all in a higher league.

 

The fans are organising a protest to try to get Smurthwaite to leave but he probably won’t turn up anyway or make up stories that he has been beaten up. He cannot stop himself making stories up and then forgetting what he has said such as his dialogue with Billy Bell. Bill himself was a bit of a rogue but even he was more honest than Smurthwaite.

 

I am beginning to despair with the club having followed their fortunes since 1963 and have been a season ticket holder for the majority of those years and a life member from 2005 until Smurthwaite plugged the plug on the scheme despite only having around 15 members. He has upset lottery ticket sellers, football in the community, Six Towns Radio, Mike Bagguley etc. The man is a buffoon but he ain’t going anywhere, protests or not. He makes too much money out of this business and loves the hospitality other clubs afford him at away games.

 

Sorry for the rant which probably just repeats what others have said already but I need to get it off my chest.

No need to apologise, mate. Your post is totally correct and sums up the feeling of the majority of Vale fans. Protesting may not oust Smurthwaite or indeed the useless Aspin but it at least gets fellow like minded fans together and hopefully gets into the media. Least we can do. No point whatsoever just doing nowt, that has proved so far to be assisting in destroying our Club. We need thousands, not hundreds of Valiants congregating and venting their spleen at the disgraceful way our Club is being run into the abyss.

[pjg1876]

No need to apologise, mate. Your post is totally correct and sums up the feeling of the majority of Vale fans. Protesting may not oust Smurthwaite or indeed the useless Aspin but it at least gets fellow like minded fans together and hopefully gets into the media. Least we can do. No point whatsoever just doing nowt, that has proved so far to be assisting in destroying our Club. We need thousands, not hundreds of Valiants congregating and venting their spleen at the disgraceful way our Club is being run into the abyss.

 

I just like a good rant. Not really sure at the moment which one of Smurthwaite or Aspin I want out the most.

 

If Smurthwaite goes we might end up in the same situation (administration) as we did finally under V2001 and also Billy Bell. Not sure even Smurthwaite would do that as he would lose probably everything. But then again, we can’t carry on much longer like this with everything done on the cheap hoping that there are two teams worse than us every season.

 

If Aspin goes, we could end up with Pugh who may or may not be worse. Whatever happens things don’t look too rosy at present.

 

Bring back the 1990s when things were good.