Vote: worst Port Vale manager

[toyahw]

8 hours ago, TJHValiant said:

Who on earth would Gannon have brought in to have made that situation better? 

All opinions mate. I respect your choice.

[Warren]

When I have been to watch Liverpool, and especially from higher elevations, you can see how how well organised they are in both attack and defence. Under Brown and Aspin I could not see that at all; I could not tell what we were trying to do. Under Aspin we seemed to have no patterns of play in attack in particular and in my opinion that is ultimately why he failed and got sacked. 

Under Askey, that is all in place. I can see what we are trying to do and as the season just finished went on we were improving in our effectiveness as a team. He and his staff are doing a good job and we need to hang on to them. 

[JRC]

20 minutes ago, Warren said:

When I have been to watch Liverpool, and especially from higher elevations, you can see how how well organised they are in both attack and defence. Under Brown and Aspin I could not see that at all; I could not tell what we were trying to do. Under Aspin we seemed to have no patterns of play in attack in particular and in my opinion that is ultimately why he failed and got sacked. 

Under Askey, that is all in place. I can see what we are trying to do and as the season just finished went on we were improving in our effectiveness as a team. He and his staff are doing a good job and we need to hang on to them. 

Aspin had a plan, recruited to play a certain way; then inexplicably bottled it and stuck with 4 4 2. The irony is he recruited well for a system with a central midfield 3. Ultimately that was why he had to go I think. We'll never know what would have happened if he'd stuck with 3 5 2 as he'd planned. I always felt the 18/19 side had good enough players to be comfortably mid table. 

I was never clear about Brown's plans but his recruitment seemed haphazard. Seemed focused on experience and the team just lacked legs. Maybe his own longevity as a player convinced him others were capable of the same. We were just too slow all over the park.

[toyahw]

22 minutes ago, JRC said:

Aspin had a plan, recruited to play a certain way; then inexplicably bottled it and stuck with 4 4 2.

With all due respect, and as a respected and knowledgeable poster I think you will consider, this is a bit of an urban myth in my opinion. Aspin played every system under the sun. Including five at the back. Wing backs, 433, 442, 451 - you name it, he played it. The problem was there was never enough consistency with either system or personnel. And don't forget after Brown fans were screaming at him to play 442.

There were clearly massive problems behind the scenes. And I don't think his heart was ever in it to be honest either.

But for me, he kept us up when we were nose diving to oblivion. Not a success, not at all. But not to be mentioned in the same breath as a few  others as crap managers.

 

[darren1810]

Really surprised that Gannon is streets ahead. But if that's the consensus fair enough.

He signed players like Jay O'Shea and Romaine Sawyers. For some inexplicable reason he seemed like he wanted to change 8 or 9 of the team that had got us challenging. I'll never understand that. I think some of the votes towards Gannon is because of the circus we became off the pitch with the Horsfield incident and Accrington debacle. He was awful but for me there is one clear winner , Dean Glover. 

One of the lowest times I've experienced following Vale for 48 years was Bury away in the pouring rain in December 2008. Bury raced into an early 2 goal lead and Glover resembled Steve McLaren without the brolly as he stood absolutely clueless on the touchline. He was a terrible manager which sadly tarnished his Vale reputation a bit 

Glover for me and I'd love to see our line up on that day. A really pitiful team .

[Emile]

17 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

Really surprised that Gannon is streets ahead. But if that's the consensus fair enough.

He signed players like Jay O'Shea and Romaine Sawyers. For some inexplicable reason he seemed like he wanted to change 8 or 9 of the team that had got us challenging. I'll never understand that. I think some of the votes towards Gannon is because of the circus we became off the pitch with the Horsfield incident and Accrington debacle. He was awful but for me there is one clear winner , Dean Glover. 

One of the lowest times I've experienced following Vale for 48 years was Bury away in the pouring rain in December 2008. Bury raced into an early 2 goal lead and Glover resembled Steve McLaren without the brolly as he stood absolutely clueless on the touchline. He was a terrible manager which sadly tarnished his Vale reputation a bit 

Glover for me and I'd love to see our line up on that day. A really pitiful team .

 

[Emile]

I think blaming Bruno for the signings is a bit unfair. He was useless but it's clear Smurf signed up all the players via YouTube. Michael Brown tried to fix the mess by not working with the players and instead signing a whole new squad mid season - terrible idea and IMO makes him a worse manager than Bruno.

 

For me Dean Glover killed my interest in football for a while, it was such so depressing to watch. We were awful. But I believe Gannon was the worst manager, as if any of the other managers on this list were given the situation Gannon was I think we would have been promoted. 

[darren1810]

17 minutes ago, Emile said:

 

Thanks for that , did well to keep it at 3 , what an horrific midfield. 

[Emile]

Yeah that midfield is absolutely dire

[JRC]

19 hours ago, toyahw said:

With all due respect, and as a respected and knowledgeable poster I think you will consider, this is a bit of an urban myth in my opinion. Aspin played every system under the sun. Including five at the back. Wing backs, 433, 442, 451 - you name it, he played it. The problem was there was never enough consistency with either system or personnel. And don't forget after Brown fans were screaming at him to play 442.

There were clearly massive problems behind the scenes. And I don't think his heart was ever in it to be honest either.

But for me, he kept us up when we were nose diving to oblivion. Not a success, not at all. But not to be mentioned in the same breath as a few  others as crap managers.

 

If he ever started a game in that second season with 3 at the back and wingbacks I'd be surprised. He made a big thing about 3 at the back during his first half season and all through the preseason said how much they worked on it during training. It was the system he'd used throughout his managerial career so it made sense for him to go down that route. Then for whatever reason abandoned it from the first match onwards of the 18/19 season. I'd be interested to know which match he did start with his back 3 as I do not remember one. The Miller gamble backfired and didn't help. Thereafter it did become a farce of trying to find a system for the players he did have until he left. The nonsense about trying to convert Montano into a left sided centrehalf was either genius or stupidity but history proved it to be very much the latter for me.

Bottom line Campbell and Aspin both advocated a back 3 and had inherited roughly similar situations. Campbell had a smaller budget, picked up waifs and strays but left Macclesfield in the top 8. Difference for me was:

1 Campbell followed his convictions

2 Campbell recruited players he felt would perform in the system he wanted to play. Aspin had a system and then just seemed to recruit players. Taking Dodds because although unsure about him but feeling he was cheap and popular with the fans being an example of muddled recruitment.

[toyahw]

39 minutes ago, JRC said:

If he ever started a game in that second season with 3 at the back and wingbacks I'd be surprised.

The nonsense about trying to convert Montano into a left sided centrehalf was either genius or stupidity but history proved it to be very much the latter for me.

Aspin had a system and then just seemed to recruit players. Taking Dodds because although unsure about him but feeling he was cheap and popular with the fans being an example of muddled recruitment.

He did so several times including his last game vs Newport.

But Montano at LB worked out okay.

How much was Aspo in charge of recruitment? Dodd's was Norman's daughter's favourite player - which could just be an accident.

I'm not here saying it was a successful  reign,  clearly it wasn't. Other than we stayed up.  

[JRC]

9 minutes ago, toyahw said:

He did so several times including his last game vs Newport.

But Montano at LB worked out okay.

How much was Aspo in charge of recruitment? Dodd's was Norman's daughter's favourite player - which could just be an accident.

I'm not here saying it was a successful  reign,  clearly it wasn't. Other than we stayed up.  

I agree moving Montano to leftback after Christmas 2018 was inspired. The effort to use him on the left of the back 3 in summer 18 wasn't.  I agree he did a better job with Brown's players. 

[valefan16]

On 14/06/2020 at 07:31, darren1810 said:

Really surprised that Gannon is streets ahead. But if that's the consensus fair enough.

He signed players like Jay O'Shea and Romaine Sawyers. For some inexplicable reason he seemed like he wanted to change 8 or 9 of the team that had got us challenging. I'll never understand that. I think some of the votes towards Gannon is because of the circus we became off the pitch with the Horsfield incident and Accrington debacle. He was awful but for me there is one clear winner , Dean Glover. 

One of the lowest times I've experienced following Vale for 48 years was Bury away in the pouring rain in December 2008. Bury raced into an early 2 goal lead and Glover resembled Steve McLaren without the brolly as he stood absolutely clueless on the touchline. He was a terrible manager which sadly tarnished his Vale reputation a bit 

Glover for me and I'd love to see our line up on that day. A really pitiful team .

Was there too, December I think so freezing and we were awful. 

Oddly the back of the kits were both white just we had black sleeves and them blue yet the next season the ref deemed black v sky blue/brown a clash!

Midfield was poor there, Mackenzie was woeful didn't seem to want to be around (slated the fans if I recall)

[Santa]

The kit debacle was the season after, when they put us in the other end of the ground.

[Warren]

Important to keep in mind what happened to Bury. I am immensely sad about it and the impact on the community. And reflecting we have been very lucky over two decades not to have crash dived out of the league and / or out of existence. Some of the managerial appointments contributed to that. So Micky Adams brought some success and stability in a very negative ownership and governance environment. In contrast Gannon amplified the back of house problems with his own stupid leadership. And I can't look past that really.