Where do we go from here?

[Smallthorne clampet]

15 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Maybe check your facts.  What you need to do is look at the amount of money a “big club like Exeter” have raised from player sales in recent years.

Here’s a good place to start:

Exeter City - Most expensive departures | Transfermarkt

WWW.TRANSFERMARKT.COM

 

Point taken , thank you .

[Guitar Ray]

1 minute ago, Smallthorne clampet said:

Point taken , thank you .

No problem.  Exeter seem a latter day Crewe, a bit of a conveyer belt of young players being produced and sold on for good money, but this is very difficult to maintain as we’ve seen with the Shunters.

[Vale Ball]

Some doom mongers out today.Wycombe got to the play off final last season.Last week we outclassed Cheltenham.We are playing with one hand behind our back at the moment due to the striker situation.DC said Matty Taylor will be ready for next Saturday.I expect Harrison and/or Wilson back soon.Proctor is getting up to speed.Come to terms with yourselves for ****sake.Where do go from here?Seriously?

Exactly..............

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app

[Coyney Valiant]

46 minutes ago, Howjy04 said:

Some doom mongers out today.Wycombe got to the play off final last season.Last week we outclassed Cheltenham.We are playing with one hand behind our back at the moment due to the striker situation.DC said Matty Taylor will be ready for next Saturday.I expect Harrison and/or Wilson back soon.Proctor is getting up to speed.Come to terms with yourselves for ****sake.Where do go from here?Seriously?😳😳

Wouldn’t say we outclassed Cheltenham we were the the better of two poor sides and apart from the close range header against the bar which was easier to score we never really looked like scoring 

[DazFred]

19 hours ago, darren1810 said:

Is it down to the lake I fear .

Beat me to it!

[DazFred]

A ridiculous thread to start

On to the next game and an improved performance hopefully

Liverpoo and Chelsea are struggling and look at the size of their squads?

We'll be ok I'm sure

[arthurdog]

16 hours ago, darren1810 said:

Is it down to the lake I fear .

You win

[andy jones]

We continue going forward and leave the negativity warriors behind.

[Stockleys_socks]

Unbelievable how a poor run of form so obviously due to our main strikers being out of action for 5 weeks is being extrapolated to needing new owners. Clearly its all down to not having enough pies in the kiosks. Mid table means losing as many as we win over the course of a season and wed have taken that at the start. I distinctly remember those throwing the towel in last season saying we'd blown our playoff chances, that dave worrall was past it etc and look how that ended up. Its the negativity of our fan base that disappoints me more than anything.

[Guppys left peg]

Where we go from here is to the next game and try to win that. Sometimes you just lose a game because the opposition handled the situation and conditions better than we did but that's not dramatic enough for some it seems.

[Valiiant]

 

- Stop pretending Smith will blossom into a footballer and allowing him time on the ball.

- Stop playing Garrity as a midfielder. He's crap on the ball and offers absolutely nothing other than work-rate. Either play him as an attacking midfielder where he can be a goal threat, or not at all.

- Stop playing Massey, an average wide player, as our main striker when we have actual strikers on the bench and ready to play.

Doing these three simple things will be a big step in the right direction.

[TJHValiant]

The club has always needed new investors. Certainly more likely to get someone on board with the way the club is being run than how it was. 
 

Just imagine, trying to bring in investors with Smurfwaite around. 
 

Bratt tried too if I recall with things like Hank Julicher and that turf company “where’s the beef baby” was one memorable comment alongside when asked about putting £2 million in, he was even more blunt “you’d have to be mad or on drugs”, to consider doing it. 
 

Yet now surely things are different. That 2 million would, if invested, easily push us towards the Champ. 

[DazFred]

8 hours ago, Rockape99 said:

I believe Donaldson from Autonet offered to purchase 49% but It was declined. Donaldson and Carol are ok about it and the offer stays on the table for perpetuity. There is no rift , Donaldson remains a major sponsor in the club , holds meetings at the club . 

You believe? So it's a rumour then?

I know for a fact Donaldson is actually a Liverpoo fan and has signed shirts in his office. He has invested heavily in the club but gets a huge amount of publicity for Autonet in return...the half time competition,a sponsored stand,name on kits,lots of advertising round the ground. Maybe Carol is not interested in giving up almost half of the business? Maybe Donaldson could invest more money into the club and this could go towards the playing budget?

[JoeB2]

One the one hand we're on a bad run because we've failed to address a long-running issue; the durability of our strikers. When a team loses games, fans tend to get annoyed, and rumours fly (although some, not all, I've read on here are 100% true.) When/if the strikers are fit, we should meander comfortably to mid-table. The issue needs sorting long-term, mind, as it has put a dent on what was a very promising season. If we win on Tuesday, we all calm down and go on to finish 14th.

On the other, I'm not sure long-term it's quite as rosy as people think. Running a football club is very difficult and the people who run the club, as fantastic as they've been (the best we've ever had), are not infallible. They've made mistakes before - John Askey's overly slow departure, for example.

There's been a fairly noticeable departure of senior figures in recent months, including the Communications Director, Stadium Manager, a key bloke in the foundation (Tom?), head of the media team, (Luke, was his name?) and long-serving groundsman. This is undoubtedly strange, for so many key people to depart within 6 months of each other. Did they all decide to leave for pastures new at the same time? Was it financial? Were there professional differences?

The lack of fanfare at Speedy's departure, after 30 years of service, was stark. 

I do think there's some short-term overreaction to some poor results and performances, but also some glossing over the fact that being 'Championship Ready' in any sense is a long, long way away at the minute. 

There's a fairly big summer coming. The squad will be overhauled and the budget will have to be looked at if the physical issues of Vale Park are to be addressed. The task for the management, if they decide to stick around, is to square the circle in progressing the club whilst likely not having any extra money to do so, on an atrocious playing surface and in a ground which demands millions of pounds for upkeep. If you're Clarke/Crosby, knowing this, other clubs suddenly look more appealing.

To try and bring this ramble together, my long-held view is that Port Vale, runs self-sufficiently and efficiently, can achieve mid-table League 1 - where we are now. Anything beyond will require a) external investment or b) a miracle season by an inspirational management team and group of players. This is the juncture we're currently at, imo.

[Santa]

Yesterday was the culmination of a lot of issues that have been bubbling under for a few weeks, ignited by the spark of a poor home defeat.

A couple of quick goals late on yesterday turned a disappointing performance into a terrible one.

It’s important that we take stock of everything but it’s also important that we understand what’s happening on and off the pitch that has fed into this feeling of frustration.

Being teased by the prospect of being able to get a centre forward on the pitch probably didn’t help. Signing an injured striker felt like peak Vale at 2pm yesterday.