shambles of a season

[1]

Shambles would have been getting relegated like the lazy pundits expected. We overachieved, then we underachieved, but we survived. No matter what has gone wrong, we haven’t been punished as everyone from 20th-7th will still be in League 1 next season. What we have been given is harsh lessons that have stung but not set us back as far as they could have done. In fact, we’ve been let off again in some respects - signing injury prone players in particular. Follow that incredulous recruitment policy again and frankly the writing is on the wall.  Let’s just hope the management and leadership learn from all that has gone on this season. We can be better in so many departments: fan engagement, game management, the January transfer window, backroom staff, and that’s before you even get to signing the players we need. Once the uncertainty is over and we know who is staying, who the manager is and all the decisions around the club are made clear we can start getting excited about a new start which builds on what we have achieved, which is not insignificant.  Personally I think that the fans would have voted overwhelmingly to keep DC even with the downturn of results, and that perceived poor decision has spilled over to Carol getting flack for other things. Let’s see what happens. 

[1]

1 hour ago, VantaaVale said:

Might be putting 2+2 and coming up with 5 here, but the body language of this answer has never sat right with me. This was the point DC was asked about links to the Portsmouth job after the home defeat to Peterborough.

Before this match we were sitting 9th with 35 points from 24 games. So we gained just 14 points from the last 22 games. I just wonder if this was the catalyst for some unrest.

<ovf censored> me what a huge mistake, but we go on. UTV

[Valiant62]

My guess is the biggest part was Clarke related, be it the Portsmouth thing or a delayed emotional reaction but a lesser but still significant factor was playing once a fortnight on a pitch that’s past its sell by date. I hope the interim remedial work is effective this close season as that would be worth an extra signing in disruptive injuries avoided.

[philpvfc]

2 hours ago, Packmoor_vale said:

One thing that is a shambles is the food and drink situation in the railway stand 

Pouring every can into a plastic glass taking forever while the queues are getting bigger someone needs to get the message across to the other side 

 

And not good for the environment 

[valefan16]

Overall it’s been a success if you judge the season and it’s objectives as a whole.

If you’d said in August you’d finish 18th, four points above the drop and that would be the closest you’d get to the drop zone all season, you’d bloody a couple of the big boys noses and survive a couple of injury crisis where you’d have no forwards available for a period of time you’d absolutely snap the hands off for it.

So in the cold light of day overall we’ve hit the objectives and comfortably stayed up.

Probably victims of our own success in the first half of the season raising expectations but we’ve stayed up and there are lessons that need learning, January, not assuming we are done in January, which players have and which haven’t stayed up for instance.

Since January it’s been a hard watch and slog but a season is over 46 games not 22 so wouldn’t call it a shambles, a shamble spell in a par season I would say.

Key now is keeping the solid progression we are making season on season going as each year that gets harder.

[TJHValiant]

12 hours ago, Hoppers said:

Its the little things that get you -

I can take the shambles of getting rid of the best manager we have had for a generation;

 

 

 

That’s certainly not Clarke. That’d be Adams. 

[bomber]

I always feel that January sets a president for your intentions , and letting one of your better players go is not good. 

[cactuselves]

Clarke’s record at Vale - Keep us up with an almost record breaking run of wins. (Exceeds target)

Get us promoted (As confirmed by Carol, exceeds target) 

Keeo us up in league two (points accrued before he was sacked kept us up) (Meets target)

Gets sacked.

Still doesn’t sit right with me. But, on we go.

 

 

[TJHValiant]

Overall this season has provided a reminder that the club is smaller than many other league 1 clubs these days in attendance and infrastructure. Years of 4th division football have seen to that and the most important thing over the next 5 years is to avoid that happening. 
 

The most important thing will be making sure crowds do not drop off. Keep the money coming in. The sad thing is, everyone thought Carol was a new dawn. If we got relegated to league 2 in the near future you have to ask, what makes her tenure better than Valiant 2001? 

[philpvfc]

After what for me has been a disappointing season we need to forget about championship ready on the pitch next season, bring in a manager we can give backing and support so that he can build a squad which is good enough to finish top half next season and improve season on season. Let’s get the buzz back in to the club.

[NorthwoodValiant]

33 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Overall this season has provided a reminder that the club is smaller than many other league 1 clubs these days in attendance and infrastructure. Years of 4th division football have seen to that and the most important thing over the next 5 years is to avoid that happening. 
 

The most important thing will be making sure crowds do not drop off. Keep the money coming in. The sad thing is, everyone thought Carol was a new dawn. If we got relegated to league 2 in the near future you have to ask, what makes her tenure better than Valiant 2001? 

The fact that we actually got promoted under her?

[Guitar Ray]

For me FGR have had a “shambles” of a season.  I’d say we’ve had a difficult second half of the season, which has coloured the view, but overall I’d say we’re roughly where many fans thought we’d be.  The disappointments being not being able to build on that decent first half season when January arrived, culminating in the loss of the manager.  Biggest positive for me is the emerging talent of Plant.

[ValeForever.]

21 minutes ago, cactuselves said:

Clarke’s record at Vale - Keep us up with an almost record breaking run of wins. (Exceeds target)

Get us promoted (As confirmed by Carol, exceeds target) 

Keeo us up in league two (points accrued before he was sacked kept us up) (Meets target)

Gets sacked.

Still doesn’t sit right with me. But, on we go.

 

 

It doesn't sit right with people because nobody knows the full story.

What club in their right mind would sack a manager with that 24 month record on his CV... especially a manager who had been handed a 5 year deal the previous season... a manager we were meant to be building the club around. A manager who Flitcroft stated we had to do everything we possibly could to make sure he wanted to stay at Port Vale, when he was interviewed as a part of the Sky coverage before the Peterborough game re Pompey rumours.

Anybody who believes DC was then sacked, 3 months later, based on the rhetoric from the club re our form since January is deluded.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that something serious had happened; something serious enough to warrant sacking a manager who was loved by the fans, loved by Carol, was revered by Flitcroft, was 1 year in to a 5 year contract & had delivered promotion & virtual safety this season.

My personal view is that the club made the difficult decision (in the best interests of Port Vale) & decided to stick to a rhetoric that protected DC as far as possible due to the close bond & respect they have with him. They were willing to sit & take the flack off the fans & the media by taking the moral high ground & keeping shtum re what had been going on behind closed doors, to protect DC. I believe that he was sacked as an absolute last resort based on a number of incidents/behaviours. There is no other logical reason for it. The 2 x wins in 18 was just a very convenient excuse which the club ran with to protect DC.

Do people not find it strange that non of the players, staff, even Crosby himself have come out & mentioned the great job DC had done, or the great job he was doing, or the respect they have for him etc etc...

He's barely been mentioned since he got sacked & I'm lead to believe NDAs have been signed at the club by virtually every member of staff working from Vale Park, even non football related staff.

It will never come out in the press & there will never be an official statement, but this idea that we tinned DC off without good reason has to stop.

 

[Dr Delgado]

Nobody could have said for certain that 46 points would have been enough to keep us in the league this season and I for one could not see where the next win was coming from under Clarke. I think it is right to judge the club on where we all think we should be and at Christmas, a top half finish was more than within our grasp, in view of our position in the league. I think the interim measure of putting Crosby in charge was the only option a month ago but personally I don't think he is the right person for the job.

Furthermore I think anyone connected to, or working for Port Vale, should think very carefully about the words they choose to say in public. For example, Carol's, "Championship Ready" mantra, which I along with a multitude of other fans accepted and believed, now sounds quite hollow when we compare it to the "not so Championship ready", January transfer window. The January transfer window was a disaster on a number of fronts, it made Clarke look a bit silly in view of his earlier comments regarding how injuries were manged within the club when we went and signed an injured forward in his 30's. It made Carol's Championship ready statement look daft when we let a solid defender go and replace him with an unproven kid. Let's face it, would Donneley have played in as many games had Connor Hall still been at the club? 

Fair play to the Vale fans this season, we have stuck by the team in the main, we purchased season tickets in the thousands and hopefully we will do so again next season. I just hope that Carol's budget matches her stated ambition and  hopefully we are not a vanity project that she is clinging on to. 

[Guitar Ray]

34 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

…..The most important thing will be making sure crowds do not drop off. Keep the money coming in. The sad thing is, everyone thought Carol was a new dawn. If we got relegated to league 2 in the near future you have to ask, what makes her tenure better than Valiant 2001? 

I can’t believe I’m reading this.  Sorry but any credibility you may have had has evaporated after those last couple of sentences.  You’ve obviously either got a very short or very selective memory.