Is this the best team we have had for decades?

[Chopper Harris]

I know it’s early days in the season, but just looking at the players that we have this season, I don’t remember us having a team as good as this for a long time. Is it better than the Micky Adams’ teams we had? Maybe as good as the teams we had 20 years ago under Horton? 
 

Yes it is too early to call now, but we seem to have the basis of a cracking squad that is more than competitive for league one. If you would have told me 5 years ago we would be where we are now I wouldn’t have believed it. I guess time will tell for sure and hopefully we will contribute the good start we have made. 
 

Maybe the reason I’m thinking this is because the quality of our teams over the last 20 years hasn’t been that great…… certainly true if you are like me and grew up watching the Vale in the late 80s and 90s. 
 

 

[Doha]

I know it was against a L2 side, made up of quite a few inexperienced kids, but some of the football we played the other night was lovely to watch.

Over the last 20 years I've sat in the Railway and wondered many times "why the <ovf censored> have I never seen us play like that" when even much smaller clubs rock up and totally out-football us.

We are similar to Bristol Rovers in several ways, other than their extremely wealthy middle eastern owners (and, conversely, their pub team stadium), yet when they rocked up in the promotion season they played us off the park; their technical football would be very admirable if it didn't mean having to praise Barton for something. I sat there watching it wondering when I'd ever see a Vale team passing and moving as effectively.

If this season is the beginning of the transition to Flit-Cros-gegenpress using ballers like Arblaster and Devine I apologise unreservedly for being so <ovf censored> off after Barnsley.

[darren1810]

Far too premature to call. Getting way ahead of ourselves. 

 

[robf]

32 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

Far too premature to call. Getting way ahead of ourselves. 

 

I'd agree. I'd judge this team at the end of the season, not the start.

I hope it is the start of something but we've won nowt yet,

[CAVALIER]

Can't say until the season end but we do have some of the best players we've had for years.

[Guitar Ray]

It’s only really fair to compare like with like, so the current team compared to past Vale teams at league 1 level, and in all honesty at this early stage we’re still finding out about our current squad.  Beyond that I think we’re doing a disservice to the side that recently got us promoted which was very entertaining to watch at league 2 level, culminating in the scintillating display at Wembley.

[Guest]

It's exciting and the players are running harder than ever .

Too early too say .

All I wanted this season is cup runs and mid table comfort .

Still on performances seen so far we will have done very well to achieve both of my objectives come season end 

All other fans have there own wants me i just want see positive football with players attempting to head a free kick in and crosses which are not just put in for the sake of it they put in to make a outcome a save or a goal .

The hamil can play a big part in the uprising of Vale in my mind there's no doubt about it 

As every week passes with positive play and results the more the fans will want to come the games .

For me thats success the fact that more folk are in the ground and the encouragement is significantly louder than what it used be .

Then we can talk about best side in decades for me long way go to get that accolade .

It's promising though and that can only  be good as we continue to generate a feel good factor around the club .

Long may it continue 

[JoeB2]

It's strange - after Barnsley, when I and others overreacted, there was a call to give it 10 games before judging.

We're not yet there, but we're now seeing even more extreme calls in the other direction.

The form is great, the technical quality of the players is high, and things are going well, but let's not be fooled by 9 games. As much as the form has been good, we've won a game through a vicious deflection, a game via a penalty against 9 men, a home game via a penalty, and 2 calamitous defensive errors at Charlton away. We beat Crewe in the cup by virtue of 4 missed penalties, and beat Fleetwood who have since sacked their manager. We've got a fair way to go before we can be considered a genuinely good side in this league.

This isn't me saying we're rubbish - I think we're quite good, probably good for top half. We've had a tough start and handled it better than any would have predicted.

I also think that stringing quite narrow wins together has a compounding effect which is getting fans a tad too giddy. Soon, these tight games, these red cards, these defensive mistakes, these penalties will go against us. We've got a number of young lads who will inevitably dip in form - Arblaster, Devine, Plant, Thomas, Balmer, and Cass will have bad games. 

It's lovely to enjoy things but the risk of getting ahead of ourselves is when the inevitable dip comes, being (say) 11th after 15 games is seen as a disappointment as opposed to a really great first third of the season.

So - chill! Something I've learned post-Barnsley.

[philmpv]

As others have said, way too early to judge.

We appear to have some great individual players for this level. Arblaster, Chislett, Iacovitti, Devine (on reputation as not seen enough to see for myself), Clark, Ripley.

Others less able are making their own notable contributions. Cass, Smith, Ojo, Thomas and Wilson.

Balmer may be another great individual player.

We should get better as a TEAM as the season progresses. I certainly think that we can get much better as an attacking unit and, if that happens and our defensive solidity continues, we could easily finish top half and perhaps sneak a play off place.

Long way to go though. Overall, I'm made up with the start we've had. Long may it continue


Edit: Just realised that I've labelled Wilson as 'less able'. That alone shows how good the recruitment has been this summer!

[CAVALIER]

2 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

It's strange - after Barnsley, when I and others overreacted, there was a call to give it 10 games before judging.

We're not yet there, but we're now seeing even more extreme calls in the other direction.

The form is great, the technical quality of the players is high, and things are going well, but let's not be fooled by 9 games. As much as the form has been good, we've won a game through a vicious deflection, a game via a penalty against 9 men, a home game via a penalty, and 2 calamitous defensive errors at Charlton away. We beat Crewe in the cup by virtue of 4 missed penalties, and beat Fleetwood who have since sacked their manager. We've got a fair way to go before we can be considered a genuinely good side in this league.

This isn't me saying we're rubbish - I think we're quite good, probably good for top half. We've had a tough start and handled it better than any would have predicted.

I also think that stringing quite narrow wins together has a compounding effect which is getting fans a tad too giddy. Soon, these tight games, these red cards, these defensive mistakes, these penalties will go against us. We've got a number of young lads who will inevitably dip in form - Arblaster, Devine, Plant, Thomas, Balmer, and Cass will have bad games. 

It's lovely to enjoy things but the risk of getting ahead of ourselves is when the inevitable dip comes, being (say) 11th after 15 games is seen as a disappointment as opposed to a really great first third of the season.

So - chill! Something I've learned post-Barnsley.

I'll see how chilled you are next weekend JB

[TJHValiant]

On 09/09/2023 at 17:43, Chopper Harris said:

I know it’s early days in the season, but just looking at the players that we have this season, I don’t remember us having a team as good as this for a long time. Is it better than the Micky Adams’ teams we had? Maybe as good as the teams we had 20 years ago under Horton? 
 

Yes it is too early to call now, but we seem to have the basis of a cracking squad that is more than competitive for league one. If you would have told me 5 years ago we would be where we are now I wouldn’t have believed it. I guess time will tell for sure and hopefully we will contribute the good start we have made. 
 

Maybe the reason I’m thinking this is because the quality of our teams over the last 20 years hasn’t been that great…… certainly true if you are like me and grew up watching the Vale in the late 80s and 90s. 
 

 

It could be..although I don’t think the attacking line up is as good as the likes of the mid 2000s league 1 sides with the likes of McPhee, Constantine, Sodje etc. The football under the 2003/04 playoff push season was excellent throughout. This seems so far around that, but we have more loan stars this time around which makes me a bit uneasy post Jan. 

[Warren]

I think L1 is a stronger league than 10-20-30 years ago. The Premier League by way of TV rights is now the strongest league in the world having overtaken La Liga. To us this means good players are being pushed further down the league structure. 

I am also impressed with our young players. A few seasons ago we would not have dared to have on the cumulative youngsters we played against Crewe. They'll be in the promotion shake up in L2 this season. 

So credit where credit is due. Signed good players, released players intelligently last season, good loanees brought in and good young players brought through. 

But there is a barrier here. It's how big is Port Vale or how big can it be? Look at the clubs who went up last season. Ipswich, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday. Two are much bigger attendance wise and one significantly bigger. Bottom of the Championship presently is Middlesbrough; a much bigger club etc. 

I guess all that can be done is strive for success within realistic funding and see what happens.

[saintvaliant]

Just as it was too early to write off the season after Barnsley I think it is too early to be hanging out the bunting and proclaiming the best side in years.

There are some indicators of positive direction - the loanees appear to be a significantly better quality than we’ve had for some time, our youth system seems to be thriving and is generating players for the first team and bringing in revenue and we seem to have recruited better this summer than the previous few windows. In general terms we seem to be trying to play more attractive football than in previous years (albeit such isn’t necessarily the be all and end all).

However there are also some areas of concern. Do we have enough goals in the team/squad? Are we lacking depth, and perhaps quality, in certain positions? Will the positivity endure the inevitable sticky patch or bad run?

Realistically, I think anything north of 10th would be punching above our weight in this division given it’s current composition. 

 

[Fosse69]

Team is the important ingredient in success , hopefully will remain for us, barring the unforeseen.