Flitcroft Interview in Baggers' 'The Valiant'

[werstayinup]

If we fail to win today against the ONE team with a worse record than us over the last 10 games then AC surely has to go no matter what DF says in his interview,if not then things could start to turn nasty with fans who are paying hard earned money to watch it,DF has to realise he is being paid to watch it

[Santa]

Was at my Xmas do last night so I’m just catching up now. A lot of what I feel has already been put into words by others on here, mainly by Joe.

A lot of the striker talk is looking at it from the wrong perspective. Other teams in our league with a similar size and budget sign ok league one centre forwards. Not us. That is who we are competing against.

I get the feeling that DF still doesn’t know which markets he needs to be playing in when he attempts to recruit centre forwards. Considering we’re paying for his experience and his professional insight, that’s poor.

When Norm signed shít strikers, at least his excuse was that he was a fúcking idiot. 

[JoeB2]

20 minutes ago, Santa said:

Was at my Xmas do last night so I’m just catching up now. A lot of what I feel has already been put into words by others on here, mainly by Joe.

A lot of the striker talk is looking at it from the wrong perspective. Other teams in our league with a similar size and budget sign ok league one centre forwards. Not us. That is who we are competing against.

I get the feeling that DF still doesn’t know which markets he needs to be playing in when he attempts to recruit centre forwards. Considering we’re paying for his experience and his professional insight, that’s poor.

When Norm signed shít strikers, at least his excuse was that he was a fúcking idiot. 

Bang on. 

Flitcroft's approach is 'well, we get outbid for strikers by Bolton and Championship clubs. What am I supposed to do?'

Yes, David. Anyone could predict that. Why on earth on you wasting your time chasing them? If you are going to waste your time, don't bleat about the disparities inherent in free-market capitalism to cover your own backside.

Focus on finding the players the big clubs aren't looking at, beat the likes of Cambridge and Burton to them, and then sell them to the big clubs down the line. 

[werstayinup]

56 minutes ago, Santa said:

Was at my Xmas do last night so I’m just catching up now. A lot of what I feel has already been put into words by others on here, mainly by Joe.

A lot of the striker talk is looking at it from the wrong perspective. Other teams in our league with a similar size and budget sign ok league one centre forwards. Not us. That is who we are competing against.

I get the feeling that DF still doesn’t know which markets he needs to be playing in when he attempts to recruit centre forwards. Considering we’re paying for his experience and his professional insight, that’s poor.

When Norm signed shít strikers, at least his excuse was that he was a fúcking idiot. 

Correct,I have no idea who scouts for these strikers but Langstaff cost Notts County 50k from Gateshead ... strikers are out there if we dont aim for ones Bolton etc are after or can afford and young kids at Academy clubs(i feel thats who we will bring in in January)

[MBE]

Even more disillusioned about Vale reading this thread. 
 

Flitcroft is full of <ovf censored>. Flitcroft out! Crosby Out!

[Valiiant]

 

Utter delusion at the top. We have two clowns making the big decisions at the football club and a lady who too easily has the wool pulled over her eyes running it.

A laughing stock.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Valiiant

[rayzer]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

Dear @rayzer you are one of the most respected Vale fans, what is your view on the current set football wise,, Flickers, AC etc

I have to say at the moment I am ambivalent about the whole situation. If Andy Crosby has had a say in the players we have signed then it is down to him to play them to their strengths. I know we got lucky at the start of the season with some results (Barnsley apart) but I enjoyed us playing across the back until their was an opening and usually Ripley would find Ojo or Arblaster to create chances. Since we have had Uche or Loft in the team we knock it about as before but then Ripley just launches it to the strikers who are not good enough to bring other players in to play. That style of change in play is down to Crosby and a manager who makes so many mistakes in recruitment and structure has to pay the price.

On the other side of the coin is that I think that Crosby was appointed because he wanted to be number one in his own right for the first time in his career and has gone along with Flitcroft's own ideas of how he wants a team to play. If I am right, and there is no way of really knowing, and that Flitcroft has the full responsibility of who we sign, with also an input of our style of play (which he alludes to} then we could have Pep in charge and we would only fail because if you can't score goals you will only go one way and that is relegation. Sadly I think that is where we are going to be relegated and it is such a shame that after all the hard work and money Carol has put in we could end up back in the 2nd Division.

Unless you really know how the management structure is working at the club then how can you say which one is most culpable for our long run without a win in the league.

We need to try to move on both Loft and Uche in January if we could find a club more desperate than us to maybe Exeter, Cheltenham or a team in a lower division and with other outgoing put the money into one good goal scorer. It is not good enough Flitcroft  saying we can't afford one. We have to. There is a saying, if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. We simply must find a goal scorer in January or we will get relegated.

Carol knows the structure so it is down to her if we lose today and if we do then one or all of them could be gone.

[OtterVale]

With possession based football, you need to be able to move the ball quickly when the opportunity arises, which we aren't doing for me the question is do we have the players capable of that and a striker to gamble on being in the box as he knows the ball will be played, which we definitely do not have.  Another thing we need to do is press the opposition higher up the pitch, faster and consistently if this style is going to work for us.  

I do not like Flitcroft and think he should go as for Crosby he is in a difficult position learning to be a manager whilst changing the playing philosophy of the club utilising a small budget.  I am still on the fence to be honest I do agree with continually changing managers but can Crosby become a good manager I do not know, hopefully yes but the current run is concerning.

[WV]

2 hours ago, werstayinup said:

If we fail to win today against the ONE team with a worse record than us over the last 10 games then AC surely has to go no matter what DF says in his interview,if not then things could start to turn nasty with fans who are paying hard earned money to watch it,DF has to realise he is being paid to watch it

He will be gone if we lose today. People surely realise he isn’t gonna come out and say that in the press though. Anyway, if he did people would say he is undermining the manager and adding pressure etc 

Edited December 9, 2023 by WV

[Emile]

3 hours ago, robf said:

To be fair Flitcroft doesn't say that. He says Crosby gave Plant his full debut at Ipswich, which he did.

He may be wrong on other things but not that one.

James Plant was excellent at Ipswich, an outstanding performance. That was designed. He (Andy Crosby) had looked at his physical and technical metrics and said, ‘you know what, he deserves to play.’

That seems to suggest that Andy Crosby looked at Plants stats and made the decision to play him

Technically he doesn't say that he gave him his full debut, but I would say it's implied personally. 

[TJHValiant]

3 hours ago, Devine intervention said:

Just read 90 per cent of that interview and generally he is spot on .

The bit about the academy players coming through well I agree with that 

We have to produce our own players to be sold on to survive and to move forwards .

Seemed to me like there working on solutions to the non scoring more than often Vale team .

Long ball game does not get anyone interested in buying your players .

I'll agree with him it's nice see Vale pass the ball now just put the ball in the net more regularly to keep your fans happy 

UTV 

Trouble is he is the master of delusion. His solutions are things to problems he has caused. He has been around long enough at Vale to know we need to produce our own players, even Smurfwaite used to bang that drum. 
 

The whole long ball boring/passing game exciting debate is being proven false by what we are doing. Most Vale fans want to see wins. 
 

I actually did like the way we played during the good run but the key difference was we played at a much higher tempo. Look at the Charlton game for one example, some great quick passing football that opened up Charlton on so many occasions. 
 

Harder to do when confidence is low and pitches are winter heavy. 

[Vtid]

4 minutes ago, Emile said:

James Plant was excellent at Ipswich, an outstanding performance. That was designed. He (Andy Crosby) had looked at his physical and technical metrics and said, ‘you know what, he deserves to play.’

That seems to suggest that Andy Crosby looked at Plants stats and made the decision to play him

Technically he doesn't say that he gave him his full debut, but I would say it's implied personally. 

Yet we've never seen him play in the middle since that game, or hardly in his natural attacking position either. Just completely wasted his talent & stuck him at lwb where he's been shown up at times. it's madness 

[Walka003]

A lot of really weird stuff in that interview. 

He says that we can't compete with Leyton Orient for Joe Pigott, who he calls one of the "goalscorers of league one" alongside Charles and Clarke-Harris. The guys got two goals in 20 games? If that's a demonstration of his ability to spot a striker, it probably explains why he chased Loft all summer. 

He's is the root of our league woes both this year and last. Lurching from bad decision to bad decision. It's a shame Carol can't see it, him and AC are here to stay. 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Walka003

[Valiiant]

 

Flitcroft shouldn't be given any role at a football club beyond making the tea and putting the cones out.

[Frank Mustard]

 
Flitcroft shouldn't be given any role at a football club beyond making the tea and putting the cones out.

Totally disagree... he'd make a pigs ear of that.