Crosby is Out NOW !!!

[philpvfc]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

So are you saying that Birmingham City should not have sacked Wayne Rooney?

It was a bad idea to get him in.

[philpvfc]

27 minutes ago, Powerline said:

That’s not at all a comparable situation and you know it. Birmingham were in the playoffs. We are 6 points off the drop.

We were only just above the drop when Crosby was given the job. In fact, we are in a higher position than when he was given the job.

[philpvfc]

29 minutes ago, Vale Ball said:

That table isn't a prediction it's fact, pretty damning really showing how badly we have done in 2023

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app
 

How can it be a fact when it is predicting the future?

Correction…..I read it the same as Osh .thought it was predicting this year.

[philpvfc]

TBF, Clarke was in charge for half of this period.

[smithie]

6 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

Massive post more to organise my own thoughts

The parallels between this season and Rob Page's full season are fairly stark:

• Assistant appointed to replace 'big character' promotion winner who was clearly at the end of his reign
• Introduction of slow, possession football
• No strikeforce (AJ Leitch-Smith, Hooper, Uche, Robinson, Campion)
• A great midfield - O'Connor, Grant, Foley
• A great keeper - Alnwick
• A smattering of young, exciting players - Streete, Andoh, Inniss
• Uche Ikpeazu

Our record after 23 games of the 15/16 season:

Won 8, drawn 6, lost 9

Our record after 23 games of the 23/24 season:

Won 8, drawn 5, lost 10

At the halfway point we were playing slow, fairly boring possession football with no strikers and a collection of good midfielders. We beat some good teams and lost to some poor ones. Youth was beginning to break in. We had 30 points from the first 23 games.

At the halfway point of this season, we are playing slow, fairly boring possession football with no strikers and a collection of good midfielders. We've beaten some good teams and lost to some poor ones. Youth is beginning to break in. We had 29 points from the first 23 games.

What's interesting is that fans became both angry and apathetic in both seasons. I remember the disillusionment with Page. The disillusionment with Crosby feels broadly similar.

I don't think Page was ever a great League 1 manager, as evidenced by his spell at Northampton. I don't think Crosby will ever be a great League 1 manager. I'm not convinced he's even a good one.

However, there are a lot of parallels of how the fanbase reacts when we hit, in my view, the club's self-sufficient ceiling of mid-table League 1. There's a sense of frustration, understandably, that but for a few changes we could shatter the ceiling and propel ourself upwards to the top 10 and beyond. People seem less angry when everything is very clearly awful - perhaps the sense that things could easily be better riles us up? That the glory days of the 90s are within tangible reach if we stopped faffing about with Crosby?

We've lost some games this year, and they are clumped together and felt pretty awful. Of the losses, 4 were abysmal (Barnsley away, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury, Carlisle), 4 were against the current top 4 (Bolton, Posh, Pompey, Derby), 2 were unfortunate (Burton where I think we played well, and Gas where Debrah was off after half an hour), which leaves Barnsley at home which was poor but nearly salvaged against, in my view, a very good side currently 6th. I was adamant he should go during this run, but I think there was more to it than just being really bad for 12 games.

The fundamentals are that Crosby is very unlikely to be sacked. He isn't performing disastrously and isn't performing well - a 5.5/10, so far. I fundamentally disagreed with his anointment without interview, and think there are a lot of better options out there. Despite this, I am staggered by the level of vitriol of some fans towards him - and I'm someone who is incredibly defensive of Vale fans' right to moan. One tweet I've seen:

Funniest part of my weekend is watching him turn away and sulk when you abuse him hahahaha. I’ll be there waiting for you every week until you resign Andy. Expletive yourself

This tweet is from a Vale fan who attends a lot of games and, last season, was positive to the point of aggression. We have 5 points less than this time last year, yet Clarke was (rightly) lauded and Crosby deserves abuse to the point where this man actively celebrates it on a public platform. This is the same lad who has given Carol a lot of stick and demanded that she sells up. I've seen one of the most calm, long-termist posters on here call for Crosby's head. I feel like I'm in some weird fever dream.

To round up, I'm going to slip into the semi-patronising tone that a few on here adopt when they refuse to criticise anything, ever. The reality is that, with the current budget, 10th is perhaps the limit of our ambitions. I'm relentlessly demanding with PVFC, but I'm reaching a point where I need to accept we can't be on the verge of something big every year. Some years will be a tad disappointing and we'll just forget it ever happened.

From 2008-9 to 2022-23, PVFC was a club consistently on the edge of something. Relegation from League 1, to nearly going down from League 2, to the revival under Micky before he jumped ship, to the Gannon saga, to the V2001 protests, to the EGM and the betrayal, to MOLD, to administration, to Ryder, to Wildes and Smurthwaite, to promotion, to finishing 9th in League 1, to Adams being sacked, boring season, to Bruno experiment, to relegation, to nearly going down twice in League 2, to protests against Smurthwaite, to Smurthwaite threatening to liquidate the club, to Carol overpaying by 3m to save us, to being denied by the playoffs due to 0.2 ppg in COVID, to being on the brink of relegation under Askey during COVID, to DC not winning in 8 then winning 7 in a row, to being rampant at the start of 21/22, to DC losing his daughter, to bottling automatic promotion, to Swindon play-off semi, to Wembley, to being 9th on New Years Day 2023, to nearly going down in May, to DC being sacked.

It's been way too intense, and I think it's had an impact on how we react to stuff. Compare that 15 years to, say, the 15 years of Shrewsbury Town, or Bristol City, or Oxford United, and you can see that it's not normal for a club to be intensely doing something to the extent that we've been. Football is a largely dull game, saved by moments of intense activity and excitement. It feels like we've been having goalmouth scrambles for over a decade.

I think we're heading towards a boring era. My controversial view is that I think Carol will have to perform a miracle to take us further than 10th in League 1, without external investment. The challenge is keeping the fans engaged whilst we figure out how to perform that miracle. I'm still of the belief that there she is a net positive for the club and will continue to be so until the day she goes - if only by virtue of her good intentions, conscientiousness, and refusal to let us get into any serious debt. If I had to bet, I'd say we have 3-5 seasons of knocking around League 1 without really achieving much in store. Perhaps that's more normal than what we've experienced for 15 years.

It's all very odd to think that anybody so inclined could go down to the club any day midweek and convey their thoughts to Carol and Andy directly - we're a very open club compared to some in terms of access to club people. They'll find Carol doing something in the main stand and AC on the training pitches, and neither strike me as being unapproachable.

Alternatively they could write to them, or if they're truly dissatisfied with things they could maybe try to organize a protest.

These are normal channels of communication and courses of action. Pouring vitriol onto a screen sadly has become normal. 

[princesslear]

On 26/12/2023 at 16:02, Brian Johnson said:

I agree

Theirs only a handful of people on here that want him still be the manager for some reason.

Crosby out

Majority of fans aren't on 1vf

[Vale Ball]

TBF, Clarke was in charge for half of this period.

Whoever the manager is/was that record is not good and its what is driving frustration at the moment.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app

[MBE]

6 hours ago, darren1810 said:

My own take on this is I thought Joe made a very good post earlier comparing the Page era. It was boring particularly away where many games were shocking. Odd exception obviously. 

Finishing 14th is fine by me. There can't be many level headed Vale fans expecting a play off challenge. Maybe our fast start of 5-1-1 did us no favours.

However the reason I'm disillusioned is the football has been dire. I really enjoyed the more direct approach v Blackpool.  I can accept defeat . Goodness knows I've seen enough in 50 years. I really can't put my finger on it . Forget the so called Happy Clapper brigade or the moaning Minnie's. Let's try and understand why fans are disengaged. 

Just why are so many of our fanbase feeling this way. It's not a few dissenting voices either. I saw versus Barnsley with my own eyes a guy who does absolutely loads for the club pleading with Carol to get rid as we trudged off to a catcall of boos. A guy who puts a lot of coin Vale's way. 

We have not got entitled opinions of grandeur. We're Port Vale. But why are there continued concerns and calls for change when we are where we should be ?

It's the mind boggling team selection. Square pegs in round holes. The baffling substitutions which make no sense. And the reluctance to deviate from this new found Port Vale way. 

I'm fed up of your Lincoln and Carlisle scenarios where both were avoidable yet nobody was surprised we conceded so late.

I'll be there Saturday, I'll be at Reading the weekend after. But it's a struggle watching some of the performances. 

It's not actually about the be all and end all of winning. I'd like us to get me off my seat and have a go. If we lose so be it. But some of the football has driven me to despair. That's why I'm disillusioned. 

 

Take a bow Darren. Nailed it. 
 

Off the pitch there a too many issues as well. You know it’s bad when even Dicko is getting disillusioned with the club.

[Brian Johnson]

22 minutes ago, princesslear said:

Majority of fans aren't on 1vf

I was only talking about the people on OVF

[philpvfc]

18 minutes ago, Vale Ball said:

Whoever the manager is/was that record is not good and its what is driving frustration at the moment.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app
 

Agree, I think a lot are taking their frustrations on Crosby and to a certain degree Carol. Some of it is justified but a lot of time it is just a case of the blame game.  After last season it was all about staying up this season and I’d say we are in a decent position to do this, a lot of frustrations but certainly slow progress.

[philpvfc]

6 minutes ago, Brian Johnson said:

I was only talking about the people on OVF

Why don’t you do a poll rather than keep quoting what people want.

[Nippy Naylor]

Valiant , I think if Bing is binned off and it's a big if  he would defo get another job probably in Sunday league football 

[Brian Johnson]

14 minutes ago, philpvfc said:

Why don’t you do a poll rather than keep quoting what people want.

I forgot that you cant do anything for yourself

[Brian Johnson]

20 minutes ago, philpvfc said:

Why don’t you do a poll rather than keep quoting what people want.

Just for your lazy arse.

The poll started on The Wonder of You last night

Crosby out - 172

Crosby In - 39

[Nippy Naylor]

Pete wild is the perfect fit for the vale