Balance, from a moaner

[JoeB2]

Over the past few days I've sort of u-turned from being incredibly downbeat about PVFC to a little bit more optimistic.

Previously I was very critical of an awful 2023 - the worst performing League 1 club, and 85/92. Undoubtedly unacceptable and very significant improvement is needed very soon. I was disheartened at the sacking of my personal favourite manager, and felt he could steady things if given a bit of time. The football is often pretty dull, and there's been some truly shocking performances. I was disappointed by the appointment of Crosby, the lack of even considering other options, and losing 7-0 on opening day set me on quite a negative view on things - I was almost looking for confirmation of my previous views. I was going into games expecting bad things, almost looking for them.

Having had some time to reflect and do some research, I'm not quite as downbeat as I was. I'm certainly not excited, and I'm not shedding any tears if we sack manager and DoF tomorrow, but these are the reasons why I think there's room for a bit more optimism than is being made out:

• 15th isn't great, but we've only finished above 15th in League 1 twice since 2007. This has been a ceiling for us for nearly 20 years, and we're 3 points from 11th with games in hand, which would be our 3rd best league finish this century. Finishing, say, 14th in League 1 would be one of the best finishes I've ever seen - sad, but true.
• Average league attendances are at record highs. Last season, the league average was 7,681. This season so far, 7,323 (this excludes cup games). The last time we recorded over 7,000 average home attendance was 1998. If you remove the club's Golden Era from 1990-98, the last time we averaged over 7,000 was 1964. We are attracting new fans for the first time in decades.
• Building from this - purely anecdotally, I am seeing more young fans at Vale Park. We missed out on an entire generation from 2008-18. Pretty much everyone my age went to support Stoke. The promotion and Wembley visit seems to have attracted a new group of younger fans, who hopefully will be kept on.
• Vale Park was effectively left to rot for 30 years. Whilst some areas still feel that way (Railway Stand), we're slowly but surely improving what is a traditional and brilliant old football ground. The scoreboard looks great, the Fanzone is a big improvement, and hospitality is befitting of a professional football club. I can order a cup of coffee from my phone, which for me is brilliant - though everyone else seems happy queuing in the rain!
• Carol Shanahan has a few flaws as an owner. She talks in slogans, seems to overly trust a few individuals, and maybe doesn't quite do enough for the average fans' experience in the old stands. However, she is still a huge net positive on the club. The accounts are in good order, according to Kieran Maguire of Football Finance Expert fame. She spent circa £10m in 4 years, including overpaying by £2-3m to avoid us going bump. We didn't even own the ground when she bought us. The club has undoubtedly improved in almost every metric - 20th in League 2 when she arrived, with a gate of 4,431, and 15th in League 1 now, with gates of 7,000+. The academy has gone from being in the bottom 5 for productivity in the country to its most productive in decades - even if its only Lawrie and Mills who make a career of it. She's invested in the ground, and provided more memories in 4 years than I had in 20 years beforehand, including the two best of my life in Swindon and Mansfield. Her intentions are good, in that, whatever we think of her, she wants what is best for PVFC, not herself.
• The academy - although this crop were signed under the old regime, clearly things went wrong in the 16-18 stage and we only saw Smith and Gibbons break into the first team for nearly 20 years - both on account of their grit and battle. In the last year, we've sold two players to top academies for good money, and shown any youngsters choosing their club that their is a viable path to the first-team. This group who are breaking through now made it into the 4th round of the Youth Cup and only narrowly lost to Liverpool 1-0. This should have a knock-on effect down the chain.
• Communications - a contested point, and I was very critical early on in 2023. However, since then, the Supporters Summit gives fans a viable and active outlet to channel frustrations to a senior member of the club in Matt Hancock. The Action Plan gives us a quantifiable overview of where we are (and aren't) in terms of what we want to see improved. Whilst I have doubts about Flitcroft and whether he is the very best person for the DoF role, he spoke twice in the summer, once in September, gave an in-depth interview in December, and will probably speak again in January. I don't want him to speak every week - partly as he does my head in, and partly as you end up over-communicating; once every 6 weeks is about right. Carol has been quiet for 18 months, only really speaking out in April with a really detailed explanation as to where we were, and where we were going - it isn't perfect, but its more transparency than most owners would provide. Comms is better, not perfect
• Recruitment - again, contested. Flitcroft has had some absolute stinkers, and considering our use of data services, analysts, and recruitment teams, it is hard to defend Ryan Loft, Liam McCarron, Joel Cooper et al. However, if we believe his line about 'lacking time after the playoffs' in 2022, he's had two pretty good summers in 2021 and 2023 - Wilson, Proctor, Garrity, in the first, Chislett, Arblaster, Ripley in the 2nd (with loads more decent signings I haven't mentioned). We have turned profits on the likes of Johnson, Forrester, and Rodney. Striker is an major issue, but looking at clubs in the middle of League 1, most are struggling in that area (bar Charlton with Alfie May, no one below 9th has a player with more goals than Garrity's 9). Our treatment and development of Arblaster and Devine will hopefully stand us in better stead with the Category 1 academies, so we see less of McCarron and Odubeko and more Blasters. Debrah looks a really clever signing. Ben Garrity will go down as one of the best signings since 2000 - a proper throwback to Rudgey's rough diamonds.

There's of course a load to be worried about. I'm nowhere near convinced by Crosby and there's every chance he's gone within weeks. If I had a bet, I think we'll finish 14th in pretty boring fashion. After shattering the club-record for games by New Year, and rarely having a run of free midweeks, we've now got 4 winnable games in 5 with no midweek games. Crosby has a real chance to put some points on the board, and extend a respectable run from December onwards into something more consistent and sustainable. Flitcroft needs to have a much, much better January than last year, even if there's little financial room to work with.

If you drew a line graph of PVFC from 2019-present, the line is inexorably, though gradually, going upwards, with a few dips along the way. The line of best fit, if my GCSE Maths isn't failing me, would be going up. There's loads of work to do and it's our duty as fans to both support the club and demand improvement, to safeguard it as generations before us have done. Blind optimism can do more damage to the club than moaning - if we'd all done that under Smurthwaite, he'd have taken us to the very brink. Carol isn't infallible, and we've been here longer and will be here a lot longer. Sometimes we have to point things out and suggest they get fixed. 

Despite this, I do think we're in a better place than I (and a lot of others) feel like we are. Sometimes, treading water can feel like regression after a pretty rapid rise. We're not used to a boring season. We might have to get used to it.

More than anything, I'm trying to go into games a little bit more optimistically, as expecting things to go wrong is nowhere near as fun. UTV

[SFBT]

You deserve success simply for your contributions on here 🙂

[Brian Johnson]

36 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

Over the past few days I've sort of u-turned from being incredibly downbeat about PVFC to a little bit more optimistic.

Previously I was very critical of an awful 2023 - the worst performing League 1 club, and 85/92. Undoubtedly unacceptable and very significant improvement is needed very soon. I was disheartened at the sacking of my personal favourite manager, and felt he could steady things if given a bit of time. The football is often pretty dull, and there's been some truly shocking performances. I was disappointed by the appointment of Crosby, the lack of even considering other options, and losing 7-0 on opening day set me on quite a negative view on things - I was almost looking for confirmation of my previous views. I was going into games expecting bad things, almost looking for them.

Having had some time to reflect and do some research, I'm not quite as downbeat as I was. I'm certainly not excited, and I'm not shedding any tears if we sack manager and DoF tomorrow, but these are the reasons why I think there's room for a bit more optimism than is being made out:

• 15th isn't great, but we've only finished above 15th in League 1 twice since 2007. This has been a ceiling for us for nearly 20 years, and we're 3 points from 11th with games in hand, which would be our 3rd best league finish this century. Finishing, say, 14th in League 1 would be one of the best finishes I've ever seen - sad, but true.
• Average league attendances are at record highs. Last season, the league average was 7,681. This season so far, 7,323 (this excludes cup games). The last time we recorded over 7,000 average home attendance was 1998. If you remove the club's Golden Era from 1990-98, the last time we averaged over 7,000 was 1964. We are attracting new fans for the first time in decades.
• Building from this - purely anecdotally, I am seeing more young fans at Vale Park. We missed out on an entire generation from 2008-18. Pretty much everyone my age went to support Stoke. The promotion and Wembley visit seems to have attracted a new group of younger fans, who hopefully will be kept on.
• Vale Park was effectively left to rot for 30 years. Whilst some areas still feel that way (Railway Stand), we're slowly but surely improving what is a traditional and brilliant old football ground. The scoreboard looks great, the Fanzone is a big improvement, and hospitality is befitting of a professional football club. I can order a cup of coffee from my phone, which for me is brilliant - though everyone else seems happy queuing in the rain!
• Carol Shanahan has a few flaws as an owner. She talks in slogans, seems to overly trust a few individuals, and maybe doesn't quite do enough for the average fans' experience in the old stands. However, she is still a huge net positive on the club. The accounts are in good order, according to Kieran Maguire of Football Finance Expert fame. She spent circa £10m in 4 years, including overpaying by £2-3m to avoid us going bump. We didn't even own the ground when she bought us. The club has undoubtedly improved in almost every metric - 20th in League 2 when she arrived, with a gate of 4,431, and 15th in League 1 now, with gates of 7,000+. The academy has gone from being in the bottom 5 for productivity in the country to its more productive in decades - even if its only Lawrie and Mills who make a career of it. She's invested in the ground, and provided more memories in 4 years than I had in 20 years beforehand, including the two best of my life in Swindon and Mansfield. Her intentions are good, in that, whatever we think of her, she wants what is best for PVFC, not herself.
• The academy - although this crop were signed under the old regime, clearly things went wrong in the 16-18 stage and we only saw Smith and Gibbons break into the first team for nearly 20 years - both on account of their grit and battle. In the last year, we've sold two players to top academies for good money, and shown any youngsters choosing their club that their is a viable path to the first-team. This group who are breaking through now made it into the 4th round of the Youth Cup and only narrowly lost to Liverpool 1-0. This should have a knock-on effect down the chain.
• Communications - a contested point, and I was very critical early on in 2023. However, since then, the Supporters Summit gives fans a viable and active outlet to channel frustrations to a senior member of the club in Matt Hancock. The Action Plan gives us a quantifiable overview of where we are (and aren't) in terms of what we want to see improved. Whilst I have doubts about Flitcroft and whether he is the very best person for the DoF role, he spoke twice in the summer, once in September, gave an in-depth interview in December, and will probably speak again in January. I don't want him to speak every week - partly as he does my head in, and partly as you end up over-communicating; once every 6 weeks is about right. Carol has been quiet for 18 months, only really speaking out in April with a really detailed explanation as to where we were, and where we were going - it isn't perfect, but its more transparency than most owners would provide. Comms is better, not perfect
• Recruitment - again, contested. Flitcroft has had some absolute stinkers, and considering our use of data services, analysts, and recruitment teams, it is hard to defend Ryan Loft, Liam McCarron, Joel Cooper et al. However, if we believe his line about 'lacking time after the playoffs' in 2022, he's had two pretty good summers in 2021 and 2023 - Wilson, Proctor, Garrity, in the first, Chislett, Arblaster, Ripley in the 2nd (with loads more decent signings I haven't mentioned). We have turned profits on the likes of Johnson, Forrester, and Rodney. Striker is an major issue, but looking at clubs in the middle of League 1, most are struggling in that area (bar Charlton with Alfie May, no one below 9th has a player with more goals than Garrity's 9). Our treatment and development of Arblaster and Devine will hopefully stand us in better stead with the Category 1 academies, so we see less of McCarron and Odubeko and more Blasters. Debrah looks a really clever signing.

There's of course a load to be worried about. I'm nowhere near convinced by Crosby and there's every chance he's gone within weeks. If I had a bet, I think we'll finish 14th in pretty boring fashion. After shattering the club-record for games by New Year, and rarely having a run of free midweeks, we've now got 4 winnable games in 5 with no midweek games. Crosby has a real chance to put some points on the board, and extend a respectable run from December onwards into something more consistent and sustainable. Flitcroft needs to have a much, much better January than last year, even if there's little financial room to work with.

If you drew a line graph of PVFC from 2019-present, the line is inexorably, though gradually, going upwards, with a few dips along the way. The line of best fit, if my GCSE Maths isn't failing me, would be going up. There's loads of work to do and it's our duty as fans to both support the club and demand improvement, to safeguard it as generations before us have done. Blind optimism can do more damage to the club than moaning - if we'd all done that under Smurthwaite, he'd have taken us to the very brink. Carol isn't infallible, and we've been here longer and will be here a lot longer. Sometimes we have to point things out and suggest they get fixed. 

Despite this, I do think we're in a better place than I (and a lot of others) feel like we are. Sometimes, treading water can feel like regression after a pretty rapid rise. We're not used to a boring season. We might have to get used to it.

More than anything, I'm trying to go into games a little bit more optimistically, as expecting things to go wrong is nowhere near as fun. UTV

Crosby out!

[Bimbleabout]

Over the past few days I've sort of u-turned from being incredibly downbeat about PVFC to a little bit more optimistic.
Previously I was very critical of an awful 2023 - the worst performing League 1 club, and 85/92. Undoubtedly unacceptable and very significant improvement is needed very soon. I was disheartened at the sacking of my personal favourite manager, and felt he could steady things if given a bit of time. The football is often pretty dull, and there's been some truly shocking performances. I was disappointed by the appointment of Crosby, the lack of even considering other options, and losing 7-0 on opening day set me on quite a negative view on things - I was almost looking for confirmation of my previous views. I was going into games expecting bad things, almost looking for them.
Having had some time to reflect and do some research, I'm not quite as downbeat as I was. I'm certainly not excited, and I'm not shedding any tears if we sack manager and DoF tomorrow, but these are the reasons why I think there's room for a bit more optimism than is being made out:

• 15th isn't great, but we've only finished above 15th in League 1 twice since 2007. This has been a ceiling for us for nearly 20 years, and we're 3 points from 11th with games in hand, which would be our 3rd best league finish this century. Finishing, say, 14th in League 1 would be one of the best finishes I've ever seen - sad, but true.
• Average league attendances are at record highs. Last season, the league average was 7,681. This season so far, 7,323 (this excludes cup games). The last time we recorded over 7,000 average home attendance was 1998. If you remove the club's Golden Era from 1990-98, the last time we averaged over 7,000 was 1964. We are attracting new fans for the first time in decades.
• Building from this - purely anecdotally, I am seeing more young fans at Vale Park. We missed out on an entire generation from 2008-18. Pretty much everyone my age went to support Stoke. The promotion and Wembley visit seems to have attracted a new group of younger fans, who hopefully will be kept on.
• Vale Park was effectively left to rot for 30 years. Whilst some areas still feel that way (Railway Stand), we're slowly but surely improving what is a traditional and brilliant old football ground. The scoreboard looks great, the Fanzone is a big improvement, and hospitality is befitting of a professional football club. I can order a cup of coffee from my phone, which for me is brilliant - though everyone else seems happy queuing in the rain!
• Carol Shanahan has a few flaws as an owner. She talks in slogans, seems to overly trust a few individuals, and maybe doesn't quite do enough for the average fans' experience in the old stands. However, she is still a huge net positive on the club. The accounts are in good order, according to Kieran Maguire of Football Finance Expert fame. She spent circa £10m in 4 years, including overpaying by £2-3m to avoid us going bump. We didn't even own the ground when she bought us. The club has undoubtedly improved in almost every metric - 20th in League 2 when she arrived, with a gate of 4,431, and 15th in League 1 now, with gates of 7,000+. The academy has gone from being in the bottom 5 for productivity in the country to its most productive in decades - even if its only Lawrie and Mills who make a career of it. She's invested in the ground, and provided more memories in 4 years than I had in 20 years beforehand, including the two best of my life in Swindon and Mansfield. Her intentions are good, in that, whatever we think of her, she wants what is best for PVFC, not herself.
• The academy - although this crop were signed under the old regime, clearly things went wrong in the 16-18 stage and we only saw Smith and Gibbons break into the first team for nearly 20 years - both on account of their grit and battle. In the last year, we've sold two players to top academies for good money, and shown any youngsters choosing their club that their is a viable path to the first-team. This group who are breaking through now made it into the 4th round of the Youth Cup and only narrowly lost to Liverpool 1-0. This should have a knock-on effect down the chain.
• Communications - a contested point, and I was very critical early on in 2023. However, since then, the Supporters Summit gives fans a viable and active outlet to channel frustrations to a senior member of the club in Matt Hancock. The Action Plan gives us a quantifiable overview of where we are (and aren't) in terms of what we want to see improved. Whilst I have doubts about Flitcroft and whether he is the very best person for the DoF role, he spoke twice in the summer, once in September, gave an in-depth interview in December, and will probably speak again in January. I don't want him to speak every week - partly as he does my head in, and partly as you end up over-communicating; once every 6 weeks is about right. Carol has been quiet for 18 months, only really speaking out in April with a really detailed explanation as to where we were, and where we were going - it isn't perfect, but its more transparency than most owners would provide. Comms is better, not perfect
• Recruitment - again, contested. Flitcroft has had some absolute stinkers, and considering our use of data services, analysts, and recruitment teams, it is hard to defend Ryan Loft, Liam McCarron, Joel Cooper et al. However, if we believe his line about 'lacking time after the playoffs' in 2022, he's had two pretty good summers in 2021 and 2023 - Wilson, Proctor, Garrity, in the first, Chislett, Arblaster, Ripley in the 2nd (with loads more decent signings I haven't mentioned). We have turned profits on the likes of Johnson, Forrester, and Rodney. Striker is an major issue, but looking at clubs in the middle of League 1, most are struggling in that area (bar Charlton with Alfie May, no one below 9th has a player with more goals than Garrity's 9). Our treatment and development of Arblaster and Devine will hopefully stand us in better stead with the Category 1 academies, so we see less of McCarron and Odubeko and more Blasters. Debrah looks a really clever signing. Ben Garrity will go down as one of the best signings since 2000 - a proper throwback to Rudgey's rough diamonds.

There's of course a load to be worried about. I'm nowhere near convinced by Crosby and there's every chance he's gone within weeks. If I had a bet, I think we'll finish 14th in pretty boring fashion. After shattering the club-record for games by New Year, and rarely having a run of free midweeks, we've now got 4 winnable games in 5 with no midweek games. Crosby has a real chance to put some points on the board, and extend a respectable run from December onwards into something more consistent and sustainable. Flitcroft needs to have a much, much better January than last year, even if there's little financial room to work with.
If you drew a line graph of PVFC from 2019-present, the line is inexorably, though gradually, going upwards, with a few dips along the way. The line of best fit, if my GCSE Maths isn't failing me, would be going up. There's loads of work to do and it's our duty as fans to both support the club and demand improvement, to safeguard it as generations before us have done. Blind optimism can do more damage to the club than moaning - if we'd all done that under Smurthwaite, he'd have taken us to the very brink. Carol isn't infallible, and we've been here longer and will be here a lot longer. Sometimes we have to point things out and suggest they get fixed. 
Despite this, I do think we're in a better place than I (and a lot of others) feel like we are. Sometimes, treading water can feel like regression after a pretty rapid rise. We're not used to a boring season. We might have to get used to it.
More than anything, I'm trying to go into games a little bit more optimistically, as expecting things to go wrong is nowhere near as fun. UTV

Great post. It's just kind of bizarre people have such delusions of granduer. AC can't do right from wrong. Just look at the team that finished at Carlisle. We've been battered with injuries etc and are down to the bare bones.
Its almost like the Crosby out brigade are oblivious to the upward trajectory of the club in general, and of issues the team and club face at any cost and just take the easy route of endless negative slagging off and diatribe.
I'm not really bothered where we finish in league 1 this season as long as it's nicely above the drop zone.
We are miles off a promotion push and would get slaughtered in the championship without severe investment which just isn't going to happen for a while. 2,3,4,5 + seasons in league one to stabilise and establish then we will see. People need to accept where we are, what's going on and get behind the team.
KTF

[philpvfc]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

Crosby out!

Johnson out!

[ClntonBoulton]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

Crosby out!

Nice bit of balance there BJ! Don't want to spoil form do we? 🤣

[Valiiant]

 

Christ, you need a lady.

 

[JoeB2]

21 minutes ago, Valiiant said:

 

Christ, you need a lady.

 

I'll let her know.

[Brian Johnson]

1 hour ago, philpvfc said:

Johnson out!

Well done lad.

Thought of something on your own

[Brian Johnson]

1 hour ago, ClntonBoulton said:

Nice bit of balance there BJ! Don't want to spoil form do we? 🤣

I was just messing around with that one

[MelbourneValiant]

5 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

Over the past few days I've sort of u-turned from being incredibly downbeat about PVFC to a little bit more optimistic.

Previously I was very critical of an awful 2023 - the worst performing League 1 club, and 85/92. Undoubtedly unacceptable and very significant improvement is needed very soon. I was disheartened at the sacking of my personal favourite manager, and felt he could steady things if given a bit of time. The football is often pretty dull, and there's been some truly shocking performances. I was disappointed by the appointment of Crosby, the lack of even considering other options, and losing 7-0 on opening day set me on quite a negative view on things - I was almost looking for confirmation of my previous views. I was going into games expecting bad things, almost looking for them.

Having had some time to reflect and do some research, I'm not quite as downbeat as I was. I'm certainly not excited, and I'm not shedding any tears if we sack manager and DoF tomorrow, but these are the reasons why I think there's room for a bit more optimism than is being made out:

• 15th isn't great, but we've only finished above 15th in League 1 twice since 2007. This has been a ceiling for us for nearly 20 years, and we're 3 points from 11th with games in hand, which would be our 3rd best league finish this century. Finishing, say, 14th in League 1 would be one of the best finishes I've ever seen - sad, but true.
• Average league attendances are at record highs. Last season, the league average was 7,681. This season so far, 7,323 (this excludes cup games). The last time we recorded over 7,000 average home attendance was 1998. If you remove the club's Golden Era from 1990-98, the last time we averaged over 7,000 was 1964. We are attracting new fans for the first time in decades.
• Building from this - purely anecdotally, I am seeing more young fans at Vale Park. We missed out on an entire generation from 2008-18. Pretty much everyone my age went to support Stoke. The promotion and Wembley visit seems to have attracted a new group of younger fans, who hopefully will be kept on.
• Vale Park was effectively left to rot for 30 years. Whilst some areas still feel that way (Railway Stand), we're slowly but surely improving what is a traditional and brilliant old football ground. The scoreboard looks great, the Fanzone is a big improvement, and hospitality is befitting of a professional football club. I can order a cup of coffee from my phone, which for me is brilliant - though everyone else seems happy queuing in the rain!
• Carol Shanahan has a few flaws as an owner. She talks in slogans, seems to overly trust a few individuals, and maybe doesn't quite do enough for the average fans' experience in the old stands. However, she is still a huge net positive on the club. The accounts are in good order, according to Kieran Maguire of Football Finance Expert fame. She spent circa £10m in 4 years, including overpaying by £2-3m to avoid us going bump. We didn't even own the ground when she bought us. The club has undoubtedly improved in almost every metric - 20th in League 2 when she arrived, with a gate of 4,431, and 15th in League 1 now, with gates of 7,000+. The academy has gone from being in the bottom 5 for productivity in the country to its most productive in decades - even if its only Lawrie and Mills who make a career of it. She's invested in the ground, and provided more memories in 4 years than I had in 20 years beforehand, including the two best of my life in Swindon and Mansfield. Her intentions are good, in that, whatever we think of her, she wants what is best for PVFC, not herself.
• The academy - although this crop were signed under the old regime, clearly things went wrong in the 16-18 stage and we only saw Smith and Gibbons break into the first team for nearly 20 years - both on account of their grit and battle. In the last year, we've sold two players to top academies for good money, and shown any youngsters choosing their club that their is a viable path to the first-team. This group who are breaking through now made it into the 4th round of the Youth Cup and only narrowly lost to Liverpool 1-0. This should have a knock-on effect down the chain.
• Communications - a contested point, and I was very critical early on in 2023. However, since then, the Supporters Summit gives fans a viable and active outlet to channel frustrations to a senior member of the club in Matt Hancock. The Action Plan gives us a quantifiable overview of where we are (and aren't) in terms of what we want to see improved. Whilst I have doubts about Flitcroft and whether he is the very best person for the DoF role, he spoke twice in the summer, once in September, gave an in-depth interview in December, and will probably speak again in January. I don't want him to speak every week - partly as he does my head in, and partly as you end up over-communicating; once every 6 weeks is about right. Carol has been quiet for 18 months, only really speaking out in April with a really detailed explanation as to where we were, and where we were going - it isn't perfect, but its more transparency than most owners would provide. Comms is better, not perfect
• Recruitment - again, contested. Flitcroft has had some absolute stinkers, and considering our use of data services, analysts, and recruitment teams, it is hard to defend Ryan Loft, Liam McCarron, Joel Cooper et al. However, if we believe his line about 'lacking time after the playoffs' in 2022, he's had two pretty good summers in 2021 and 2023 - Wilson, Proctor, Garrity, in the first, Chislett, Arblaster, Ripley in the 2nd (with loads more decent signings I haven't mentioned). We have turned profits on the likes of Johnson, Forrester, and Rodney. Striker is an major issue, but looking at clubs in the middle of League 1, most are struggling in that area (bar Charlton with Alfie May, no one below 9th has a player with more goals than Garrity's 9). Our treatment and development of Arblaster and Devine will hopefully stand us in better stead with the Category 1 academies, so we see less of McCarron and Odubeko and more Blasters. Debrah looks a really clever signing. Ben Garrity will go down as one of the best signings since 2000 - a proper throwback to Rudgey's rough diamonds.

There's of course a load to be worried about. I'm nowhere near convinced by Crosby and there's every chance he's gone within weeks. If I had a bet, I think we'll finish 14th in pretty boring fashion. After shattering the club-record for games by New Year, and rarely having a run of free midweeks, we've now got 4 winnable games in 5 with no midweek games. Crosby has a real chance to put some points on the board, and extend a respectable run from December onwards into something more consistent and sustainable. Flitcroft needs to have a much, much better January than last year, even if there's little financial room to work with.

If you drew a line graph of PVFC from 2019-present, the line is inexorably, though gradually, going upwards, with a few dips along the way. The line of best fit, if my GCSE Maths isn't failing me, would be going up. There's loads of work to do and it's our duty as fans to both support the club and demand improvement, to safeguard it as generations before us have done. Blind optimism can do more damage to the club than moaning - if we'd all done that under Smurthwaite, he'd have taken us to the very brink. Carol isn't infallible, and we've been here longer and will be here a lot longer. Sometimes we have to point things out and suggest they get fixed. 

Despite this, I do think we're in a better place than I (and a lot of others) feel like we are. Sometimes, treading water can feel like regression after a pretty rapid rise. We're not used to a boring season. We might have to get used to it.

More than anything, I'm trying to go into games a little bit more optimistically, as expecting things to go wrong is nowhere near as fun. UTV

I love your optimism but we hit a peak and now heading down again.

300 fans lost since last year and still falling

6pts and 6 places worse off than this time last year

Still the worst performing team in league one, albeit after one game this year.

Strangely, I wasn't as downbeat as usual after the Carlisle defeat. Maybe because I had zero expectation. Maybe because we weren't subjected to 90 minutes of footbore....instead we were totally outclassed by a team at the foot of the table which was a new low altogether.

It isn't where we are now that we should be happy with, it where we are heading, I am bricking it that we will be in the bottom four before long and some people just can't see it. Let's hope I am wrong.

[Powerline]

5 hours ago, Bimbleabout said:

Great post. It's just kind of bizarre people have such delusions of granduer. AC can't do right from wrong. Just look at the team that finished at Carlisle. We've been battered with injuries etc and are down to the bare bones.
Its almost like the Crosby out brigade are oblivious to the upward trajectory of the club in general, and of issues the team and club face at any cost and just take the easy route of endless negative slagging off and diatribe.
I'm not really bothered where we finish in league 1 this season as long as it's nicely above the drop zone.
We are miles off a promotion push and would get slaughtered in the championship without severe investment which just isn't going to happen for a while. 2,3,4,5 + seasons in league one to stabilise and establish then we will see. People need to accept where we are, what's going on and get behind the team.
KTF
 

It’s not delusions of grandeur though. I’m not expecting us to win the league. I’m expecting mid table, with us getting the best of the players at our disposal, and hopefully playing somewhat entertaining football. 

Currently yes we are mid table. Be are on a run of 3 wins in 14 games or something like that. Recent performances bar 2 have been diabolical. There’s no evidence that the manager can progress with this group. He’s not getting the best out of the players. And it’s so <ovf censored> boring to watch. 

Im sick of travelling to Carlisle, Wycombe and now probably Reading to put in meek, pathetic, and frankly <ovf censored> performances every week.

[Guitar Ray]

16 minutes ago, MelbourneValiant said:

I love your optimism but we hit a peak and now heading down again.

300 fans lost since last year and still falling

6pts and 6 places worse off than this time last year

Still the worst performing team in league one, albeit after one game this year.

Strangely, I wasn't as downbeat as usual after the Carlisle defeat. Maybe because I had zero expectation. Maybe because we weren't subjected to 90 minutes of footbore....instead we were totally outclassed by a team at the foot of the table which was a new low altogether.

It isn't where we are now that we should be happy with, it where we are heading, I am bricking it that we will be in the bottom four before long and some people just can't see it. Let's hope I am wrong.

Just picking up on your last point, without any inside information, so no guarantee, I think we can be fairly confident that if we’re in the bottom 4 towards the end of the season we will see someone else in control of team affairs.  No way on earth will the owners want to see the club relegated.

[JoeB2]

I too have played the game of 'X wins in Y', choosing arbitrary cut off points to make it look worse/better to suit the narrative I was going for.

The fundamentals are we have 8 wins in 24.

[grand prix pants]

Super post. Thank you!