Balance, from a moaner

[Packmoor_vale]

On 05/01/2024 at 11:46, Bede said:

Great post once again Joe.  If I'd got more time I'd counter a few of your points but just a couple of thoughts:

1 - you say you're more satisfied with communication, yet felt compelled to write such a detailed summary.  Don't you think better communication during such a bad spell would have alleviated the calls for Crosby and Flitcroft and instill a little calm amongst a growingly disillusioned fanbase?  I've seen first hand fans fighting amongst themselves in recent weeks, such is the intensity and emotion of our current plight.  Fans are turning.  If ever there were a time for a club meeting with the fans, surely now would be it? The lack of leadership is astonishing, yet sadly totally expected by now.  Like it or not, Port Vale is a Football Club; a public heritage brand whose main customers have an incredibly vested interest in its performance.  You cannot treat it as a privately owned family business.  Yet they continue to do so.

2 - Supporters' Summit - I and many others were against this from the start.  From day 1 the club have pulled up the drawbridge of communications with fans.  They have systematically failed to properly engage with a healthy Supporters' Club - often organising things to conflict with SC initiatives, excluding them from supporter / club traditionally joint ventures such as player of the year, meet the manager events, Rememberance services etc.  They only engage in things they have complete control over.  They have cleared absolutely everybody out of the club that was BC.  Some clearing was inevitable and needed, but it went way too far and lots of bad blood has been created amongst people that went over and above during the club's hour of need on many occasions, but just got unceremoniously cast aside with no regard. 

Matt Hancock is an outright liar.  They have shafted the fans over the loyalty scheme because they got rumbled over the out-of-control backhanding of tickets amongst corporate.  Since they had to reign it in, corporate have bit back and so now they have withdrawn our previous points from last season in order to re-set it in favour of corporate, who were at a dodgy advantage in the first place - they were recently handed 50 points more than everybody else, I believe?  I called Matt out on this direct and he still tries to flip-flop out of it, despite me hammering  him with various pieces of evidence, which he could not defend.  I have an interesting meeting with him next week, and he'll be getting hammered once again.  I will not tolerate the club lying to the fans.  The Supporters' Summit is a total sham mate. We've just changed the Supporters' Club to a Supporters' Trust for this kind of thing.  Governed by the FSA, run open and democratically to represent fans.  The SS (LOL) represents nobody.   Let's have open debate.  The club as a whole take the fanbase for mugs.

3 - We're all fur coat and no knickers - image over substance.  Why did we spend 1.2 million to hold the Robbie gig?  We put seats into a stand we cannot use for a one-off gig, meanwhile we have capacity restrictions in place in 2 stands because the facilities are so bad.  That is totally inexcusible.  Imagine how far £1.2 million could have gone in fan areas.  The manner in which the regular fan in the stand has been ignored and neglected is abhorrent. They created a totally unneccessary furore over the switch from Bycars to Hamil, because again, they don't consider the fans.  (I agree with the move - but it was handled apallingly).  But we can't afford the going rate for strikers.  If only we were a football club first and foremost.

There is a lot of repair required between the fanbase and club right now.  You know things are bad when folk like Dicko throw in the towel.  You know all too well how it goes when fans lose support, and so does Carol; we're slowly slumping back to that and those impressive attendance figures are starting to dilute.  And they only have themselves to blame.  It takes years to build confidence, but only a season to shatter.  It's so easy for us as fans to resort back to 'typical Vale' when our hopes are built up and once again dashed, as they so frequently are.  They don't sometimes deserve the support they get, in my opinion.  

The current stats you display of our rise cannot also be taken without the context against such a low bar of comparison of the last 20 years, when we have been ran by outright conmen.  To rise above those levels aren't much to write home about.  However, it is important to acknowledge that we are probably at our nautral level right now, if you take historical standings into consideration.  I certainly aren't expecting to be flirting with Championship at the moment - we're light years away from holding our own there.  It's absolutely no use having 'Championship Ready' corporate facilities to watch league 2 football.

Despite those negative points above, I appreciate and agree with plenty of your posts - I respect yours and your dad's views highly.

I'm not Crosby out, yet.  And I'm certainly not Carol out - her intentions are not of the same ilk as the three previous incumbents.  But I'm not happy either.  I find myself saying this all to frequently: I expected so much better from this current regime.  Without the fans, this club is nothing.  A sentiment that the Shanahans have never quite grasped.

I'm interested to see what happens in the coming months.  Ian Donaldson has reared his head again on Twitter and Synectics has undergone a restructure.  Is change afoot?

Why would he spend millions to get <ovf censored> from the fans 

His words 

[JoeB2]

Yeah, got this one completely wrong.

I didn't realise how much we were neglecting the short-term. I still don't think the long-term stuff is all bad, but 11 wins from 48 is nowhere near good enough and the people responsible have to bear responsibility.

There won't be a long-term to build towards if the short-term is messed up.

[Doha]

3 wins since September.

[Walka003]

It's an embarrassment to everything this club stands for that Flitcroft and Crosby still have jobs. Two of the biggest imposters in EFL history

[eh up nah]

Feels like another one of those completely avoidable relegations this

Like the Bruno one 

[Bede]

2 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

Yeah, got this one completely wrong.

I didn't realise how much we were neglecting the short-term. I still don't think the long-term stuff is all bad, but 11 wins from 48 is nowhere near good enough and the people responsible have to bear responsibility.

There won't be a long-term to build towards if the short-term is messed up.

You should listen to your dad and your Uncle Bede! 😁

[DazFred]

How can a club go from 5 wins out of 7 to 3 wins in 20.

It's not just down to the manager,the players need to show some heart

[southport vale]

Let's face it the people making the decisions couldn't run a bath never mind a football club.

[darren1810]

So my hearts going 10 to the dozen deep into injury time at a sunny Kassam Stadium in September. Devine strokes the penalty home to mad scenes in the away end . A pleasant drive home with quips and disbelief at the turnaround post Barnsley. 

20 games later 

3 wins, 5 draws and 12 defeats. 

The 3 wins all squeezed into a 20 day period in December. A truly pitiful collapse against Stevenage in a cup replay and an embarrassing no-show in a cup quarter final to boot.

For me the horse has bolted regarding the manager. Signs were there in October and November where Mansfield saved his skin.

Fast forward to now. We look bereft of leadership off and on the pitch. 

It's not looking good at all. Wasn't there today as I'm in hospital but even if we'd had 20 goal attempts you can't dress a 3-0 defeat at Fleetwood as anything other than shameful and disgusting. 

Nothing will change.

Sub 4000 crowd Tuesday. Still nothing will change. 

Something amiss somewhere.