Fan forum 25th Jan

[smithie]

4 minutes ago, Vale1995 said:

But to hear carol being upset about abuse to her flitcroft and some of the playing squad really hit home. 

Personally I don't feel there's much of a connection between players and fans and I'm not surprised.   Some of the embarrassing and disgraceful attacks on Carol, Flitcroft, Andy Crosby and the players both on-line and in the ground have, I believe, caused a rift. If anyone can explain how booing Ryan Loft and Gavin Massey is useful, I'm all ears. 

CS probably feels she can't win. She stays on anti-social media and gets abuse, she comes off it and will probably be accused of not communicating with the fans. What I've seen written about her and the staff goes way beyond what most people would consider reasonable. 

It's time to shout these cretins down.

 

 

[SFBT]

50 minutes ago, Vale1995 said:

It made me a bit sad hearing some of the answers to the questions last night. I think as fans not being happy about things and wanting to know answers or being generally unhappy about some people within the structure of vale park. But theres a fine line between questioning things and going over the top and being abusive. I think everyone would agree that we all want the best for vale and that we want to see vale play as high as we possibly can. But to hear carol being upset about abuse to her flitcroft and some of the playing squad really hit home. I think we all need to take a step back and look how far the club has come from when they took over. We are in a miles better position than we were and that is down to the consistent effort of everyone involved. Have they done everything perfectly no. Should that lead to abuse no. Can we question things that arent done well? Absolutely.

i think we all need to become aware now at this moment in time we cannot compete financially to sign decent strikers at this level. But are we putting building blocks so we potentially can in the future. I believe so. 
for us to be able to compete we need to be selling players for substantial amounts so that can be reinvested. This cannot be done overnight you might get lucky with the odd player but to do this consistently takes a complete overhaul in our whole academy infrastructure. I believe the club are making strides in the right direction but this could be a 3-5 years before we reep the benefits. If players like sharrock can break into the team at a regular basis before making it to 20 year old its more than likely a bigger team will throw some serious cash to get him. That is how we will then be able to go and get the better calibre of players. 
 

we may just all need to accept mediocrity in terms of football until we reach that point. Some decent performances some not so. We all need to get behind what they are trying to do now myself included. Its not going to happen overnight like i said. 

Spot on 🙂

[rob1983]

How do you work that one out? Just because they've stated that the market is too expensive? I'd agree with them, when you consider that Will Goodwin left Cheltenham to go to Oxford for a reported £400K fee. We're trying to become sustainable and we've only just started this model of investing in our youth, which then allows us to be sell and reinvest - we've got to allow it time to develop before we start to see that coming to fruition. 
Do we really want our owner having to pump in millions each year just to keep us afloat. There was a recent article about Lincoln are due to post losses of circa £3m for this season....is that the model you really want!

No the fact that we had to borrow the money for a scoreboard that we don't really need and we are scrapping the money together for the toilets. I couldn't care less about the campus that'll never happen. Just a smoke screen to divert the attention away from another poor transfer window.

[maccapvfc]

1 minute ago, rob1983 said:

4 hours ago, maccapvfc said:

How do you work that one out? Just because they've stated that the market is too expensive? I'd agree with them, when you consider that Will Goodwin left Cheltenham to go to Oxford for a reported £400K fee. We're trying to become sustainable and we've only just started this model of investing in our youth, which then allows us to be sell and reinvest - we've got to allow it time to develop before we start to see that coming to fruition. 
Do we really want our owner having to pump in millions each year just to keep us afloat. There was a recent article about Lincoln are due to post losses of circa £3m for this season....is that the model you really want!

No the fact that we had to borrow the money for a scoreboard that we don't really need and we are scrapping the money together for the toilets. I couldn't care less about the campus that'll never happen. Just a smoke screen to divert the attention away from another poor transfer window.

The previous scoreboard was horrendous and didn't function as it should. Was it fundamental that we got a new screen, no - however, it was likely seen as a sponsorship opportunity to Autonet but also to Vale. Matt Hancock said in his interview a few weeks ago that they want to do the toilets but they've got plans to do a complete rebuild/remodel - it makes sense to hold fire on completing that work until the season finishes. 

[valefan16]

6 minutes ago, rob1983 said:

4 hours ago, maccapvfc said:

How do you work that one out? Just because they've stated that the market is too expensive? I'd agree with them, when you consider that Will Goodwin left Cheltenham to go to Oxford for a reported £400K fee. We're trying to become sustainable and we've only just started this model of investing in our youth, which then allows us to be sell and reinvest - we've got to allow it time to develop before we start to see that coming to fruition. 
Do we really want our owner having to pump in millions each year just to keep us afloat. There was a recent article about Lincoln are due to post losses of circa £3m for this season....is that the model you really want!

No the fact that we had to borrow the money for a scoreboard that we don't really need and we are scrapping the money together for the toilets. I couldn't care less about the campus that'll never happen. Just a smoke screen to divert the attention away from another poor transfer window.

Surely the scoreboard as it get full use with advertising ends up then paying for itself and longer term makes money which is then another investment?

These things take time, no one can state we haven't invested in ways we haven't certainly since the 90's in the club... granted its not all gone on the squad but rightly the infrastructure which may take years but once complete would surely see us far more sustainable and able to invest more in the squad (Youth Team/Campus/Facilities/Scoreboard/advertising).

The issue is football fans want the here and now, sure if we are 2-0 down tomorrow I will be grumbling about us not being competitive etc but with a level head we've had a lot to do and improve to avoid being purely reliant on a sugar daddy.

[rob1983]

The previous scoreboard was horrendous and didn't function as it should. Was it fundamental that we got a new screen, no - however, it was likely seen as a sponsorship opportunity to Autonet but also to Vale. Matt Hancock said in his interview a few weeks ago that they want to do the toilets but they've got plans to do a complete rebuild/remodel - it makes sense to hold fire on completing that work until the season finishes. 

Complete waste of money. As is the campus. Why can't we just concentrate on the first team? We can't even finish the lorne Street Stand, so why are we banging on about a bloody campus. Pie in the sky.

[Smallthorne clampet]

3 hours ago, Vale1995 said:

It made me a bit sad hearing some of the answers to the questions last night. I think as fans not being happy about things and wanting to know answers or being generally unhappy about some people within the structure of vale park. But theres a fine line between questioning things and going over the top and being abusive. I think everyone would agree that we all want the best for vale and that we want to see vale play as high as we possibly can. But to hear carol being upset about abuse to her flitcroft and some of the playing squad really hit home. I think we all need to take a step back and look how far the club has come from when they took over. We are in a miles better position than we were and that is down to the consistent effort of everyone involved. Have they done everything perfectly no. Should that lead to abuse no. Can we question things that arent done well? Absolutely.

i think we all need to become aware now at this moment in time we cannot compete financially to sign decent strikers at this level. But are we putting building blocks so we potentially can in the future. I believe so. 
for us to be able to compete we need to be selling players for substantial amounts so that can be reinvested. This cannot be done overnight you might get lucky with the odd player but to do this consistently takes a complete overhaul in our whole academy infrastructure. I believe the club are making strides in the right direction but this could be a 3-5 years before we reep the benefits. If players like sharrock can break into the team at a regular basis before making it to 20 year old its more than likely a bigger team will throw some serious cash to get him. That is how we will then be able to go and get the better calibre of players. 
 

we may just all need to accept mediocrity in terms of football until we reach that point. Some decent performances some not so. We all need to get behind what they are trying to do now myself included. Its not going to happen overnight like i said. 

I will always turn up and support the club , as do 4000 or so others , but the floating 3000 or so will not accept mediocrity . You have to keep them on board NOW , or they will drift away .  

[rob1983]

Surely the scoreboard as it get full use with advertising ends up then paying for itself and longer term makes money which is then another investment?
These things take time, no one can state we haven't invested in ways we haven't certainly since the 90's in the club... granted its not all gone on the squad but rightly the infrastructure which may take years but once complete would surely see us far more sustainable and able to invest more in the squad (Youth Team/Campus/Facilities/Scoreboard/advertising).
The issue is football fans want the here and now, sure if we are 2-0 down tomorrow I will be grumbling about us not being competitive etc but with a level head we've had a lot to do and improve to avoid being purely reliant on a sugar daddy.

Yeah, football fans want to see a winning team which excites. Pay for decent players brings in higher crowds. We don't go the match to look at a scoreboard. Which we don't use properly anyway because we can't afford the software. I certainly don't care about all the community guff that we bang on about. That'll get us up the table.

[rob1983]

Who honestly thinks the campus or whatever it is will happen? and do we need it? That'll put bums on seats.

[valefan16]

6 minutes ago, rob1983 said:

Who honestly thinks the campus or whatever it is will happen? and do we need it? That'll put bums on seats.

I don't know, I would think it will require support from the council etc but no reason why it can't if so.

[valefan16]

10 minutes ago, rob1983 said:

15 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Surely the scoreboard as it get full use with advertising ends up then paying for itself and longer term makes money which is then another investment?
These things take time, no one can state we haven't invested in ways we haven't certainly since the 90's in the club... granted its not all gone on the squad but rightly the infrastructure which may take years but once complete would surely see us far more sustainable and able to invest more in the squad (Youth Team/Campus/Facilities/Scoreboard/advertising).
The issue is football fans want the here and now, sure if we are 2-0 down tomorrow I will be grumbling about us not being competitive etc but with a level head we've had a lot to do and improve to avoid being purely reliant on a sugar daddy.

Yeah, football fans want to see a winning team which excites. Pay for decent players brings in higher crowds. We don't go the match to look at a scoreboard. Which we don't use properly anyway because we can't afford the software. I certainly don't care about all the community guff that we bang on about. That'll get us up the table.

Does it though? We get higher crowds for a period but to be winning at this level guaranteed you have to invest far beyond our means because quite simply there are some far bigger clubs here, League Two anything less than promotion/play offs is a failure for us due to size but this is a different ball game altogether, so we will have to find ways to do it unless we can find an oil baron or something to throw millions a year away (and then when they get bored/leave we end up with a debt ridden club with huge outgoings and no likely saviour without administration).

[rob1983]

I don't know, I would think it will require support from the council etc but no reason why it can't if so.

Just a PR exercise, I'm afraid. A smoke screen.

[robf]

30 minutes ago, rob1983 said:

Who honestly thinks the campus or whatever it is will happen? and do we need it? That'll put bums on seats.

Yes. I think the campus will help put bums on seats.

The campus scheme appears to involve big improvements in the Vale training pitch and academy infrastructure. 

Better training pitches and an improved academy could directly improve the Vale squad.

An improved squad should result in better performances.

Better performances should result in bigger crowds.

 

[rob1983]

Yes. I think the campus will help put bums on seats.
The campus scheme appears to involve big improvements in the Vale training pitch and academy infrastructure. 
Better training pitches and an improved academy could directly improve the Vale squad.
An improved squad should result in better performances.
Better performances should result in bigger crowds.
 

Come of it, pal. You've been round long enough to know the campus won't happen. It's just a PR exercise. Fans go to watch exciting players. Spend the money on the first team squad and the academy, and the crowds will grow. Invest in a decent manager. We can't even finish the lorne st

[valiant_593]

5 minutes ago, robf said:

Yes. I think the campus will help put bums on seats.

The campus scheme appears to involve big improvements in the Vale training pitch and academy infrastructure. 

Better training pitches and an improved academy could directly improve the Vale squad.

An improved squad should result in better performances.

Better performances should result in bigger crowds.

 

I personally don’t see how the campus will help and it certainly shouldn’t be a priority when we look to be heading for another relegation battle. 

For me. Improve the squad, play entertaining football and fans will come. They aren’t turning up because of a campus or because we have a scoreboard. Those imo are niceties that should be considered much later.