An Open Letter from Carol

[Brian Johnson]

All I can say is Wow!

How to light the blue touch paper.

Carol's got to be already regretting posting that "open" letter.

The reaction's been phenomenal 

[Guitar Ray]

10 minutes ago, Warren said:

I was pleased to see the breadth of projects Flitcroft has been involved with. It does justify his senior role existing and likely salary it carries. But the main requirement is successful football and preferably entertainment. Now on that one over the last 18 months he can't point to success. He is currently overseeing a serious failure. 

Without a doubt.  Very likely a catastrophic failure which will result in our relegation and the financial implications that entails.  That said, the damage is done, we can’t sign anyone to significantly improve the team so we’re essentially waiting for the injured players to return whilst praying for “new manager bounce”.  The immediate thing now is for fans to fully back the team and keep the Flitcroft protests low key.  Flitcroft leaving tomorrow won’t help keep us up.  There’ll be plenty of time for recriminations and a more suitable time in my view.  Even if we do manage a miracle the fans won’t forget.

[PVFC FAN]

1 minute ago, Vtid said:

Of course the fans opinions matter! 95% can see what’s been happening for months now & their is no football club without the fans. Owners come & go, players come & go

I'm pretty sure if they mattered that much we would be running the club and be making the decisions. What's been happening for months now? Oh yes we have been losing games. So let's see how this new manager does first. We have gone a long long way on and off the pitch no one can deny that.

[Killersrevenge44]

Bill Bratt come back all is forgiven.

Jimmy Gannon would do a better job than Flitcroft..it is obvious the guy is a fraud

[Wrex]

When a woman falls for a man that is a bit of a wrong 'un then there's no amount of reasoning that will get her to see otherwise. Especially when she doesn't really think the people giving their opinion are worth listening to.

We're <ovf censored>.

[Vtid]

Just now, PVFC FAN said:

I'm pretty sure if they mattered that much we would be running the club and be making the decisions. What's been happening for months now? Oh yes we have been losing games. So let's see how this new manager does first. We have gone a long long way on and off the pitch no one can deny that.

On the pitch we haven’t tho, the football is worse than under Jim Gannon! I couldn’t care less about having a fan zone & an egotistical knob head as president! 

[smithie]

I like how the tone is set from the off with it starting "Valiants" as opposed to "Dear Valiants" 😁

It's a fairly robust defence of herself in terms of her and Kevin being the only people brave or daft enough to buy the club, and to me that's fair enough. She's probably bitten her tongue many times, but has clearly reached what she feels is the line that can't be crossed. 

It's also a defence of her running the club as a community-serving operation rather than just a football club, and no-one in their right mind would criticize the efforts made during the pandemic. But again, food parcels are exactly what are perceived by the average fan as secondary to the most important thing, namely the football team on matchdays. The benefits of the T-Zone and the players' ice-baths are hard to quantify at the moment to put it politely.       

There's barely one line rallying the support and calling for backing and unity which is quite surprising. I think Carol's been hurt by seeing the unpleasant side of Vale fans, and may well privately be wanting out now that the fun of 2022 and Wembley has gone.

All we can do is hope that she finds the right man to keep us up. Quite frankly that's all I'm bothered about now.      

 

 

 

[Brian Johnson]

When we get relegated, at least Flickers will have himself a new shiny office to sit on his throne & hide away

[Brighton Valiant]

20 minutes ago, PVFC FAN said:

We don't have infinite money but we can pull money out of thin air by selling academy players.

I hope you understand that.

I do.  What I don't understand is how the product has regressed so badly with this approach in such a short period of time.  The money that you 'pull out of thin air' by selling academy players is only as good as the players it's reinvested into.  I hope you understand that.

We are a million miles away in terms of quality and effort from the team that started the first half of the first season in League One it's almost not believable. 

You could almost argue that the approach isn't working.

 

Edited February 7 by Brighton Valiant

[valerule4ever]

16 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

Obviously after the last cull and promotion anything is possible. 

But at this moment in time I'm failing to see a team that has the ability to bounce back. Almost back to square one.

The deeper in the mire we get and the true characters are coming out. All that is down to an abysmal recruitment. 

No bona fide wing backs yet we insist on playing that way regardless. And the much quoted 3 windows without a striker. It's shambolic and as a result we've got people including myself wishing for the liked of Benning back purely because his replacement has been an abomination. Other than Ripley and Chislett I'm struggling to name one new recruit who is better than what went before. 

Spot on, of the permanent signings only really Ripley & Chislett look better than anything from from our promotion team we are very much a team of individuals lacking character (with the exception of a few like Garrity etc) the likes of Worrall, Hall, Benning, Proctor, Gibbons would fare better than most of our current team in lg2, as a squad we also seem to have lost any real characters & connection to the club caused by this constant squad culls every 12 months.

[Hoppers]

30 minutes ago, Brighton Valiant said:

Doesn't really work like that in football though.  If people don't like the product they don't generally go to support other teams.  They can just drift away from the game completely though.

I suppose that is my point BV - if we don't like it, don't go

[steauavaliant]

Have a bit of hope. One thing go's wrong and you lot are all angry. Yes look at the negatives but non of you lot look at any positives.

"You lot"?

[PVFC FAN]

3 minutes ago, Vtid said:

On the pitch we haven’t tho, the football is worse than under Jim Gannon! I couldn’t care less about having a fan zone & an egotistical knob head as president! 

Ye I'm not just on about the fan zone mate. I'm on about facilities for training the first team and for the academy. We haven't invested in them for 20 years. We won't get further than league 1 if we don't. We need a bigger budget if we are going to get to the championship and all these improvement will give us the money. Also yes I agree Robbie is useless unless he exposes the club more to the media or actually invests into the club.

[worldsendvalefan]

Yes it's true Flitcroft has had lots of excellent ideas and aspirations for the club. All of which cost someone else, not him a lot of money. I am sure he had lots of good ideas and aspirations that cost Bury a lot of money and in the end their existence.

We are currently averaging around 6,000 home gates in league 1. At any other time in my last 50 + years of supporting Vale, those sort of gates would have had us financially self sufficient.

Yes players wages are higher, I accept that. However if we are struggling to make ends meet, why have we got a larger coaching staff, than ever before.

Why are we employing stats analysts. Why are we buying big electronic scoreboards. I know what the score is, I'm watching the bloody match.

Why do we need a fan zone. I've turned up watch the match, not listen to a load of stupid music. Couple of burger vans will do nicely.

All the extra training facilities. Very nice. However, what we had didn't stop John Mcarthy, Steve Guppy and Ray Walker tearing up the opposition.

It seems to me that Flitcroft has convinced Carol, that to be a modern, successful club in the championship all this is what you need. The answer is get to the championship first. Getting the right players on the pitch should come first. That is what gets results. That is what will increase crowds. That does nesseccarily mean spending loads of money. It means better scouting and most importantly having the right manager who can get the most out of the players at his disposal.

What it does not mean, is what someone was good enough to post on here. Which was Flitcroft's mission statement for Bury. Which I presume is the same for Vale. Where the club should be wedded to one style of play. Which the club should be known for. Possession football. I am not saying that in itself is wrong. But if like any other style it isn't working, you have to be able to change. Little wonder we struggle to sign players in transfer windows. As I presume, that if they are not our type of player and don't fit the club ethos. the club won't go for them. How many good managers are we now going to reject, because they don't aspire to the club ethos.

We are Port Vale. We regularly pull in gates that should see us comfortably survive in league 1. Stoke on Trent is the smallest city in England to support two professional teams. And we are the one with the smallest support. The reality is League 1 is our natural level. That is not to say we cannot be ambitious. Given the right manager and the right squad of players we are always going to be able to have a tilt at promotion. It won't happen every season. Football isn't like that. There is no formula to guarantee success. Look how big clubs like Derby and Sheffield Wednesday have struggled in recent years. Every so often we will get a manager in like Gordon Lee, Mickey Adams and John Rudge with players which will run through brick walls for them. And none of them needed a DoF, stats analysts, coaches for every possible position and a big electronic score board.

This is what supporting Port Vale is all about. We will never be able to out football the bigger clubs. But what we can do is put together a bunch of players that will run through a brick wall for the manager and fans.

Carol has been sold a load of twaddle by a man whose head is in the clouds and loves spending other people's money. Irrelevant of the cost to club and fans.

Sent from my SM-A528B using onevalefan mobile app

[PVFC FAN]

5 minutes ago, Brighton Valiant said:

I do.  What I don't understand is how the product has regressed so badly with this approach in such a short period of time.

We are a million miles away in terms of quality and effort from the team that started the first half of the season in League One it's almost not believable. 

You could almost argue that the approach isn't working.

Or the club is risking investing in important facilities so in the future we can progress in league 1.