League 2 preparation

[WV]

6 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

It was blindingly obvious from pre season the budget was cut but when this got raised, most people thought it was ungrateful to suggest St Carol was doing such a thing. 

Much easier to blame DF for not performing a miracle than to ever suggest Carol may have got something wrong. 

[Diego Maradona]

Will the budget be less, same or more next season? Less revenue from attendance but will Carol put more into the team budget from selling Synectics? 

Of course, most players we are stuck with BUT surely some of those contracts will be terminated. If there were no restrictions, and bearing in mind we will be in a lower division, I would keep:

Ripley, Clarke, Yak (squad), Ojo, Garrity, Chissy, Wilson, Plant (squad), Sang (midfield only - squad)

Personally, I feel that are down. Therefore, is it time DM started to make a decision on what he sees as the 'identity' of the club going forward and using the remaining games playing that way? 

[Guitar Ray]

46 minutes ago, gags 64 said:

Spot on, the main reason for our terrible recruitment is the wages offered. I have no issue if that is the case but I wish someone would come out and say it. Stadium costs and pitch improvements must be crippling. Apart from a brief period under Rudgey with Bill Bell loosening the purse strings we have never paid the going rate. Certainly don't want us to overspend and hit a financial wall but just be truthful

Sent from my XQ-CC54 using onevalefan mobile app
 

We don’t know what the club have offered wage wise, if the numbers being mentioned on here are true then some of our players are on a damn good screw.  If we look at other teams in this league it’s hard to believe we can’t compete wage wise.  Anyway, it’s how the budget is spent that’s the issue, most obviously we’ve had enough money to pay off and replace 2 managers and numerous staff, not just coaching staff but the likes of Garlick, Speed and Co. who will all have received remuneration packages.  On the surface it looks like we’re extremely wasteful with whatever money we have available for wages.

[gags 64]

We don’t know what the club have offered wage wise, if the numbers being mentioned on here are true then some of our players are on a damn good screw.  If we look at other teams in this league it’s hard to believe we can’t compete wage wise.  Anyway, it’s how the budget is spent that’s the issue, most obviously we’ve had enough money to pay off and replace 2 managers and numerous staff, not just coaching staff but the likes of Garlick, Speed and Co. who will all have received remuneration packages.  On the surface it looks like we’re extremely wasteful with whatever money we have available for wages.

We are definitely fishing in the shallow end of the pool but I agree we don't know exactly what is being offered. All I know is that the strikers that make the better money are not falling over themselves to sign for us

Sent from my XQ-CC54 using onevalefan mobile app

[Biddulph_PV]

3 hours ago, Rampant Zebra said:

I think while we continue to use terms like "deadwood" we will always struggle to recruit players. It suggests a mindset which doesn't value them. I know that players are mostly interested in money but team spirit is needed too. 

The form table suggests there isn’t much “value”, so I’ll stick with “deadwood” I think.

[bomber]

Whist on the topic of paying strikers it’s surprising Harrison is a bit part player at MK dons ! Suppose it show how far off we are when it comes to paying the going rate! 

[Rampant Zebra]

7 minutes ago, Biddulph_PV said:

The form table suggests there isn’t much “value”, so I’ll stick with “deadwood” I think.

The point is that these players were recruited after a big show of clearing out the deadwood. I think using the term has inadvertently meant that we have only recruited players who couldn't find anywhere better rather than actually wanting to play for Vale. Which is why they are not very good. 

[WV]

5 minutes ago, Rampant Zebra said:

The point is that these players were recruited after a big show of clearing out the deadwood. I think using the term has inadvertently meant that we have only recruited players who couldn't find anywhere better rather than actually wanting to play for Vale. Which is why they are not very good. 

Didn't we get promotion that season? 

[Rampant Zebra]

1 minute ago, WV said:

Didn't we get promotion that season? 

We did but we haven't really benefitted from it. Football has been pretty dreadful ever since and we are rapidly headed back to League 2 with a disenfranchised support.

[Biddulph_PV]

I know Moore hasn’t exactly set the world on fire but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this isn’t his mess.

I would say he’s come across a bit ‘nicer’ than I imagined. I thought he was a bit spikier tbh (he certainly took no prisoners when he played) and that he set up his teams to get stuck in.

That said, I just don’t think we haven that in the squad. Maybe him being ‘nice’ is because confidence is low and he’s tried to re-build, who knows? If so, it hasn’t worked, it’s too late and so maybe a few home truths need dishing out.

In league 2 I’d like us to recruit big, athletic players and/or players with that big of edge, who get stuck in and most of all hate losing. Players like, dare I say it, McKirdy (though obviously not him!). We need leaders, not shrinking violets, and certainly players who are physically robust, not ones that disappear for 3 months after a kick on the shins.

There are players that always seem to cause us problems - like Winchester yesterday, Piergianni, Keillor-Dunn etc (though arguably the same could be said of Loft).

I’d like to see us trying to dictate teams at home, even in the promotion season I didn’t think we were great and often looked wide open in midfield (I’m thinking the Swindon home game with the infamous Cov incident). We need to utilise one of the biggest advantages…. the size of the pitch.

We’ve given him another 5 years so we must have trust him. As long as Fraudcroft sticks to cleaning the bogs in the Robbie Williams suite and lets Moore choose his own players, I think (hope) we’ll at least stem the bleeding next year, though I don’t expect an immediate bounce back if I’m honest.

And please, please, please, please….. for God’s sake, can we not view the January window as ball of Kryptonite and try and learn from past DISASTERS and at least have a bit of a strategy for it.

Edited March 10 by Biddulph_PV

[MelbourneValiant]

1 hour ago, TJHValiant said:

It was blindingly obvious from pre season the budget was cut but when this got raised, most people thought it was ungrateful to suggest St Carol was doing such a thing. 

Danny Sonner mentioned wages at Vale about 20 years ago.....so what do we do pre-season, bugger off to Spain and have zero match condition pre season friendlies. Point being, Vale will always be Vale, and for the second season running the prep for the new season has been an absolute shambles.

[TJHValiant]

8 minutes ago, MelbourneValiant said:

Danny Sonner mentioned wages at Vale about 20 years ago.....so what do we do pre-season, bugger off to Spain and have zero match condition pre season friendlies. Point being, Vale will always be Vale, and for the second season running the prep for the new season has been an absolute shambles.

Yeah Sonner did. I remember, he said they were “conference wages” although difference being he had been at Vale playing good football for 2 seasons before leaving unhappy at said wages, so must have been acceptable to him at some point. 
 

What I see now is a club that won’t even pay enough for 1 star, proven striker. That’s not good enough.

[valeparklife]

5 hours ago, Biddulph_PV said:

The only thing I’d question is keeping Ripley. Really good goalie yes….but a desire to want to get too involved in games ‘complicates’ things. Plus keep Debrah, seems one of the few who gives a sh!t???

Ripley has got a bit of personality - I like him.

Jury is out on Debrah for me. Might be okay in L2 but I'd like to think we could attract better.

[1]

We need a properly organised protest against Flitcroft. I hate to single out one person but he’s made his own rope by stating plainly he is responsible for “all things football”. Well the football is dire, we’ve hired mentally weak, uninterested and untalented players with an total imbalance positionally, and I am confident the squad is quite expensive ironically.

[WV]

43 minutes ago, 1 said:

We need a properly organised protest against Flitcroft. I hate to single out one person but he’s made his own rope by stating plainly he is responsible for “all things football”. Well the football is dire, we’ve hired mentally weak, uninterested and untalented players with an total imbalance positionally, and I am confident the squad is quite expensive ironically.

Vale fans love a protest. Well overdue one. 

 

I'd hazard a guess that all the other teams that look like they are being relegated are not trying to arrange protests against somebody. It's in the Vale blood and I wondered how long it would be before the coffin comes back out. 

Edited March 10 by WV