Carol Shanahan.

[RayWalkers40yarder]

8 hours ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

I’ll get my tin hat on for this one. 
It’s time she kopped the majority of blame here. 
 

She bought the club debt free. And as Vale fans we were overjoyed after the last crook. However the last 18 months have been shambolic. 
 

As fans I hear, yeah the academy are doing good. We will get millions for him and him. We have sold this lad to Man City for hundreds of thousands. Etc. Etc. Bearing in mind as supporters we don’t see that money.

So isn’t it right to question why we are almost 10 million in debt when she bought it debt free?

The bread and butter. The football. It’s garbage. With garbage footballers.

Shes also had 4 managers now in her short tenure. And I dare say the latest one won’t last long.

Shes divided a fanbase with her cringeworthy backing of a man who was intent on ruining Port Vale. David Flitcroft. And only sacked him after a group of fans had to give her head a wobble.

The laughs and jokes and arrogance as Flitcroft announced that relegation wasn’t in his vocabulary. Followed by the cringe distraction of “El Presidente”. Probably for her and his ego.  
 

The Valiant Suite talk about how people she met 5 minutes ago told her our players are phenomenal and we won’t go down.

She was very quick to go on radio and tv across the country when it went good. Then sunk back into her shell, apart from the most pathetic open letter I’ve ever read, when she more or less slagged off her fanbase. Those that loved her. In support for one crook.

Sorry Carol. The time has come to break your silence.

The last 18 months has been an absolute disaster. And the repercussions will carry on because that debt isn’t good, the players are garbage, the manager is looking like a dear in the headlights, and the fans are well and truly demoralized with the whole debacle.

The buck stops at the top. 
Before any idiot says “Who do you want to buy us”, I’m not saying she should sell. My point is that her decisions, as owner of this football club, have got us into this financial mess and on the pitch it’s an absolute disgrace. The worst Vale team I’ve seen in 40 plus years. And if it was Smurthwaite at the helm, going through all of this, you’d all be raging.

She needs to be accountable for her actions. 

weve had our run ins over the years spunkers but this is 100% spot on.  we are not on a " slag carol off" mission but things cannot go on how they are now or we will end up in non league .

 

[RayWalkers40yarder]

6 hours ago, ELDERBEZZA said:

2 absolutely brilliant posts from Spunk Trumpet tonight, telling how it is .Well done ,as I rarely comment on here nowadays.Loyal long serving Vale fan with a lot of passion ,something lacking in that shower this afternoon.One of the worst teams that I've watched since 1958!!Take that one Carol!!

i can say hand on heart its the worst ive seen since 1987 !

 

[Houston Valiant]

6 hours ago, ELDERBEZZA said:

2 absolutely brilliant posts from Spunk Trumpet tonight, telling how it is .Well done ,as I rarely comment on here nowadays.Loyal long serving Vale fan with a lot of passion ,something lacking in that shower this afternoon.One of the worst teams that I've watched since 1958!!Take that one Carol!!

I agree, Spunk Trumpet hits the nail on the head, and you are  a highly respected supporter in my book. You’ve seen it all ,good and bad. I think she needs to either sell the club or get off the pot and sort this mess out. 
That’s what needs to be done. Otherwise it’s the Vanarama League in 2 years. An unpopular view with many , but times have changed, and now big decisions have to be made. 

 

[Rockape99]

5 hours ago, Dipepa delight said:

Carol's Vale like all of us .

She be hurting too.

However thats no excuse what's gone on its being a ludicrous season .

No strikers been brought in has ultimately cost us and not bringing in a leader at the back ,that's recruitment's fault and worst still bringing no lwb back in .

It's done now she needs come and explain why and what's up with the players after all she said they were phenomenal. 

That second half yesterday was symbolic of the whole car crash of the season .

If I was in charge I'd be fuming. 

She's in charge let's see some leadership now .

What she does next is very important 

There's a lot of support who have stopped attending and that's down to the people you employ .

At synthetics would you accept the mediocrity the players produced second half 

No you wouldn't so why should 6300 odd home support ,be accepting of what those players did to our support yesterday but not just yesterday ,since 2023 Jan some of them ,why are they even still here maybe you can answer that cause I'd have <ovf censored> them all off 

Sort it Carol and learn that everybody has to give everything for Vale win a game of football .

The vale need a unifying force one who can stop this self harm , advise Carol on football matters and produce the players with Moore. I don’t think a DOF is needed but a recruitment specialist is , for me it’s Foyle or Sproson . Both have excellent contacts throughout football, however. In addition some ex players need to be ambassadors with the fans , I suggest Legge and Pope . Money wise good knows if Carol can sink anymore in , so maybe Donaldson takes 49% —and they split funding. This is just  my ramblings , but my good something got to change both on and off the pitch 

[Bimbleabout]

She's made herself look a bit daft really. Question is will Carol crack on, learn from mistakes and realities or hide in the shadows looking for a way out?
Considering Vale were supposedly moving into a 'drama' free period of boredom and stability, Carol is at the centre of all things 'Drama'
Big decisions and leadership is required and an acceptance that big mistakes have been made for Vale to move away from this current ridiculous situation. A situation which has shown those at the top to be, unfortunately, very niave and pretty arrogant.
Also you can't be on a pedestal and engage with fans, media etc etc constantly when all is good and then pretty much retreat and withdraw when things go wrong. It's ethier one or the other, but it has to be relatively constant or imo it comes across as pretty disrespectful and arrogant to the average supporter,even if she is hurting aswell.
Maybe the whole 'too familiar, Vale family' thing is a major part of the problems which has caused the fan base to split during this season which has just added more pressure and fueled the fire for the whole situation.
Its a mess

[Rampant Zebra]

7 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

Who said she’s a lifelong fan?  I didn’t and it’s widely on record what her history is regarding football so nothing is being rewritten as far as I can see.

I think you’re understating the fact that someone had to “throw money away” to take the club out of the clutches of Sexman.  Maybe you’ve forgotten what was going on around that time.  Carol went wrong by trusting David Flitcroft, who was approached for the managers job but somehow managed to convince her we needed a DoF and wangled the job for himself.  Flitcroft got lucky in that a decent managerial appointment in DC saw us promoted which would’ve cemented his reputation in Carol’s eyes.  From then on it’s been more a typical Flitcroft scenario that we’ve seen.

Flitcroft didn't get lucky with the Clarke appointment, he was part of the problem. They tried to prove that they were somehow better than all the other 71 clubs by doing things differently, we overspent on a shiny new rocket which got us to the moon but then ran out of fuel. 

[Killersrevenge44]

3 hours ago, RayWalkers40yarder said:

weve had our run ins over the years spunkers but this is 100% spot on.  we are not on a " slag carol off" mission but things cannot go on how they are now or we will end up in non league .

 

What a mess!! It's not as if Vale overspent on players. 

[JoeB2]

3 hours ago, RayWalkers40yarder said:

i can say hand on heart its the worst ive seen since 1987 !

 

It’s not even the worst since 2015.

Has everyone forgotten finishing 20th in League 2?

[Stamfordvale]

11 hours ago, pete vale said:

Can't argue with any of that personally. We are not privy to what appeared to be "pie-in-the-sky" ideals of academy funding and the 'campus', let alone the loan and use of Premier League 2 youngsters - not viable in my opinion at this level at this moment in time. Yes, there needs to be a focus on youth and making the club sustainable for years to come commercially and professionally football-wise.

Look at the effect on the fan base in regards to changes in the ticket office/ club shop as an example, not to mention the Paddock portaloos and exit debacles. A good example again today. We walked into the shop at 2.20pm today to look at and possibly purchase merchandise - no chance!! The queue was massive with I assume people arriving late and wanting match tickets? You could not view merchandise and even if you did try to purchase you would have probably missed kick-off? There are many issues/ examples of a distinct lack of common-sense about the place.

The second half performance today was without question as bad if not worse than any performance I have witnessed since first attending in 1975. I struggle to reason exactly as to why things have unravelled so quickly and at such cost to the Shanahans financially. It is obviously poor decision making on both the playing side and future structure modelling of the club.

Some comments from within particularly in regard to Flitcroft "going nowhere" were derogatory and condescending to the fan base, were these said comments merely a defence of the indefensible or born of arrogance from an inner circle environment that clearly had a 'plan' of sorts and the rest can go to 'hell in a hand cart whatever may'?

That said this is an embarrassing, expensive, harsh lesson to learn leaving the club in financial woe and it's fan base totally demoralised at a time when this certainly shouldn't be the case following on from the euphoria of the 2022 promotion.

Sad, very sad.

This manager has no clothes, he's shown now to be in the altogether, the altogether, his last few appointments should have shown that, and now he'll have no money and no experience whatsoever to build, the future ain't to bright for us, particular for a manager with no record, we can't afford the expense for experiments in a league that is just as tough to get out of. Shanahan was dreaming of Shangri-la, even John Rudge warned her not to purchase a football club, I'm afraid the buck stops at her door.

[steauavaliant]

The toilet situation sort of highlights an issue with fan engagement. In days of yore an appeal would have gone out for some roofing company fan to have a look to see if they could do a temporary repair. Bit of goodwill probably had it done in exchange for some seats in hostility.That sort of stuff appears to be beneath the corporatati running the place. 
oh yeah Hollands pies. Which from Manchester thought that would be a good idea Patrick? 

"Seats in hostility."? That's for me!

[Dipepa delight]

10 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

It’s not even the worst since 2015.

Has everyone forgotten finishing 20th in League 2?

It's the worst team I've seen in 32 years worse than the team what got us last relegation in this league 

They were rubbish but were more professional than that shower yesterday .

As I see it we are heading for national league .

Pin that on your board you use for tactics maybe that get a response out of them .

A lot of those players wouldn't be good enough in national league either .

There a embarrassment to themselves and anyone who as bigged them up only Uche Dipepa and Chislett and possibly Grant come of that pitch yesterday having earned there wages the rest show them the door today preferably.

[osprey]

1 hour ago, Rockape99 said:

The vale need a unifying force one who can stop this self harm , advise Carol on football matters and produce the players with Moore. I don’t think a DOF is needed but a recruitment specialist is , for me it’s Foyle or Sproson . Both have excellent contacts throughout football, however. In addition some ex players need to be ambassadors with the fans , I suggest Legge and Pope . Money wise good knows if Carol can sink anymore in , so maybe Donaldson takes 49% —and they split funding. This is just  my ramblings , but my good something got to change both on and off the pitch 

Don’t think Sproson would be a recruitment answer- not been overly impressed with the ones Vale have taken with him as agent. Plus he works in the first interests as agent for his players not Vale. 

[Dipepa delight]

10 minutes ago, Dipepa delight said:

It's the worst team I've seen in 32 years worse than the team what got us last relegation in this league 

They were rubbish but were more professional than that shower yesterday .

As I see it we are heading for national league .

Pin that on your board you use for tactics maybe that get a response out of them .

A lot of those players wouldn't be good enough in national league either .

There a embarrassment to themselves and anyone who as bigged them up only Uche Dipepa and Chislett Garrity and possibly Grant come of that pitch yesterday having earned there wages the rest show them the door today preferably.

 

[PVP]

The thing that still gets me to the core is Carol's statement of "Championship Ready".

What this does is set expectation. This get's people excited with confidence that the club that they love is finally being being run with passion, strategy and a clear vision for progression.

Then comes reality, a lie, broken promises and disappointment. 

The worse thing you can do in a business is over promise and under deliver, which Carol has done.  My trust in the Vision, Process and Leadership of the club I have supported for over 40 years has now gone.

If you are unable to run a successful business delivering customer satisfaction then please hand it over to somebody that can.  UTV.

[Jim Gammon]

Everyone has such wise and supportive words about our dear club. I hope she is listening to us the fans