Carol Shanahan.

[Spunk Trumpet]

8 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

It’s not even the worst since 2015.

Has everyone forgotten finishing 20th in League 2?

I honestly believe this crop are worse than a 20th place in league 2.

[Bede]

They are.  

We don't even have a balanced enough squad to field a proper starting eleven as it stands, without compromise of playing people out of position.  Absolutely criminal.

[Powerline]

7 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

I honestly believe this crop are worse than a 20th place in league 2.

I agree, they were extremely crap but had bottle. Likes of Antony Kay, Joyce, Legge for example, couldn’t ever doubt effort/guts.

Current squad are both extremely crap and gutless.

[Sandyford_Lion]

12 minutes ago, Bede said:

They are.  

We don't even have a balanced enough squad to field a proper starting eleven as it stands, without compromise of playing people out of position.  Absolutely criminal.

Since day 1 it looked the worst balanced squad we had assembled for many many years

[Sandyford_Lion]

3 hours ago, Dipepa delight said:

To be honest the cheese and onion Holland pie was lovely the highlight of the afternoon for me as our players seemed to me have left the ground at half time .

Don't try convince me otherwise 

I watched football since I was 8 .

Exeter were there be hammeredat half time 

That second half was bizarre and seemed to me like the players were try prove a point to someone I wonder who, maybe someone should ask them as there wasn't  any after match interview from any of them .

Carol buy winners and try to negotiate the release of anyone who has failed you this season 

Do not try throw it back at the supporters either why is when attacking the hamil the players seem to play worse maybe you should ask them after all there phenomenal .

The fans were great first half 👍 so let's not pretend it's there fault as were the players .

How to go from heroes to zeroes 

Maybe someone's hurt the players feelings oh diddums. 

Man up players 

 

 

I will guarantee you that if we start a new season today with the squads we have Exeter will be 20 + points ahead of us. Far far better team.

First half we were not brilliant. We were very good compared to previous games and had a bit of luck with both goals and deserved our lead

SEcond half : We have no guts, no fight and we were frightened of them after the first minute.

Many have said how poor we are in comparison to teams from yesteryear. What i will add is that this is the worst balanced squad we have had for a long long time and it was clear to see in August

[Spunk Trumpet]

9 minutes ago, Powerline said:

I agree, they were extremely crap but had bottle. Likes of Antony Kay, Joyce, Legge for example, couldn’t ever doubt effort/guts.

Current squad are both extremely crap and gutless.

I was looking at the squad that finished 18th in league 2 in 2015.

Pope. 
Dodds. 
O Connor. 
Dicko. 
Duffy. 
Neal. 
Lines. 
Veseli. 
Birchall. 
Yates. 
 

Every one of those in that period of their career, walk into our starting side right now. 
And that lot finished 18th in league 2.

Frightening.

[Sandyford_Lion]

6 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

To appoint someone better qualified than yourself into a role and delegate responsibility is not poor leadership and is perfectly normal in any business.  The problem is that Flitcroft has been able to manipulate Carol from day one, being interviewed as a potential manager the club suddenly adopts a completely new DoF model with him as that DoF.  Bingo!  Our initial success and the galvanising effect it had no doubt clouded people’s judgement.  Clearly Flitcroft was a grade A waffler full of management speak and that possibly appealed to Carol, who knows, but she clearly rated the guy, hence that crazy letter.

 

AGREE

Carol had a dream. Flitcroft got his feet under the table and sold her the dream that she wanted.

Our won acadamy kids, save £100,s of thousands. Sell them on , make £ millions. Yes Carol we can do that. I can see several being ready for league 1 football very soon. Save your money we dont need too many players at all

By the way, the money you save let me spend it on the acadamy and development of young kids. I can see us getting the top youngsters from the premier league her and this season too. It will be brilliant. We will push for the play offs and it will cost peanuts.

Carol believed every word and this after she admitted she knew nothing about running a football club. Oh and she also never interviewed anyone else for the role of D of F. A role that she never thought was needed at the start ? maybe.

Finally fill all the roles around her with her own people, mostly, and no one will ever speak out against her. Perfect.

Absolute garbage Carol. It will cost you £1.5 million in lost revenue next season, through the gate alone. Minimum £ 1.5 million. Hope you are sensible and hold season ticket prices , or even reduce them for a really early bird deal. Please dont forget all your saviours in hospitality will support you no matter what so dont forget they will gladly pay an increase price for next season, just to help you like you helped them and them alone this season,

[TJHValiant]

24 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

I was looking at the squad that finished 18th in league 2 in 2015.

Pope. 
Dodds. 
O Connor. 
Dicko. 
Duffy. 
Neal. 
Lines. 
Veseli. 
Birchall. 
Yates. 
 

Every one of those in that period of their career, walk into our starting side right now. 
And that lot finished 18th in league 2.

Frightening.

That’s the 2014-15 season squad. We were in league 1 for that. Veseli never played for us in league 2. Birchall didn’t either. 

[eh up nah]

22 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

I was looking at the squad that finished 18th in league 2 in 2015.

Pope. 
Dodds. 
O Connor. 
Dicko. 
Duffy. 
Neal. 
Lines. 
Veseli. 
Birchall. 
Yates. 
 

Every one of those in that period of their career, walk into our starting side right now. 
And that lot finished 18th in league 2.

Frightening.

I'm agreeing with everything you're saying mate, but that ain't the league 2 team.

O'connor, dicko, Lines, never played for us in league 2

The one that finished 20th in league 2 was the likes of Tonge, kay, Barnet and pugh 

That one that stopped up in league 1 with page wasn't a bad side.  I remember feeling we shouldn't have been in the mess we were in that year.

Think we went ages and ages without a win and then Michael brown scored a late winner at Yeovil 2/3 games from the end and we were safe.

I agree completely though, what we've got now could very easily get us relegated again next season.

Its a completely unbalanced, awful squad.

I'd only keep garrity and I'm sure there will be offers for him in the summer and who could blame him for going?

[Playa Amodores]

11 hours 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 

Rock, if anyone was coming in they’d quite rightly want at least 51%.

[Rockape99]

1 minute ago, Playa Amodores said:

Rock, if anyone was coming in they’d quite rightly want at least 51%.

Can’t argue with that , I was musing on things . For me I like to keep Carol but she’s got a few decisions to make re the club and investments 

[Spunk Trumpet]

8 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

That’s the 2014-15 season squad. We were in league 1 for that. Veseli never played for us in league 2. Birchall didn’t either. 

Sorry. My bad. I was looking at the wrong season you’re right. 
 

The squad that finished 20th in league 2……

Pope. 
Gibbo. 
Whitfield. 
Harness. 
Worrall. 
Kay. 
Hannant. 
Even mad Gavin Gunning that season would walk into our line up now.
 

To be fair we can go back season on season and pick out at least 8 or 9 who would walk into our starting 11 now.

[PV1973]

28 minutes ago, Sandyford_Lion said:

 

Carol believed every word and this after she admitted she knew nothing about running a football club.

Probably one of the worst things that happened, and we probably didn’t realise it at the time, was us getting rid of Colin Garlick. He openly said he didn’t want to go. 

[pete vale]

8 hours ago, JoeB2 said:

She paid around £5m and had loaned us, interest-free, £8m, over 5 years. 

Of course the losses are greater now, but that’s down to two factors:

1. Losses are higher across the football pyramid. Nearly every club is insolvent and reliant on director’s loans. Our losses have been very manageable (1m a year) until last season where clearly we made a dog’s breakfast out of League 1. Comparing losses for previous owners is useless.

2. 3.4m is a fairly standard loss for League 1. Very normal. It’s bad for us, but common for a lot of teams. You have to be spending way in excess of what you bring in to compete. Unfortunately, Carol fell for the BS from Flitcroft and consequently the money was poorly spent.

It’s clearly ‘give Carol a kicking’ season which is understandable- her poor leadership has squandered the opportunity created in May 2022 and set us back several years and several million. She should have listened earlier and set up a far better quality assurance structure to assess where the money was going.

I’m not coming out to bat for her. I was raising concerns in the immediate summer after promotion where our signings were non-existent and we played minimal friendlies. I had worries in January 2022 when we seemed to bundle home a load of questionable signings and very nearly fell out of the playoffs. It was a circus then, held together by a very good manager.

However, let us not rewrite history. Carol’s first two seasons were Covid-impacted, and in her first full season with fans we went up. Survival in League 1 was acceptable, if underwhelming last year, and then this year has been a disaster. 

Folks emotionally predicting we’re on our way to non-league, that Carol has killed us, and that she hasn’t a clue what she’s doing are (in my view) emotionally and angrily lashing out after a relegation. 

The fundamental truth, however some try to twist it, is that PVFC will always incur losses of at least 1m a year (as every club does) and someone has to pick up that bill. Carol is the current fool daft enough to do so, for the ego trip and adrenaline rush. 

I’m really not bothered about apologies or ‘taking responsibility’, or making her March through Burslem whilst we chant ‘shame’ At her. 

She just needs to quietly and without fuss go away, learn from the mistakes, and do what she did in 21/22. Moore’s rumoured wage suggests she is more than happy to throw more money at the financial black hole of PVFC. The alternative is she sells up, incurring about a £10m loss, to (most likely) a consortium of investors who would again have to foot the losses, without the attachment to the club or area.

We will be absolutely fine next year, and if I had to bet, I’d assume we’d have a fairly successful year considering the weakness of League 2 24/25. The cloth will have to be cut a large amount (which is probably going to force much-needed efficiencies) and the off-field structure needs completely reshaping, but as a serial moaner who is never satisfied I’m rather sanguine about it all. 

The compounding effect of so many losses over the last 18 months have absolutely battered the fanbase emotionally. Everyone is knackered. There’s an intensity to how awful we’ve been. We’ve been crap for ages. We need the season to finish and to all find something else to do for 3 months. PVFC will be fine under Carol Shanahan - as much as that appears to be a controversial view on this thread.

An intelligent post that Joe. Thank you.

[Paul6754]

22 hours ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

She needs to be accountable for her actions. 

ST, What do you mean by the above phrase?

Are you advocating that Carol should resign?