10 hours ago, leedsvaliant said:

I'd say we'll have a better/better funded squad than...

Lincoln, Stevenage, Exeter, Mansfield,  Northampton, Burton and Wimbledon. 

Obviously, that doesn't always translate into an effective team but our budget is likely to be bigger than these. Moore isn't going to be happy if we're scratching round for pennies down the back of the sofa. Season ticket sales combined with our commercial ventures surely see us have better income than most of these clubs. In addition, Carol has shown that she's not afraid to splash some of her personal wealth towards it.

By no means do I think it will be easy but I do think we're better prepared than last time. Our squad is certainly stronger. We came up last time with a permanently injured Wilson and an ageing Worrall as 2 of our best players...with an ageing Proctor as our main striker going into the season. We didn't have anyone near Stockley, Byers or Headley to name but 3. With a fair wind we might outperform some clubs with a bigger budget than us.

Our squad is nowhere near Lincoln's. Four top-half finishes in five seasons, including a 5th and 7th. That's what we're aspiring to - but they finished 16th in their first season.

The rest, yes we should be competing with.

On 26/05/2025 at 18:13, Conrad said:

Some tough looking games there.

 

On 27/05/2025 at 09:55, leedsvaliant said:

On 26/05/2025 at 18:13, Conrad said:

Some tough looking games there.

There's not many 'smaller' clubs left there. Lots of established league 1 clubs with a smattering of championship. It's going to be tough but I think there'll be at least 6 or 7 with a weaker squad than ours. We need a kind fixture list to start well and then who knows?

 

14 hours ago, valeparklife said:

Who do you have as the 6 or 7?

I'm struggling for 4.

Anyone that thinks we'll easily stay up is in for a shock.

Here's my take on the teams which are currently stronger and weaker than Vale.

I've not ordered the teams (notionally placed) above and below us with any particular regard to their underlying strength, just left them in the Stadium Capacity order from the source table I used.

Of course this will all change for the better for Vale, once we start making our forthcoming sparkling signings ... 🙂

Edited May 29, 20251 yr by Alan Vit

Just caught up with the subsequent posts taking a broadly similar view to mine above.

Our squad is nowhere near Lincoln's. Four top-half finishes in five seasons, including a 5th and 7th. That's what we're aspiring to - but they finished 16th in their first season.
The rest, yes we should be competing with.

Yeah...Lincoln was the one I was on the fence with. They've established themselves well but in terms of budget I think we'll have a similar if not bigger one to them.

1 hour ago, valefan16 said:

That was the issue, in 2022/23 as we fell down the league and just survived we lost to Cambridge who'd not won in months, Burton, Shrewsbury, last year doubled by Shrewsbury who were dreadful, lost to Exeter when 2-0 hammered by Fleetwood, beaten twice by Cheltenham who were dreadful, lost to Carlisle so have to improve that record.

Moore being a manager who is quite defensive and well drilled might find L1 more suited as we are set up to go to places like Bolton/Huddersfield and mid block as we saw against the top sides this season but its those games at home against sides struggling where we need the initiative that will be key.

I agree that Moore's style will be better suited to L1 than L2.

I've been frustrated with his "play for a 0-0 and try and nick a goal" tactics against the likes of Harrogate/Accrington, but I don't mind that approach vs half the division in L1. 

52 minutes ago, valeparklife said:

I agree that Moore's style will be better suited to L1 than L2.

I've been frustrated with his "play for a 0-0 and try and nick a goal" tactics against the likes of Harrogate/Accrington, but I don't mind that approach vs half the division in L1. 

I didn't mind it away at teams like Notts or MK at the time but at home we have to trust ourselves more. Will be interesting.

1 hour ago, Alan Vit said:

 

 

Here's my take on the teams which are currently stronger and weaker than Vale.

I've not ordered the teams (notionally placed) above and below us with any particular regard to their underlying strength, just left them in the Stadium Capacity order from the source table I used.

Of course this will all change for the better for Vale, once we start making our forthcoming sparkling signings ... 🙂

Interesting and can't argue, possibly put Bradford below us at the moment as we finished above them and haven't really shown anything spectacular yet to change that. Orient is an odd one, they did very well but did rely on loans a bit and losing Kelman will be a massive gap.

Rotherham and Huddersfield struggled a bit so its how they recover, are Rotherham just settling back into their normal position after a few good years?

Lincoln I would consider us bigger and have a comparable budget but they do seem to be pretty settled in that upper mid table/sniff around the playoffs.

Peterborough is a funny one as usually they are right up there, have the odd flirt with the Championship for a year but lost key players and don't seem to be buying anyone for decent money at the minute.

1 hour ago, Alan Vit said:

 

 

Here's my take on the teams which are currently stronger and weaker than Vale.

I've not ordered the teams (notionally placed) above and below us with any particular regard to their underlying strength, just left them in the Stadium Capacity order from the source table I used.

Of course this will all change for the better for Vale, once we start making our forthcoming sparkling signings ... 🙂

mmm not sure about the table you re showing... easy to make an reasoned argument about why any of the clubs you show below us (with maybe 1 exception) would finish above us but not so easy to make an argument as to why we would finish above the teams you show ahead of us. So if 10th from bottom is our best case scenario if you re 50% right with the teams below us we would be around 5th off bottom.... I suspect this is where the bookies will pitch us and I d be more aligned with that than 10th off bottom finishing above  teams like Peterborough and Exeter and even Burton who have a few more years with league 1 income and infra structure than ourselves. 

I remember having these kind of conversations the last time we went up when people were just as optimistic with our team. I do think we will be in a relegation battle with DM trying to keep things tight and nick 1-0 wins against teams around us.

I ll be there which ever scenario happens.

 

UTV

 

I think back to DM agreeing to be manager. 5 year plan. Was that to be a club challenging at top end L1 to be in Champ or survival in L1? I think it’s challenging to be in Champ.

I will be happy with  5th bottom but really feel the club are going to be more ambitious than that wanting to be competitive against the top end L1 teams like Barnsley,Huddersfield,Blackpool,Bolton etc.

Edited May 29, 20251 yr by MBE

1 hour ago, MBE said:

I think back to DM agreeing to be manager. 5 year plan. Was that to be a club challenging at top end L1 to be in Champ or survival in L1? I think it’s challenging to be in Champ.

I will be happy with  5th bottom but really feel the club are going to be more ambitious than that wanting to be competitive against the top end L1 teams like Barnsley,Huddersfield,Blackpool,Bolton etc.

Id be happy in the top three!🫡

I dont envisage Moore being here with the aim of just surviving next season myself and if true that for example Blackpool couldn't compete with us for George Byers then you'd say on that scale we'd likely be looking to be competitive with clubs we've been financially competitive with in the market. Football isn't that easy though but I doubt DM is sat by the pool on his holiday plotting a way to finish 20th in League One. Players and Moore himself talk about the attraction to the club being the vision for the future, the club haven't publicly said what that vision actually is but think we will look to push on and not risk the same mistakes made on our last stint.

1 hour ago, valefan16 said:

I dont envisage Moore being here with the aim of just surviving next season myself and if true that for example Blackpool couldn't compete with us for George Byers then you'd say on that scale we'd likely be looking to be competitive with clubs we've been financially competitive with in the market. Football isn't that easy though but I doubt DM is sat by the pool on his holiday plotting a way to finish 20th in League One. Players and Moore himself talk about the attraction to the club being the vision for the future, the club haven't publicly said what that vision actually is but think we will look to push on and not risk the same mistakes made on our last stint.

It could be that Blackpool had decided what Byers was worth and made a business decision not to pay any more while we decided he was crucial for our promotion bid so pushed the boat out for him.  I don’t think it necessarily means that we can outbid them on a regular basis or that we have a higher playing budget.

Hard to imagine how we could with their higher league status over quite a period of time unless our owner throws even more more money at it which I m not sure is the way forward long term.

anyway let’s get behind them and see how it goes.

utv

5 hours ago, Bobnewtonian said:

mmm not sure about the table you re showing... easy to make an reasoned argument about why any of the clubs you show below us (with maybe 1 exception) would finish above us but not so easy to make an argument as to why we would finish above the teams you show ahead of us. So if 10th from bottom is our best case scenario if you re 50% right with the teams below us we would be around 5th off bottom.... I suspect this is where the bookies will pitch us and I d be more aligned with that than 10th off bottom finishing above  teams like Peterborough and Exeter and even Burton who have a few more years with league 1 income and infra structure than ourselves. 

I remember having these kind of conversations the last time we went up when people were just as optimistic with our team. I do think we will be in a relegation battle with DM trying to keep things tight and nick 1-0 wins against teams around us.

I ll be there which ever scenario happens.

 

UTV

 

What I think is critical for our success / midtable security (at least) is to boost our average attendance towards the magic 10,000 mark.

So that we don't rely solely on Carol and Kevin's generosity.

We'll likely pick up an extra 1,000 or so average from the bigger away followings.

It's down to Vale fans to boost our numbers by the other 1,400 or so which is needed to reach the 10,000 mark.

Big ask in difficult times, but we can do it.

44 minutes ago, Alan Vit said:

What I think is critical for our success / midtable security (at least) is to boost our average attendance towards the magic 10,000 mark.

So that we don't rely solely on Carol and Kevin's generosity.

We'll likely pick up an extra 1,000 or so average from the bigger away followings.

It's down to Vale fans to boost our numbers by the other 1,400 or so which is needed to reach the 10,000 mark.

Big ask in difficult times, but we can do it.

I agree with you on this but I think the luck of fixtures is going to play a big part. We will be hit with international breaks next season, you just hope those fall on away fixtures so it doesn’t affect our attendances and revenues as much.

It would be nice to think we could average out over 9k next season with some hefty away followers as the league is made predominantly of North West and Yorkshire.

Edited May 29, 20251 yr by MBE

23 hours ago, Santa said:

Less inclination to what?

A feeling on our prospects. Essentially I have no strong opinion or sense of what's likely to happen which is rare for me. Clarity will likely come once the ball has been kicked around for a bit in the first weekend of August.