2 hours ago, mbycars said:

There's definitely no hope for you. Why do you even troll Port Vale on social media when you have not been in years and no intention of going again. If that's your stance then just leave it be and leave supporting Port Vale to the real supporters who don't give up because they don't like a particular owner or manager or the person who sits next to them. We have had some dire, teams, managers and owners in my 65 years of supporting the club. Players, managers and owners change like the wind but Port Vale is part of my DNA and nothing will change that.

Exactly so, @mbycars

That's the essence of it.

Doing everything we can to support our club, in the full knowledge that there will always be plenty of bad times to counterbalance the good times.

There are posters on here whose one interest is bitter, moaning destructiveness.

Some of them are closet Stokies, but others are genuine Vale fans who sadly have some sort of kink in their soul such that they only come to life when they can find something to be outraged about, something to try to smash down regardless of the consequences.

It's easy to break things, any mindlessly destructive person can do it.

Genuine supporters might also complain from time to time, and justifiably so, but their underlying motivation is always to improve and build up the club.

That's real support, those are the real Vale supporters.

2 hours ago, fairportnick said:

I would go back but there are probably too many things that need sorting first

And always will be, no matter what anyone does ever ...

2 hours ago, eh up nah said:

Sums up where I'm at really as well.

The thing that pulled us all into the Vale was the team on the pitch and what they represented.

I've been going since 1990.  I've seen the best times we've ever had on the pitch and also some completely and utterly depressing dross but I am actually finding the current situation the most testing for me as a fan I think.

The Shanahans have always had credit with me but that will have gone at 16:50 on the 2nd May.  It then ALL depends on what we do this summer.  And by that, I mean changes at the top.  If they persist with folk like Hancock, Darnborough etc then that tells us everything.  They've failed, miserably, time and again. Darnbrough is a career failure.   He just gets passed around clubs not doing what he gets employed for.  Hancock just isnt up to calling the football shots at a football club.  Keep them, and I definitely will be of the opinion the Shanahans need to call it a day.

The image we put out as a club i find really uncomfortable.  We do a lot of good, and thats commendable, but come on, partying with Buttons after a 7.0?  He's got be the biggest hanger on ever him.  The El Presidente <ovf censored>.  To be fair, I don't think people would be bothered about all that IF we'd got the football right.  And, sadly, I don't think the family cares enough about that side.  Putting a side out on a saturday that the fans identify with should be the standard.

If they don't want to do that then it is 100% time for them to sell up and go.

As far as I'm concerned the Shanahans have lost a lot of money supporting the football club and if they want RW as joint president and invite Wilkes to the match it's  up to them, I'm not bothered in the slightest and if I'd lost that kind of money financing the club and I got a big pay day like Chelsea I'd do a little dance, its their club, their money.

I'm more concerned about Gray walking round with a Chelsea shirt on to be honest, I know where Carols loyalties lie,she isn't taking the mick unlike some of these modern day mercenaries.

23 minutes ago, fairportnick said:

He was one of a number of fans who strove for the very existence of the club you now claim to support. What did you do in the war daddy? Why are you so resistant to calls for improvement in the way the club is run , do you actually enjoy being relegated ?

Oh well, lets build him a statue shall we? 

I don't enjoy it, no. I was a "happy clapper" but feel the team is poorly run and the club is too. We are far too nice and friendly to opposition teams and the team lacks fight, heart and guile.

But, Spunk Trumpet (what a stupid username by the way), absolutely prides himself on telling everyone how much he did, its almost like it wasn't for the good of the club, but an ego trip to prove how much of a better fan he is than all us plebs who have lives outside of the football club but have to acknowledge how wonderful he is.

If he, or you, or anyone else wants to fly that flag, then great. Go to the club, demand to see Carol or Hancock, or form a protest group or whatever, but don't play the high and mighty with those of us who don't want to and proclaim yourself better than everyone else, which is exactly what he's doing.

"Look at me, Im criticising Carol, Im the only one who can see it"

Plus as I said, his flippant remarks about people who died with Covid show what a repulsive individual he is.

13 minutes ago, Mr Moose said:

As far as I'm concerned the Shanahans have lost a lot of money supporting the football club and if they want RW as joint president and invite Wilkes to the match it's  up to them, I'm not bothered in the slightest and if I'd lost that kind of money financing the club and I got a big pay day like Chelsea I'd do a little dance, its their club, their money.

I'm more concerned about Gray walking round with a Chelsea shirt on to be honest, I know where Carols loyalties lie,she isn't taking the mick unlike some of these modern day mercenaries.

Exactly how much money do you think they have lost?

Just now, Granville said:

 

But, Spunk Trumpet (what a stupid username by the way)

It's not of his choice . It was given to him by the much missed Old Sage RIP at a Supporters club meeting.

Lej old sage

13 minutes ago, fairportnick said:

He was one of a number of fans who strove for the very existence of the club you now claim to support. What did you do in the war daddy? Why are you so resistant to calls for improvement in the way the club is run , do you actually enjoy being relegated ?

The "war heroics" on which you (and apparently ST) pride yourselves consisted in 2012 of helping to drive the club out of the ownership of the incompetently bad and into the ownership of the parasitically worse.

Putting the club's future in 2019 in severe danger of administration and hence expulsion from the FL, with the club thankfully being rescued by the Shanahans by paying the "ransom" at the 11th hour.

It is the Shanahans, the people you disparage, who rescued the club from the appalling mess which you helped to create.

And you haven't now issued any "calls for improvement in the way the club is run", you have just said that everything now is rubbish and should stop, with the Shanahans having to leave the club in your brilliant opinion, while you offer precisely nothing sensible and realistic to replace them.

In other words, your destructive idiocy is exactly the same as it was last time around. 

I've already long had ST on Ignore, so I don't have to endure his mad outpourings.

And now you can join him on the naughty step, because you too are merely pointlessly destructive.

Since you are very clear that you are never again going to support the club, why not do yourself and everyone else a favour by quitting all aspects of the club completely?

20 minutes ago, fairportnick said:

Exactly how much money do you think they have lost?

Enough.

13 minutes ago, Alan Vit said:

The "war heroics" on which you (and apparently ST) pride yourselves consisted in 2012 of helping to drive the club out of the ownership of the incompetently bad and into the ownership of the parasitically worse.

Putting the club's future in 2019 in severe danger of administration and hence expulsion from the FL, with the club thankfully being rescued by the Shanahans by paying the "ransom" at the 11th hour.

It is the Shanahans, the people you disparage, who rescued the club from the appalling mess which you helped to create.

And you haven't now issued any "calls for improvement in the way the club is run", you have just said that everything now is rubbish and should stop, with the Shanahans having to leave the club in your brilliant opinion, while you offer precisely nothing sensible and realistic to replace them.

In other words, your destructive idiocy is exactly the same as it was last time around. 

I've already long had ST on Ignore, so I don't have to endure his mad outpourings.

And now you can join him on the naughty step, because you too are merely pointlessly destructive.

Since you are very clear that you are never again going to support the club, why not do yourself and everyone else a favour by quitting all aspects of the club completely?

Bloody hell, some of that is mental.

Final thought and then I’ll shut the hell up.
I’ve read a lot of comments on here – many that I find astonishing, that we “didn’t compete”, that we didn’t “put up  fight”, that we “didn’t lay a glove on them.
Let’s just put this into context.  As stated, Chelsea’s team cost £1.6b to assemble.  That’s £1,600,000,000 or to write it another way, it’s one billion, six hundred million.  Their last accounts show a loss of £256 million, which equates to £700,000 EVERY day of the week for a whole year.  They are The World Club Champions; in the final they beat Paris St Germain 3-0 (three nil!) – who spent €4bn on players and lost €400m – that’s €1,010,000 A DAY.  And they still couldn’t beat Chelsea. Yet people on here are bleating about not trying, not competing. 
We’ve lamented on here for months and months now that our players are just not good enough.  They’re not good enough for EFL1 and that we want a big clear out at the end of the season.  Unless it’s missed your observations, it’s the SAME group of players that have just gone up against THE WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONS.  It's insane to even think for a second that we’d compete.  For us to compete we’d have to spend £50m per player and we simply haven’t got and will never have that sort of cash.  Even then, as Paris St Germain will tell you, it might not be enough.
As for the idea of “not laying a glove on them” – let's examine the boxing analogy.  I don’t know much about boxing; I did a lot of Judo and Kung Fu as young man, but I can tell you that, if you were a good club boxer and were a “a bit handy” and you went in the ring with a Holyfield, Sugar-Ray, Calzaghe, Tyson – choose any professional boxer, you wouldn’t lay a glove on them, too.  You’d get a thorough pounding. Go and watch any professional fighter in training for a fight, and watch them sparring – they are merciless.  To expect us to land a punch, to land a glove on Chelsea is ridiculous.  
I’ll shut the up now.
UTV

Sunderland beat Chelsea at Stamford bridge this season and we competed against Sunderland

I’m not having it was all down to the pitch

We were pathetic on Saturday , Brady set us up for a mauling and the vale fans were the only positive ( apart from some right drunken Neanderthals who seem to be gathering in numbers )

1 hour ago, Mr Moose said:

As far as I'm concerned the Shanahans have lost a lot of money supporting the football club and if they want RW as joint president and invite Wilkes to the match it's  up to them, I'm not bothered in the slightest and if I'd lost that kind of money financing the club and I got a big pay day like Chelsea I'd do a little dance, its their club, their money.

I'm more concerned about Gray walking round with a Chelsea shirt on to be honest, I know where Carols loyalties lie,she isn't taking the mick unlike some of these modern day mercenaries.

I get that mate,  honestly I do.  I'm also of the opinion that its their money so its up to them.

My problem is the image, and I think you've hit two nails on the head there.  You've got the owner seemingly caring more about getting her name on the Z list and players caring more about their Instagram.

We've failed to put a capable team out for league one both times that we've made it under the Shanahans.  The first time we scraped it thanks to a manager who managed to put his own grit and determination into a team that was actually weaker than the one that got us up.

The two seasons we've spent there after, we've been blown out of the water.

They apparently learned from previous mistakes but we've been worse this time round.

Playing the fame game is fine, no problem with it, but read the room.  People brush it under the carpet when the stuffs right on the pitch.  I wouldn't even mention it otherwise, doesn't really bother me at all.

But what this club puts out on the football side,  the most important, fundamental part of a football club, is poor. 

Very poor.

If they're going to stay as owners and leave with their head held high then they really are in for an important summer.  Stop the wastage, trim, and start to give vale a sense of identity, purpose and focus on the pitch.

And I'm not talking the chelsea game per se.  I didn't expect anything and I really enjoyed the day.  The gap now between the top and the lower leagues is vast now and it didnt half show on Saturday. 

Edited April 6Apr 6 by eh up nah

29 minutes ago, eh up nah said:

I get that mate,  honestly I do.  I'm also of the opinion that its their money so its up to them.

My problem is the image, and I think you've hit two nails on the head there.  You've got the owner seemingly caring more about getting her name on the Z list and players caring more about their Instagram.

We've failed to put a capable team out for league one both times that we've made it under the Shanahans.  The first time we scraped it thanks to a manager who managed to put his own grit and determination into a team that was actually weaker than the one that got us up.

The two seasons we've spent there after, we've been blown out of the water.

They apparently learned from previous mistakes but we've been worse this time round.

Playing the fame game is fine, no problem with it, but read the room.  People brush it under the carpet when the stuffs right on the pitch.  I wouldn't even mention it otherwise, doesn't really bother me at all.

But what this club puts out on the football side,  the most important, fundamental part of a football club, is poor. 

Very poor.

If they're going to stay as owners and leave with their head held high then they really are in for an important summer.  Stop the wastage, trim, and start to give vale a sense of identity, purpose and focus on the pitch.

And I'm not talking the chelsea game per se.  I didn't expect anything and I really enjoyed the day.  The gap now between the top and the lower leagues is vast now and it didnt half show on Saturday. 

If the same comments as the above few pages still apply after the Rotherham game then we really do have a major problem and i believe they probably will.

On another thread people are suggesting their line ups, who to play and who to leave out. What it confirms to me is what an awful squad we are left with. Yes the more we can clear out the better, whether under contract or not, get rid...

All this will be determined not by Brady but by the budget Carol gives our manager. Not sure how much more money Carol, or should i say the family, will have available to Brady in the summer. He may be forced to keep certain under contract players or sign players who will be the cheap option to allow a few better signings. We need goalscorers in midfield, out wide and up front aswell as center half and goalkeeper. They will cost money or we will take big risks signing unproven players.

This is where the BIG problem has to be answered first :

Do we want a team for a shot at promotion instantly and if yes will the players we sign, who will be under contract for 2 or 3 seasons be good enough to play in Div 1.......... If answer is yes then how much will that cost ? £6 million loss last year tells me it will need to be a huge amount.

Or do we want a team to start a rebuild in Div 2 that will take 3 years to achieve a promotion. Will we have a ' plan ' to take the club forward with steady growth. Less budget needed for players maybe but what if that fails. How will fans react. What will be the lost revenue.

This seasons cup success would have been absolutely perfect, had we had a decent team for Div 1 and we could have achieved steady safety, ready to rebuild. Unfortunately the decisions made by Carol and the team at the top were poor decisions and we are having to pay the price.

One final point. Need a real hard look at staff outside of on the pitch. Are they the right people, in the right positions and do we need them all.

23 hours ago, Powerline said:

Rubbish. I appreciate life gets in the way of being there for every game, but I bet he’s not been a single other game this season. Then comes out the woodwork in hospitality with the owner when we’re playing Chelsea. Life didn’t get in the way for that one did it.

Same could be said Robbie. We can all make exceptions for a one off game. Being there every week is impossible even for some who live close. 

57 minutes ago, eh up nah said:

I get that mate,  honestly I do.  I'm also of the opinion that its their money so its up to them.

My problem is the image, and I think you've hit two nails on the head there.  You've got the owner seemingly caring more about getting her name on the Z list and players caring more about their Instagram.

We've failed to put a capable team out for league one both times that we've made it under the Shanahans.  The first time we scraped it thanks to a manager who managed to put his own grit and determination into a team that was actually weaker than the one that got us up.

The two seasons we've spent there after, we've been blown out of the water.

They apparently learned from previous mistakes but we've been worse this time round.

Playing the fame game is fine, no problem with it, but read the room.  People brush it under the carpet when the stuffs right on the pitch.  I wouldn't even mention it otherwise, doesn't really bother me at all.

But what this club puts out on the football side,  the most important, fundamental part of a football club, is poor. 

Very poor.

If they're going to stay as owners and leave with their head held high then they really are in for an important summer.  Stop the wastage, trim, and start to give vale a sense of identity, purpose and focus on the pitch.

And I'm not talking the chelsea game per se.  I didn't expect anything and I really enjoyed the day.  The gap now between the top and the lower leagues is vast now and it didnt half show on Saturday. 

I dont think for a minute Carol wants to be on any Z list, she doesn't strike me as that kind of person, I agree with the other poster, she can invite to a game who she wants as long as it's not Danny Dyer.