Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article
Lifelong Port Vale fan Rob Curtis brings his unique dour perspective (usually only ever found over beer whilst discussing Vale) on his club’s downs and downs.
As someone who reads ClarkeOneNil because I’m friends with the owner rather than being a Leeds fan, I can relate to some extent to the disappointments the last decade has brought. What seems to be different now is that Mr Bates aside, Leeds do now seem to be going in the right direction, whereas my team are still on the brink of the abyss.
As a Port Vale supporter I have been privileged to see probably the best period in the history of the club. In 1981 Vale had barely avoided having to apply for re-election to the league, while Stoke were an established Division 1 team. But over the next 18 years, under the leadership of John Rudge, Vale reached 8th place in what is now the Championship, won the FL Trophy, played at Wembley 3 times and spent a considerable period lording it over Stoke as they plunged through the divisions. However the last 10 years since Rudge was incomprehensibly sacked have seen us return to the bottom division where we have traditionally belonged. Even another FL Trophy win in 2001 under Brian Horton was a false dawn in a decade of decline. To add insult to injury Stoke have sorted themselves out after years of incompetence and now sit solidly in the Premiership once again.
Fans group Valiant 2001 bought Vale out of administration in 2003 and in doing so unquestionably saved the club. Vale wouldn’t exist without them, and a board made up of lifelong Vale fans seemed to have the best interests of the club at heart, but in retrospect their inexperience in running a football club, inability to put personal disagreements aside and ultimately, lack of real financial clout, mean that Vale are still teetering on the brink. Horton left by mutual consent in Feb 2004 with Vale in 7th in League One, unable to agree that his budget would be drastically cut. Another playing hero in Martin Foyle took over, and presided over 3 years of mediocrity that were painful at the time but in retrospect looks like a golden age. Mutual consent saw him leave in September 2007 with Vale in the relegation places, and that’s where it really all went wrong.
After weeks of speculation, former Farsley Celtic manager Lee Sinnott was appointed. The fans wanted someone with no previous links to Vale to come in with a fresh eye. As it turned out, Sinnott was only appointed on a 5-4 board majority, with the minority wanting another Vale legend in Foyle’s assistant Dean Glover to take over. Glover had been caretaker and remained as assistant manager under Sinnott. He then spent the next 10 months undermining Sinnott and his signings at every turn with the connivance of vice chairman Peter Jackson. Sinnott was unable to turn things around on the pitch and Vale were duly relegated. An innovative season ticket promotion saw Vale sell 6500 season tickets for 08/09 compared to an average home gate of less than 4000 the year before, and a number of new signings in the close season showed some promise, but after a 4-1 home horror show to Macclesfield in September 2008 the plotters got their way, Sinnott was sacked, and Glover promptly appointed to the disgust of the majority of fans. He could do no better and in fact was much much worse, and was dismissed at the end of the season when it became clear that hardly anyone would renew their season ticket were he to remain as manager.
In the light of this seemingly terminal decline I told the owner of Clarkeonenil that I thought my beloved Port Vale would be out of business within 5 years. Since then we have yet another new manager. 6 months on since Micky Adams was appointed, how are we doing?
On the field, not much has really changed. Adams wasn’t appointed until June, by which time the board had incredibly offered several new contracts to players on the recommendation of ex manager Glover, amongst them his son Danny, widely believed to be a pub standard player only at the club because of his Dad. They also signed Morecambe full back Adam Yates on a 2 year deal. Adams agreed to honour this agreement even though he clearly doesn’t rate him.
Adams professes himself a 4-4-2 man, but quickly decided that his inherited squad doesn’t have the players to play it. 6 players went on the transfer list in August, including Glover Junior as well as Prosser and Edwards who had only signed in the summer. Switching to 3-5-2 has produced a side that are hard to break down, based on rookie keeper Chris Martin and 3 solid centre backs in Owen, McCombe and Collins. Beyond this is where the problems start. We lack any creativity in midfield, where ex Brighton players Fraser and Loft have flattered to deceive. Adams has made a significant improvement to ex Doncaster midfielder Anthony Griffith, who has looked awesome as the midfield destroyer but is frequently wasted at right wing back as Adams does not want to pick Yates. Kris Taylor has been a good signing at left wing back. The forward positions are generally filled by holdovers Marc Richards and Louis Dodds, best most kindly described as “inconsistent”. Sinnott signing Rob Taylor and loanee Haldane have rotated as the 3rd forward, both bringing pace and effort but not a lot of end result.
Our away record is sound based on stout defence, but problems continue at home where our lack of creativity and attacking punch shows when we can’t sit back and counter attack. It’s all a far cry from the footballing sides based on wing play which Rudge brought to the club. Our recent visit to Barnet detailed on these pages (http://clarkeonenil.co.uk/front-page/days-out-and-culture-shocks/slippery-slope-barnet-0-v-0-port-vale) showed all our myriad flaws.
Off the pitch it’s still a circus. Robbie Williams is still the biggest shareholder, but is potentially to be supplanted by shirt sponsors Harlequin Property, who have been promising a £500k investment since the summer. This never seems to come to fruition and recent press coverage over their business dealings in the Caribbean doesn’t bode well. We still have an 8 man board who can’t agree on anything, and none of them have any money. Adams has begged, borrowed and stolen to enhance the squad, but it looks like the summer will once again be a case of wholesale changes to the squad with 4 or 5 players staying rather than a stable squad with some quality additions. There’s no doubt we need changes, and Adams has already made significant strides in terms of fitness, organisation, commitment, and admitting that sometimes when we lose it’s because we were crap, not down to the weather/pitch/referee/leaves on the line. Will he get the time he needs?
Do I still think we’ll be out of business in 4.5 years? Yes, a good chance still. Our present board do not have any money to invest. Mr Williams has more money than God, but if I were him I’d be wary of investing it with the current largely well intentioned but ultimately unprofessional (in terms of football) board. Do Harlequin really have any money, or are they a bunch of crooks? Perhaps next week’s AGM will shed some light. We have very few if any saleable assets – keepers Martin and Anyon have promise, as do Collins, Griffith and Rob Taylor, but there is no Robbie Earle, Steve Guppy or Ian Taylor on the books to bring big money into the club. Meanwhile Stoke, this weeks’ Pulis/Beattie fiasco aside, are having another good season and look set to be a Premiership side for a while yet. In a poor area, given the choice between watching Premiership football for £25 or League two football for £19, (and really crap league two football at that), I think if I was setting out now as a football fan it wouldn’t be Vale Park I’d be heading to if I could afford to go at all. One thing that is apparent in my 28 years of watching Vale is the massive gap between top and bottom. In 1981 everyone in the football league could play football – trap and pass a ball accurately etc – and the players in the top division were physically strong and quick as well. Now everyone in the league is a physical beast, but the majority of players in the lower leagues can’t actually play the game. Out of Vale’s current squad possibly only Dodds and Kris Taylor are really “footballers” – the rest are just athletes. It’s just not enjoyable to watch any more, and the crowds reflect that.
In the context of our league we are one of the bigger clubs with a bigger budget, but we don’t seem to be able to make anything of it. Recent financial results showed another big loss, so barring a huge influx of cash or a massive improvement of on field results, it’s hard to see anything other than a slow decline into oblivion.
I think Adams is the man for the job on the field, but fear that matters off the field will prevent him from achieving it. Does Ken Bates fancy introducing his mysterious backers to Vale?
And you thought we had it bad.
