League Two Sack Race 2017-18

[valefan16]

Lee Nogan and Gary Brabin have been appointed as coaches under Aspo with Ned Kelly and Chris Morgan departing.

 

[Luke Imp]

Probably still won't stop Brabin from applying for any Conference job going. He hasn't seemed to be able to stay in one place for long over the last 3 years.

 

[Agombar stool]

Hope Vale can have a upturn of fortunes with their new management team. Too big a team to end up non-league and their fans on here seem very decent.

 

[valefan16]

Hope Vale can have a upturn of fortunes with their new management team. Too big a team to end up non-league and their fans on here seem very decent.

Aww thanks!

It won’t happen overnight regardless and he’s stuck with the players he has so if he can keep us in touch until January that would be a start. John Rudge and Aspo have found some decent talent in the past so hopefully then we can have a decent second half of the season. Trust their recruitment over Bruno and Brownys anyway!

 

[GTFCfish]

From Port Vale forum, feel the ripples of those shock waves guys:

 

[Buxton Vale]

Sat here in 26 degrees in southern Spain wishing I was in Burslem . Hoping that we win, but it might take a few games to turn this side around.

I'll go for a 1-0 or 2-1 win, and celebrate with a Mahou or Cruzcampo later tonight

Vamos blancos!!!

 

[genesimmons]

Hope Vale can have a upturn of fortunes with their new management team. Too big a team to end up non-league and their fans on here seem very decent.

As has been proved often in the past no teams big enough to go down to the conference

 

[Andy Proctor]

I hope we go bust to stop 4000 fans throwing money away

 

[Chris FGR]

As has been proved often in the past no teams big enough to go down to the conference

Could argue bigger clubs then Vale have already gone down there in the past.

Have to say from what I saw they looked poorly coached more then anything, with a decent manager they'll improve I reckon.

 

[valefan16]

Could argue bigger clubs then Vale have already gone down there in the past.

Have to say from what I saw they looked poorly coached more then anything, with a decent manager they'll improve I reckon.

Tranmere and Luton id class as bigger than us certainly although Luton went down more with a -30 points deduction.

Took Luton long enough to get back and Tranmere aren’t exactly cruising it either. If we go down it isn’t going to be easy to get back.

Poorly coached under Brown and confidence is shattered as visible yesterday. What has also become apparent is we are not fit enough, played well most first halves recently then slump massively second half. Fitness issue maybe the fact we’ve been making 4-7 changes a game most weeks so no one can get a run of games bar Smith and Pope.

If Aspin to sort the fitness and improve morale that will be a start but we need a win from somewhere to pick them up. Even if it’s a fluke one.

 

[Indian Dan]

Bristol Rovers, Oxford?

 

[Optipez]

I'd add Carlisle , Wrexham , Tranmere and possibly Stockport as teams on a par with Port Vale and us too .
The National League is happy to swallow up any league team that can't get its shit together.
Hartlepool and Orient both had off the field problems last season, Chesterfield have this season, and Vale fans seem far from happy with their chairman which doesn't bode well.
It seems like rather than the worst teams, it's the most shambolically run clubs that tend to drop.

 

[valefan16]

Our chairman decided to force Page out and the players we had because he wasn’t happy with the Exeter Cup exit (was shambolic performance to be fair) and felt unhappy that we’d stagnated by only finishing 12th in league one. He made a catastrophic error in then getting star struck when Jose Mourinho rang him to recommend his close friend Bruno Ribeiro and dismantled a solid league one squad for a load of foreigners from Monaco, Benfica, Holland, Setabul etc. In fairness up until this time last year it looked a master stroke as we looked destined for a promotion battle until teams figured us out and the weather took a turn for the more heavier pitches etc and we sunk like a stone.

He just completely lost the plot at that Exeter Cup tie, having a public enquiry with Page pitchside at full time then going on sky saying we could of had JFH instead but didn’t want to bring him to a club with Racist factions and stormed onto the fans busses telling fans Page would be sacked. That made it pretty untenerble after that for Page.

Keeping faith with Michael Brown after relegation was another huge error. We hadn’t improved despite bringing in big names such as Ryan Taylor, Andre Bikey and Chris Eagles) although Bikey was quality but injured and Eagles came in a right state fitness wise and become a massive hit as he got fitness...

Losing Alnwick, Jones and Grant killed us which seemed to be why we stuck with Brown and well we have made 51 signings including about 12 loan signings in 14 months. We lack fitness, we lack balance to the squad despite having 34 players... it’s been a complete farce since close season 2016.

Had we stuck with the squad we had, arguably even Rob Page and just added that little bit of extra quality we’d have likely been in a play off challenge last season and certainly not at this level right now.

Smurfs lack of football experience has been his downfall and hopefully Sir John Rudges return in a DOF role can at least start to improve things there even if it involves us in the National League next season. Micky Adams practically ran the club when he was here but Norman has not had that since.

As a fan this is killing me, our great football league history, those great sides of the 1990s that it could all be over in a few months and even in Vale fans worst nightmares we didn’t see this scenario coming in August. The darkest days in 142 proud years. It’s not like we haven’t got a competitive budget either, it’ll be double what some of the clubs have at this level it’s purely down to damage Michael Brown, Chris Morgan and co have done.

 

[Optipez]

This sounds similar to what happened to us.
We played Stevenage in the FA cup and lost 3-0.The chairman went on Notts Mad messageboard and had a rant over Martin Allen , even though we were doing reasonably in League 1 at the time. Allen lasted about three weeks after that, carrying on with mid table form that most were happy with.
From that point, four years ago until March of last season it was downhill all the way. We went through eight managers or temporary managers and signed 50 plus players two seasons running.
It's taken a new owner and solid manager and another half a dozen key signings to turn us around.
We were that shambolically run club and without a change of owner would have dropped out the league.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Hartlepool and Orient both had off the field problems last season, Chesterfield have this season, and Vale fans seem far from happy with their chairman which doesn't bode well.
It seems like rather than the worst teams, it's the most shambolically run clubs that tend to drop.

Agree with this, we were run into the ground by a corrupt, penniless chairman, who sold off any player with a glimpse of talent in January, trousered fees then vanished into thin air a week or two before relegation.

Non League is shit, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[GTFCfish]

Wasn't the case with us, we were relegated to the Conference in 2010 for no other reason than that our players were absolute dogturd, and but for Lutons 30 point deduction the season before we'd have been relegated that year too.

 

[Luke Imp]

Likewise. It was actually getting relegated that messed us up.

 

[Trapdoor]

When we got relegated it was down to corrupt mismanagement. The owners literally stealing gate money out of the tills.
On paper our team could have stayed up easily - it was 100% down to the owners.

 

[Davidimp]

Mr Evans not happy with the Stags fans apparently..

 

[genesimmons]

This sounds similar to what happened to us.
We played Stevenage in the FA cup and lost 3-0.The chairman went on Notts Mad messageboard and had a rant over Martin Allen , even though we were doing reasonably in League 1 at the time. Allen lasted about three weeks after that, carrying on with mid table form that most were happy with.
From that point, four years ago until March of last season it was downhill all the way. We went through eight managers or temporary managers and signed 50 plus players two seasons running.
It's taken a new owner and solid manager and another half a dozen key signings to turn us around.
We were that shambolically run club and without a change of owner would have dropped out the league.

Yeah county did go througth a few managers. Remember that foreign guy in charge who looked like a kebab shop worker. As history has shown foreigners rarely work in the lower leagues

 

[Si Robin]

We went down and came back with virtually the same backroom staff and boardroom. Our downfall was holding onto Mark Yates for too long, replacing him too quickly with Paul Buckle, and then taking the cheap option in appointing Russell Milton as manager when Buckle finally pissed off.

The squad we had was appalling and it's telling that of the team we actually went down with only Troy Brown is still playing League football (which still baffles me by the way).

 

[Richard Cranium]

On Evans I like him and wouldn't have a problem with him staying as his record speaks for itself and I believe we will be up there at the end of the season. However last Wed/Thurs when the Gillingham stuff came out I'd of been gutted to lose him but after his comments about the fans on Saturday night I wouldn't be distraught if he did decide to sack us off.

I could understand if the players had come over to all sorts of verbals which even I have been guilty of in the past (Try losing 4-0 to Hayes and Yeading) but it was a minority of fans chanting What a load of rubbish.

The expectation from the fans has all come from Radford and Evans banging on about how we are going all out to win promotion and so far we've put in 2 good 90mins and a couple of good 45s. At the moment it isn't good enough and with the money we have spent it's about time it clicked now.

FWIW I don't think Evans will be here for much longer.

 

[Trapdoor]

The squad we had was appalling and it's telling that of the team we actually went down with only Troy Brown is still playing League football (which still baffles me by the way).

Troy Brown has been fantastic this season. I wasn't overly keen when he first joined us but he's proven me wrong and really stepped up. It probably helps having some top defensive coaches to work with. Our back room staff are bloody amazing.