Rob Page appointed as Northampton boss

[PuB]

You're looking at it as just Page's choice though, perhaps Smurf was more than happy himself to let him go.

 

[Vale on Trent]

Does a season ever go by where nothing happens at this football club? Very bizarre move. Northampton must be throwing money at it next season, clearly he's been offered more money there and they'll have a bigger budget. Don't think Smurf will be too bothered, never really got the impression that he fully backed Page. Personally, I'm not really fussed he's gone, most Vale fans aren't either. That says a lot really because from the outside looking in it would seem he did a great job. However, watching Vale has been so boring, especially away from home.

Depending on who we bring in though, losing Page could be a big blow. We may be under whelmed with who comes in.

All the best to Page though. One thing I will say is that he seemed a great bloke and had the respect of all the players.

 

[valefan16]

Vale fans very quickly lowering their opinions of Page on this thread....after they beat us he was being hailed as a genius.

He made a great tactical move that day... shame it was the 4th from last game of the season though when he finally figured out how to set up away with us!

 

[valefan16]

You're looking at it as just Page's choice though, perhaps Smurf was more than happy himself to let him go.

Possibly thinking of the compo we will get to be honest!

 

[Naitch]

I seriously doubt we're gonna 'throw money at it', that would be daft after the season we've just had. Quite happy with this appointment.

 

[Nelza82]

I think it's the meltdown about him joining a supposed smaller club than Vale.

I'll judge him on how he does for us, Oxford fans said Wilder was rubbish and played boring football.....

 

[kieran_vale]

He's not rubbish he's just ok. It's an alright appointment, no better and no worse.

Hopefully though given he is so keen on giving Yates and Birchall contracts he can bloody well take them there with him.

Either way good luck to him, probably fancies the idea of managing a club where the chairman isn't a complete lunatic.

 

[PuB]

Possibly thinking of the compo we will get to be honest!

I doubt he'd have been expensive in the first place, how long was his contract?

 

[Vale on Trent]

I think it's the meltdown about him joining a supposed smaller club than Vale.

I'll judge him on how he does for us, Oxford fans said Wilder was rubbish and played boring football.....

Well, yes you are a smaller club

 

[EricSabin]

Let's not start all this who's a bigger club bollocks. I'm happy with Page.

 

[darren gregory]

Page says no contact and very little from Vale Park on this, no rumours or anything. Was linked to Cardiff last week and again was false so who knows.

Want it sorting so we can get a new boss in place if need be ASAP to prepare for next season, otherwise not to arsed if he goes. I attended away games at:

Crewe
West Brom
Burton
Sheffield United
Wigan
Coventry

In those 9.5 hours of football I saw 2 draw, 0 wins and zero goals last season!

I can trump that mate..
i went to all of those plus :
Walsall
Bradford
Scunthorpe
Bury
Southend

That is 11 away games with a nil against our name.
Maybe it wasn,t Page it was me because the football was so dire i didn,t go to Blackpool, Barnsley, Oldham, Posh, Gills and Donny. Perhaps i am the jinx .

As previously said many a time the bloke is negative away from home with a scared attitude. Scunthorpe last away game was actually the epitomy of Pages' reign at Vale. Maybe one goal attempt in the whole game when we had an albeit none existent mathematical chance of top 6.
He is a manager who has split the fans. I have been going for 40 years and have never been so apathetic about going to an away game even in 4th division days with 3000 top crowds at Vale.

That said i will try to be balanced, Wigan at home was an absolute exceptional performance where we could of been 5 or 6 up easily , also Donny at home .

Finally anybody calling for the return of Adams is insane.

 

[mozzavale]

Page had us on 48 points with 11 games left and nearly took us down two seasons ago... wouldn't say hes worked wonders! He's had more financial backing that any Vale manager since Horton when we were in the Championship.

More financial backing? Based on what, the words of Smurf? First mistake believing a proven liar. Our budget was 6th worst in league 1 last season. The season before last he came in with Adams' squad and did what he was asked to do, keep us up. Season just gone he produced better football and 13 more points than the season before = progress. Our fans, for some strange reason, are impatient. You could see, if you bothered to look, that the longer term plan was working. Now I really fear for next season. If season tickets don't fly off the shelf now, we'll know that Page wasn't the problem, a certain other person will be. That person will be tasked with finding a replacement. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't go for an easy option. He's devoid of ideas. The lack of communication from the club is unacceptable. Look at Northampton on twitter. Kept their fans updated every time a club approached them for Wilder. Promised a speedy resolution and now look to have delivered. Whether they're smaller than us or not (they are, slightly) they're a load more professional and engaging with fans. Smurf and the club are so distant it's pathetic. I'm embarrassed by the club. Lazy, unprofessional, unambitious, just a fucking joke basically.

 

[darren gregory]

Mozza you are right about the club being a shambles, lets not go off topic as we seem to have hijacked the thread.
Page is okay, average, adequate, middle of the road , blah blah blah.
We have not lost some genius who is irreplaceable, good luck to him at Northampton, no issues with the bloke but i,m not crying over my cornflakes that he has left.

 

[Nelza82]

He sounds exactly what we need to be fair. Just someone solid to continue the upward spiral.

 

[MJA]

More financial backing? Based on what, the words of Smurf? First mistake believing a proven liar. Our budget was 6th worst in league 1 last season. The season before last he came in with Adams' squad and did what he was asked to do, keep us up. Season just gone he produced better football and 13 more points than the season before = progress. Our fans, for some strange reason, are impatient. You could see, if you bothered to look, that the longer term plan was working. Now I really fear for next season. If season tickets don't fly off the shelf now, we'll know that Page wasn't the problem, a certain other person will be. That person will be tasked with finding a replacement. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't go for an easy option. He's devoid of ideas. The lack of communication from the club is unacceptable. Look at Northampton on twitter. Kept their fans updated every time a club approached them for Wilder. Promised a speedy resolution and now look to have delivered. Whether they're smaller than us or not (they are, slightly) they're a load more professional and engaging with fans. Smurf and the club are so distant it's pathetic. I'm embarrassed by the club. Lazy, unprofessional, unambitious, just a fucking joke basically.

Great post Mozza!
Page has improved us and taken us forward on the pitch, that's there for all to see. The away form hasn't been great, in fact only 3 relegated sides have lost more away from home than us, but even that was showing signs of improvement with our away form actually finishing the season stronger than our home form. As I have said many times before, the problem with a lot of Vale fans is that they live in the past when Rudge took us to places where we were punching above our weight and now believe that this is our natural level. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are probably around our level at the moment, particularly with the current setup and with the wrong sort of managerial appointment could easily slide back to the depths of League 2.

Anyway back on topic, I think Northampton have made a decent appointment and although probably not quite at the level of Wilder it is safe to say that Page will certainly consolidate Northampton's position in League 1 and with a bit of backing may even see them competing in or around the playoffs

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

Page has done very well considering the state of that Vale squad. Leitch-Smith and Louis Dodds up top. Christ.

 

[Freethinker]

The Sentinel has summed it up quite well, hes left us to join a smaller club with less the history we have and the concern is why? We shouldnt be losing our manager to smaller clubs and the worry is why and what has happened to cause him to leave. We know there has been unrest off the field so what has happened and how will this affect our hopes of getting a decent replacement.

I assume those are your local papers views?

Think Northampton have done more in the game than Port Vale, Check out their rise and fall in 1960s

 

[Nelza82]

You could also check out the average attendance etc etc. In all seriousness, who cares?! Vale can go along thinking they're massive. We however are well aware of our place in the football pyramid.

 

[valefan16]

I assume those are your local papers views?

Think Northampton have done more in the game than Port Vale, Check out their rise and fall in 1960s

Northampton have spent 4 years of the history above League One, we've spent over 40. Never gone beyond the quarters in any of the 3 English Cups, we've won 2 cups and reached an FA Cup Semi Final.

Fairly accurate i'd say

 

[MJA]

I assume those are your local papers views?

Think Northampton have done more in the game than Port Vale, Check out their rise and fall in 1960s

You could also check out the average attendance etc etc. In all seriousness, who cares?! Vale can go along thinking they're massive. We however are well aware of our place in the football pyramid.

Lots of Vale fans seem to think we are a 'big' club. I suspect that is why a number of our fans are regularly on the managers back despite us never really being in danger of the drop and in actual fact having a little flirt with the playoffs right up until the final day. As I have said elsewhere, I think our time in the 2nd tier in the 90's has given some of our fans the wrong idea about where our level is.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Confirmed as Page.

 

[mozzavale]

You could also check out the average attendance etc etc. In all seriousness, who cares?! Vale can go along thinking they're massive. We however are well aware of our place in the football pyramid.

Being bigger than Northampton doesn't make a club massive. If you want to compare attendances when both clubs were promoted from league 2, fine. Our average was 5,700 and our highest attendance was 12,500, with another match at 11,000. How does that compare to Northampton last season when you were Champions (bearing in mind we were 3rd in 12/13). I'd never say we're a massive club, not even a big club, but without doubt bigger than Northampton. Unfortunately, our chairman is a ballbag and he's turning us into an unprofessional joke of a club.

 

[EricSabin]

Being bigger than Northampton doesn't make a club massive. If you want to compare attendances when both clubs were promoted from league 2, fine. Our average was 5,700 and our highest attendance was 12,500, with another match at 11,000. How does that compare to Northampton last season when you were Champions (bearing in mind we were 3rd in 12/13). I'd never say we're a massive club, not even a big club, but without doubt bigger than Northampton. Unfortunately, our chairman is a ballbag and he's turning us into an unprofessional joke of a club.

Until the last 4 home games we only had three stands

 

[Liam_SWFC]

I think he'll do well at Northampton, from the outside looking in he did a great job at Port Vale. He's clearly going to have a larger budget at Northampton and an already solid squad, possibly early dark horses for next season.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Please note: don't go to away games expecting more than

Until the last 4 home games we only had three stands

You can't use that excuse because we've only had 3.5 stands for 15 years.

 

[Steven Simcock]

Just hope he takes his bum buddies Yates and Birchall with him.

 

[Topher]

I can trump that mate..
i went to all of those plus :
Walsall
Bradford
Scunthorpe
Bury
Southend

That is 11 away games with a nil against our name.
Maybe it wasn,t Page it was me because the football was so dire i didn,t go to Blackpool, Barnsley, Oldham, Posh, Gills and Donny. Perhaps i am the jinx .

As previously said many a time the bloke is negative away from home with a scared attitude. Scunthorpe last away game was actually the epitomy of Pages' reign at Vale. Maybe one goal attempt in the whole game when we had an albeit none existent mathematical chance of top 6.
He is a manager who has split the fans. I have been going for 40 years and have never been so apathetic about going to an away game even in 4th division days with 3000 top crowds at Vale.

That said i will try to be balanced, Wigan at home was an absolute exceptional performance where we could of been 5 or 6 up easily , also Donny at home .

Finally anybody calling for the return of Adams is insane.

seeing as we're doing this, in the league I went to...

Southend
Burton
Colchester
Walsall
Millwall
Colchester (H)
Burton (H)

P7 W1 D0 L6 F4 A14

fuck what a grim season. Saw us win more away in our relegation season

 

[EricSabin]

Please note: don't go to away games expecting more than


You can't use that excuse because we've only had 3.5 stands for 15 years.

Difference is we were selling ours out!!

 

[valefan16]

To be fair it's not hard to sell out when your ground is about the size of our railway stand on its own capacity wise

 

[EricSabin]

To be fair it's not hard to sell out when your ground is about the size of our railway stand on its own capacity wise

Someone was comparing attendances, from Christmas onwards with our three stands all bar one or two games sold out. It wasn't a boast about selling the ground out, it was a reason why our average gates weren't higher.

And I think I'd rather have a ground 80/90% full compared to Vale Park with its swathes of empty seats