The saviour of the Vale!

[valefan16]

Apparently Smurf has stated tonight he’s worth 130 million quid and we won’t see another penny of his money and mocked the black and gold campaign.

Now for starters when did we ever see the money in the first place? Bar maybe Lincoln with their cup run we’ve probably had the most income of any club at this level the last 24 months or so...

£2 Million Jordan Hugill sell on
£250k Jak Alnwick sale
£100k Anthony Grant Sale
Decent income after four youth players were sold for good money to Stoke, Man City and Wolves
£100k plus Checkatrade prize money
£75k Sunderland Clash with TV few on top
3 x Exclusivity Payments (100k each is it?)

Yet since Micky Adams departure we’ve hired managers with zero EFL experience until Askey (12 games I think for him)

We’ve signed mainly non league players.

At a par with the likes of Morecambe on a fraction of our income.

Where do we go from here? Protests in full swing which seems to have no effect. Crazily his EFL assigned mentor when he purchased the club was Mr Oyston!

The club is completed fucked. Nothing will get Smurf out as he is stubborn and the protests will I believe see him just run the club down.
Starve him Out? He will just lower the budget further and further.

First time I’ve even seen suggestions of 1876 Vale.

Staying up this year simply delays the inevitable. Why not cut his losses and sell the club for a realistic price? Who’s going to pay £6 Million! This feels one battle too far for our fan base if im honest.

 

[Big Bird]

Worst nightmare. How can negligent owners be allowed to run football clubs into the ground.

Completely unrealistic suggestion from me - the EFL should have a comitee in place whereby if owners are found to be unfit and no longer have the clubs best interests at at heart the club should be taken away from them and put up for sale.

How can he get away with taunting the clubs fans - those who were there a long time before he appeared and will be a long time after he's gone.

 

[valefan16]

It looks incredibly bleak as the club are asset stripped by this man.

The supporters club chairman has said Smurf told him that when we get relegation he will be sat at home sucking a lollipop. You hate the club sell it?

He’s managed to cause both Vale and Nuneaton fans to turn on him. Relegation (which looks nailed on) will probably still not be the end of the downfall.

 

[King Kev]

Feel for you massively.

In some ways our recently departed chairman sounds like the polar opposite of Smurf. Willing to spend, spend, spend owing to his ludicrous 'ambition.'
Unlike Smurf he didn't have a pot to piss in.

Out of interest did Smurf not make good moves and decisions early on, ie in that promotion season.

 

[valefan16]

Feel for you massively.

In some ways our recently departed chairman sounds like the polar opposite of Smurf. Willing to spend, spend, spend owing to his ludicrous 'ambition.'
Unlike Smurf he didn't have a pot to piss in.

Out of interest did Smurf not make good moves and decisions early on, ie in that promotion season.

He did and he didnt, Paul Wildes came in with him and did all the PR (very well) and we made some good signings that January to get us over the line such as Lee Hughes and Darren Purse.

Then he fell out with Wilde’s and he went that summer... he then relied on Micky Adams to guide him until he left, once that happened the decline set in starting with the Exeter cup loss when he completely lost it and ended up tearing apart a top half league one squad. Then on in its been cock up after cock up and now he’s lost the fan base he’s seemingly become bitter to the club and happy to see it destroyed whilst doubtless making plenty of money out of both the Vale and Nuneaton.

 

[Crewelad87]

I've just said in your last match thread how genuinely sad it is. Especially for the decent Vale fans of which I know a few. Crowds are dwindling, the atmosphere seems toxic. You don't even seem to have any decent assets to sell on if you do go down, to make abit of money for a title charge. Because as has been proven money gets you along way in the national League, if that is where Vale end up. It's probably the 1st time I can think of since we were a championship team where I would take a single Vale player at Crewe. Which must be tough to take for Vale fans.

 

[Agombar stool]

A genuinely sad story. This seems to be more and more common as the heart appears to be being ripped out of Football clubs who have been around for over a hundred years. Too many owners that just don't give a shit about the fans.

I wish you all the best, get the cancer out of the club and move forward (if you can).

£6 million seems a lot of money, is there a Port Vale Trust? (this may sound like a stupid suggestion) but what about getting Robbie Williams/local businesses involved in some kind of awareness/financial campaign to try and raise funds to wrestle control of the club away and into the hands of people that care about the club?

 

[Enzo Scifo's Right Foot]

Genuinely feel for the supporters in this situation , it’s sadly a story as old as time . Countless examples , with Port Vale being the latest to suffer from this kind of ownership .

With Notts’ current situation we need as much help from others as possible on the field , you have to look after number one obviously . But off the field I wish Port Vale well , proper club who are probably the most comparable to my own club in so many ways

 

[King Kev]

A genuinely sad story. This seems to be more and more common as the heart appears to be being ripped out of Football clubs who have been around for over a hundred years. Too many owners that just don't give a shit about the fans.

I wish you all the best, get the cancer out of the club and move forward (if you can).

£6 million seems a lot of money, is there a Port Vale Trust? (this may sound like a stupid suggestion) but what about getting Robbie Williams/local businesses involved in some kind of awareness/financial campaign to try and raise funds to wrestle control of the club away and into the hands of people that care about the club?

Is it me or is it the good clubs with history and football league heritage are constantly getting shackled with incompetent or scheming parasites?
Lots of clubs have them or have had them yet the genuine ambitious mega rich men rock up at tin pot nothing clubs. Very frustrating.

Regarding Robbie Williams, he appears to not give a stuff about Port Vale.

 

[Gladders]

Shame, but bigger clubs than Vale have been badly run and gone down and bigger clubs in the future will too.

Until the EFL and FA stop allowing clubs to be at the mercy of the owners it will continue to happen. Unfortunately it's unlikely to change because there is no easy solution to club ownership especially with the stupid money in todays game.

 

[King Kev]

Shame, but bigger clubs than Vale have been badly run and gone down and bigger clubs in the future will too.

Until the EFL and FA stop allowing clubs to be at the mercy of the owners it will continue to happen. Unfortunately it's unlikely to change because there is no easy solution to club ownership especially with the stupid money in todays game.

The German's have it the right way. Sadly, as you say there isn't really anyway of implementing this in our game.

 

[valefan16]

I've just said in your last match thread how genuinely sad it is. Especially for the decent Vale fans of which I know a few. Crowds are dwindling, the atmosphere seems toxic. You don't even seem to have any decent assets to sell on if you do go down, to make abit of money for a title charge. Because as has been proven money gets you along way in the national League, if that is where Vale end up. It's probably the 1st time I can think of since we were a championship team where I would take a single Vale player at Crewe. Which must be tough to take for Vale fans.

Well that is the issue... even if we did have assets to sell Smurf would pocket it so it wouldn't matter anyway. We've had loads of money come in and its not been invested back into the side at all.

 

[valefan16]

A genuinely sad story. This seems to be more and more common as the heart appears to be being ripped out of Football clubs who have been around for over a hundred years. Too many owners that just don't give a shit about the fans.

I wish you all the best, get the cancer out of the club and move forward (if you can).

£6 million seems a lot of money, is there a Port Vale Trust? (this may sound like a stupid suggestion) but what about getting Robbie Williams/local businesses involved in some kind of awareness/financial campaign to try and raise funds to wrestle control of the club away and into the hands of people that care about the club?

Robbie doesn't care, too busy with X Factor etc now. Local businesses tried to buy the club 18 months ago, two of them offering a realistic price of 1.5 million quid (What Smurf paid for it) but they were both rejected.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Hard to see a way forward at the moment. He wont sell the club, or invest in it so we are stuck. If we dont go down this season, then it will be more of the same next. Crowds are dropping, the football is awful, and we are being run like a second rate non-league club. Im wondering if it would be better for us to go bust so we can start a phoenix club and try to move back up again. At least we would get our club back.

 

[Devon_Lad]

Now for starters when did we ever see the money in the first place? Bar maybe Lincoln with their cup run we’ve probably had the most income of any club at this level the last 24 months or so...

£2 Million Jordan Hugill sell on
£250k Jak Alnwick sale
£100k Anthony Grant Sale
Decent income after four youth players were sold for good money to Stoke, Man City and Wolves
£100k plus Checkatrade prize money
£75k Sunderland Clash with TV few on top
3 x Exclusivity Payments (100k each is it?)

You're about £3m shy of us still

 

[valefan16]

Hard to see a way forward at the moment. He wont sell the club, or invest in it so we are stuck. If we dont go down this season, then it will be more of the same next. Crowds are dropping, the football is awful, and we are being run like a second rate non-league club. Im wondering if it would be better for us to go bust so we can start a phoenix club and try to move back up again. At least we would get our club back.

Fans have suggested the AFC Burslem or 1876 Vale idea. It feels as though its the long term inevitability, thinking back to V2001 I never ever felt we would go out of existence of even the EFL simply that the fans would eventually win through... I just dont see it with Norman, he is stubborn and clearly this has got his back up further so its just going to fight to the bitter end of the club. 143 years of history just set to go.

The Leon Legge situation? The talk now that Smurf actually made the signings on deadline day and the fact and hour after the no confidence motion the Ricco deal was off.

Complete and utter mess and its gutting really. You see Stockport, Chester, Darlington etc and never really think it can happen to you...

 

[Buxton Vale]

I wouldn't put it past the spiteful **** to underfund us season after season as we continue to drop.

 

[valefan16]

I wouldn't put it past the spiteful **** to underfund us season after season as we continue to drop.

It is what will certainly happen. Lets be fair it is what has happened since Bruno.

Some fans on twitter suggesting a pitch sit in against Mansfield to get the coverage required on Twitter... suppose we would lose it anyway so forfeiting it wont matter?

 

[JJ1532]

The problem you've always had with Smurf is that he's a total idiot. I'm genuinely astounded that a guy that comes across as dim as he does on social media is a successful businessman, it blows my mind.

He's always been a hot headed, reactionary sort of person, so it's not surprising to see the relationship turn sour as quickly as it has.

But can you blame him for trying to recoup some of the money he'll have invested over the last 5 years? He bought the club for x amount of money and then likely invested a heck of a lot more on running the whole thing pretty much by himself. Yes, there has been income from the usual sources, but I bet the books show significant losses each year, most of which I'd imagine are covered by business loans he puts in.

Most of the Vale's problems though don't come from the money he has or hasn't invested in the team, it's come from his terrible decisions since Rob Page left, plus his toxic personality. Page leaving because Smurf was an idiot. Bruno Riberio appointed for....reasons. An inexperienced Michael Brown for.....reasons. Aspin appointed with zero FL experience, who lost his bottle months ago yet wasn't allowed to resign for....reasons, which in turn meant you wasted a whole transfer window.

And speaking of the transfer window, how is it that Aspin and Smurf between them, despite the Vale being the lowest scorers in the division, only made 1 attacking addition, that being an inexperienced 20 year old on loan from Cardiff. Baffling.

You can blame Askey for making similar mistakes to Aspin, but he's been left with a whole bag of shite and a handful of L2 calibre players. Not sure what he's supposed to do, you can't polish a turd as the old saying goes. And when you have such a dreadful attacking group and limited goals from other areas, you aint got much hope.

It's looking really grim at the moment. Askey has made no impact at all, although there is still chance. At least you aren't getting tonked like Yeovil and the results are close. I mean, 0-1, 0-1, 1-2, it suggests that even a slight improvement should see a few results arrive soon.

It is what will certainly happen. Lets be fair it is what has happened since Bruno.

Some fans on twitter suggesting a pitch sit in against Mansfield to get the coverage required on Twitter... suppose we would lose it anyway so forfeiting it wont matter?

I know this opinion will go down badly, but the protests are a really bad idea. The best chance the fans have of helping the club right now is by getting down to the stadium in numbers and giving the team as much support as possible. Protesting outside and giving the players and manager more distractions and pressure won't help. That stuff needs to happen in the summer, regardless of what division you are in.

I think you'd be best served by getting behind the players and hoping that makes a difference. Pitch sit ins won't change a thing.

 

[valefan16]

But thats just it JJ we have not overly made losses, in fact we posted a rare profit, if your losing money why wouldn't you sell?

Why would you get involved with Nuneaton? He is clearly clever at making money and thats the danger, he knows exactly what he is doing to the club. Once the Bruno experiment failed that was it for him.

I dont agree with a pitch sit in because in fairness that probably does end of survival hopes as the EFL would punish the club. The protests however are directed purely at the owner and done before kick off and the team backed during the game that said dont protest he carries on killing the club slowly, do protest and it turns sour and he kills the club slowly. This time I dont think anything will work.

As for the striker situation, he had Marc Richards driving up to the ground and pulled the plug... he didnt want to get it done.

 

[JJ1532]

But thats just it JJ we have not overly made losses, in fact we posted a rare profit, if your losing money why wouldn't you sell?

Why would you get involved with Nuneaton? He is clearly clever at making money and thats the danger, he knows exactly what he is doing to the club. Once the Bruno experiment failed that was it for him.

I dont agree with a pitch sit in because in fairness that probably does end of survival hopes as the EFL would punish the club. The protests however are directed purely at the owner and done before kick off and the team backed during the game that said dont protest he carries on killing the club slowly, do protest and it turns sour and he kills the club slowly. This time I dont think anything will work.

As for the striker situation, he had Marc Richards driving up to the ground and pulled the plug... he didnt want to get it done.

Profit? Which year and was this as a result of a player sale? Because they are often false readings I'd say.

And as for the club losing money and not selling, it's because he values the club at a level and until that is met, he won't part ways. I know from the experiences our club have had with majority shareholder Norman Hassall. He has said he wants to sell for years as it's clear he's lost interest, but he's got a wildly unrealistic asking price which nobody will meet.

Why would he get involved in Nuneaton? Quite obvious really, because he can afford to. I'm not questioning his personal wealth, which is clearly substantial. Hence why he can take on 2 clubs, plus his own business interests. Hence why he's content to play hard ball with selling the club.

As for the Richards thing, it does seem strange. But then I don't see why he would deliberately pull the plug on a much needed attacker coming in. There must be a reason behind it. Driving the club into the ground isn't going to help him in the long run, whether he wants to stay or sell.

 

[Buxton Vale]

As for the Richards thing, it does seem strange. But then I don't see why he would deliberately pull the plug on a much needed attacker coming in. There must be a reason behind it. Driving the club into the ground isn't going to help him in the long run, whether he wants to stay or sell.

pure spite

 

[JJ1532]

pure spite

Right. So he's doing it out of spite to screw over the fans, despite the fact it would severely hamper the teams prospects of staying up and torpedo the value of the club in the long run should they go down as well.

I don't think it's spite. It's stupidity, nothing more.

 

[Trapdoor]

Cant really feel sorry for Vale. This is just what happens to clubs under private ownership. We've all been through it before, this is just their turn. Smurf can't win, eventually he will leave either of his own accord or be forced out. At that point the supporters should take back control of their club to stop this sort of nonsense happening again in the future.

Individuals like Smurf are just temporary blips on the timescale of clubs. The club will outlive the prick, but in the long term it's up to the fans how they want their club to be run.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Hes clearly not stupid though. Its spite driven by an over inflated ego. "They dont like me anymore so Im taking all my toys"

 

[valefan16]

Cant really feel sorry for Vale. This is just what happens to clubs under private ownership. We've all been through it before, this is just their turn. Smurf can't win, eventually he will leave either of his own accord or be forced out. At that point the supporters should take back control of their club to stop this sort of nonsense happening again in the future.

Individuals like Smurf are just temporary blips on the timescale of clubs. The club will outlive the prick, but in the long term it's up to the fans how they want their club to be run.

I appreciate you wouldn't know our history but we tried the fans ownership and it didn't work... (2003-2012) then had to force them out to which the administrator then chose the preferred bidder (in this case Smurf).

 

[Trapdoor]

I appreciate you wouldn't know our history but we tried the fans ownership and it didn't work... (2003-2012) then had to force them out to which the administrator then chose the preferred bidder (in this case Smurf).

The fact that you had nearly a decade of fan ownership (which is longer than Smurfs period in charge) suggests that it could have worked if the fans had wanted it to.

 

[valefan16]

The fact that you had nearly a decade of fan ownership (which is longer than Smurfs period in charge) suggests that it could have worked if the fans had wanted it to.

The fans who were in charge got greedy and the share system fell apart and club money was lost as shares were not paid. Essentially the foundations in place to protect the club (shares, owner % etc) went against them. A lot of fans who entrusted the ones in charge lost a lot of money.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Robbie Williams lost £250k iirc

 

[valefan16]

Robbie Williams lost £250k iirc

He did yes, but donated the shares to the fans in the last months to help us force Miller, Deakin (who they had brought in of course and didnt pay their shares) out IIRC.